A three-star Michelin chef has opened a burger joint in San Diego. It’s called Tanner’s Prime Burgers. Exclamation point. Another one. Some hyperactive emoji. Pass the fries. The chef is Brandon Rodgers, who cut his teeth in San Diego years ago. He originally moved here to work with Tony DiSalvo, a nationally known chef who was heading up the former Jack’s in La Jolla. Rodgers then joined Gavin Kaysen at El Bizcocho (now Avant). He cooked on Iron Chef with Kaysen, and their team defeated Michael Symon in “Battle Octopus.” Rodgers then went to Napa, where he spent a year at the French Laundry and met fellow chef Corey Lee. He helped Lee open Benu, and the restaurant would get three Michelin stars with Rodgers as chef de cuisine. Brandt Beef is the force behind this exclamation point. The family owned beef company in San Diego, with their headquarters above Ranch 45 in Solana Beach (their ranch is two hours east in Brawley). They’re pretty renowned in chef circles because of the ethos—a multigenerational family operation, treat their animals right, no drugs, no antibiotics, single-source beef, no B.S. Just a highly respected, small-ish operation in an industry that’s dominated by four major multinational beef companies. Tanner’s is named after Eric Brandt’s son. So this week on HHH, David and I sit down with Brandon and Eric and hear the story. And we crush a burger made with New School American Cheese (you can hear about this project in last week’s episode with chef Eric Greenspan), some beef tallow fries (the best kind), an ice cream sandwich made with beef tallow and Brandon’s wife’s cookies. It is a phenomenal burger. And Rodgers, Brandt, and Greenspan will be serving that burger, plus another specialty of Eric’s at the Del Mar Wine + Food Festival this weekend.

“He was wearing two dog tags. The bullet went through the first dog tag, but the second deflected it down into his ankle. The bullet’s still in his ankle.” As Ky Phan shares on this week’s Happy Half Hour podcast, her father’s dog tag with the terrifying hole not only saved his life, but eventually became the ticket to a new life for his young family. The Phans are from a small village in South Vietnam, near a river where they would pull crabs, snails, and shrimp. They’d boil them in pots, seasoned with what grew around them—like garlic, lemongrass, lime leaves—and eat them as a family with their hands. It’s how the kids loved to eat. They had to hide that from their father—aka “Papa”—because he wanted a certain decorum and manners for his family (mom took the kids’ side, playfully acted as lookout for when he was coming home from work). During the Vietnam War, their father fought alongside the U.S. After he was shot, after that dog tag intervened, he was placed in reeducation camps (forced labor camps) by the Communist government. He remained a prisoner of war for five years. “There was a humanitarian organization that helped anyone who’d been a prisoner of war for over five years move to the United States,” explains Ky in our office, seven months pregnant, using a blowtorch to melt cheese on oysters. “But there wasn’t any paperwork in war. How would you prove that you were a prisoner of war? So my dad showed them that dog tag.” The Phans settled first with family in Houston. There, their aunt showed them the art of the southern seafood boil, a spicier version of the way they’d eaten in Vietnam. Their dad worked as a nail technician (on the podcast, Ky shares the fascinating story of how Vietnamese-Americans came to dominate the nail salon industry in California, and how it’s traced back to an actress who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds). Eventually, they relocated to San Diego. Her father ran a small fast-food restaurant in City Heights, where Ky and her sister Kim learned the business. They kept their family’s seafood boil tradition alive with backyard cookouts—hundreds of pounds of seafood on picnic tables—until they finally decided to translate that experience into their first restaurant. From day one, the line was around the block for Crab Hut. It’s a straight-forward concept—a plate filled with dungeness crab, king crab, lobster, shrimp, you name it, ladled in sauce. But it’s also a family tradition that followed them halfway across the globe, a family ritual. Their story, this week on HHH. Come meet the family and taste what they make at the Del Mar Wine + Food Festival Grand Tasting on Sept. 9.

Eric Greenspan didn’t do what he did—go through the years of training at the world’s best restaurants, slog and hustle and cut a metric **** ton of onions and carrots, become one of SoCal’s star chefs, make his way onto national TV, open an L.A. restaurant that earned raves from everyone, including Jonathan Gold—to become known, widely, as “the cheese guy.” But he’s not mad at it. “As a chef, you’re going to give me this identity and platform that will ultimately expose you to the other things I do? I’ll take it all day long,” he says. At his former restaurant, The Foundry, instead of the usual cheese board appetizer, he decided to use the American classic–grilled cheese. It was just a different platform to expose his guests to new and interesting foods, whether it be jams or meats or sauces or pickled things. It took off. People went ape. He even wrote a cookbook, Greenspan’s done a few big things. He beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef. But his newest project should make him an American icon if there’s any justice in the world. He reinvented American cheese. American cheese, as most know it, is the single-serve ditty in plastic, made of powders and emulsifying agents. It is perfect as a melting agent for burgers, but not really tasty or particularly attractive, especially now that we’ve all awoken to a new dawn of truly good cheese. So Greenspan created it. Calls it New School American Cheese. “As a chef you’re looking at raising the quality of every ingredient, and that was always the one ingredient I couldn’t find a better version of, no better alternative,” he says. So he created it. Real butter, real cream, aged cheese. I’ve gotten a chance to taste it on a smash burger–just a simple riff of meat, bun, and New School—and it’s fantastic. We filmed a TV segment and the whole set, even the part-time vegans, were floored. Eric comes on the podcast to tell us the creation story. He’ll be cooking burgers and featuring New School at the Del Mar Wine + Food Festival, one of its first forays into the market.

Ice cream shops don’t usually spawn modest empires—but this one did. Born and raised in Coronado, David Spatafore opened a little scoop place, MooTime Creamery, in 1998. He built it in the same neighborhood where he grew up and met his wife. Now, his food hall, Liberty Public Market—the market that started the trend in San Diego—is the epicenter of life in Point Loma. He’s got a steakhouse, Stake, and a flip-flop-and-tiki-shirt concept with The Islander, which is now home to a tiny donut shack called Dinky Donuts. Blue Bridge Hospitality is a homegrown success started with a little cream and sugar. But today we want to talk about Little Frenchie, their Michelin-recognized spot and one of the best damn French bistros in San Diego. So we invited over the men who put the good in it: Blue Bridge exec chef Matt Sramek and VP of Operations Matt Gordon (a beloved chef in San Diego, he’s also the former owner of Urban Solace). “We’re cooks—we think about food all day. We dream about food. We love the stress and rush of it,” Sramek says. Sramek got his start in kitchens under chefs Bruno Lopez and Douglas Dodd before signing on as a chef de partie (line cook) for Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Beverly Hills. He landed in San Diego at Amaya, worked his way across the city, and eventually became executive sous chef for Blue Bridge. The “pair of Matts,” as David calls them, come into the SDM podcast studios and talk about what’s made Little Frenchie such a hit (Michelin has given them a plate award three years running). They tell us about life on the island and explain their pandemic silver lining (with so much open space in Liberty Station, their market got a huge boost of traffic that hasn’t slowed down). As always, thanks for listening. Little Frenchie will cook Sunday, Sept. 10 at the Grand Tasting of Del Mar Wine + Food Festival.

His kitchen is under or near a tree. Lots of them. He’s got goggles on because of the smoke. The first time you see Drew Deckman weidling his giant tongs over live fire at Deckman’s en El Mogor, it feels like you’re in some sort of movie. His bed and car and clothes and family must also smell like smoke. “The minute I first drove into Valle de Guadalupe, I knew I was home, I felt like I’d been there my whole life,” he says of Baja, Mexico’s wine region, which started humble and has now grown into an international destination 90-minutes south of the US-Mexico border. Years after starting his life there, he’d give up his U.S. citizenship to become a Mexican national. It is home. Drew is one of the chefs cooking at the Del Mar Wine + Food Festival. He’ll be at the Grand Tasting (Sept. 10 & 11). He’ll also be cooking with fellow Mexican star Benito Molina (who owns iconic restaurant Manzanilla with his chef wife, Solange Muris), Lodge at Torrey Pines exec chef Kelli Crosson, and Food Network friend (Guy’s Grocery Games, Iron Chef), Beau MacMillan. Actors Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston are also hosting the dinner with their mezcal brand, Dos Hombres. Drew is one of the funniest, most articulate, humblest and give-a-damn people I’ve ever met. Let alone chefs. After you hear him talk for any amount of time, his college degree in philosophy from Rhodes College makes so much sense. He applies that multi-layered thinking to food, agriculture, ecology, hospitality, and wine. He was only supposed to go to Europe for a summer and ended up staying for 10 years, cooking under Paul Bocuse, Jacques Maximin, and other icons. He was chef at Restaurant Vitus in Germany when it earned its first Michelin star. After becoming executive chef for the Four Seasons in Berlin, the hotel group transferred him to Cancun. He comes into the San Diego Magazine offices. He opens his wine that he’s made—a cloudy low-intervention white he specifically made to go well with oysters (he’s a chef-partner in Baja Shellfish Farms), a deep, hearty red. He then rips into tales of a boy from the south who wanted to be a major league umpire but found his way into the kitchen and fell in love with people and the culture of Baja.

Lynn and Gary McLean both spent years in the military. A very serious, at times tense path. Based for most of their lives in the Bay Area, they’d spend their downtime exploring every corner of Napa and Sonoma, getting to know the winemakers, the people, the culture. It was their place, their solace. So when Gary retired (a lifelong Marine doesn’t sit still for long), they built Napatini, a wine bar in Carlsbad Village designed like the caves and architecture of their favorite place. Named Napatini, most of the wines they’re serving involve people they met in the valley. A touch of home. We sit down with them and talk about life and wine and lessons learned from fellow veterans that inspired Gary to go for it. But first… What makes New York bagels so damn good? Yes, it’s the water. California’s bagels will never get close, but Troy says the best he’s found is Solomon Bagels & Donuts in North Park. He briefly shares the story of owner Jeffery Wong, who came out of retirement to create this just-about perfect NY-style bagel. You can try them for yourself at the Del Mar Wine + Food Festival, the big, new celebration of SD food culture on Sept. 9-11 at the Del Mar Polo Fields. In Hot Plates, Lucrezia Italian restaurant has opened in Westfield UTC, a massive concept from one of Mexico’s largest restaurant groups, whose family has ties in San Diego. Alberto Morreale (Seventh House, Farmers Bottega, Farmer’s Table) is bringing the Amalfi Coast to La Mesa with Limoncello. And Red Chickz, an LA-Based Nashville hot chicken spot that rocket-shipped on TikTok, lands in San Diego. As for Napatini, it’s one of those places where everyone seems to know the owners and each other. A sort of wine Cheers (a more than 100-year-old bar and ‘80s TV show for those Gen Zers out there). Rare feat for a new place. Their difference-maker is a wall of Enomatic machines, which pump inert argon gas into bottles, making them stay fresh for 30 to 60 days. That way, they can give people sips of wines that are often too expensive to offer by the glass. Lynn and Gary chose a more quiet section of Carlsbad, rather than the louder scene a few blocks over. The charming couple explains how they fell in love with the collaboration and happiness of Napa and Sonoma, and created this as an extension. “If you come in angry, sad, or anything other than happy, you're gonna leave happy,” says Gary. “We are too stubborn to fail.” They’re off to a pretty hot start. Napatini opened in December of 2022 and already has 1,600 members in their loyalty club.

If there’s a formula for snagging a Michelin star, chef Roberto Alcocer doesn’t know what it is. And yet his Oceanside restaurant, Valle (2023 critic's choice for best Mexican), just received its first from the guide. On this episode of the Happy Half Hour podcast, Alcocer sits down with hosts Troy and David to discuss the achievement and the lengthy road he’s taken (passport required) to get to this point in his career. Here’s the Alcocer formula, though: Taking his staff to yoga so they can relax. Encouraging chefs that, while under him, mistakes made at his restaurant mean less slip ups when they have their own establishments. When customers are running late to Valle, he doesn’t throw out their reservation. He waits. It takes a while to get to Oceanside from San Diego, and he respects the fact that they’re making the trip to savor his food. Born in Mexico City, Alcocer grew up camping and cooking. He made his sandwiches with stinky cheese and prosciutto. “Since I was a young kid, I was a good eater,” Alcocer says. In the household he grew up in, attending university was mandatory. And he did attend so, just after he crossed the ocean to spend some years in France learning to cook the cuisine. “I fell in love with the finesse,” he says. When he was 27, and after he had returned to the states, Alcocer was cooking for San Diego Gas and Electric’s board members. That’s when the thought hit: I didn’t go all the way to France as a teenager to just make grilled chicken salads. Dipping into the savings and encouraged by his wife, Alcocer opened a spot that started with chairs and a rented porta-potty. The restaurant’s name? Malva, now one of Ensenada’s finest. Similar to Malva, Valle is Alcocer’s reminder to diners that Mexican fare can be just as elegant as French and Japanese. And Mexican cuisine is woven into the fabric of San Diego. “Growing up here, I went straight from the breast to the hot sauce,” Troy jokes. On season nine of Parts Unknown, Anthony Bourdain said he believed a re-evaluation of Mexican cooking was coming. Even with how delicious the cheaper options are, there’s another side to this cuisine—the side Alcocer specializes in—that many individuals are unaware of. Valle is an indicator that we’re no longer peering over the horizon; rather, this Oceanside restaurant has proven we’re starting to arrive at the final destination: a place where Mexican cuisine is as refined and respected as any other on the planet. Note: Californios in San Francisco is the only Mexican restaurant with two Michelin stars in the United States. When Alcocer came to Oceanside in 2021, he was hoping to claim a star. This month, he did just that. “I come from a country where hospitality is in our veins,” he says. If Alcocer sticks to his formula, that list of two-Michelin-starred Mexican restaurants just might get a little bigger. In Two People, Fifty Bucks, David recommends stopping for brunch at The Waverly for the Turkish poached eggs. Troy is all about the brown butter thyme sauce with ravioli at Civico 1845. And Roberto says the burgers served off the sizzling flat top at The Friendly are some of the city’s best. Listen to the full episode above, and stay tuned for next week’s episode of Happy Half Hour. Follow David on Instagram @davidelimartin, Troy Johnson @heytroyjohnson, and Roberto Alcocer @alcocerroberto.

