Avenue Liquor and Wine Shoppe

While Miguel's and Garage compete for the sit-down dinner crowd, Avenue owns a different corner of the Coronado food map: the grab-and-go meal that actually tastes like someone made it for you. The sandwich counter runs hot all day — regulars ordering by first name, vegetarian builds that show up loaded with actual vegetables instead of iceberg filler, bread grilled to order while you watch the bourbon collection gather dust at museum prices.

The dichotomy is the whole story here: up front, allocated whiskey bottles sitting like gallery pieces, priced for collectors who never buy; out back, a deli grill turning out breakfast burritos and custom sandwiches that pull the same regulars every morning. It's the kind of operational split that makes no sense until you realize it works — the liquor selection draws browsers, the food counter feeds the neighborhood.

Parking is a nightmare, which every review mentions and nobody seems to let stop them. The "deli" setup leans more 7-Eleven than artisan sandwich shop, but the consistency is what matters: two-and-a-half years of daily visits isn't loyalty born from aesthetics. It's the vegetarian sandwich loaded properly on Christmas Day, the staff who know your order before you finish saying it, the grill running even when Orange Avenue is gridlocked.

The whiskeywall is essentially performance art at this point — fun to look at, impossible to justify buying. But if you need a solid breakfast burrito before the ferry or a custom sandwich that doesn't taste like it came from a chain, this is the spot. Just don't expect parking, don't expect pristine deli cases, and don't bother asking about the bourbon unless you're window shopping.