Diners looking to sample their way through San Diego's College Area will get their chance on Sunday, September 27, when the neighborhood's annual tasting tour returns for a third year, running from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with check-in and ticket will-call set up at 6010 El Cajon Boulevard.
The event, known as Taste of College Area, is organized by the College Area Business District and features a self-guided tasting tour spanning 19 College Area and Rolando eateries and coffee houses, according to Times of San Diego. Ticket holders can sample a variety of drinks and dishes at participating stops that include Woodstock's Pizza, Sala Thai, Tokyo Sushi Loha, Yogurtland, Boxing Crab, Cheba Hut, Dessert Castle, Smashburger, Tajima, Scrimshaw Coffee, and Pokedon, among others.
Four Old Town Trolleys have been hired to shuttle event-goers along El Cajon Boulevard, stopping at different restaurant hubs so attendees can travel between clusters of restaurants without having to walk the entire corridor. Additional participating spots include Barlando, Charoen Krung Thai Cuisine, Love Letters Pizza, Majorette, Penelope's Mexican Food, Dirty Birds, and Himalayan Yak & Yeti.
Tickets and Pricing Tiers
Organizers set up a tiered pricing structure for this year's event: early-bird tickets sold for $35 through July 31, before moving to $40 for standard admission and $45 for day-of purchases, with group discounts available for parties of ten or more, per KPBS. Tickets can be purchased online through the College Area Business District.
One first-time participant this year is The Mesa Bar & Grill, which opened in January at El Cajon Boulevard and 62nd Street inside the former Effin's Pub and Grill space as a Black-owned neighborhood bar and restaurant — a debut Hoodline previously covered. The bar joins a lineup that also includes longtime favorites like Woodstock's Pizza and Sala Thai.
Growth Since the 2024 Launch
Taste of College Area was first held in 2024, and the second year of the event saw about double the financial success and attendance compared to the inaugural edition, the College Area Business District's executive director, Jim Schneider, told the Times of San Diego. Schneider said the event resulted from years of work growing businesses in the district, and he hopes it will introduce both locals and outsiders to new restaurants.
“The neighborhood has a lot to offer,” Schneider said, adding that the area's amenities are not limited to college students. The College Area Business District, a nonprofit, has also supported some district businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic and provided bookkeeping assistance to others, according to the same report.
An Event-Technology Assist
To help attendees navigate the self-guided tour, organizers partnered with event-technology platform Let's Rallie to provide an interactive mobile app for locating participating eateries in real time. The College Area Business District stretches from 55th to 73rd Street and represents over 800 business and commercial property owners across two contracts with the City of San Diego, having formed in 1996 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
That district also manages the College Heights Maintenance Assessment District, which funds daily sidewalk sweeping, graffiti removal, trash collection, and median landscaping along El Cajon Boulevard between 54th and 73rd streets. Last year's event drew regional attention when featured vendors were showcased in live television broadcasts on KUSI, ABC 10 News, and Fox 5 San Diego.
A Corridor Facing Major Change
The tasting tour arrives months after the San Diego City Council approved a major update to the College Area Community Plan on December 16, 2025, rezoning transit corridors like El Cajon Boulevard and College Avenue to allow up to 17,750 new housing units above ground-floor retail and restaurants — the area's first long-range plan overhaul in more than 30 years. Hoodline reported on the council's approval at the time.
El Cajon Boulevard, the event's main corridor, has its own long history: it once served as part of US Route 80, San Diego's primary automobile and commercial highway toward East County and Arizona before Interstate 8 opened in the late 1950s. Brown historic route signs still mark the street today. As the neighborhood absorbs sweeping housing growth in the years ahead, events like Taste of College Area are shaping up as a deliberate push by the business district to cement El Cajon Boulevard's identity as a dining destination rather than just a passage for student traffic.
