Starbucks San Diego mug: Been There Series
The San Diego mug from Starbucks' Been There Series writes San Diego in dark blue script above a bicycle, a beer glass, a taco, a jet, a horse, a palm tree and the Coronado bridge, with the words AMERICA'S FINEST CITY IN MOTION and CORONADO ISLAND on the back.
- Series
- Been There Series
- Place
- San Diego, California, USA
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- Not confirmed
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozstandard mug size
- SKU
- Not confirmed
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The taco Ralph Rubio brought home from Baja
In 1978, Ralph Rubio went to Baja California on spring break, tasted a fish taco, and got the recipe from the vendor who made it, a man named Carlos [1]. He later persuaded his businessman father to join him in opening a restaurant on the site of a failed hamburger joint in San Diego [1]. The original Rubio's, on Mission Bay Drive in Pacific Beach, opened in 1983 [2]. Four decades later, in June 2024, the chain shut 48 California restaurants at once, 13 of them in San Diego County [2]. The company blamed the rising cost of doing business in the state [2]. Twenty-nine Rubio's were still open in the county afterward, the original among them [2]. The taco on the mug (6) may be a fish one.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1Lettering
San Diego in dark blue hand-lettered script across the upper front.
- 2Jet and clouds
A jet streaks across the top edge among outlined clouds.
- 3Bicycle
A bicycle with a blue frame stands under a gate with curling ironwork.
- 4Gate and cloud
A blue-banded gate with scrolled ironwork frames a pale blue cloud above the bicycle.
- 5Beer glass
An orange glass of beer with a foam top sits at the left of the front.
- 6Taco
A taco with an orange shell sits at the lower left.
- 7Sun and house
An orange sun with rays sits above a house with a blue roof.
- 8Palm tree Side view
A tall pale blue palm tree stands at the left of the side view.
- 9Blue horse Side view
A blue racehorse gallops across the middle of the side view.
- 10Orange-towered building Side view
A building with two orange towers and a row of arches spans the upper side view.
- 11Sailboat Side view
A sailboat with an orange sail floats at the bottom of the side view.
- 12Coronado bridge Back view
An orange bridge on tall piers curves across the top of the back.
- 13Fighter jet Back view
A blue jet rises with lines of exhaust beneath it on the back.
- 14Coronado Island Back view
The words CORONADO ISLAND are lettered under a row of small blue-roofed houses on the back.
The photos show the front, one side and the back. The inside is not visible in these photos and the underside is out of view.
Collector notes
- Our checklist lists two Been There San Diego entries, and the photos we have of both show the same artwork, so this page describes one mug. We could not find a visible difference between them.
- The words AMERICA'S FINEST CITY IN MOTION and CORONADO ISLAND, the orange bridge and the jet are on the back, so a front-only photo does not show the Coronado half of the design.
Before you buy
The photos show the front, one side and the back, so the inside is not visible. The Coronado bridge, a jet and the words CORONADO ISLAND are on the back, not the front. Our checklist lists two Been There San Diego entries, but the photos we have of both show the same artwork.
