Hilltop, Chula Vista, CA

Hilltop, in Chula Vista, takes in the rise between Hilltop Drive and Interstate 805, from E Street south to L Street. It is a residential pocket on the west side of the freeway, a few minutes uphill from Third Avenue Village. Most of the houses date from the postwar building boom, when former lemon groves gave way to subdivisions. Single-story ranch houses on quiet streets make up most blocks, with apartment complexes collected near the freeway and along the main roads. Schools take up much of the open ground. Hilltop High School, on Claire Avenue since 1959, is home of the Lancers and counts Tom Waits among its former students, and Hilltop Middle School sits on J Street. The ball fields near Cook Elementary host Little League games, and Hilltop Park, with picnic shelters and a fenced dog park, sits just across Hilltop Drive on the neighborhood's western edge. Eating out clusters at the corners near the freeway. Down at Telegraph Canyon Road, The Canyon Sports Pub and Grill is a no-frills sports bar that keeps landing on local best-wings lists, and Lolita's Mexican Food handles carne asada fries a few doors away. Near E Street, Karina's Mexican Seafood serves mariscos close to the cluster of freeway hotels and diners by the I-805 ramps. Groceries are a short drive in either direction. Sprouts and Albertsons sit on Third Avenue to the west, and 99 Ranch Market is just across I-805 on Telegraph Canyon Road. The H Street trolley station is a few minutes west by car, and I-805 has ramps at E Street, H Street and Telegraph Canyon Road for trips north or toward the Otay Ranch side of the city. Walking to dinner is not really part of life here. The streets are residential, the commercial corners are built around parking lots, and I-805 brings a steady hum to the eastern blocks. What Hilltop offers is a quiet street of postwar houses with Third Avenue a few minutes downhill and the freeway close enough that the rest of the county is never far away.