Eater San Diego shares the top stories of the week from San Diego’s food and drink scene, including word on a Portland coffee roaster's entry into San Diego, plus a look at some fresh, new restaurants planned for Westfield UTC.

Portland's Coava Coffee Roasters Sets Sights on San Diego
Coava Coffee Roasters, a popular craft coffee brand from Portland, will open its first location outside of the Pacific Northwest -- this time, in downtown San Diego. Landing in April in The Westin San Diego, the coffee bar will also offer beer, wine, and food. 

Westfield UTC Adds Major New Restaurant Tenants
Joining big-name brand Shake Shack this fall at the redeveloped Westfield UTC complex will be a slew of high-profile eateries including dumpling palace Din Tai Fung, True Food Kitchen and another outpost of upscale diner Great Maple. 

SoCal Seafood Concept Slapfish Planning Local Expansion
Slapfish, a popular fast-casual eatery with a seafood-focused menu ranging from fish tacos to lobster rolls announced its intent to open five locations in the San Diego area, with the first aiming to open by this summer. This chain has been called the "Chipotle of seafood."

Great San Diego Restaurants With Equally Good Cocktails
Many local restaurants have been stepping up their drink programs, enlisting talented bartenders to create progressive cocktail lists to pair with seasonal menus. Eater's guide showcases restaurants that are worthy of a visit for their drinks as much as their food. 

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza Reopens in La Jolla
The Pearl Street eatery has reopened more than year after a kitchen fire forced it to shutter. The location is the first-ever Sammy's Woodfired Pizza & Grill, originally opening in 1989. A grand opening celebration is scheduled for Monday, January 30.

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Street homelessness seems to be surging throughout the county.

According to the latest count, more than 1,400 people live on downtown streets alone.

At the 2017 State of the City address, Mayor Kevin Faulconer said reducing homelessness should be made the region's No. 1 priority, and he introduced a plan for how he wants to do it.

Faulconer’s proposal isn’t the only one being discussed right now. A countywide group known as the Regional Task Force on the Homeless is also talking about some big ideas.

In this week's San Diego Explained, NBC 7 San Diego's Monica Dean and Voice of San Diego's Lisa Halverstadt highlight how local leaders plan to address the growing homeless population.

People calling 911 emergency systems excessively, some over 100 times a year, cost taxpayers money and clogs the emergency system.

In San Diego a pilot program that would reduce the use of the system by these "frequent flyers" has been tested for the last two years. The goal of the pilot program is to reduce the call load for the 911 system and help "frequent flyers" land services which can help them. It's one of several different programs being tested across California to see if the role of a paramedic can be expanded.

It’s being called the community paramedic program, also known as mobile integrated health. Supporters of the program say California is often considered on the cutting edge for health care issues but not necessarily in the use of all the resources available.

That is why, California Emergency Medical Services Director, Doctor Howard Backer says he pushed for the community paramedic program to receive an exemption from the state. According to California state law, paramedics are only allowed to treat at the emergency scene and during transport. Backer pushed and obtained the exemption in order to allow for the paramedic’s role in non-911 settings to be expanded.

He said, the state has to "utilize our existing workforce, our paramedic workforce, to fill gaps in our health care system.”

His department has oversight of the test program at the state level and tracks what local agencies are implementing.

Similar programs have been launched and are ongoing in 33 other states, including Texas and Colorado, which are considered leaders in the effort to expand the role of paramedics.

NBC 7 Investigates trailed along with a community paramedic team who recently made a house call, visiting a once frequent user of the 911 call system.

"I was having problems with my heart, my lungs, my kidney,” Robin Harris said.

She was once calling 911 as often as eight times a month. But, those calls have stopped. Harris was paired with community paramedics Shawn Percival and Loretta Contreas. The paramedic pair drop by Harris’ small apartment to monitor her as needed.