You know that giant bin at Best Buy that carries all those DVDs? Think of this latest episode of the Happy Half Hour podcast like that bin. There’s a little bit of everything. So, prepare for a lesson on machaca and Vietnam trivia. After finally being removed by Petco Park security, hosts Troy and David are back at the SDM office catching listeners up on all the food happenings around America’s Finest City. The duo discuss the splashiest move yet from Consortium Holdings, the re-opening of the storied Lafayette Hotel on Monday, complete with bowling lanes, an even sexier pool, and Instagram-worthy restrooms. Zebra-prints, chandeliers, fringe, velvets, gaudy trinkets, reds, blues, greens—the new $31M hotel is straight out of a Moulin Rouge set. In food news, after starting out as a farmers market vendor, Smokin’ J’s has opened another location in the Gaslamp Quarter. Similar to their Poway location, the joint is providing customers with brisket, pulled pork, chicken, St. Louis ribs and enough TVs to satisfy Troy and David. Now that Michelin is finally paying attention to San Diego (thank you, Addison), North Park’s Mabel’s Gone Fishing received a Bib Gourmand and Troy shows his psychic abilities by predicting another star coming to town soon. (Days later, we learned of Valle being awarded its first Michelin star.) Saigon Coffee has opened their first brick-and-mortar in North Park, and just like Smokin’ J’s, it started as a farmers market vendor. Vietnamese coffee traditionally takes a long time to make, but Saigon uses special filters to speed up the process. “It’s so damn delicious,” Troy says. Brine Box also recently opened in Oceanside as a little stand on the pier dedicated to great British food and zero-waste. And it’s not all fried fare: shoutout to the seared albacore and Korean barbecue prawns. Other openings include SoiPB from Khwanta Osanai and Truffle in North Park. With a name like that, David says you can even expect the fungi to come shaved on ice cream. Finally, Phil Esteban has opened another White Rice, this time in Linda Vista. David and Troy end by discussing the closing of Sapporo’s Anchor Steam in San Francisco. It feels a little too close to home now that Sapporo acquired Stone Brewing Co. Finally, in “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” David recommends the wings at The Regal Beagle. “Their blue cheese dressing was very obviously homemade,” he says. Troy praises National City’s Mujer Divina and their excellent machaca. Stay tuned for next week’s episode of Happy Half Hour and keep up with David and Troy by following them on Instagram. David can be followed @davidelimartin. Troy can be followed @heytroyjohnson.

Is it dark in here? Maybe a little. This week on Happy Half Hour, David and I invent the ways we’d like to undo this mortal coil (our deathways include expiring from overexposure to the almighty T-Swift and falling from a helicopter into a pool of sharks). The whole point? To name what we’d eat if it was our last meal on earth. And then point you to the San Diego restaurants we suggest getting these last-meal greats. I start with the meal I order every Sunday when the scaries hit, and just when pleasure is a life pursuit. Drunken noodles with duck. Those wide rice noodles, like some sort of overly indulgent, super-fettucini. And duck, my favorite protein. Some people say “gamey” as if it’s a bad thing. For me, “gamey” has always been a plus, something to put on a resume as a food. There are few places that still serve duck (most seem to have moved to mock duck only), so it’s Banh Thai for me. David expresses his kinda surprising love for brunch cocktails (David is in a metal band, so I have a hard time seeing him in a sunny-happy meal experience, but maybe he owns some wide brim hats I don’t know about). And he raves about the Sakura Bloom at Morning Glory, a cocktail worth waiting for. Egg whites get whipped, the cocktail gets prepared, then gets put in the freezer for what feels like eternity. When it gets delivered, they pour the cocktail through the egg whites making them stand straight up four inches out of the glass, then garnished with a straw laid across it. All told, on our last enjoyable meal on earth we’re headed to Chris’ Liquor, Royal Mandarin, OB Noodle House, Arlo, Cardellino, Wayfarer, Preger Brothers, Izola, Born & Raised, Costa Brava, Swami’s, Rudford’s, Krisp, Working Class, and City Dragon. We also talk with event guru Jaclyn Lash, who books all the shows at Petco Park. Petco’s become one of the best live-concert venues in Southern Cal now, and she gives us a sneak peak at the 2023 lineup. Some of our favorites include Jimmy Eat World, Band of Horses, and Pixies. Can you guess what we’re having at each? Email us at [email protected] what you’d eat if it was your last eating, and where you’d get it. We’ll read a few on air. Thanks for listening, y’all.

Petco Park is known for having some of the best food in baseball. They were even one of the first stadiums in the nation to bring in iconic and emerging local restaurants, craft beers, wine, and cocktails for a more upscale experience (we still love a good, classic hot dog). On this episode of Happy Half Hour, co-hosts Troy and David get the inside scoop on the ballpark’s food and drink scene at Alesmith’s 394 bar inside of Petco. With a stadium that holds nearly 50,000 visitors, vice president of hospitality Josh Momberg says that the most challenging obstacle is serving fresh food. It’s no joke feeding nearly 3M people each year, especially when not every visitor is there to actually watch the game. How do you keep your aunt entertained who only began watching the Padres once they started winning last year? A beautiful stadium, perfect weather, craft cocktails, and bacon-wrapped jalapenos that will immediately turn anyone into a sports fan. Ask any attendee and you’ll likely start an argument over which restaurant inside the ballpark is the best. Hodad’s, a local favorite, often tops the list, but then again, you can’t forget about that juicy, tender Cardiff crack tri-tip nachos at Seaside Market. They’re wrong, though, it’s anything at Grand Ole BBQ y Asado. “When we went into this mission of creating this local program, we wanted to get the best of everything so that if you only came to one place in San Diego, had three hours to watch a ballgame, you got to sample something that’s uniquely a slice of San Diego here,” Josh shares. So, what’s new this year? Plenty. Some standouts include Mexican street corn made with chiles, fuego sauce, lime crema, and a Tahine pop rock; and fresh Blue Water Seafood’s fish tacos. Although technically introduced in 2022, Troy and David gush over Hot Hens with Petco’s executive chef Phil Dumlao. The fried chicken sandwich comes in a mini food truck carrier decked out in City Connect colors—because why not? In food news, David forgets where he lives as he brings up the upcoming Falafel Heights opening in North Park from owner Lialie Ibrahim. A Palestinian and first-generation American, Ibrahim spent more than a decade perfecting her falafel recipe and now hopes to bring those authentic Middle Eastern flavors to San Diego. Barn Brewing closes in North Park, Young Cluck opens in Normal Heights, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream comes to North Park with an everything bagel scoop that David says “kind of tastes like garlic ice cream.” In “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Josh shouts out The Belly of the Beast ramen at Underbelly Ramen, Phil tips his hat to the burger at The Friendly, Troy picks the vegetarian tasting menu dish at Ambrogio by Acquerello, and David goes for the motherclucker at Hillcrest’s Sunnyboy Biscuit Company.

Fair food is legendary—the logical extreme of American cuisine. The food court is Pinocchio’s island for people whose favorite invention is a deep fryer. We train for this. And this year we partnered with the San Diego County Fair to bring you the ultimate “Fairtastic Food Competition.” All told, three judges—myself, Chris Stone of @sdfoodies, and Nirit Wigdor of @sandiegoeats—tasted 36 dishes across six categories and named six of the best things to eat at the fair. One of my favorite humans, Rick Morton of Z90, emceed the marathon tasting. It was a friendly competition. Light bragging rights. But here’s the real reason why we did this: people like Gigi Horowitz of Mom’s Bakeshoppe. “We all live together back there, it’s a community,” Gigi says. “Our kids grew up together, some of them got married.” And people like Charlie Boghosian of Chicken Charlie’s. Charlie came to the US from Syria, hoped to work for the FBI. Instead, he invented what is perhaps the defining post-Ferris wheel snack. “I didn’t think I would ever be selling fried foods,” Charlie says. “And now I’m in Wikipedia for the fried Oreo.” On this week’s podcast we interview three iconic food vendors from the San Diego County Fair about their dreams and their nomad food life. While most of us just see funnel cakes and turkey legs and gigantic, wild, forbidden treats… these are business owners and entrepreneurs big and small, who spend much of the year on the road in RVs, going from one state fair to the next. For the whole run of the fair, most of them live onsite, creating an entire fair society that picks each other up when the going gets tough. Chicken Charlie, for instance, bought the stand off the original owner after working there for 12 consecutive summers as a kid. And now he’s the most famous fried chicken man in the land. Hope you guys enjoy the episode. Put your calorie counter in a dark, lonely drawer, but be sure to wear some sort of FitBit and hit the fair—because all those steps easily justify a cinnamon roll with a mohawk of bacon.

This week on Happy Half Hour, our food and drink podcast that won a national award and we’ll never shut up about that fact… I try somewhat awkwardly to establish nostalgic bonds with David Kennedy, co-owner of James Coffee Co. James is the younger brother of a longtime friend (Lisa Kennedy, who owns The Corner Mercantile & Eatery in La Jolla). I vaguely remember going over to their house when we were in high school, and I’m fairly certain I falsified a memory of him learning guitar while we tried to study (David is a member of the band Angels & Airwaves with Tom DeLonge of blink-182, and played in Box Car Racer). David co-owns James Coffee Co with his wife, Carina (the way he tells it, there wouldn’t be a coffee company without her and her math brain, or at least her insistence that they manage how much money comes in, and how much goes out), and his brother, Jacob. “I got really into coffee shop culture when I was traveling,” David says of the start. “I bought an old popcorn maker and started roasting my own beans.” We have an honest conversation about their efforts to get rid of single-use coffee cups, and be as sustainable as humanly possible without losing their shirt. James was one of the first shops to get rid of single-use cups, and use only durable cups that customers could return and fill. The project didn’t really work, he admits. They’re still offering it, tinkering with it. But being more environmentally friendly while maintaining a sustainable business model isn’t an easy thing, and we talk through that frustration. In “Hot Plates,” big chef swap news this week. Jon Bautista, who was lobbed a James Beard nomination for his work at Kingfisher last year, left to join the wholly resuscitated and thriving SD classic, The Fishery. Meanwhile, the chef that was part of The FIshery’s reemergence accepted a job at Callie next to Travis Swikard (arguably one of the best restaurants and chefs in the city). That’s a hell of a team now. Downtown gets a new rooftop restaurant, Leave of Absence. The exec chef guiding its light has San Diego roots—Jason Neroni, who longtime food fans might remember as the chef at Blanca in the 00s. Neroni’s a talent, and now he’s got some operational kitchen wisdom. Good to have him back in the scene. Leave of Absence will be doing wood-fired dishes and brunch options like flatbread pizza with squash blossoms and chicken shawarma meatballs. In the holy-shit sushi world, Sushi Ichifuji just opened—a new 10-seat omakase-only restaurant in Linda Vista, helmed by chef Masato Fujita who previously worked at Michelin-starred restaurants Soichi and Tadokoro. Meanwhile, family-owned Our Green Affair is set to open its third location in Solana Beach this summer, featuring clean, healthy food created when one of the family members was diagnosed with Crohns. And in we can’t believe it took this damn long news—agua frescas have been added to the national “harding” movement, where every liquid that isn’t motor oil is getting spiked with booze. El Perquito hard agua frescas has opened Miralani Makers District. The famed NYC street cart chain Halal Guys have announced plans to open not one, not two, but five locations in San Diego. David and I discuss our excitement, and at the same time, our love for the hometown favorite Kebab Shop.

Long before “pivot” became a silver-lining buzzword, Tracy Borkum made a career out of it. For instance, the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla recently spent $105 million and tapped one of the top architects in the country to recast its iconic building into an ocean-facing art compound. And Borkum—a San Diego restaurateur who years ago got her BA in art history from UC Berkeley—became a big part of it. It was a dream, really: a merger of what she loved and studied (art) and what she made her name doing (restaurants). She and her chef-partner Tim Kolanko created an outdoor dining concept around the edge of the museum called The Kitchen. “We opened it, and now it’s been raining for three weeks,” Borkum says, with a roll of her eyes, on this week’s episode. Borkum has adapted, dealt with things, rethought, reconfigured so many times. She started with Kensington Grill in the ’90s, a charming-as-heck bistro (she still has the space; it’s now Cucina Sorella) where Troy served briefly as the world’s worst bartender (a story he tells over and over, to Borkum’s chagrin). When she took over beloved Bankers Hill eatery Laurel, it was a grand, refined, pre-theater restaurant. She gutted it, selling the furniture on the street outside the building. “We got in a bunch of trouble with the city,” says Borkum. “They came by and said, ‘What are you doing?’ We said we were having a garage sale, they said, “You can’t do that.’” This was 2009, the economy was still reeling, and she pivoted to a rustic Italian concept—Cucina Urbana—where everything was under-$20. It boomed, is still booming. Later, when she couldn’t afford to purchase furniture for a new restaurant of hers, she convinced a local furniture store to use the space as a showroom, selling the pieces to diners who said, “I really love that lamp.” Recently, she and Kolanko have been shifting into nontraditional restaurant and catering spaces. They opened a kiosk at the Rady Shell, the now-iconic $98 million outdoor music venue that looks like a giant, hollowed-out Airpod. “Olivia Rodrigo has her first show there, and it’s like 8,000 nineteen-year-olds,” says Kolanko, who made his name as the chef de cuisine of A.R. Valentien for over a decade. “So we had all this food ready to go. And none of them ate. None. We had all this food left over. We’re used to making food to order. But this is a wholly different thing. So we’ve had to relearn.” Borkum and Kolanko recently opened a modern Jewish delicatessen, Gold Finch, and are working on finalizing their next prix-fixe dining concept—in the center of MCASD, La Jolla, with two entire walls made of glass overlooking the Pacific. They join Troy and David this week to share stories from frontlines of a radically shifting restaurant culture.

