Hillcrest’s Egyptian Quarter’s unveiling comes Nov. 14
Por Hutton Marshall | Editor SDUN
If you roamed Park Boulevard just south of University Ave. back in the ‘20s, you’d find a style that has long since left Southern California. Characterized by pharaoh heads, Persian cats and engraved scarabs, the area was defined by the then-popular styles of Egyptian Revival and Art Nouveau.
Gone now are the landmark establishment that defined this Egyptian microcosm decades ago, such as Fox Theater and the Garden of Allah, but new businesses have cropped up in their place. Fox Theater has turned into the Atomic Bazaar. The Egyptian, an apartment complex, hangs relics of the area at its peak nearly a century ago. Walking Park Boulevard today, it’s easy to spy several architectural oddities around the street: scarabs and pharaohs etched into the adobe walls of buildings.
Another thing you’ll notice today are the trashcans. They’re painted in bright, eye-catching colors ordained with Egyptian scenes. These don’t date back to the ‘20s; they don’t date back two months ago. They’re the sign of a revitalization of the area—of the “Egyptian Quarter” as it’s come to be called.
This spur of effort was started about two years ago, shortly after Sam Khorish
opened up Heat Bar & Grill, a lavish remodel of a building constructed in the ‘50s, which draws heavily on the Egyptian style for the restaurant’s interior theme.
It was around this time that a couple of the other soon-to-be Egyptian Quarter businesses began gathering in Heat to discuss their plans for the quarter. They all had the same thing in mind: getting people to the area.”
“I had to gather all the businesses, which some joined and some didn’t. Many were discouraged and said, ‘Oh, nothing is going to happen. You’re wasting your time,’” Khorish recalled about the Egyptian Quarter’s humble beginnings. “But some of us got together, with the help of Ben at the time, we slowly got things approved through the business association.”
Egyptian Quarter businesses face a peculiar problem geographically. Lying between University & 30th and the heart of Hillcrest, several local business owners say that although they’re not geographically isolated, they’re often overlooked in the grand scheme of Hillcrest.
That’s why when Khorish and several others on the street got together, they knew they’d have to make things happen for themselves, at least initially. The small group began holding community meetings to talk about their idealistic plans—about returning the iconic theme to the area. They organized their first event, “Turn up the Heat,” a fashion show at Heat Bar & Grill featuring clothes from Edith Ernestine Fashion & Lifestyle, a resale clothing shop down the street.
“We got involved with the HBA at that point, because they kind of helped us promote once they found out we were businesses working together to do something on this end that was kind of forgotten,” said Edith Ernestine Owner Morgan Freeman. “They were like, “Oh, we need to be a part of these people, who are gonna do it whether we help them or not.’”
“We thought it was interesting because we hadn’t seen much action—especially collaborative action like that—going on in that area before,” said HBA Marketing and Communications Program Manager Morgan Gamwell, who served as the liaison between HBA and the Egyptian Corridor. “It was really cool to see that they wanted to work together.”
Turn Up the Heat was a very successful, sold-out event that sparked a renewed energy into the community group, as well as additional support from the HBA. This support has so far included funding physical aspects of the revitalization, including lighting along building rooftops and commissioned artists creating the most visually dazzling trash receptacles in Hillcrest.
San Diego artist, Fizix, along with his partners in crime, Rook and Bishop, were commissioned to design these trashcans to fit the theme of the quarter. A longtime resident of the area, Fizix said these collaborative, Hillcrest-based projects are what he likes to do best.
“I’ve lived here for 14 years,” Fizix said. “I like to really put up my art here around town.”
The HBA reached out to Fizix at the recommendation of Khorish, who had the artist paint the impossible-to-ignore mural on the side of Heat.
“First thing I’ve done on [Park Blvd.] was the Heat mural,” Fizix said. “I started just hitting up any business that would let me and doing 100-foot murals, 75-foot murals. That kind of got around town and now people just kind of try to find me.”
Now that the Quarter has truly begun to take shape, it’s again teamed up with the HBA to host the Egyptian Bazaar & Movie Night on Nov. 14 as a re-introduction to the quarter. Hosted in the parking lot at 3811 Park Blvd., right between Heat and Numbers, the event will have an outdoor screening of the 1963 film Cleopatra, and invite several other businesses to set up shop for the evening along Park Blvd.
“It’ll be a great chance for people to see that this part of the neighborhood is up and coming and it’s fresh and it’s new,” Gamwell said.
Looking forward, Khorish hopes to bring Fashion Week to San Diego—specifically, to the Egyptian Quarter. His dream is to have a permanent sign like Hillcrest’s on University Ave. and Park Blvd. to mark the beginning of the Egyptian Corridor.
For more information on the Egyptian Bazaar & Movie Night, visit Facebookcom/Egyptianquarter.