While on duty both paramedics face a wide range of health care issues they work to find solutions for. Percival, a military veteran himself, focuses on veterans issues. Contreras handles elderly and primary care patients. The pair, back each other up, help each other take notes and confer on different problems they encounter. They said its about earning a patient's trust.

"I call her with my little problems, my little emergencies,” Harris said. “[Contreras] always seems to know what to do to help me.”

Harris is not alone.

“We have about 1,200-1,300 people in San Diego that call 911 a lot," Anne Jensen with the City of San Diego Fire Department said. “Some call six times a year, others call more than 100 times a year."

Jensen oversees the community paramedic program for San Diego Fire. "We start with the most frequent callers, we consider them the most vulnerable,” she said.

The department began tracking who was making the most calls to see if some personal intervention, on the part of a community paramedic team, might help resolve any long-running problems by the callers.

Data provided to NBC 7 Investigates shows there was a 72.7 percent drop in usage by the top 25 heaviest users of the system.

The evaluation of the numerous pilot programs launched in California was completed by a team at the University of California at San Fransisco this week. The review found specially trained paramedics can provide services which can “improve patients well being” resulting in “decreasing healthcare costs”.

Click here to read the report. 

The programs show "great promise,” Dr. Backer said. "Especially for vulnerable people with fragmented or non-existent care."

Other programs being tested and tracked include one for Glendale and San Bernardino which attempts to reduce the number of re-admissions to emergency rooms and hospitals by having paramedics do short term follow-ups with the patients. Another program in Ventura has paramedics monitoring TB patients to make sure they follow the treatment protocols for the disease. In The Carlsbad Fire Department offers 911 callers with a low acuity medical condition transportation to urgent care centers instead of an emergency department

The programs require additional training and in San Diego has been designated for veteran paramedics, with experience. In San Diego, private paramedic companies pick up the costs for the additional training with other funding coming from the California Healthcare Foundation.

The programs do not come without opposition. Some stakeholders in the health care system, like the California Nurses Association is opposed to expanding the role of paramedics.

In a statement to NBC 7 Investigates, Donald Nielsen, Director of Government Relations for the CNA said, “while the proponents of this project argue for some limited, short-term financial benefits, these savings come at the cost of fragments the healthcare system which enriching private, for-profit ambulance companies and the unnecessary endangerment of patients."

Click here to read Nielsen’s full statement. 

After the White House on Thursday floated the possibility of a 20-percent tax on imports from Mexico, the Internet went into hysteria over what that meant for avocado prices and availability.

It makes sense. Experts say 85 percent of America’s supply of avocados comes from Mexico, with the remaining bounty being grown in California.

It’s still way too soon to know whether President Donald Trump would, in fact, impose a tax for Mexico imports to pay for a southern border wall.

But many consumers and local growers, like Bob Lucy of Fallbrook’s Del Ray Avocado Company, are watching any developments with rapt attention.

He said if Mexican avocados become more expensive with an import tax, local growers could reap the rewards and take over more of the market.

“If someone is being penalized, somebody is usually being rewarded in the supply curve – the supply and demand curve,” he said.

Last winter, local growers sold avocados for about 60 cents a pound as Mexico had overharvested its crops.

But by October, with supply south of the border dwindling and an ensuing labor dispute, local growers were able to sell avocados for $2 a pound.

While that could be a boon for local growers, American buyers of avocados could see the expensive effects.

A report by CNN Money shows that imposing an import tax would likely result in those incoming goods becoming more expensive.

"The notion that a 20 percent tariff is a way of forcing Mexico to pay for the wall, it's just a falsehood. It's a way of forcing American consumers to pay for the wall," Edward Alden, a trade expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told CNN.

Attorneys for the four suspects charged in a brutal attack streamed live on Facebook said after court Friday they want the group released from jail. 

The public defenders held a news conference after the Friday hearing saying they want their clients released because they "are young people who do not deserve to be there."

The attorneys argued the group should not be tried in the media and noted that in the days following their arrests, they have seen death threats spread across the Internet. 

