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A few Sundays ago I was running through North Park at around 6:30 in the morning. I'd been cutting through mostly empty blocks for the better part of two miles when I turned a corner at Upas and 30th and nearly stopped mid-stride — a bar was packed, jerseys everywhere, beers already in hand. At 6:30am on a Sunday.

The dream of turning a beloved family recipe into a real business is older than the restaurant industry itself. Here in San Diego, the path from kitchen to customer is genuinely accessible right now, if you know how to navigate it.

At the end of May, the latest edition of North America's 50 Best Restaurants list was released — and for the first time, a San Diego restaurant made the cut. For anyone familiar with the city's fine dining scene, William Bradley's Addison was probably the expected choice. It's good to see San Diego food earning attention at a global scale. But what does that recognition actually mean — and what doesn't it mean — for the rest of the city's food community? (50 Best).