A much higher tone than those of Mission and Pacific beaches prevails in La Jolla, an elegant beach community just to the north. New money has made it much less stuffy than in the days when mystery writer Raymond Chandler described it as “a nice place – for old people and their parents.”
LA JOLLA. SPANISH FOR "the jewel." Or is it derived from the Native American word "woholle," meaning "hole in the mountains"? Nobody is really quite sure. Most locals just refer to it as The Village, and it's one of the classiest villages you could ever imagine. La Jolla's principal shopping districts, Girard Avenue and Prospect Street, are lined with high-end retailers and boutiques, fine dining, antique stores and art galleries. In La Jolla, you can do world-class shopping to your heart's content, then soak your toes in the Mediterranean-blue waters of La Jolla Cove while watching the sun set.
A well-heeled set calls La Jolla home, with pricey residences perched on the hills above this Southern California Riviera; and this beauty has brains, too. La Jolla is a center for arts and culture, the biotech industry, and location of the University of California, San Diego. The excellent Museum of Contemporary Art (700 Prospect St.), the Tony Award-winning La Jolla Play-house (on the campus of UCSD), the 101-year-old Athenaeum Music and Arts Library (1008 Wall St.), which features year-round jazz and chamber concerts and art exhibitions, Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Stephen Birch Aquarium-Museum (2300 Expedition Way) and the Salk Institute (10010 N. Torrey Pines Road-tours available) are all here.
Personages as disparate as Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel), Jonas Salk, Raymond Chandler and Gregory Peck (a native who co-founded the La Jolla Playhouse) have all shared the coveted 92037 ZIP code) as well.
La Jolla is also a hub of outdoor recreation: There's the Cove (1100 Coast Blvd.) for swimming and snorkeling; La Jolla Shores (8200 Camino del Oro) for easy-access scuba diving; surfing and body boarding at any number of beaches, including Windansea (6800 Neptune Place), immortalized in Tom Wolfe's The Pump House Gang; and hang gliding—no experience necessary—at the Torrey Pines Glider Port and Flight Park (2800 Torrey Pines Scenic Drive). Black's Beach (you can park at the glider port and hike to the bottom of the bluffs, but pay close attention to warning signs about unstable cliffs) is one of California's great surf spots, and its isolation has made it a favorite spot for nude sunbathing, although technically it is illegal.
Clothing is certainly optional when it comes to shopping. There are a number of stores-both major names (Armani, Nicole Miller) and boutiques-to choose from.
There's an especially strong lineup in menswear, including the classic Ascot Shop (7750 Girard Ave.), Gentlemen's Quarter (1200 Prospect St.), and Bradys (1205 Prospect St.). Sole Desire Fine Shoes (1261 Prospect St. No. 2) has a great selection of women's shoes; Eyestructure (1232 Prospect St.) has 23 lines of luxury eyewear; and a striking collection of timepieces is on hand at Charriol (1227 Prospect St.).
There are about 40 art galleries in La Jolla, offering something for every taste, from historic sports photography (The Mark Reuben Gallery, 1298 Prospect St., Suite 1R) to works by Miro and Picasso (Prospect Place Fine Art, 1268 Prospect St.); from animation cells (Animation Celection, 1002 Prospect St.) to African tribal art (Africa and Beyond, 1250 Prospect St.). Notable galleries include Tasende Gallery (820 Prospect St.), Quint Contemporary Gallery (7661 Girard Ave., Suite 110) and its building mates, Joseph Bellows Gallery and Soma Gallery, Alcala Gallery (950 Silverado St.), Gallery La Jolla (1200 Prospect St., Suite 125), Fingerhut Gallery (1205 Prospect St.) and Simic New Renaissance Gallery (1205 Prospect St.). La Jolla Fiber Arts (7644 Girard Ave.) is part gallery, part clothing store, featuring handwoven art and couture; Georgeo's Collection (1139 Prospect St.) is a menagerie of hand-blown glass; La Memo (1260 1/2 Prospect St.) has magical masks from Europe; Gallery Eight (7464 Girard Ave.) has contemporary crafts and glass art; and Tropical Botanicals (1298 Prospect St., Suite 1C) is a gallery of aqua sculptures.
Antiquing is also a popular La Jolla pastime. Standout finds include the two enormous floors of La Jolla Consignment (7509 Girard Ave.), the bursting-at-the-seams Pied-a-Terre (7645 Girard Ave.), vintage lighting and sconces at King and Company (7470 Girard Ave.), the fine European collection at Pulchra (864 Prospect St.), primitive cottage furniture at The Corner Store (7501 Girard Ave.), and more home furnishings at Circa La Jolla (7861 Herschel Ave.), D.D. Allen Antiques (7728 Fay Ave.) and JP and Company (7844 Herschel Ave.). Sales at Glorious Antiques (7643 Girard Ave.) benefit the San Diego Humane Society.
Unique gift and accessory stores are also part of the La Jolla shopping scene. Panache (7636 Girard Ave.) carries Lalique crystal and china; Windsong Importers (7925 Girard Ave.) stocks a large array of decorative and functional art from Indonesia; home and garden items are at Home Accents of La Jolla (7840 Girard Ave.); you can find fine linens at Everett Stunz Co. (7624 Girard Ave.); and flatware, stemware and tea sets at Bo Danica (7722 Girard Ave.) and Dansk (1044 Wall St.). The Mary Rose Cottage Tea Room & Gifts (830 Kline St.) sells china and specialty teas, and serves traditional English afternoon tea with killer scones.
Roche-Bobois (7607 Girard Ave.) has two showrooms of classic contemporary and country formal-style furniture; Divan (7661 Girard Ave.) features modern furnishings from the United States and Europe; elegant-but-casual California style is the hallmark of the Kreiss Collection (7770 Girard Ave.), which includes furniture, bedding and accessories. Germans and Italians form a stylish axis for incredible kitchen fixtures and interior design at bulthaup La Jolla and Poliform San Diego (7629 Girard Ave.); and continuing the international flavor, Persian rugs are at Aja Rugs (7848 Girard Ave.) and Persian Bazaar (7609 Girard Ave.).
John Cole's Book Shop (780 Prospect St.) is in a beautiful, historic beach cottage designed by Irving Gill, and has lots of nooks and crannys to explore. It also claims to have the largest selection of harmonicas on the West Coast. (The Niki de St. Phalle statue on the lawn is installed by Tasende Gallery.) Warwick's (7812 Girard Ave.), which opened in 1896, has one of the best selections of work by local writers in the county, and often hosts signings by best-selling authors.
If you are looking to nurture your inner god or goddess, The Chopra Center for Well Being (7630 Fay Ave.), founded by holistic guru Deepak Chopra, has day-spa services, seminars, a cafe and a unique gift shop.
Stroll its immaculate, gallery-filled streets, fuel up on some California cuisine at one of the many sidewalk cafes, or visit the newly expanded La Jolla site of the Museum of Contemporary Art, 700 Prospect St (Tues & Thurs–Sat 10am–5pm, Wed 10am–8pm, Sun noon–5pm; $4), which has a huge – and regularly changing – stock of paintings and sculptures from 1955 onwards. On the seaward side of the museum lies the small, exquisitely tasteful Ellen Scripps Browning Park. Where the park meets the coast is the popular La Jolla Cove, with clear waters perfect for snorkeling.
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