In court Friday, a judge ordered that sketches of the suspects not show their faces. State prosecutors agreed to proceed with an indictment while attorneys for the four asked that 911 tapes be preserved. 

The group is expected to appear in court again Feb. 10. 

Sisters Tanishia and Brittany Covington, Jordan Hill and Tesfaye Cooper face hate crime charges, as well as kidnapping and battery after Cook County prosecutors identified them as four black suspects seen in a racially charged attack on a white teenager that was broadcast live on social media. 

Prosecutors say the group kidnapped and tortured a suburban 18-year old who has mental disabilities in the video, now seen by millions. 

A Cook County judge ruled because of safety and security concerns, cameras will not be allowed in the courtroom.

Lawyers for the defendants didn't want them shown because they say it could contaminate the jury pool.

The arraignment of a suspected drunk driver accused of killing two of his passengers in a crash Wednesday night near Campo has been postponed until Monday.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) says that Ryan Gary Renz, 24, was traveling at a high rate of speed on southbound Buckman Springs Road south of Lake Morena Drive in unincorporated San Diego County just before 7 p.m. when he lost control of his 2014 Volkswagen Jetta and struck a large tree, sending his vehicle into a roll.

The two passengers in his car, 26-year-old Dillon Cody Wiltfong and Johnny Ray Meyer Jr., 23, both Campo residents, were both pronounced dead at the scene, according to the CHP. Renz, also from Campo, suffered minor injuries from the crash.

Renz was booked into the San Diego County Jail on murder and felony DUI charges.

He will be arraigned on Monday at 1:30 p.m.

San Diego’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers identified and arrested a man wanted for a 2005 National City homicide.

On Jan. 25, Mexican officials escorted Jorge Ibarra, 30, to the San Ysidro pedestrian border crossing.

CBP ran his fingerprints and discovered Ibarra was the subject of an outstanding warrant for homicide.

The San Diego County Sherriff’s Department issued the warrant, with bail set at $1 million.

Ibarra was booked into the San Diego Central Jail. His arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 2.

A suspect robbed a Metro PCS store at gunpoint Friday afternoon in the Kensington area of San Diego.

The robbery was reported at 1:14 p.m. on the 4200 block of El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego Police (SDPD) said.

Police said a man, wearing a mask approached two employees in the store and demanded cell phones and money.

He had been carrying a handgun. 

After the employees met his demands, the suspect ran away northbound on 42nd Street.

According to SDPD, he had been wearing a dark colored jacket, blue pants, sunglasses and was carrying a black backpack.

Anyone with information is asked to call SDPD or Crime Stoppers at (888)580-8477.

An Escondido man was arrested for a suspected murder in a 2002 cold case.

Hector Mendieta, 35, was extradited from Mexico, where he fled after he is accused of stabbing Bortolo Velador in what was Dee’s Sports Tavern, Escondido, Sept. 10, 2002.

When Escondido Police discovered Mendieta had fled, they called on the San Diego Fugitive Task Force to locate Mendieta in Mexico.

He was located in June 2016, arrested by Mexican officials, and then flown back to the U.S.

Mendieta, was booked into the Vista Detention Facility for first-degree murder.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Escondido Police Detective Ross Umstot at (760) 839-4463, or leave an anonymous tip at (760) 743-TIPS (ext. 8477).

The connector ramp from northbound state Route 15 to east and westbound Interstate 8 will be closed Monday night, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday.

The closure comes as a result of construction for the Commuter Bikeway Project, according to Caltrans.

Drivers can detour to the Interstate 8 via Friars Road.

One lane of state Route 15 between Adams Ave. and I-8 will also be closed from 7 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday in addition to the northbound Adams Avenue on-ramp and the Camino Del Rio South off-ramp to northbound state Route 15.

Residents in the area may be disrupted throughout the night and morning, but construction crews will try to lessen the impact to those in the area, according to Caltrans.

