A CULTURAL AND HISTORIC PRESERVATIONIST, Martin Lindsay documents, interprets, and promotes our region’s rich culinary heritage and food culture. He is an accomplished writer and historian, lecturer, and blogger. His website and companion Facebook page called Classic San Diego include topics like “Half Moon Inn Historic Entrance Renovated,” “Town and Country Convention Center Mosaic Murals by Ben Mayer,” and “In Remembrance: Classic San Diego Restaurant Closures in 2020.”
Martin published Ninety Years of Classic San Diego Tiki, 1928-2018, a major addition to the national revival of interest in Tiki or Polynesian pop culture and its origins. The book presents dozens of San Diego Tiki, island, and American-Chinese bars and restaurants past and present, with stories and recipes from people on the scene, plus hundreds of vintage photos, ephemera, and graphic art.
Martin’s focus on historic San Diego restaurants shines a spotlight on legacy businesses from yesterday and promotes those that are still in operation today. The current board chair of the Culinary Historians of San Diego chapter, he helps produce very popular free lectures on local and international history of food and drink, and their role in society. Some recent presentations include “Indigenous Foods and Native Subsistence: Living off the Sustainable Landscape” and “The Lost Cuisines of California,” and the upcoming “Treasures of the Past: Lost Restaurants of San Diego,” offered in association with the San Diego Public Library and the San Diego Public Library Foundation.
Martin blogs about food and history on Alineaphile.com, EscoffierAtHome.com, in addition to his own website, including period photographs, menus, and cherished recipes. He includes the preservation of architecture and historic places in his embrace of culture and culinary history; buildings, like recipes that are handed down, help define our identity and history.
Also a web designer, Martin provides graphic design, advertising, social media, and marketing for the arts, nonprofits, restaurants, and small businesses.
SOHO toasts Martin Lindsay for sharing his love and knowledge of our culinary heritage, food culture, and history with his broad audiences. His prodigious work serves as a time capsule and a research repository, adding up to a zesty celebration of our region’s diverse culinary heritage. Martin’s interpretation of food culture as a product of many different peoples, influences, and eras in San Diego is a prime ingredient in our understanding of who and where we are and where we are going.
Martin Lindsay at the Bali Hai Restaurant. All photos are snapshots of pages from Martin S. Lindsay’s blog classicsandiego.com and chsandiego.org and represent some of what can be found there. Photos of Martin are by Sandé Lollis
