U-T Entertainment

On June 1, San Diego's Maya's Cookies was a small vegan cookie firm doing most of its business at local farmers markets. Then on June 2, a social media call to support Black-owned businesses went viral. Today, Maya Madsen owns the No. 1 Black-owned vegan cookie company in America. https://bit.ly/3e9vI9N

For San Diegans who have made seeing The Old Globe's "Grinch" musical a holiday tradition over the past 22 years, there's good news from Whoville. A free audio version is being created for KPBS radio that will debut on Thanksgiving Day.

Brunch alert: Several of San Diego's newest, and veteran, restaurants have launched a new fall brunch service this month. This and other local eatery news is features in this week's "The Dish" dining column.

The man of a thousand voices, Tony-winning UCSD grad Jefferson Mays, will star in his one-man version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," in which he'll play 50 roles. The filmed stage performance is a fundraiser for La Jolla Playhouse and many other theaters nationwide.

The Michelin Guide didn't produce a guide in California this year but this afternoon it named 5 San Diego County restaurants that its inspectors chose as new "discoveries." Find out what they are and see what other California restaurants and chefs were recognized. DIJA MARA Soichi Sushi Sushi Tadokoro

This week's U-T Theater Notebook column has news from Bodhi Tree Concerts, Lonesome Whistle Productions, Coronado Playhouse and VantageTheatre SanDiego

A tale of two presidents and love stories gay and straight are reviewed in the San Diego Union-Tribune today. San Diego Repertory Theatre, The Roustabouts Theatre Co., Diversionary Theatre North Coast Rep

California won't have a 2020 Michelin Guide this year, but it will have an all-star live-streamed event on Tuesday featuring some of the world's most renowned Michelin-starred chefs and the announcement of 20 restaurant "discoveries" that Michelin inspectors found during their secret dining visits in California before the pandemic struck in March.

Taking stock: We chat with The Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein about how his theater is re-inventing itself during the pandemic. "We have a sense 2021 will be a strange interim year." he tells us, "where we will put together some kind of hybrid of online and physical programming, when it’s safe, and limp through 2021. We hope that 2022 is when there will be a really viable recovery."

Parking lot arias: We review San Diego Opera's first-ever drive in production, "La boheme," which opened its four-night run Saturday in the Pechanga Arena San Diego parking lot. The music was provided by a 24-member edition of the San Diego Symphony, led by Rafael Payare.

Way off key? Concerts and live events may not return until 2022, according to a number of music biz veterans we interviewed. Here are insights from experts at Live Nation Concerts, AEG Presents, San Diego Symphony, Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, Belly Up, Steel Wool Entertainment, La Jolla Music Society, Baja Beach Fest, The Old Globe and more. What is your forecast for when, and how, concerts and live events can safely return?

Waverly Restaurant and Lounge in Cardiff is one of several new food and drink establishments that have opened around the county this month. Also in this week's "The Dish" column, news on Wynn's Ice Cream Co., Harbor & Sky rooftop lounge, @First Light Whiskey , Burger Lounge and Craft & Commerce.

Blue-eyed soul pioneer Spencer Davis has died at 81. His Spencer Davis Group was the launching pad for Steve Winwood, who was just 15 when the band started. Davis was previously in a band with future The Rolling Stones' bassist Bill Wyman and used to date Christine Perfect, (who later became a superstar as Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac). I coined the phrase ‘cardiopulmonary rock’! Davis said in a 1984 Union-Tribune interview that you can read below.

In this week's theater column we mark the closing of a popular cabaret and news from Moonlight Stage Productions, Lamb's Players Theatre, Cygnet Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, TwistedHeart Puppetworks and songwriter Bets Malone.