Motorists are reminded to follow construction zone rules and stay alert.

Water contact closures issued for Imperial Beach and the Silver Strand and Coronado shorelines have been lifted, the Department of Environmental Health (DEH) announced Friday.

The closures were lifted after water quality testing by the DEH confirmed contaminated runoff from the Tijuana River is no longer affecting the beaches.

A water contact closure was first issued for the Tijuana Slough Wildlife Refuge and Imperial Beach on Thursday after the DEH detected sewage-contaminated runoff reaching the Pacific Ocean.

After the DEH observed northward currents carrying the contaminated water up the coast, the closure was extended to include the Silver Strand and Coronado shorelines.

Water contact closures are still in effect for the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge, and Border Field State Park beaches from the south end of Seacoast Drive to the international border.

Posted signs warning of sewage contamination will remain until water is tested and deemed safe for recreational use.

For more information, call the U.S. international Boundary & Water Commission at (619) 662-7600.

San Diego’s Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla is searching for a way to extend cell life, and a recent study suggests researchers have found what they are looking for.

Experiments with cell reprogramming have succeeded in making mature human in vitro cells act younger by reverting them so that genetic age markers are erased. However, the ability to successfully make in vivo cells act younger eluded researchers because fully reprogramming cells back often results in cancerous tumors.

The Salk study shows partial reprogramming of in vivo mice cells results in improved cellular lifespan and reduced physical signs of aging.

Salk Research Associate Alejandro Ocampo, the lead author of the study, said now the goal is to recreate this experiment on humans using chemicals.

Ocampo said experiments like this are important because the cost of treating declined health is a major problem in society.

“We are just trying to improve quality of life, not extend lifespan to 200 years or immortality, said Ocampo. “We think it might be possible to eventually extend life to 140 to 150 years, but we are focusing on reducing diseases.”

The study shows it is possible to rejuvenate aging cells to a younger state.

Once researchers learn more about the process of removing the hallmarks of aging cells, Ocampo said they could begin experiments with humans within the next five to 10 years.

A big vote is coming up on Tuesday for the San Diego City Council and it could change the way people legally buy marijuana.

The proposal has two specific points: the first is whether or not to approve recreational use of marijuana. The second would subject marijuana delivery services, which currently fall into a gray area, to the same regulations as licensed dispensaries.

That's great news for people like Ray Taylor who is affectionately known as "Bad Grandpa."

“We spent two years going through rules and regulations with the city so anyone else who wants to be in the cannabis industry should follow the same rules and regulations that we did,” Taylor said.

He runs The Healing Center marijuana dispensary in Mission Valley. It's been open since March, 2016 and Taylor said it cost him $1 million to get off the ground.

Taylor  added that if the regulations are approved, he could see a bump in business too.

On the other side of this, NBC 7 talked to a delivery service and one owner said he is also looking forward to the new regulations getting approved.

“It’s just a matter of staying compliant and understanding what the city expects from a business such as this delivery service,” he said.

He's been working on getting his permit as a storefront, but a concrete regulation for delivery services will give his business more clarity.

The search for a suspect in a home invasion and attempted robbery in Carlsbad ended Friday evening after authorities extensively combed the area, using K-9 units and a police chopper.

According to the Carlsbad Police Department, a man entered the victim’s house and tied her up. When the woman escaped, the suspect ran away from the home.

The incident occurred at 2:14 p.m. on the 4600 block of Park Drive.

A neighbor heard the victim screaming and tackled the suspect when he was attempting to run away.

Police said the suspect eventually escaped. The neighbor then chased the suspect to the area of Cove and Park Drives.

NBC 7 spoke to a neighbor who said he knows the neighbor who jumped in to help, describing him as someone who everyone knows.

“You can trust him with anybody down here," Tony Brown said.

Brown said he is not worried about his neighborhood being unsafe, adding that it was a random incident.

But he said they would take precautions.

