SPECIAL REPORT: SAN DIEGO/ Doing the "second city" three ways:

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), May 18, 2003 | by GARY A. WARNER

Dobson's Bar & Restaurant,

956 Broadway Circle, (619) 231-6771. Lunch for two from $40.

ANIMAL ATTRACTIONS: The San Diego Zoo, 2920 Zoo Drive. (619) 234- 3153 or www .sandiegozoo.com. Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. until June 21 (last admission at 4 p.m.), 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. June 22-Sept. 11 (last admission is 9 p.m.). Admission starts at $19.50 for adults and $11.75 for children 3 to 11; children younger than 3 free.

The zoo also sells several packages that can include zoo transportation, hotels and combination tickets with the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

CHIC

"Stylish" isn't a tag that's often hung on San Diego. San Diego doesn't want to be a West Coast version of Miami Beach. But it's starting to grow a bit of homegrown edge.

Uptown, the city's trendiest area, is a name for a loose collection of neighborhoods that stretch north and west from Balboa Park. The heart is in Hillcrest, also the main shopping area for the city's gay community. Drop into Babette Schwartz, The Store for pop- culture kitsch like Wonder Woman metal lunchboxes and the fortune- telling Magic Eight Ball.

To refuel, head for the local outlet of Sushi Itto, a famous Mexican-based chain of fusion food outlets that has spread throughout South America and into Spain. San Diego is home to the only two Sushi Itto restaurants in the United States (the second is in the Gaslamp Quarter). Try Mi Calaverita, a wrapped jumble of salmon, chipotle chilies, cheese, avocado, kakiage (vegetable tempura) and sesame. The fiery-flavored maki sushi isn't for everyone, but fans love the fusion between Latin heat and Asian cool. Not everything hip is to be found only in Uptown. The W hotel in downtown has become a gathering place for affluent young things. The action in the afternoon revolves around the lobby bar, with its colored-glass chess and checkers sets and huge bank of video monitors over the booze cabinet. Later the crowd migrates up to The Beach, a rooftop bar with loads of trucked-in sand that's kept heated so bare feet don't get cold during those 70-degree San Diego summer nights.

The hotel's rooms, classified "wonderful," "spectacular" "kool" and "urban" depending on location and size, have CD players, high- speed Internet connections and sumptuously soft beds. The basic rooms are on the small side and the white painted surfaces demand constant maintenance that they don't always get. But overall, the W is the most exciting addition to the San Diego hotel scene in a decade. Not too far away is Boomerang For Modern, a shop emphasizing furniture and housewares designs inspired by the "atomic modern" look of the 1950s, such as amoebae-shaped tables and wedge-like chairs.

The Gaslamp District is steadily gentrifying, though many of the bars and shops cater to a more mainstream audience. Just outside the quarter, the San Diego Padres' new baseball stadium is rising, which should accelerate development in the community.

CHIC PARTICULARS

HANG YOUR HAT: W San Diego, 421 W. B St. (619) 231-8220. Rooms from $225.