During the first terrifying shutdowns of the pandemic, Pulitzer-nominated photographer Jeffrey Brown and his partner started lowering bread out the window of his third-story studio in downtown San Diego. They used a basket and rock-climbing rope (Brown is serious about rocks and ropes, and once climbed El Capitan). People—very few people, at first—would pay for the bread Brown and his partner Jenny Chen were making upstairs. They’d always enjoyed food, pored over cooking mags, and made elaborate meals together. But the pandemic activated their obsession: the perfect croissant. They only had a single small oven in the studio. It was a commercial photo studio, not a commercial bakery. “We made so many bad croissants,” Jeffrey says. “But being a structural engineer, [Jeffrey] took notes,” Jenny clarifies. “I have 726 pages of them,” Jeffrey confirms. “We’d make a batch, tweak, take notes, try different butters and flours and techniques—700 pages later, we found our croissant.” Jenny built a series of computers and systems in the bakery to maintain quality control. They took the guesswork out of making the notoriously finicky pastry, which allowed them to hire people who didn’t have (and possibly couldn’t afford) culinary school. They wrote social justice into their operating agreement, certifying that their business offered a living wage. They made Izola Bakery a haven for different cultures, races, and identities. They invited poets, speakers, musicians, and community groups into the space—formed a whole creative scene around that croissant. Yelp named Izola the “Best Bakery in the U.S.” and the resulting onslaught of customers nearly broke them. And now they’re planning a baked good cathedral in City Heights. It’s a wild, quite lovely story. They give us all the details on this week’s episode of the Happy Half Hour podcast. Our morningfood month is in full swing (check out the March brunch guide, plus an in-depth story on Izola from writer Ligaya Malones). This month is our ode to the people who make morningfood remarkable in San Diego. And… psst… get your tickets for Brunch Bash, our big, annual, always-sells-out event that pulls more than 50 restaurants, food and drink makers, and brands onto a real pretty lawn for a day party at Omni La Costa.

I may not still be on TV if it weren’t for Catherine McCord. Nowadays, she’s one of the foremost cookbook authors in the US, with recipe bibles issued under her brand name Weelicious. She helps parents manage cooking without losing their minds and angrily writing off food as a concept, or just loading a Super Soaker with Goldfish crackers and shooting them at their kids as they head to work with stains on their shirts. She’s the CEO of her own nationwide meal delivery service for families, called One Potato. I’ve never made better chicken tinga arepas with slaw and corn salsa in under 20 minutes (if you wanna try it, use the promo code TROY25 for 25% off). Her new book, Meal Prep Magic: Time-Saving Tips for Stress-Free Cooking, is due this April (pre-order it here). And my wife is obsessed with her. But a decade ago, Catherine was just a friendly face in an intimidating crowd. We filmed the pilot season of Guy’s Grocery Games in 2013, in a rented-out grocery store in Los Angeles. I was not entirely sure of myself, but at least I had nothing to lose. I’d had my own show on Food Network two years earlier, but they’d canned it after a season. Probably a good call. But that’s not important now. The important part is that they invited me to be one of the judges on this show—part supermarket shopping spree, part cooking competition, anchored by Guy Fieri. None of us were sure it would work. But Guy had talent and hair and bling and jokes, and sometimes that’s enough. As long as we, the ensemble, didn’t screw it up. We played Destiny’s Children to his Beyonce. The first season on any TV show is all nerves and what-ifs, excitement and bouts of future-casting doom. Any moment could be your last. Cancel comes for us all at some point—you just hope it’s not right out the gates. You put a bunch of big personalities in a room, and you all get to know each other and learn to perform in harmony in real time, to step up, say something that propels the action forward, step back and let others in, and so on. Guy had a show to run. He was busy. So us judges formed our own support group. And there were a few of us who bonded and bolstered each other through moments of self-doubt and first-season yips. We’d sit in each other’s trailers and fill the down moments with humanity, make each other laugh our asses off, occasionally ugly-cry. In a career on TV, you’ll meet people you’d rather not send a Christmas card to, and you’ll meet people who shock you with their goodness. Catherine was one of the latter. A tireless worker, a hustler, a mom who looks like she’s got it all together but is the first to point out her shortcomings. She’s got model looks and humble Louisville blood. When you’re on a TV show with someone for a decade with someone, you go through the highs and the lows. She watched me succeed, she watched my life fall apart a bit, she watched me recover. About a month ago, we were all in Santa Rosa for Guy’s birthday. Sammy Hagar was there, singing to this small crowd of close friends. The drummer from Rage Against the Machine was performing with the house band. Hundreds of huge personalities were all assembled in one place—dressed in costume, as is the tradition of Guy’s birthday. And there was Catherine. Always genuine, always the safe, awesome harbor in an intimidating room.

Look, there are enough excellent brunch restaurants in San Diego that waiting hours for a seat at Morning Glory—Little Italy’s rose-hued bastion of breakfast pork belly and morning booze—feels, admittedly, a little silly. Our out-of-town friends gaze forlornly at happy, well-fed-looking strangers while we assure them that the forthcoming pancakes will be worth the delay. “There’s a Champagne vending machine,” we promise. Maybe it’s the pink tile ceiling. Or the trippy mirrored bathroom. But that doesn’t explain why we’ll join similar queues for a speakeasy in La Jolla or a hi-fi music bar in North Park. The common thread, of course, is the group that owns them: Consortium Holdings, the culinary and social company behind 19 of San Diego’s buzziest restaurants and bars. It all started with an East Village burger bar, and now… well, soon you’ll be able to lay down your head at Consortium’s first crack at an overnight concept. Last year, CH purchased the Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club and set about revamping the iconic hipster haunt from top to bottom. When the joint reopens its doors this year, hotel guests (and all us locals) can line up at seven fresh food and drink establishments. We sat down with their director of education and development (and founding member), Anthony Schmidt, for a breakdown of CH’s ascent to local glory. Anthony talks about his past life as an associate professor of speech and debate at SDSU, where he’d lecture in early morning classes after moonlighting as a bartender by night. His early years behind the bar taught him that great drinks aren’t merely about precision and technique. Anthony believes that CH owes their hold on San Diego’s heart (and Instagram feed) partly to a willingness to invest in the next generation of mixologists. “The greatest bartenders in the world make other bartenders better,” he says. In food news, SDM’s 2022 Restaurant of the Year—chef Travis Swikard’s Callie—is opening up a new rooftop event space in April. Common Theory Public House is coming to Otay Ranch and will be joined by Realm of 52 Remedies and Woomiok next door. Lastly, the team behind Azuki Sushi is opening omakase-only restaurant Kinme on March 15, replacing Hachi Ramen in Banker’s Hill. Anthony and Troy both raved about birria on “Two People, Fifty Bucks.” For Anthony, Fernandez Birrieria’s rich tendon taco is where it’s at; Troy went for Birrieria Don Rafa’s sauce-drenched birria quesadilla. David headed to Gaslamp Lumpia Factory for chicken lumpia and a pork sinigang soup. See ya next week!

During the pandemic, actor Matthew Arkin got a call from his dad, Alan Arkin. “My dad says, ‘Hey, you know you can make aquavit at home?’” Matthew explains, sipping a damn delicious aquavit tonic in the SDM conference room. Matthew’s response was, essentially, “Uh, thanks, dad.” In Scandinavia, aquavit (the word means water of life) is everything. There are over 200 songs dedicated to it. In the U.S., it’s mostly known as the stuff they drink in Scandinavia—a bracing blast of northern booze that helps wash down the pickled herring. A couple weeks went by and Matthew’s dad called again. He says the thing about the aquavit again. Whether genuinely inspired or just to get his dad to shut up about it, Matthew decided to give it a go. He made a batch—a warmer, smoother version you could sip like bourbon. He stuck it in the freezer and figured he’d forget about it forever. A year later, friends intervened. Visiting one day, Marc Marosi (a stand-in for George Clooney, a dapper fellow) tasted it. Loved it. Told Matthew he could sell it. “I don’t drink, but I want more of this,” Marc said at the time. So they called their old friend Bruce Glassman, a San Diego-based food and drinks writer (and former SDM beer columnist) to help perfect the recipe. After finding the perfect mix on the 22nd try, the new American aquavit—Batch 22—was born. The title is also an ode to the man whose random call started the idea, since Alan Arkin famously starred in the 1970s film, Catch 22. Was it really any good? To find out, the three friends—all now in their 60s—set out on a cross-country road trip. With a hundred mason jars full of their small-batch aquavit, they’d drive city to city and let the bartenders of America tell them if they were nuts or not. And every time, the bartenders were floored. They were also thankful it wasn’t yet another tequila, another small-batch bourbon. In an evolved cocktail industry constantly looking for something new—this smooth, small-batch aquavit stands out. In just under six months, Batch 22 won several awards from across the country. It is shockingly delicious, not the aquavit most Americans know. The golden-hued spirit tastes of caraway and rye and dill and citrus. As if you liquefied a quality rye bread and put it in a bottle. According to the EU, the dominant flavor of aquavit must come from caraway and must have a minimum 37.5% ABV. Batch 22's three most prominent notes are citrus, caraway, and dill. Unlike traditional aquavit, Batch 22 is smooth, sippable, and exceptionally mixable. The three friends come into the San Diego Magazine offices for one of the more hilarious (and, at times, bawdy) episodes of HHH we’ve had in a long while. We assemble around the conference room, Bruce acts as bartender. We drink, we laugh. In news, Pacific Beach is getting its own al fresco food hall brought to you by food collective Mission + Garnet for a six-concept eatery from local restaurateur, Scott Slater. Perfecte Rocher has settled in as the new director of culinary operations for Consortium Holdings’ most recent project: the Lafayette Hotel in North Park and the venerated golden-age hipster beacon of San Diego history. WashMobile, the family-owned spot for tortas (Mexican sandwiches), is setting up shop at NOVO Brazil Brewing Co. once a week—their first pop-up in San Diego. Soichi Sushi is opening next door in the former De Nada Kitchen on Adams Ave. Sonoran-inspired BBQ spot, Papalito, plans to open in South Park, adding to their map with hubs in North Park and East Village. Lastly, Amplified East Village has been aquired by long time PR head, Aubree Miller. It is being revamped as modbom. They will be switching to more cocktail focused and Drew Bent will be leasing the kitchen. If you wanna meet Glassman and Arkin and Marosi and try their creation—on April 1 they’re launching a new cocktail with Understory at the Sky Deck.

Jennifer Carruthers is one hell of a sharp brain on wine. Not surprising. She had a successful career as an engineer before deciding she was far more interested in the structure and story of a good wine. So she spent a decade studying wine as a broker and distributor—eventually making it to the Advanced Sommelier level (an incredibly byzantine, difficult and rare knowledge of wine). Finally, she launched her own company, JC Select Wines, which specializes in hand-picking wines for special events and clients. We asked her to come in and share a few things: The top six wines we all have to try, and the story behind them. The biggest trends and myths about wine—explain them and debunk them, please. And so she does. Hilariously. “Wine gets a bad rap from the people who sniff a glass and say ‘this was grown by a river, and there were three, possibly four, golden retrievers on the property,” she says. JC Select connects people to niche, hand-picked wines. Her mission to source wines from sustainable, top-notch makers goes way beyond “is this great wine?” She makes it a point to get to know the winemakers and chooses wines from those whose story she believes in. She shares the creators’ stories with her clients—focusing on organic, small batch, and environmentally responsible brands. “Part of the end product is how they got there,” she says. “So it’s how the grapes are grown, how they’re cultivated. You know, they don’t want to grow a whole bunch of grapes just to produce more fruit. They want that fruit to be of high quality.” Point is: wine should be more than just wine. Every bottle is a gateway to a good, compelling story of the humans behind it. Even harder stories about equality, worker rights, misuse of land and people. And Jennifer’s got stories. Speaking of sailing, JC Select Wines is hosting its annual Champagne Sail aboard the Adventuress Luxury Catamaran, which takes riders on an all-inclusive scenic three-hour sail around San Diego Bay. The outing, open from April to Oct., will be equipped with Charles Heidsieck Champagne (the Champagne served on the Titanic, “which sometimes I opt not to tell people since we’re on a boat in the open water,” she says). To hear Jennifer’s six must-have wines from her personal cellar, listen to this week’s full episode of Happy Half Hour In the news, a third Fig Tree Cafe opened late Jan. in Mission Valley—the Rise and Shine Hospitality Group who also run Breakfast Republic bring in another fine dining experience to the growing neighborhood. Sister concepts Pop Pie Co. and Stella Jean's Ice Cream opened up in Pacific Beach, expanding their warm, friendly atmosphere and killer desserts further across San Diego. Both establishments provide the perfect sweet treat for a sunny SD winter. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” both of the hosts find themselves craving seafood. David visits New England-inspired Sea Tavern in the heart of North Park. A Surf N’ Turf “Double Double” built with a smashed Wagyu patty, crab croquette, onion jam, and frico-style cheddar mozzarella make this meal one for the books. Troy’s going back for the lobster and shrimp roll at urban office park restaurant Farmer & The Seahorse run by chef Sam Deckman. A great place to take the family and let the kids run wild. See y’all next week!