“It’s good to know people around are willing to help the people that need help," he said.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit and a chopper searched the area for approximately two hours.

During the search, Carlsbad police encouraged neighbors to stay inside.

According to a tweet by the police department, they were unable to find the suspect in the area and believed he had left the area.

The suspect is described to be a man in his late 30s or early 40s, wearing a ski mask and dark clothing.

A local high school trainer saved the life on an 81-year old man, who collapsed during a basketball game last week from a heart attack.

Robbie Bowers is not only Rancho Bernardo High School's Head Athletic trainer, he also teaches in the Athletic training program at San Diego State University.

In an interview with NBC 7 on Friday, he said his number one lesson--have an emergency action plan--paid off last week.

Bowers has a written and frequently rehearses a cardiac emergency action plan. That plan and his skills were put to the test at the Rancho Bernardo and Westview varsity basketball game last Friday night.

“It kind of validates what I spent 30 years being worried about,” Bowers said.

With four minutes left in the game, 81-year-old Bill Parkhurst suffered a heart attack.

A video appears to show Bowers jumping into action. He immediately began chest compressions, while his intern had the defibrillator at the ready.

Parkhurst is currently recovering from surgery.

“Once my sternum thing goes away I'll be eternally grateful,” Parkhurst told NBC 7.

He said he knows just how lucky he is to survive and is struggling with how to say thank you.

It's not just like an email or a something like that as far as I'm concerned. It's a miracle,” Parkhurst said.

Parkhurst told NBC 7 that he never misses a Westview High basketball game. He is the grandfather of the team's coach, Kyle Smith. 

“I'm worse than the coaches and the parents and everything else and there is no reason to be that way,” Parkhurst said.

Meanwhile, Bowers said he is proud of his team.

“Everybody in the moment did everything they needed to do,” he said.

Parkhurst added that he can't wait to get back to the game.

“I'm not sure I will be back this year but God willing, I will be back next year,” Parkhurst said.

Bowers' cardiac emergency action plan is rehearsed regularly with coaches and staffers.

He said just two hours before last Friday night's game, for no particular reason, he had reviewed the plan with his team. 

Merriam-Webster defines "dictionary" as "a reference book listing alphabetically terms or names." But for President Donald Trump right now, the dictionary has become a sassy antagonist, NBC News reported.

The one-hundred-and-sixty-some-year-old classroom fixture has been using Trump's favorite social media platform, Twitter, to correct his spelling, remind his advisers what "facts" are, and highlight a zeitgeist in which "fascism" has become one of the lexicon's most searched entries. 

With successful tweets responding to scrutinized gaffs, including White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway's defense of "alternative facts," Merriam-Webster established itself as one of the few remaining arbiters of truth, one of the reasons its Twitter account now has more than 270,000 followers. The public reaction has been "big league," as the president might say.

Lauren Naturale, the dictionary's Content and Social Media Manager told NBC News that the "response was overwhelmingly positive" to the tweets, adding they are "among the most viral tweets we've ever had."

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Pods go flying at the speed of sound. It seems like a scene from Star Wars, but it's really happening.

The first Hyperloop pod race is set for Saturday and Sunday at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne.

The competition is part of an ongoing design challenge to create the best vehicle for the Hyperloop, a revolutionary transportation system that would propel riders through a tube at speeds of 800 mph.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk introduced the Hyperloop concept in 2013 as a response to the California High-Speed Rail, which he criticized for its low speed and high cost. A Hyperloop trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco would take 30 minutes, whereas the rail would take two hours.

SpaceX isn't developing a commercial Hyperloop, but the company intends to aid prototype development by hosting open competitions. This weekend's race features entrants from universities and independent teams.

A second competition weekend is slated for summer, and it will be judged on only one criterion: top speed.

President Donald Trump will round out his first week in the White House on Saturday with phone calls to the leaders of Russia, Germany, and France, according to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, NBC News reported.

