5 Places Worth Your Time in Lemon Grove, Ranked

Barbecue jerk chicken is why you plan a weekend around this counter. It is a West Texas smokehouse with an unexpected accent, and the jerk chicken is what separates it from every other plate of barbecue in the county. Brisket and sausage back it up, ribs when they are on, and the mac and cheese is not an afterthought. The people working the counter are warm about all of it. A plate from the first hour of service is one of the best lunches in East County.

The mural is on the outside of this building and lunch is on the inside. Fisherman's Stew is the dish that gives a broad menu its center, so start there. Meatloaf and a zucchini panini keep the table useful when three people want three different things, and the cocktail list is more serious than a room this size has to bother with. The Sonka building has stood on Main Street a long time, and eating inside it gets you closer to Lemon Grove's history than any plaque does.

A rescued 1897 church is the building, and the local-history collection inside runs far deeper than a city this size usually keeps. There is a recreation of the old Sonka Store, preserved buildings around it in Treganza Heritage Park, and volunteers who know the material well enough to make an hour vanish. All of it is free. Come on a Saturday, ask whoever is at the door where to start, and you leave knowing more about this city than most of the people who drive through it.

There is a 3D printer in the Lemon Grove library, which tells you what kind of branch this is. The MakerBot is there for anyone who asks, the Friends bookstore is worth ten minutes on its own, and the community room keeps a real calendar of events and movies running. The interior is bigger than the building looks from the street, and the staff are the reason people come back. It is also an official Cool Zone, which through an East County heat wave makes it one of the most useful rooms in the city.