In the spirit of spirit month, we’re starting out with a well-deserved bang. Let’s talk about the liquor that comes in hot, and leaves us even hotter – sizzling with a well-paletted spice on the tip of our tongue and a soothing warmth in our bellies. I’m talking about tequila, baby. The tip of the iceberg in the Mexican spirits world. Some of the best are distributed right from San Diego. In fact, Happy Half Hour brings on an old friend who’s expanded his company’s rotation since his last feature in 2020. CEO Gaston Martinez of IZO Spirits saw his one stop mezcal leave people craving more from his Durango-based distillery and heart grown message captured in every bottle. Following its launch, backed by seasoned marketing executive and co-founder Linda Belzberg three years ago, Gaston knew they were destined for greatness – expansion. After curating a mezcal that was consumed on a hypnotic level, yet still competed for space with larger moguls, IZO had to change the game in order to keep up. Here are a couple of updates on IZO since they were here with us last. Soon after its initial debut, their mezcal made its way into the bulky hands of Costco Wholesale, where it reached its biggest audience and gave the team the leg room needed to create other lines of spirits. Their most recent venture: a sotol that takes 15 years to harvest from the plant. Gaston takes pride when describing the sustainable and old world traditions they use to grow and ferment their sotol, as well as all of their other batches. He brings a little piece of home into every step of the process, capping it off with an onyx stone topper mined and shaped straight from Durango, Mexico. “Durango is kind of a small town, but I want to bring it to the world,” he says. The evolving brand continues to stride up the ranks by collaborating with Cut Water, who uses IZO mezcal in its canned cocktails distributed around the world. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, you can find IZO’s latest product, Sotol, in the sweet and tangy “IZO Cupid” at George’s at the Cove right on La Jolla shores. To match Happy Half Hour’s prestigious guest, the hosts stroll downtown for an inside look into where all the magic happens. Recorded right from hypnotic lounge, David and Troy explore the Prestige-Magic Lounge & Showroom – the fifth of Mystique Venues’s fine dining locations bringing some of the best local and touring magicians in the country to the stage. Leading the kitchen is Executive Chef Johnny Hornibrook who has been with Mystique since its first opening in Folsom, California with founder Terry Commons. The three course menu illuminates Johnny's experience on the road traveling around the country and Central America. While surfing couches and hitchhiking his way back to San Diego over the course of 28 days and 88 car rides, he asked, “What can I bring to the table?” to pay them back. Literally. The Stockton local brought home flavors from his adventures serving his Latin American patrons and incorporates them into his seasonal menus. The chef’s pick at Prestige is the au jus prime rib with a trio of tangy horseradish. If dinner and an enchanting show sound good to you right now, Prestige is giving out a couple of promos voiced in this week’s episode to check out. In “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” David felt like Italian comfort food on a cold and rainy San Diego day. He visited Princess Pub in Little Italy for a cottage pie doused in a creamy gravy for the soul. Troy’s pick reminisced on a SD Mag current favorite: IZOLA bakery. Just anything from there. The baked goods are. All. So Mesmerizing.

Most of you know Troy as our fearless leader and a frequent flier—or as the guy you wish you could text for recommendations on where to take your finicky mother-in-law to dinner in San Diego. (I just asked him for you; he suggests Fort Oak in Mission Hills). His college classmates, on the other hand, knew him as the guy who couldn’t cook. “I knew how to turn the knob on the microwave to the right,” he admits on this week’s podcast. The two women across from him on the mic are working to make sure more kids don’t turn out like Troy. They are Jen Nation and Angelica Gastelum—executive director and marketing manager of Olivewood Gardens, respectively. Olivewood is seven acres of gardens and an agricultural learning center surrounding a historical 1896 Victorian home—the former estate of Christy and John Walton (you might have heard of their family’s company, WalMart). It’s located in National City, an area with a disproportionately high rate of food-related health conditions, due in large part to a lack of access to healthy, affordable ingredients. The Waltons gifted the property to the International Community Foundation—so that the property could be used to “engage, grow, and promote healthy communities and dialogue through civic engagement and philanthropy in the San Diego-Baja California border region.” Basically, show how real, nutritious food could transform a life. It was a personal story for the Waltons. The Waltons’ son, Lucas, had been diagnosed with cancer at an early age. Traditional treatments failed, so a friend suggested removing processed foods from Lucas’ diet. Christy began her own farm-to-table system, growing organic fruits and veggies and transforming them into ultra-fresh meals and nutrient-packed juices. And Lucas wasn’t the only kid in the neighborhood who benefited from Christy’s foray into homegrown fare. Locals still drop by Olivewood to reminisce about sipping juice with Lucas decades before—proof that shared culinary experiences form wonderfully sticky memories. Olivewood launched their first programs in 2010, aiming to educate residents about nutrition and sustainability. Then they commenced their Cooking for Salud program, teaching men and women from the community how to create more nutritious versions of the traditional recipes that were important to their families. Graduates of that program are known as Kitchenistas—and they now number 400. Every elementary school student in National City comes to Olivewood to learn about agriculture and environmental science. Some of the produce from the property is used in schools. Kitchenistas have filtered into every part of National City, passing on the healthier-food knowledge to neighbors and legislators. We got to split a dish with the folks at Olivewood, too: a bowl of “Happy Rice” crafted with the help of fourth graders from a National City school. A blend of fluffy whole-grain brown rice, sesame oil, black vinegar, amino acids, and leftover veggie scraps, the adaptable recipe serves as a way to teach elementary-aged kiddos how to cook healthy meals while cutting food waste—and get them on board with eating their greens. Visiting Olivewood on field trips, nine-year-olds often enter the building adamant that they won’t go near a broccoli floret. They happily leave with bellies full of little trees. “In a few years, we’d love to say that National City has the healthiest kids in the country,” Jen dreamed aloud, just a few moments before we hit record.

Over the last few decades we’ve really started to ask questions about what we’re eating. Does the green label really mean organic—or was it grown on an organic “section” of a farm, gobbling up pesticides in the wind? If I’m buying this tomato in January, and it was grown in Florida sand, picked unripe, and gassed on the train on the way to California—what, exactly, am I getting out of this? Why do some eggs look like mandarins and some look like a vague notion of the color yellow? Farmers markets definitely make us feel better about what we’re putting on our tables. You get to meet the people who grew what you eat. Look ‘em in the eye. See if you get any frankenfood vibes. On this week’s episode of Happy Half Hour, Troy and David talk to one San Diegan whose life was altered pretty radically when Stefani de Palma visited his farm stand. His plot of land in Escondido—Sage Hill Ranch Gardens—was fairly small, three acres. But De Palma—then chef de cuisine of Addison—saw the promise. She worked with Spencer, used his farm as a sort of R&D plot for the restaurant. This month, Addison was named a three-star Michelin restaurant—one of only 14 in the country, the famed guide’s highest honor. And Sage Hill was name-checked on the menu. Not bad for a guy who became an accidental farmer in an effort to save his family’s land. A few years back, Spencer’s family was considering selling the property. He couldn’t bear to leave it, so he convinced them to let him try to grow some food. With a clean slate and zero farming experience, Spencer opted to try traditional farming like his neighbors—but his plot was too small and too steep for tractors and machines. So Sage Hill Ranch & Gardens became one of the only farms in San Diego County to be entirely human-powered. No synthetic fertilizers or tilling, actually serving as a carbon sink for the area. “How do we feed our people and not destroy the earth?” is the big question he deals with on a daily basis. Spencer talks with Troy and David about his surprising career shift, and how eating certain foods helped him solve his own health issues. This episode is recorded live on location at Pacific Point lobby bar, the sushi lounge at Park Hyatt Aviara overlooking the natural preserve and coastline in Carlsbad. Chef Aaron Nguyen, who was a chef at Nobu for years, serves up a few incredible dishes. And Aviara chef Chris Carriker shares the pretty hilarious story about the time he won an episode of Chopped right before the pandemic hit. In “Hot Plates,” chef Stefani says goodbye to Addison after announcing her departure last year. One of Tijuana’s top chefs, Ruffo Ibarra, will be joining the Be Saha Group to take over the culinary program at the revamped gem, Guild Hotel in downtown. A Solana Beach local opened San Diego’s second zero-waste grocery store called Local Scoop to power sustainable living and support local growers. Troy’s recommendation during “Two People, Fifty Bucks” was a low profile seared albacore poke and smoked ribs with lemongrass ponzu from the Charcoal and Soy food truck while David raved about a light, refreshing smashburger and friendly atmosphere at Harland Brewing Co. Listen to the full episode of Happy Half Hour for details on where to eat next.

Listen, I know it can seem like some of us at San Diego Magazine basically eat tacos and taste beer for a living. But it’s in pursuit of the story. Whatever it takes to get to the grist of it all. For you. You deserve this. And if that raises our BAC a tad, we’re there for you. For Stone Brewing’s Laura Ulrich, on the other hand, sampling IPAs is a major part of a hard day’s work. Officially one of Stone’s “small batch brewers,” it’s Laura’s job to research and develop new suds, tweaking recipes—and naming brews after her favorite songs—using Stone’s seven-barrel system in Escondido. She devised two new versions of our beloved Delicious IPA: Delicious Citrus and Delicious Double, both as perfect with a Wagyu patty as their forerunner. Laura’s now one of the key creatives in the Stone brewing operation. But it didn’t happen overnight. She started out 19 years ago on the packaging line. She was a brewer, then a brewery trainer, before landing her spot among the small-batch masterminds. “I’ve seen the whole house,” she says. Laura’s also a founding member of Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit that highlights women’s contributions to craft beer, as well as wine, spirits, and other brews. The org offers scholarships to help close the industry’s education gap and holds brew days for women to come together and invent new blends. Laura also heads Women of Stone, inspiring, supporting, and promoting the company’s women employees and brainstorming ways to draw more women to Stone. The mission, she says, is to make sure that women know, “in craft beer, there’s a place for you.” Troy and David sat down with Laura in the heart of Stone’s Balboa Park bistro to eat burgers, drink Delicious IPA, and learn about Laura’s envy-inducing job and her work to shatter her industry’s glass ceiling. Her tip for aspiring beer makers: Make sure you’ve got a professional email. Laura reveals that Stone nearly passed on her application after taking a peek at her Yahoo handle. (For what it’s worth, Laura, I would immediately buy IPAs from anyone contacting me from “[email protected]”) In news, New York institution Prince Street Pizza touches down in downtown San Diego; local chefs settle old beef with hot lamb (there will probably be lamb) on new Food Network series Superchef Grudge Match; formerly of La Dona in O.B., the hard-working chef Gaby Lopez helms a new namesake restaurant, Casa Gabriela in La Mesa; and Heritage Barbeque launches 10,000 square feet of beer and Texas brisket in Oceanside. This week’s “Two People, Fifty Bucks” will make you crave Italian: Laura’s filling up on bread and burrata at Tribute Pizza; David’s ordering ahead at Little Italy’s Mona Lisa; and Troy embraces balance this wellness month by pairing bike rides with lardo pizza at Cardellino. See ya next week.

This cafe is one of the better places in San Diego to eat clean, sure. It’s also parents’ love for their daughter. This damn good salad—loaded with all kinds of greens and seeds and micronutrients in various natural forms—was all for her. Every parent knows the feeling. When your kid is sick or hurt, you will do the wildest things you never thought you’d do, uproot your life, quit jobs, take four extra jobs, do whatever it takes to help them regain their health. Parakeet Cafe is what Carol Roizen could do. When she and her husband Jonathan Goldwasser found out their then-young daughter Michelle had tumors on her spine, Carol uprooted their lives and dedicated everything she was to creating the healthiest food she could possibly get her daughter to eat. And it turned into a healthy breakfast/lunch concept that started in La Jolla, then Little Italy, and now they’re about to open four more locations across Southern California (Carlsbad, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, and Newport). For wellness month at SDM, we invited Carol and and Jonathan into the SDM offices to tell their family’s story. The whole month, we’re focusing on people in the food and drink scene who are making food and drink that’s focused on health. Check out the January issue here; maybe even subscribe–we send the beautiful glossy mag to your house every month. Like a real magazine. It’s wild. In the news, Heritage Barbecue is opening this week in Oceanside—a massive house of slow-cookery from pitmaster Danny Castillo and his wife, who started their good-meat cue spot in San Juan Capistrano as a pop-up in 2017 and it went bonkers; they were a finalist on Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race and now Lia’s Lumpia has set down permanent roots in Barrio Logan; the owners of Local Tap House in Oceanside have opened a modern west-coast take on the east coast classic: the Jewish deli (pastrami everywhere!); and we get more details on Bivouac Ciderworks’ big expansion, as they plan the Bivouac Adventure Lodge next door in North Park. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Carol points to one of the greatest sushi restaurants in San Diego, the one that started it all—Sushi Ota in P.B.; David (surprise surprise!) finds yet another soup that he can’t live without—the birria udon with brisket at El Barbecue; and I was reminded this week of a San Diego classic that’s perfect for rainy weather soul sads: the polenta plate at Cucina Urbana. Our next podcast, we’ll talk with one of San Diego’s young farmers who’s been supplying San Diego’s first three-star Michelin restaurant with the raw materials for that kind of greatness: Spencer Rudolph of Sage Hill Ranch Gardens.