That means Trump will be living out his campaign trail prediction that he may have to "deal with" German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who Trump called his favorite world leader and the woman he accused of "ruining Germany."

How the two will work together remains a point of intrigue considering how Trump spoke about Merkel during his campaign. The then-candidate repeatedly lambasted the German chancellor for allowing refugees from war-torn regions into Germany, blaming her for what Trump described as the ruin of her country and using her policy as a jumping off point for his own anti-refugee proposals.

A group of protesters mobilized at John F. Kennedy Airport following the detainment of two Iraqi refugees Saturday morning.

The demonstrators held homemade signs that read "No ban, no wall" and "Refugees welcome" in front of Terminal 4's international arrivals area Saturday afternoon. One sign even called for President Trump's impeachment and the deportation of the first lady.

"We're here to tell Trump that we are not going anywhere," said lawyer and refugee advocate Jacki Esposito, who helped organize the protest. "Today is the beginning of a long opposition from us, and our neighbors all over the country."

Within hours, several groups of protesters gathered at the airport as word of the demonstration spread on social media.

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The New York Taxi Workers Alliance also joined the protest, drawing attention to the anti-Muslim violence suffered by their Sikh and non-Muslim brown drivers.

"Today, drivers are joining the protest at JFK Airport in support of all those who are currently being detained #NoBanNoWall," the nonprofit organization tweeted.

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U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez met with Customs and Border Patrol supervisors at the airport as the two worked to provide legal access to the detainees.

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"These are people who are no threat to the United States and who have worked with the armed forces for years and who were given visas on those basis," said Nadler. "It is shameful not to mention [that they've worked with the US for years] and probably implies religious discrimination."

"It is a sad day for the American people. This is not who we are, this is an affront to our American values," said Velazquez. "This is a matter of life and death. These types of actions undermine our national security, and our president, Donald Trump, doesn't get it."

Community organizer Daniel Altschuler and Reform Immigration For America, an immigrant rights advocacy group, also attempted to free the refugees from custody, but were turned away and asked to leave the airport, Altschuler said in a tweet.

"We were just thrown out of airport for being here to free refugees. Told we have no "legitimate purpose." #MuslimBan @RI4A @AmericasVoice," he tweeted.

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Altschuler noted that CBP officials initially didn't allow Nadler or Velazquez to see the detained refugees. At around noon, he tweeted that the White House didn't provide guidance to CBP on what to do with the other detainees.

Nearly four hours after news of the detainment broke, Rep. Nadler announced that one of the Iraqi detainees, Hameed Jhalid Darweesh, was released from custody.

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"Pleased to announce w/@NydiaVelazquez the release of Hameed Jhalid Darweesh from detention at JFK," he tweeted.

Nadler added that he was working with Velazquez to release 11 other refugees who are being held at U.S. airports.

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Two Syrian families who arrived at Philadelphia International Airport from Doha, Qatar were briefly detained by Customs and Border Patrol officials before they were sent home on an 18-hour return flight, according to a family member from Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The detainment comes just a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily closing U.S. borders to refugees of Muslim-majority nations for 90 days, and for Syrian refugees, indefinitely.

The order also suspended a program that last year in the U.S. resettled 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression and religious prejudice.

Although a wind advisory remains in effect for San Diego County, locals and visitors soaked in the sunshine Saturday, some even taking to the water on the first clear, rain-free weekend in a while.

NBC 7’s Liberty Zabala forecasted a clear, sunny day – with gusts, too – with temperatures in the upper-60s for the coast, low-70s in the valleys, low-50s for the mountains, and deserts mid-60s.

At the bay, NBC 7 spotted lots of people enjoying the water and sun, partaking in activities like paddle-boarding and kayaking. The sunshine helped keep them warm – although some spectators on the sand traded in their flip-flops for boots.

What are you doing to enjoy the clear, sunny weekend? Comment in the thread below our story.

Get weather updates throughout the weekend from NBC 7 here.