Open mic opera!
San Diego made the Christian Science Monitor in an article about this topic. While they did cover the scene, one of the places I first witnessed this happening was at Mimmo's Italian Village in Little Italy. Every Friday or Saturday, amateurs, semi-pros and pros would hold forth solo or with a piano entertaining people eating $6 plates of pasta and sauce. What made it very special was this was happening in a decidedly low-brow eatery. I'll have to check it out. If it is still there, I need to reacquaint myself with it. Otherwise, it will be Bassam's - one of San Diego's better coffeehouses. Then there are those piano bars at The Turf Club and the Red Fox at the Lafayette Hotel.