Oh man. Dear god. Thanks, you all. This year, you downloaded episodes of our podcast 276,977 times. As a San Diego media company just trying to create things of value where you’ll learn something, think about something in a different way—that’s a huge number. I’m sure Joe Rogan sneezes that number, but for us it’s pretty great. A lot of sneezes. When we launched “Happy Half Hour” in 2016, we had zero or near-zero idea what we were doing. Flailing at mics. Loghorrea-ing our way into the digital void. All we knew was that to stay relevant in media, you have to embrace new forms of storytelling. So much tire kicking. David Martin was (and is) in a band (Weight of the Sun who you should listen to). He knew how to record stuff. Our friend, Arsalun Tafazoli (who owns CH Projects, which is restaurant Jesus now in San Diego, but at that point was more of a midsize pack of creative lunatics), agreed to be our first guest. Former editor in chief Erin Chambers-Smith and I sat and talked with him—randomly about food and drink and hospitality and ideas for two hours. We didn’t know anything about “mic proximity,” so the recording sounded like we’d be talking from very far away in another room… and then very loudly in your ear, like those close-talker people… and then like we were underwater… back yelling in your ear…. Afterward, exhausted but pumped that we had taken this leap of technological faith, David announced, “Yeah no way we can air that.” That recording exists on a hard drive somewhere, partially or fully inaudible but earnest and hopeful. So we tried again, staying close to the mic this time. We kept it under an hour. We developed a few “segment ideas.” And we invited guest after guest from the San Diego food scene. We even won a big national award for it. When we were nominated, we laughed because we were up against Harvard, Red Bull, Inc. Magazine, a few other massive media entities. And whoa, they said we won. Still not sure if that was real. They sent us an award or an email or something. Kinda blacked out. Anyway, for this final podcast of the year, we look back on the year that was. I lay out a hit list of the “10 Best Things I Ate This Year,” like the corn pinion soup at Wolf in the Woods, dirty hash browns at Born & Raised, and the ube pancakes at The Holding Company. David gives his “Top Five Soups”—including one at Wormwood, one at Shank & Bone, and a few other gems. If you’ve listened to this podcast, you know that soup is David’s love language. And he’s a former culinary instructor at the New England Culinary Institute, so he really knows his mirepoix. Finally, we go through some of the biggest news of the year (go, Convoy) and the trends that marked San Diego’s food and drink scene (birria everywhere). Then we talk to the creator of what has become one of the official drinks of San Diego Magazine’s offices—Javi’s Ranch Water, 100-percent pure agave tequila, soda water, then natural flavorings. And whaddya know, owner/creator Josh Irving turns out to be a really likable, soulful fella. He named the drink after his dog (Javi, who’s the mascot on the can). Josh was a great golfer in high school, dreamed of going pro. Lucky for us, he didn’t succeed at that. Became a caddy. Befriended a guy who ran a liquor company, offered him a job. He fell in love with tequila and the people and culture of Mexico, and created his own tequila company using real, 100% agave tequila. And then he gifted us the canned delight that is Javi’s, which is now either enhancing or decimating the production of the SDM team. Thanks again so damn much for your support, everyone. Much more to come. Enjoy the holidays.

The future of seafood might be in San Diego. Not in Point Loma or Oceanside, but in a bioengineering facility in Sorrento Valley. From a single cell, BlueNalu is growing toro—bluefin tuna belly, the prize delicacy of most high-end sushi—in a perfectly hygienic bioreactor that looks like the giant stainless steel structures in the city’s top breweries. Their goal is creating world-class seafood without the need for fish. In turn, transforming a limited and unpredictable resource (seafood) into an unlimited and predictable one. Today on HHH, we talk to CEO Lou Cooperhouse. It’s part of our month-long focus on people in San Diego doing inspiring work in the green space (our “Environment Issue” of San Diego Mag is out now). “The issue today is that wild-capture fisheries in general have been flat for decades, but bluefin tuna is such a loved, prized product that we all really enjoy,” says Cooperhouse. “It’s the wagyu of the sea. That’s what BlueNalu is all about—high-sensory, culinary quality seafood. But really making this delicious and accessible to all. Because right now it’s loved, but it’s not available to all.” It’s not a fly by night thing. BlueNalu has been funded to the tune of $84 million so far—most of that raised by Bloom8, an investment group focused on raising money for businesses that, if we’re wide brushing, are focused on saving the planet. The long list of BlueNalu investors includes chefs and celebrities (Roy Yamaguchi, DJ Axwell of Swedish House Mafia) and some of the biggest names in the global business (Sumitomo from Japan, Griffith Foods). Entire countries and governments across the world have their eye on BlueNalu’s toro. What BlueNalu does is called cell-cultured seafood. Biologists and bioengineers have learned how to grow the meat—real meat, grown from a real, non-GMO cell from a real fish, using only natural ingredients—without the fish itself. What years ago seemed like a dystopian future joke—”lab grown meat”—is looking more and more like a very real and good option. It’s the fascinating story of modern technology and science trying to solve a major global dilemma (feeding a planet while not depleting the oceans of seafood). This science has been around since 2103 (hamburger, grown in a Dutch lab by Mark Post). But until now no one’s been able to scale it—make it fast enough and affordable enough to be a viable option. BlueNalu and their investors think they’ve done it. There is plenty of work ahead of them, including approval from the FDA (cell-cultured proteins are currently not approved in the US—Singapore is the only country in the world to approve them so far). It’s a massive, growing industry, with major players backed by the biggest pockets in the world, and various celebrities (Leonardo DiCaprio is behind Mosa Meat). BlueNalu thinks they’re a couple years away from being on menu at restaurants across the world. Of course there are questions. Will it taste the same? Can they make it affordable enough to help people of all socioeconomic strata (a pound of cell-cultured seafood costs significantly more than wild-caught seafood)? What is their own environmental footprint? And how will it impact the fishing families and industry? For Two People Fifty Bucks, David takes back his “no good lasagna in San Diego” remarks after trying Alexander’s on 30th; sticking with the theme Troy says you should sit on the patio and order the baked rigatoni and baked brie with garlic at their parent restaurant, Old Venice; and Lou raves about the A5 Wagyu at Animae—unsurprising for a man whose future lies in the wagyu of the sea. See you all next week.

They don’t have a trash can in their kitchen. A fully operational, busy restaurant kitchen without a trash can. OK, that’s hyperbole. They do have a small one that is rarely ever used. The Plot in Oceanside keeps 99% of what they do out of the landfill. That is not normal. December is our “Environment Issue” of San Diego Magazine. As I wrote in my note at the beginning of the issue, it’s not about being perfect and it’s not an evangelical radical screed against any and all industry. The issue is dedicated to people in San Diego doing small and massive things to try to minimize our negative impact on the environment. That’s why for the restaurant review I headed up to the fully plant-based restaurant run by Davin and Jessica Waite. The husband-and-wife duo own not just The Plot but also Wrench & Rodent (sushi), White Noodle (ramen), and Shootz Fish & Beer. They join us on the podcast to talk through how, specifically, they’re trying to not only minimize waste in restaurants, but go beyond that and pave a path for a regenerative restaurant scene. They don’t claim to be perfect, either. But orange rinds are never thrown out, but turned into salsas and other foods. Leftover sushi rice is sent to a local refinery and turned into a flavored vinegar. A lot of the techniques they’re using are not forward thinking; they’re intentionally backwards. “Turns out the best way for the future is in the past,” says Davin. This is how restaurants used to work—way back in the beginning of their time. Food was grown in the back, cooked in the front. “There was a time when things were actually advertised as ‘disposable,’ and that was seen as a positive thing, a selling point,” says Jessica. What you need to do fairly soon is go eat their potato salad and their carrot tacos. For news, we discuss the biggie: San Diego’s Addison at Fairmont Grand Del Mar earned three-star Michelin status. There are only 14 three-star Michelin restaurants in the country. Seven in California. There are none in L.A. We talk about what effect this will have on the overall food scene. Also, in bittersweet news—during the pandemic Bankers Hill Bar + Restaurant had to shut down, but the good news is that fairly excellent local restaurant Common Stock is taking over the space and will open a new concept early next year. And the Top of the Hyatt has turned their 40th floor perch into a pretty nutso holiday extravaganza (they even got an electric train and bunk beds) you gotta see. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Jessica (who’s been plant-based almost her entire life) says the “Super Vegan” at Pokez in Downtown is her go-to; Davin raves about upstart tiny pizza and wine joint in Oceanside called Allmine; David points to the oysters and cocktails at Botanica in North Park; and Troy drove to Bonita this weekend because a friend of his raved about the chicken in a strip mall, and I can confirm El Pollo Grill is some truly great chicken. That’s it for this week. Thanks so damn much for listening, y'all.

Mashed potatoes are the bedrock of Thanksgiving. If you do not have a creamy pile of spuds, you are exhibiting a flagrant disregard for the rules of the feast. Mashless people seem more like thanks takers. And Josh Mouzakes—the executive chef of Arlo at Town & Country, who trained for four months at French Laundry (lived in a garage nearby, eating peanut butter sandwiches for the honor), then at Joel Robuchon in Vegas, a couple years at Hotel Del, and two recent appearances on Food Network—swears smoking your butter is easy and will help your mash win the annual food-off holiday. “You just put some woodchips in a pan with a ramekin of butter, and cover the thing with foil,” he says. Woodchips, butter, a Bic lighter, and a heat source. That’s all you need to take your Thanksgiving mash to the level of Arlo or Josh’s house. We asked Josh for three of his favorite tips for home cooks at the big feast. That’s one. We also talk about his favorite dishes at Arlo, talk about the fully resuscitated vibe at one of San Diego’s classic properties (Town & Country went through a massive remodel, and their central courtyard is grass and pool and musicians and lounge chairs and cocktails and Arlo—a very casual-awesome sneaker place to spend a Friday eve). In “Hot Plates,” we talk about Joe Magnanelli (the man responsible for helping build Cucina Urbana, and coming up with that still-legendary polenta board) has taken the gig as teh exec chef of iconic local property, Kona Kai; we talk about sale of craft cocktail destination, El Dorado, to the hospitality group Pouring With Heart—a group from L.A. (I know, I know) that has a good rep of changing the hospitality industry for good (health benefits, 401k, mental health services, etc.); and discuss how the opening of a new Carruth Cellars tasting room at Carte Hotel a block away from the San Diego Mag offices near Little Italy might be the end of us. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Troy is still on his hunt for the best food in Little Italy, and recommends a classic (the lobster roll with brown butter) and a new hit (Japanese sweet potatoes with chive crema) at Ironside; Josh gives us his favorite snacks from the underrated P.B. food scene (Poke Chop and what he says might be the best breakfast burrito in all the land at Taco Surf) and David says go get the Hungry Hippo pizza at Gnarly Girl in University Heights. Get the canned cranberry sauce. You can’t beat the schlooping sound. Happy Thanksgiving.

As a kid growing up in La Jolla, Annemarie Brown-Lorenz had swordfish bills sticking up out of the ground in her backyard. Her dad was a fifth generation local fisherman who believed in using every part of the fish. If you take a life from the sea, have the respect to use every part of that life. And Annemarie’s grandmother (a first-generation American from Slovenia) grew all her own food; believed if you stuck swordfish bills in the garden it would lend its nutrients to the soil. So forget the garden gnome. That ethos—sustainable fishing, old-world farming (now they call it biodynamic)—was what The Fishery was built on. Annemarie’s parents, Judd and Mary Ann, opened the restaurant in 1996. Judd had already built a successful business delivering seafood caught by local boats to San Diego restaurants. For The Fishery, they just knocked a hole in the wall of that seafood warehouse (called Pacific Shellfish) and passed the day’s best catches into the kitchen. The Fishery turns 25-years-old this month. During the pandemic, Judd and Mary Ann started spending most of their time at their home in Oregon, putting The Fishery’s future in Annemarie’s hands. Her husband Nicholas runs Pac Shell. Together, they’re overhauling the classic. They brought in exec chef Mike Reidy (who spent a few years under Josia Citrin at 2-star Michelin restaurant, Melisse), a GM from Juniper & Ivy, bar manager Eddie Avila (former Whisknladle), and they’re designing a new remodel right now that extends the seating and includes an oysters-and-Champagne bar. This explains why it was so incredibly good when I visited for this month’s review in San Diego Mag. Annemarie joins us to talk about deep local roots and the future of a San Diego institution. She brings sushi rolls (dear god, order the Sunshine Roll). In news, the new chef at classic San Diego resort Kona Kai is Joe Magnanelli, who made a name for himself as the exec of Cucina Urbana for a decade; the sale of classic craft cocktail den, El Dorado, to the kind of hospitality group you can get behind, Pouring With Heart (they own Seven Grand, and give their employees health benefits, 401ks, access to mental health services); and Carruth Cellars has endangered the productivity of the SDM staff by opening a new tasting room a block away from our offices at Carté Hotel. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Troy shares one of the surprise hits of his current search for the best food in Little Italy, the Ligurian flatbread at Davanti Enoteca; David on his quest to eat lunch at every single place in Little Italy goes with Harumama and the High Noon Ramen; Annemarie raves about the new North Park restaurant/gin bar Mabel’s Gone Fishing (you can listen to our interview with Mabel’s owner on this episode). Next week, exec chef Josh Mouzakes from Arlo at Town & Country gives us his secret tips on how to crank up Thanksgiving dinner at home (hint: a simple way to smoke butter for mashed potatoes).

