If you ask anyone in San Diego where to find the best and most authentic Asian food in the area, you’ll undoubtedly hear the Convoy District uttered from the lips of many locals. An eclectic mix of mom-and-pop restaurants mingles with award-winning global restaurants, offering a dizzying array of hundreds of eatery choices.
Turn onto the northern portion of Convoy Street, and you’ll be greeted with a colorful rainbow of a neon sign, horizontally stacked with the giant letters C-O-N-V-O-Y, ensuring you’ll know exactly where you are. Not that you’d need a sign for you to recognize this instantly recognizable portion of Kearny Mesa.
The Convoy District is one of the largest pan-Asian districts in the entire country and attracts both locals and tourists from far and wide. But it didn’t always used to be like this.
The evolution of the Convoy District
In the 1940s, the whole area was Camp Kearny, a sprawling military base named for a Mexican-American War general. There’s a rumor that Convoy Street was named after the military convoys that would drive down the road. When Camp Kearny closed in 1946, the area became home to major defense companies such as General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin. Nondescript blocky buildings spanned the landscape.
The neighborhood was where you went to work or to run errands, like getting your car repaired. It certainly wasn’t high on the list of places to eat. But slowly, that changed. The city zoned the area for mixed commercial and industrial use, and while industrial dominated for a while, commercial businesses began to crop up, including one very important Chinese grocery store.
But the story of how Kearny Mesa’s Convoy District became a hub for Asian food businesses is, unfortunately, marred by unpleasant history. In Chinese, 浴火重生 yùhuǒ chóngshēng, means Rising from the ashes. It perfectly describes the influential Asian culture in this neighborhood.
Adversity was the norm for San Diego Asians
Asian immigrants in San Diego faced significant adversity. Discrimination and segregation ran rampant. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese laborers from even entering the United States. Those who already lived here dared not leave, fearing that if they did, they wouldn’t be able to re-enter the country.
Then, the Immigration Act of 1924 effectively barred all Asian immigration. The Asians already in San Diego were relegated to living only in specific areas.
Racial covenants also permeated San Diego. These rules let neighborhoods approve or reject home sales to families of color. There was no official red line drawn through Kearny Mesa, because almost nobody lived there. But across the rest of the city, those covenants created a kind of invisible boundary, a social red line that told Asian families exactly where they were, and weren’t, welcome.
Asians wanting to own businesses were often denied loans or the opportunity to lease property.
Yet, despite this adversity, they rose like the phoenix from the ashes.
A community that built where it could
In 1979, a Chinese grocery store became the North Star for the Convoy District. Woo Chee Chong first established roots in Chinatown in downtown San Diego in 1899, gradually opening stores across the county and eventually expanding to Kearny Mesa. That space, located at 4625 Convoy Street, eventually became Dumpling Inn & Shanghai Saloon, carrying on the legacy of Asian-owned food spaces in this district.
Zion Market, a Korean grocery store, also opened its very first location on Convoy Street in 1979. By 1986, Japanese grocer Nijiya Market opened its first-ever store here, too. Nijiya Market would eventually grow into a chain of more than 10 locations across California and Hawaii.
These stores were meant to be places where the local Asian immigrants could find food from their homelands. They were simple and unassuming, but they were the anchors of the neighborhood.
The unintentional formation of San Diego’s Asian Restaurant Row
Once the markets in the Convoy District thrived and Asian home cooks had places to buy familiar local ingredients, they began cooking their back-home recipes for friends and neighbors. When those home cooks outgrew their own kitchens, they became accidental restaurateurs.
The boring strip malls of Kearny Mesa came alive with mom-and-pop kitchens where aromas of Japanese hot pot and Vietnamese phở wafted. The first restaurant to open on Convoy Street was actually the Original Pancake House in 1979, a decidedly non-Asian restaurant.
Phương Trang Restaurant, a Vietnamese restaurant, opened in 1992. Jasmine Seafood Restaurant, a Hong Kong dim sum restaurant, opened in 1993. Dumpling Inn & Shanghai Saloon, which specializes in Chinese dumplings, opened in 1994. Japanese hot pot restaurant, Shabu Shabu House, began serving nearly 30 years ago. All these restaurants still exist today.
If you build it, they will come: Convoy District becomes a main attraction
As the hole-in-the-wall restaurants and homegrown eateries grew on and around Convoy Street, the area began to attract bigger names. Major Asian grocery chains moved in: 99 Ranch Market, Mitsuwa, and H Mart. SomiSomi, a national dessert chain, became a huge hit. Even global chains, like Uncle Tetsu, which serves Japanese cheesecakes, moved in.
Still, the locals rule the roost. Now, first-, second-, and third-generation Asian San Diegans continue their ancestors’ traditions, offering both traditional and fusion fare. Local owners at Common Theory Public House bring Chinese and Mexican influences to its menu, while its speakeasy project, Realm of the 52 Remedies, offers a fusion menu in a stunningly beautiful Chinese backdrop.
Along with enjoying delicious food, you can also witness the art of its creation. Shan’xi Magic Kitchen’s open kitchen offers an unobstructed view of its mesmerizing noodle-making process.
And, every so often, you see a non-Asian restaurant in the mix. O’Brien’s Pub, a Convoy Street staple, is also America’s best beer bar according to USA Today. There’s also Crab Hut, a nautically-themed Cajun-Creole restaurant that opened in 2007. The funny story behind that is that Crab Hut was started by Vietnamese immigrants who fell in love with Cajun food.
From obscurity to recognition: the naming of the Convoy District
In 2020, it all became official. After years of advocacy by business owners, residents, and community organizations, working alongside city leaders, the area was formally designated as the Convoy Pan Asian Cultural & Business Innovation District. The Convoy District Partnership raised more than $30,000 to put up highway signs pointing the way. And now the colorful, towering sign added to the median in 2024 makes the whole thing impossible to miss.
Do you own or help run a small business in town?
So the next time you go to the Convoy District, it’s worth holding onto the thought that every plate you order is a piece of a much bigger story. A story about a community that was pushed to the edges of the map and responded by building something so good and so full of life that it can’t be ignored.