There is a house in La Jolla that is almost entirely food. It overlooks Black’s Beach. It is a very, very nice house. Walk its grounds, and you come across blueberries and strawberries and cabbage and habañeros and herbs and goats and bees and chickens and greenhouses. What was once a tennis court on the grounds has been filled in with more food growing. It is a house-farm, an Eden on the sea cliff, and it’s become an epicenter of San Diego’s food scene. It’s owned by Michelle Lerach and her husband, Bill. Michelle took a sabbatical during law school to live and work on a goat farm in Northern California. There, she saw how connected farmers and ranchers and makers were to restaurants, grocers, distributors, lawmakers (who endorse public spending on agriculture), media, etc. She wanted to bring that to San Diego. She wanted to bring them all to the same plot of land (or house, in this case) to start fostering good, local foodways. So she opened her home—affectionately called the Castle of Chaos—to all of them. Any given day, you’ll see local chefs and winemakers and farmers strolling around her home, inspecting things, cooking things, or just kicking up their feet. During the shutdown part of the pandemic, she turned her front driveway into a market to help farmers move product. Food from her home is featured at some of the city’s top restaurants. She started the Berry Good Night, which was an annual dinner where she’d invite thought leaders on food and environmental stewardship. It also invited some of her very high-profile and influential friends who could, upon meeting farmers and food people, either financially support their work or advocate for them in legislation. In 2015, that night evolved into Berry Good Food Foundation, which operates workshops on all sorts of responsible, good-stewardship food initiatives (seafood, soil health, food waste, food justice, etc.) and supports gardens at elementary schools on both sides of the border (they’ve donated $50K to 23 schools so far). She also gathers some of the biggest brains in the country for discussions on UCTV (which have over 14 million views). Finally, she was one of the executive producers (along with Giselle Bündchen, and others) on the film, Kiss the Ground, a documentary about regenerative farming. It was produced by Ryalnd Englehart (whose family owns Cafe Gratitude and Gracias Madre), narrated by Woody Harrelson, and included cameos from Ian Somerhalder, Tom Brady, and a couple songs from fellow San Diegan and farmer/food activist, Jason Mraz. That’s a lot, I know. Basically, she’s used her law degree and connections to move the city’s food scene forward in fairly massive ways. “At the end of the day, we just want to story connect and foster an inclusive, equitable, regenerative good system in San Diego,” she says. She’s our guest on this week’s podcast. Specifically, she’s trying to raise awareness for regenerative farming and Kiss the Ground (the organization that’s also co-founded by Englehart). An upcoming dinner on Nov. 19—with chef Flor Franco and David Castro of iconic Valle de Guadalupe restaurant, Fauna—will advocate for regenerative farming being a bigger part of the U.S. Farm Bill. We talk about regenerative farming: what it is, how it works, why it’s important. A fascinating talk. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” David rediscovers his love for Puesto and raves about their secret weapon—brewer Doug Hasker (try the Clara); Michelle says nothing beats the simple side dish of carrots at Callie; and Troy is genuinely, genuinely impressed by the new food at Cutwater’s tasting room, especially the hoagie.

Mariana Cardenas went home that day, gathered her five kids, told them the news. Then she called all the government assistance programs and informed them the Cardenas family no longer needed their help. “My oldest son is autistic,” she explains. “Two weeks earlier he’d told me he wanted to go to art school and I had to tell him we couldn’t afford it. So I got to tell him he was going.” The this that happened is one of my favorite stories of good I’ve come across in the San Diego food and drink scene. Mariana shares her story on today’s podcast. How she’d taken a job as a janitor for the Navy in Chula Vista, and worked her way into the kitchen. How she spent 16 years in the Navy, eventually becoming executive chef of the region. When the pandemic hit, she left and took a job at beloved local burger joint, The Balboa. She’d been working there for four months when the owner called her to his office. “I thought I was gonna get fired,” she says. He asked her if she wanted The Balboa. “Of course I like working here,” she replied. Did she want to own it, he clarified. “Sure,” she laughed. “But I can’t afford that, I’m on government assistance.” He gave her The Balboa—a very successful restaurant and bar. Flat out gave it to her, because she’d shown up for him, treated the place as she would her own restaurant, was someone to believe in. Changed her life forever. After telling her kids, Mariana called a longtime coworker and friend. They’d both toiled to the bone at the Navy, dreamed together during breaks in their shifts. Eventually they started buying Lotto tickets. Mariana pinky swore that if she ever won, she’d give him a million dollars. He pinky promised the same. Her first order of business as the owner of The Balboa South was to make good on that promise. She gave him half the business, made him a partner. “The Balboa is my lottery ticket, and a promise is a promise,” she says. We all share a meal with the two chefs behind Hudson + Nash, the newly reimagined signature restaurant at Hilton San Diego Bayfront, perched on the water. Chef de cuisine Alexander Huizar just arrived two days ago from Vegas, where he was sous at Delila at the Wynn (before that he was chef de partie at French Laundry, and sous for a handful of Michael Symon restaurants).Executive sous chef Laoro Martinez is from Tijuana where he went to culinary school. Together, they’re creating a new “Baja to Bay” concept at H+N. Best dishes we try: the bigeye tuna poke tossed in Sriracha-miso; Thai wings in sweet chile sauce; and oh dear god try the whole fish taco (fish served whole on a board with three salsas (verde, rojo, and macha), pickled onions, street corn, cilantro slaw, chile toreados, corn tortillas, and pork belly). In “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” I point people to a longtime favorite that has been sold to one of its longtime cooks and is in great hands (and also, show up for the new owner)—Supannee Thai; Mariana loves the birria at Dolche Cafe Mexifood in Chula Vista; David, who forsake beer a while back, admits a heavy love for the 30 Hop IPA at Poorhouse Brewing with the roast beef sandwich from pop-up Big Jim’s Roast Beef; chef Laoro has a thing for the lasagna at Seneca Trattoria; and chef Alex raves about the jalapeño mac n cheese at Neighborhood. Hope you enjoy the podcast. What an incredible story. See ya next week.

About a week ago, I sat down for splashes of mezcal with Amar Harrag, who’s now successfully launched a few different drinks-and-dinner concepts on both sides of the border. His first, Tahona, created an unparalleled mezcal tasting bar to Old Town. He then opened Wormwood, the French-Baja cuisine and absinthe bar in North Park, which preserves the soul spot that was Jayne’s Gastropub. Finally, Tahona Baja in Ensenada—transforming two dry-docked, ark-looking wooden boats into mezcal tasting rooms on the grounds of a Mexican winery. Over mezcal he explained the inspiration for next week’s unveiling—Botanica, the gin- and genever-based concept going into the small restaurant space attached to beloved North Park art and cultural center, Art Produce. It’s an NFT restaurant. A what? Exactly. Before you write it off as a gimmick, listen to Harrag’s inspiration and ideas for the place on this week’s podcast. It’s fascinating, and shows a lot of thought and heart. He’s creating a modern art bar based on blockchain technology because he wanted the concept to shine a brighter light on what Art Produce does. Done right it should showcase artists, local and international, and help add to AP’s cultural hangout with good food and artful cocktails (they have a gin cart, preparing spirits tableside). Harrag joins us at Cutwater Spirits’ Tasting Room—the incredible, ship-shaped home where SD’s canned cocktail success story first started. At the bar, the warm creative spirit here has always been Laura Price, who creates craft cocktails. She shows off five or six of her Halloween favorites (including a trio based on Hocus Pocus, one topped with a burstable bubble/crystal ball of smoke, and one in a hollowed-out pumpkin). We also try a few dishes from chef, including two you should try if happiness matters in the slightest: the grilled carrots with lemon-lavender whipped goat cheese, pepitas, orange and parsley oil, carrot tops; and his excellent barrel-aged rum salmon (salmon with a glaze of barrel-aged rum and cardamom). In “Hot Plates,” we talk about Solana Beach’s food and drink boom with the arrival of a new tasting room from Local Roots Kombucha. In Downtown, a talented chef longtime San Diego foodies will remember—Jason Neroni (ex-Blanca)—is back to oversee the three different food concepts at the new Kimpton Alma (a new name and a new $25M overhaul for the former Hotel Palomar). And Polo Steakhouse has opened in the former West Steakhouse location, from the owners of Paon and with chef Judd Canepari. In “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Amar raves about the Japanese yakitori (grill) at Yokohama Yakitori Koubou in Convoy; David is thrilled with the lunch deli next to our new offices called Carnivore Sandwich (rare to find lunch places open near office buildings these days since everyone works from home); and I revisited Cusp La Jolla (still one of my favorite view restaurants in all of San Diego) and a simple-delicious chicken dinner from chef Ingrid Funes. We’re rolling now. Thanks for bearing with us.

On this new podcast, we get a lesson on natural wines from Chelsea Coleman—co-founder of the Rose Wine Bar in South Park who just opened Mabel’s Gone Fishing, a gintoneria and oyster bar that also has natural wines. Seems like just a few years ago, natural wines were what your kooky friend with the urban chickens and the Wendell Berry tattoo drank. The nat-wine ethos was always noble: wines made from grapes grown on sustainable and ideally organic methods, inoculated only with naturally occurring yeast, with nothing added (there are currently over 100 legal additives often used in commercial wine, everything from lab-grown yeasts to mega purple to oak chips and copper and anti-foaming agents) or taken away (no filtering or fining, a process that is often achieved by using animal products like egg albumen or isinglass, aka fish bladder). Ideally, grapes are grown on a permaculture dry farm (one that doesn’t use irrigation, using only rain) by operators who are passionate about fair trade and treating the earth and humans right. And for decades, their hearts were pure and their wines were terrible. Mousy, funky, chewy, fizzy liquids that often exploded before they got to the store (on account of secondary fermentation). That is not true anymore. Natural wines (aka lo-fi wines) are still funky. They taste exactly like the place where they were grown. You can even taste the time of year. Ultra terroir. A bit of a surprise in every batch. But producers have learned a thing or two about how to navigate the wild, low-intervention approach to winemaking. Lo-fi wines are also the fastest growing sector of the wine market—especially among millennials, who demand a story and an ethos with their consumption more than any other generation. All that is to say, Coleman is in the thick of it. The San Diego natifve co-founded Nat Diego (a natural wine fest). Her love of nats lines up with her ideals on food systems (she was the chair of Slow Food San Diego for three years, and she used to haul compost from local restaurants and drop them off at local farms). She’s got a pet chicken named Tang and—apropos with the Padres about to play their first home playoff game in 16 years—her father was the iconic broadcaster, Jerry Coleman. Join us as we talk about Mabel’s and she gives us a primer on natural wines. Managing editor and food enthusiast Jackie Bryant also takes a mic. In news, we talk about the launch of the Aisu ice cream brand. Launch is a hyperbolic word, since it’s only available at Chino Farms and Mille Fleurs at the moment, but it’s made by the youngest farmer in the Chino Family—Makoto, and his girlfriend, Elina—using the best produce on earth. Longtime San Diego chef and former owner of Pacifica Del Mar, Chris Idso, has joined restaurateur Linda DiNitto (264 Fresco) to open the Latin-inspired Fresco Cocina in Carlsbad. Ambrogio15 has teamed with Michelin-starred Italian restaurant, Acquerello, and will reopen their La Jolla spot as Ambrogio by Acquerello. Bivouac Ciderworks is expanding to a much larger space next door in North Park. Plus, North Park gets a plant-based Mexican joint called Tacotarian, and nonprofit food org Berry Good Food announced they’re offering up to $10,000 in funding to K-12 schools with garden projects (now accepting applications. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” I can’t stop frothing about the pastrami burger at Balboa South in Chula Vista, and I share the remarkable story of new owner, Mariana Cardenas. Jackie points us to the BBQ “pork” vermicelli noodles at City Heights’ vegan Thai joint, Thanh Tinh Chay. David had the delicious Taco Salad from Fairplay, and Chelsea raves about Pomegranate.

The story of Skrewball deserves its own biopic, if not a 30-part Netflix series. On the surface, you see a good-time peanut butter whiskey from San Diego—one that defied all naysayers and became one of the top-selling spirits in the country. And then you talk to co-owner Steve Yeng and every twist of his life story makes your eyes bulge and your heart alternately sink and soar. His family fled the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, living in Thai refugee camps. In the San Diego Magazine offices for this podcast, he pulls out a few photos from those days. In one, the family is standing in a foot of muddy water (the town routinely flooded). In another, children eat lunch near a fence made of sharp, deadly spears (it’s the cafeteria of the makeshift school). “My father saw his own father shot in the camps,” says Steve, whose grandparents were both killed. The Yeng family—mom, dad, three boys—stayed in the camps for six years. As Steve explains it, Russia’s Red Army would routinely bomb the camps, forcing everyone into below-ground shelters. In those cramped, poorly ventilated quarters, Steve contracted polio from one of the other children (the disease is not eradicated in parts of the world without access to healthcare). For the next five years, he would have to undergo multiple surgeries to correct his imbalanced bone growth. Until age seven, he managed to move around using two flip-flops on his feet, and another two on his hands. Eventually, his family managed to make it to the U.S.—specifically, to Ocean Beach—living in a garage without running water. His dad found a job at O.B. Donuts (which the family still owns). And peanut butter became a symbol of a better life for the young Yeng brothers. From that point on, against every odd and with just the right amount of audacity, Yeng became the American dream. This podcast is the longest we’ve ever recorded. Mostly because David and I sat there rapt, a little heartbroken and wholly inspired. Settle in, or digest it in parts. It’s worth it. See you next week, y'all.

Restaurant openings, restaurant closings, and Manny Machado becomes a nail tech. Just kidding, but only about the restaurant closings. Gotcha again. There will be no Manny-pedis in the near future. On this episode of Happy Half Hour, David and Troy talk to vice president of ticket sales and membership services for the Padres, Curt Waugh. Waugh joined the franchise in June 2014 after being with Spurs Sports and Entertainment where he managed ticket sales for the San Antonio Rampage ice hockey team. Waugh filled us in on the 70 newly renovated suites where you can customize your experience with in-suite dining food and beverage packages. The suites are not only available for Padres games, but also for any concerts or events that take place. This season broke a Petco Park and Padres record, with more than 20,000 people opting for season tickets, including our very own Troi Boi (the SDM’ers have dubbed him as such, and he’ll no longer respond to any other name). Troy (Troi) dishes on his favorite perks, like movie nights on the field where he can take his mini-me Elia, and of course, the chance to imbibe on some good cheap beer. Membership happy hours include $5 drink specials across the ballpark so you can wet your whistle with Cutwater Spirits or a good ‘ole Budweiser. Apart from discounted food and drink specials, members also get perks such as priority access to Opening Day and Postseason tickets, best available seat options, and 10 percent off concessions and retail in the park. In Hot Plates, David and Troy talk Little Thief and Black Radish, both North Park newbies. The former is rewriting the natural wine narrative. David may be their biggest fan. As I write, he’s sitting here wearing their merch and waving a tiny flag around with their logo. It’s weird, but we’re here for it. At Black Radish, the simple and sexy interior paired with their dynamic menu makes for a feast of the senses. Later, Troy talks about his love affair with Chef Phillip Esteban’s ube pandesal, available at his Liberty Station Filipino restaurant White Rice. Not only is Chef Esteban opening another location in Normal Heights, he just signed a lease to a new standalone all-day eatery in Liberty Station.

So much history in this place. It’s where brewers came up with one of the beers that put San Diego on the national map. It’s where a person signed a deal for a billion dollars and sold to a multinational corporation. And it’s where an indie brewer bought it back, and took it into the new age. The place is the palace of beer that is Ballast Point in Miramar. The beer is Sculpin IPA. For this podcast, we sat down with five evolutions of Sculpin in front of us—from grapefruit Sculpin to a Aloha Sculpin—with one of our favorite people in the city, Jeff Lozano. Technically the “ambassador” of Ballast Point, Jeff is the voice you hear in the Ballast Point commercials when you’re watching the Padres games. His voice is made for this, like if a cigarette and a late-night radio DJ had a lovechild. Ballast Point just made a serious investment on the food side of the house at all their locations, too, hiring culinary director Tommy Dimella. I’ll say this. Go to Miramar. Work your way through the evolution of Sculpin like we did. Order two things from his menu: the Double-Stack Angus Smash Burger (white American cheese, BP special sauce, pepperoncini, lettuce, tomato—basically a real chef’s take on a Bic Mac), and… arguably the star… the whipped goat cheese (made creamier with labneh, then topped with olive oil and cumin-spiced honey, strawberries, and seeded lavash cracker). It’s the Summer of Sculpin (locals know that the real San Diego summer starts in August and goes through October). It was pretty much nonstop one-liners and laughs, but Jeff also runs us through the about beer and the food scene in San Diego and gives us some hard and useful science about why certain beers taste better with certain foods. In news, we talk about the opening of Madi, the all-day brunch joint from the Madison on Park people; the upcoming Botanica, an NFT art bar (you can buy NFTs of art on display) based around gin from the restaurant group that brought Tahona and Wormwood; Fairplay, a new concept from the Fernside crew coming to the spot vacated by beloved Toronado; and North Park’s first ever (we think, correct us if we’re wrong) rooftop bar, Dollie’s at Hoxton. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” David re-fell in love with Craft & Commerce; Jeff raves about old-school San Diego classic, Bully’s East Steakhouse; and Troy was in a soup dumpling mood and pointing to the favorite he found in his citywide search for xiao long baos, Facing East. Go to Ballast. Spend an afternoon in an icon. Also search out Jeff Lozano. Make him talk to you. He’s funny as hell. Thanks for listening, y'all.

Lake San Marcos is such a mystery to me. Like if you took the water feature from a miniature golf course and expanded that over a couple miles—that’s what it would be. A human-made oasis. Fake? You bet. Kinda magical? Also that. And that’s the kind of hokey water hocus pocus I live for. I’m the kind of guy who thinks sequins is the height of American culture. This podcast we recorded live from the Mister A’s of Lake San Marcos—Amalfi Cucina Italiana. Chef Marcello Avitabile is a six-time World Pizza Champion (read the review here). The four owners are all Italian, all friends who met while working at another one of the top Italian food spots in the city, Buona Forchetta (Avitabile was the longtime exec chef). It’s the second stop on our Delicious IPA Tour with Stone Brewing. (Note: These have been great events where we gather and sip and taste, available to those of you who join our Insiders program… you should sign up). One of the first “Beer vs. Wine Dinners” I ever went to was hosted by Stone. Wine has always been hailed as the perfect beverage for food. Since its inception, Stone has seemed fixated on proving that craft beer paired as well, if not better, than wine. Early on, I was skeptical if not scoffing. I went to the dinner thinking “this is a gimmick but there is quality food and beer.” And, wow. Beer won the night. The 200-plus people there that night voted it in a landslide. And it wasn’t close on my card, either. I was shocked. Being a nerd, I dug into the science of it, and turns out beer has so many more flavor compounds than wine (due to the increased number of ingredients—hops, malt, etc.) This isn’t a slag against wine, which is a quality portion of my life. Just beverage facts. Anyway, point is. Stone Delicious IPA is what their brewers have been tinkering with all these years. Their perfect food pairing beer. They came to us and said, “Hey, let’s do a tour to celebrate what we think is a pretty awesome achievement, and let’s use it to highlight some local restaurants and cooks and indie businesses.” Easy sell. So this week we pair it with Avitabile’s primavera pizza—marinated zucchini and red bell peppers and eggplant, buffalo mozzarella, EVOO, fresh basil, all baked and blistered in 60 seconds in their hell-hot pizza oven. It’s a doozy, and the strong, lightly citrusy hops stand up the char on the crust, making it a perfect pair. We sit down and talk with the owners Giuseppe Annunziata and Emiliano Muslija about Amalfi, and why they’re importing 90 percent of their ingredients from the Italian coast they’re from. In the news, we’re pretty jazzed about Azuki Sushi’s new omakase spot; Breakfast Republic makes the move on expanding to other cities; discuss the bizarro ambition of space-portal alien tiki lounge Mothership in South Park, and Amalfi announces the opening of their second restaurant in North County. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” David raves about the Aleppo chicken at Callie; Emiliano points people to Akai Hana Sushi in Rancho Bernardo; Guiseppe expresses his desire to try the raved-about Sushi Tadokoro; and I am still a little floored by the ube pancakes at The Holding Company—where they’ve got an all-ages brunch on their rooftop overlooking the O.B. pier. It’s an all-ages brunch, which is great because just because some of us chose to procreate doesn’t mean we died. The podcast is fully back. Thanks for being patient as we moved offices over the summer. Full steam. See ya next week. –Troy

When I went to Padres games as a kid, a man stood 30 feet away from you and hurled a hot dog at your face. Maybe you got some popcorn whose best attribute was that it looked yellow and had enough salt to turn your insides into prosciutto. Oh, and you got some flat Coke. If you only drank sodas at baseball games in the 80s, you wouldn’t know the product came with bubbles. To be honest, I kinda miss that hot dog throwing man. But I don’t miss the food. Modern baseball food is worlds better. You got sushi and acai bowls and brisket sandwiches and designer tacos. The Padres have made a lot of great acquisitions of late, but one of my favorites was when they brought in Barrio Dogg and Grand Ole BBQ and Puesto—giving people a taste of some of the best local restaurants. And today David and I sit with an old friend and crush some of our favorite eats from Petco Park. He’s a favorite human. Constant sayer of funny things. Mark “Mudcat” Grant has been a Padres broadcaster for 27 years. He and Don Orsillo are in the booth 162 games a year, narrating every Padres game. For fans, they’re like extended family, or constant friends who show up in your living room to talk ball and life. Mud and I talk about his career, the 2022 team, how Tim Flannery taught him a mindblowing lesson on perspective in life (ommmmm), and all the food. For news, we talk about the opening of Little Thief and Papalito in North Park, the new natural wine bar from the Bottlecraft team, and the new restaurant from chef Drew Bent’s new Sonoran BBQ concept; how 2021’s “Chef of the Year” Phil Esteban just signed the lease on a new restaurant in Liberty Station; and the sad closing of Supernatural Sandwiches in Miramar and what that says about the realities of running a restaurant in 2022. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” David points you to the best dishes at the new Italian/sushi joint in North Park, CinKuni (the “Godzilla ramen”); Mudcat raves about Barbusa and Janet’s Montana Cafe, a favorite near his place in Alpine; and I am reminded just how amazing Wayfarer Bread & Pastry is in Bird Rock (the Kouign Amann, the tomato-herbed ricotta cream bun). Go Padres. See ya next week.

Not sure how many San Diego restaurants have a real, bonafide Shepard Fairey art piece—sanctioned by the artist, famous for his propaganda art like the Obey (Andre the Giant) and Hope (Obama) series—but Shank & Bone in North Park is one of them. So technically the Vietnamese restaurant is a pretty notable art gallery. Their pho sure is some art. So are their fish sauce chicken wings, salty and sweet. In our June “Best Restaurants” issue, Shank was named readers’ choice for Best Vietnamese and my pick for Best Pho. And on today’s podcast Han Tran comes on to share her story—how her parents came over as refugees from Vietnam. She grew up in City Heights, where her mom ran a bakery and cafe. “It was known for the strongest Vietnamese coffee in town,” she says. “Just rocket fuel. In our culture, the cafe scene is mostly men. Women walk in and the needle on the record scratches. But mom ran it. She’s tough. Cafes are really popular in the Vietnamese community, but ours was different because we had good food.” Han was raised in this food culture, saw how much her parents worked. Nonstop. The restaurant was their life, their stable place in a new world. And so the daughter went to UCSD with not less than zero interest in running a restaurant, but running very fast the other way. And then her and her husband, Jay Choy, bought a sushi joint, Ebisu Sushi. “We had no idea how to run it,” she says. And yet they did, for 16 years. They opened Shank & Bone because they wanted to take the Vietnamese food Han grew up with, but crank it up, use better ingredients, bring the modern better-food ethos to dishes of her youth. And, well, she took some flak. Some in the Viet community went after her because of the Fairey artwork, which shows a Viet girl holding a gun with a flower in the end of it. “Vietnamese immigrants are all obviously anti-communism—so there was a rumor going around that some communist had come to North Park and opened this restaurant,” she laughs. “And the funny thing is, the image of the woman looks almost identical to a picture of my mom from the refugee camp.” She and her husband also took flak for the price of their pho—$17 when they opened, $20 now. The reason? They invested in better ingredients, and they crammed their broth with two, three times the amount of bones to ratchet up the flavor (thus why the pho is so good). They invested in artwork and a storefront right on University Ave. All things that cost money. Shank’s done just fine now. People showed up, keep showing up. In “Hot Plates,” we talk about the impending sale of Stone Brewing to Sapporo U.S.A.; how the city is now starting to enforce permits for the parklets restaurants built during the pandemic, and how very few restaurants have even bothered to apply; and the arrival of Northern California’s white-hot Filipino bakery chain, Starbread. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” David goes to a classic in North Park (Lucky’s Golden Phoenix), Han professes her love for Mongolian Hot Pot; and I defend the honor of chain restaurants by naming one of my favorites for healthy meals (Tender Greens, run by San Diego chef Pete Balistreri). Go eat some pho. Noodles on the side (so they don’t soak up too much of that broth, which is gold).

This meat looks geological. Like lovely, delicious geodes. In the refrigerated case, huge racks of Brandt Beef just lay there at Ranch45—have been laying for a while (40 days, says one tag). When meat is dry-aged like this, it begins to look prehistoric and unlocks a whole new universe of flavors. Excess moisture is drawn out of the meat over time, breaking down the protein, tenderizing it and concentrating its steakness. It works the same way as when you “reduce” a stock or a soup to crank up the flavor. In the cooler next to it, Ranch45 chef Aaron Schwartz is aging bone marrow. That’s right. Ranch45 is dry-aging bone marrow. At the performance kitchen in the middle of the butcher shop/deli/restaurant/gourmet general store in Solana Beach, Schwartz roasts one of them; serves it simply on a plate with salt, pepper, chives, microgreens; and a dash of oil. As a marrow adherent (it is meat butter), it’s the first dry-aged marrow I’ve had. And it’s that much better. “Any meat has to age at least a bit to be any good,” says Schwartz, who was born and raised in the area and lives with his family (including wife and business partner, Pamela) in nearby Carmel Valley. “That’s why in the butcher shop you’ll see it on hooks.” Next to the dry-aging marrow and meat is soap. Bone marrow soap. “We just hand-packaged them last night,” says Schwartz. “It’s about using every part of the animal. Wasting as little as possible. We’re getting back to the way things used to be in butcher shops. Where you knew your butcher and trusted them. That’s why we use Brandt Beef. I’ve known Eric Brandt and his family for 20 years and I’m still using them for a reason.” Del Mar has something special in Ranch45. As a chef at Marriott Marquis, Schwartz made a name for himself by convincing a large multinational hotel group to invest in local food. Under his watch, Marquis was one of the city’s largest purchasers of local farm goods. When the pandemic hit, he was furloughed. He spent time at home with his kids. Then Pamela convinced him to join Ranch45, which she’d managed for three years (she’s an accomplished chef and wine person herself, having spent years overseeing nearby Pamplemousse Grille and the once-mighty Arterra). Now they’re expanding, taking over the space next door and putting in a real butcher shop. The idea is to be the supplier for all of the local top restaurants, and for the locals who want to know where their meat comes from. For this podcast we sit and talk with Schwartz about the ideas of simple food sourced from a place you know. About bringing small purveyors and general stores back to a community. In “Hot Plates,” we break the news that The Joint in O.B. is working on a ramen joint on Newport Avenue down the street from their original location, as well as opening two restaurants in Hawaii; Indian standout Charminar is opening the upscale Dosa Studio next door; and Ballast Point has a new culinary director in Tommy Dimella (who also spent years at Pamplemousse). For “Two People, Fifty Bucks” Aaron points to Juanita’s taco shop in Leucadia, where he takes his family after a surf; Troy raves about Starfish Filipino Eatery in O.B. (get the sisig); and David gives a shout out to the pop-up submarine tiki bar experience, Acey Deucey Club. See ya next week.

The birria flatbread at Stone World Bistro & Gardens is one of those dishes that’s gone in minutes. On this podcast, we huddle around it. Poke at it. Demolish it with chef Israel Ortiz. It’s the kickoff of our new video series with Stone, which will highlight a few local restaurants and our favorite dishes that their cooks and chefs and food people have created. It’s a celebration of Stone’s Delicious IPA. After years of tinkering on the recipe of the ultimate beer that pairs well with food, Delicious is the result. Izzy walks us through what makes the flatbread sing, and we talk about how birria has overtaken the fish taco as the official food of San Diego. Our other guest? She was working at a branding agency in San Diego. At company events, she’d bring her salsa. Everyone loved it. On a lark, she tried out to be a contestant on Masterchef—that massive cooking competition on TV with Gordon Ramsey. She told her job she’d be gone for a bit. She wasn’t allowed to tell them anything about how well she was doing on the show. As it became longer and longer that she was away, her company had to let her go. She came home, jobless, and couldn’t tell a single soul what had happened. She’d won. She’d get the $250,000 check in six months. Until then, no money, no job, a young daughter at home, a single mom. Half a year later, she got the check for $250,000. She’d won. She is Claudia Sandoval—friend, talented chef, Richter-scale personality, judge on Masterchef Latino, and with her own series of Food Network travelogues now, Taste of the Border—in which she visits with chefs, farm workers, and food people along the U.S.-Mexico border. “The people were so amazing, and the food was incredible,” she says of Taste of the Border. “We meet these migrant workers who are out picking chiles in the heat of New Mexico. At nine in the morning, it was 109. So we got to know these families who are living on the farms, hand-picking every Hatch chile you buy at the grocery store. That is teh grit and the soul of the show, plus we get to explore some amazing restaurants.” On this episode, she talks about her experience filming and the things she’s learned (hint: the border-regions of Mexico are the North American epicenters of Chinese food). She explains her new line of next-day delivery meals (chile rellenos, adobada pork chop, etc.). And we just kind of loudly laugh a lot. In “Hot Plates,” we talk about the opening of Sandpiper (in the place that was formerly Galaxy Taco), and I give a few of the can’t-miss dishes from chefs Trey Foshee and Christine Rivera; talk about the new restaurants going into a remodeled historical building in Oceanside from the same people who brought you Louisiana Purchase (Grind and Prosper Hospitality); I announce I have finally given up a life-long effort to appreciate the charms of uni (everyone at the table thinks my mouth is broken); we talk about the two new restaurants being opened by the Jeune et Jolie and Campfire team (Wildlands and Lilo). For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” chef Izzy says he can’t get enough of Cocina de Barrio; Troy raves about the corn cake and double-cut pork chop at Sandpiper; and David is all about the North Park farmers’ market, Knockout Bread, and other vendors. See ya next week.

We’ve been here for two weeks and I’d like to stay another thirty. I’ve brought my overnight bag and a note from my wife. Gonna make my case. We’re at Park Hyatt Aviara, a 200-acre resort, one of the classic San Diego properties built far above a wetland preserve in Carlsbad. The ocean is right over there. We’re sitting at a long dining table in Ponto Lago, their Baja-inspired restaurant and a star of the recent $50 million makeover of the property. You can smell the crackling red oak and the char on various excellent proteins. I see a mezcal collection. I’m talking with chef Christopher Carriker about the magic of woodsmoke. David’s talking to him about the magic of heavy metal music. There is a hamachi and blackberry aguachile, a Sinoloan specialty, with sliced fresno chiles, green onion, and mint. There’s a charred octopus zarandeado with chorizo aioli, chicharrons and kumquats. It’s Baja ideas mixed with French sauce skills and the unbeatable San Diego seafood and produce. Carriker is from Portland, which isn’t short on a food scene. But, for a chef, he says, it’s nothing like San Diego. “The farms we have right up the road? It’s incredible,” he says. “I had to get used to the long growing seasons when I came here. I’d think, ‘well, it’s winter guess I have to switch to root vegetables,’ and then realize summer fruits were still in season. Crazy.” This episode we dive into why every chef and restaurant is turning their gas powered ovens in for piles of expensive wood. Chef Chris walks us through the various woods and their very specific charms (citrus burns hot, is best for searing), and why Baja cuisine is so compelling. In “Hot Plates,” we discuss the new concepts being opened by chef Phil Esteban’s Open Gym group—White Rice Bodega in Normal Heights, and Wavy Burgers (Filipino-style burgers) in National City. One of North County’s hottest restaurant groups, Leucadia Co. (Moto Deli, Valentina, etc.) is opening two new locations of Hamburger Hut (Wagyu burgers) in Encinitas and Oceanside. The mighty Carruth Cellars’ run in Little Italy is coming to an end in the middle of June, but the good news is that just about the same day they open their massive spot in Liberty Station, a 10,000 square foot wine wonderland with a gourmet cheese shop and expanded menu. And finally, Societe Brewing is expanding into a new location in Old Town, continuing the signal that the historic part of San Diego is getting a blood transfusion. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Troy raves about Amalfi Cucina Italiana’s pan-fried artichokes and pizza, and marvels at the surreal man-made wonder that is Lake San Marcos. David raves about the bratwurst at Bagby Beer, and chef Chris gives a nod to a fellow wood-smoked restaurant and one of San Diego’s best, Fort Oak. Thanks for listening, y’all. Tune in next week when we broadcast from Stone Brewing Liberty Station for the kickoff of a new video series with the city’s homegrown beer heroes.

This is a fun one. I’ve known Richard Blais for a long while, and we tend to bring the best stories out of each other. Like golf foraging. When most of us lose our golf balls in the bushes, we venture into the brush and come out with scrapes and a handful of profanities. When chef Richard Blais sucks at golf, he goes into the brush and comes out with wild fennel and some carrots for dinner. When he opened his first restaurant at Park Hyatt Aviara in Carlsbad—Ember & Rye, a modern steakhouse with a wood-burning grill that’s always on fire above the 18-hole course—he took up the clubs. “So maybe occasionally my ball would go into the bushes,” he admits. “I go in there to get it and I found all this wild fennel and carrots and radishes and garlic and nasturtiums.” Over the last year, fans who know Richard through Top Chef and Guy’s Grocery Games and his new show on Fox, Next Level Chef, may have looked at his Instagram and wondered if he was training for the PGA. “I became a golf influencer,” he says. “I got a free hat.” Richard is on fire. On Next Level Chef he’s teamed up with Gordon Ramsey and Nyesha Arrington in a cooking competition show that’s probably got the most elaborate set in the history of food competition shows—a three-level “restaurant.” Competitors start in the basement and move their way up with each challenge. “We shot the first season in Vegas,” he says, “and at the time it was the tallest non-permanent structure in the city. What an odd stat.” Richard and I have known each other for years at this point. He and I talk about his restaurants (“no matter how much media I do, I always come back to the kitchen—I love restaurant life”), rank the classic side dishes for American steakhouses and how Ember & Rye tweaks the standards (ie, the traditional creamed corn becomes corn creme brulee). I relay one of my earliest Richard memories when we were both on a TV show together and the producers made me take off my glasses because they couldn’t have “two guys with big hair wearing glasses.” I spent the entire episode unable to see what the cooks were making (“looks like Karen’s got lobster,” I’d say, and someone else would say, “yep, that’s skirt steak”). It’s a great, free-association conversation between a couple friends, one of whom happens to be one of the most accomplished chefs in the country who calls San Diego home.

During the day, Michael Vera cooks at standout Pacific Beach restaurant, The Fishery. In his off time, he grows delicious bacteria. The words mold or fungus may not make your mouth water, but they should. They’re the gateways to fermentation, which gives us bread, coffee, miso, chocolate, beer, kimchi, wine, cheese, soy sauce, other forms of dear-god delicious. And right now, no fungus is hotter than Japanese koji—rice grains cultured with aspergillus oryzae. “It’s a sweet, funky marinade that tenderizes and intensifies with umami,” says Michael Vera, owner of West Coast Koji, a company he created during the pandemic by using Home Depot racks to ferment various things in the living room of his North Park apartment. “My wife was not happy with the state of our apartment for a very long time. It was a huge laboratory full of funky stuff.” Now he sells his koji to Michelin-star restaurants like Jeune et Jolie and Rustic Canyon, plus Juniper & Ivy and Consortium Holdings. Koji is famous for its umami-cranking transformation of proteins, and you can taste WCK’s effect on the duck breast at Matsu in Oceanside. Anyone can buy dried koji at Asian grocers, but WCK’s is fresh, and rare. There are only probably 10 commercial koji producers in the U.S., which makes his delicious fuzz business a boon for local cooks. On this episode, Michael gives us the 101 on koji and the fascinating world of culinary ferment. For “Hot Plates,” it seems everyone is moving to North County. We talk about the northward expansion of Lola55, long one of the best taco operations in the city now headed to Carlsbad. We finally are allowed to spill the news on George’s chefs Trey Foshee and Christine Rivera’s newest concept—Sandpiper, an oysters and wood-smoked meats joint that will go into the former home of Galaxy Taco. The group behind Nolita Hall and Half-Door Brewing have taken over the spot vacated by Civico by the Park—a sprawling space on the bottom floor of the Mister A’s building. And the vegan superstars behind Kindred are going to open their spinoff soon—called Mothership, owner Kory Stetina calls it “just your run of the mill crashed starship on a tropical alien planet kind of spot.”

I must stop talking about the cabbage. I won’t shut up about it. So I figured if I brought chef William Eick to talk me through it, it will resolve my lingering emotional fixation on what is one of the best dishes I’ve eaten in a very long time. Eick opened Matsu about six months ago. It’s a minimalist ode to modern Japanese cuisine. He’s been a talent in San Diego for a long time, and this is the big idea, what he’s been working for. In a spare room in Oceanside, where the “biggest” design element seems to be a single white orchid on a bar top, he’s serving 8- and 10-course tasting menus. And the cabbage is the shocker. “I’ve been obsessed with Japanese culture since I was five years old,” says Eick. “Everything about it. A modern Japanese restaurant with a tasting menu, there are probably only a handful in the country that I can think of.” For this episode, Eick walks us through some of the magic tricks that make Matsu stand out. For instance, he creates various dashis (Japanese broth, a cornerstone of the cuisine) like the one in his crab dish that is made with carrots and A5 Wagyu beef trimmings. We talk about how Japanese cooks and chefs have been masters at discovering new levels of flavor (the concept of “umami” is Japanese). And William gives us a primer on koji, the incredible Japanese marinade that makes his duck breast vastly more interesting. Gives it a good funk. In “Hot Plates,” we talk about the San Clemente icon Nick’s going into the former International Smoke location at One Paseo. The owners of Madison are opening an all-day brunch spot in Normal Heights called Madi. Wolfie’s Carousel Bar (if you’re not familiar, you need to check this out) has hired a new chef, formerly of Coronado’s excellent Little Frenchie. And renown Japanese fried chicken chain, Tenkatori, is opening in San Diego. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” I rave about the chilaquiles at Cocina 35, and whether or not it’s OK to call them breakfast nachos (a term told to me by a great Mexican chef, but which some food purists get very, very angry about and defend chilaquiles’ honor). David can think of nothing but baseball (it’s his cabbage), and points people to Mexican food classic Lolita’s by Petco Park for game days (trivia: Lolita’s is family of the legendary Roberto’s). And William makes a regrettable decision to tell the world about his favorite ramen spot, which was a secret until right about now. Go, Padres. See ya next week.

It is, finally, open. Almost. When Grand Ole BBQ y Asado shut down its North Park location for renovation, it was supposed to be for a couple of months. That was three years ago. In the interim, we had a pandemic. But now it’s been fully redone. It’s ready to open, soon as the last health inspections pass. This is big news because, well, Grand Ole is great. Owner Andy Harris has kept himself busy with their other location in Flinn Springs, which is about as close to a Texas backyard barbecue joint as you can get without leaving San Diego. It’s still got that backyard, wooden bench vibe. But most grandmas will like these benches. “I wanted it to be for everyone to enjoy their time there—like if your grandma wanted to come she wouldn’t think it was gross,” says owner Andy Harris. “Like my aunt came to the old one and she was like uh no.” In the spirit of everyone, Grand Ole will be the first local barbecue restaurant I can think of with a vegan menu. Andy’s also got a “sommelier type guy” for the new spot, wants to prove that beer isn’t the only thing that goes well with brisket and ribs and smoked turkey. And of course he’ll have craft beer galore on taps throughout. With a full kitchen (the original spot just had a cubby hole), they’ll be able to do more menu options and non-barbecue dishes. They’ll also have kimchi and a few Korean dipping sauces. “I met a woman who was a dealer at a local casino,” says Harris. “Maybe I go there occasionally. Anyway, we start talking and she says she makes the best kimchi I’ve ever tasted. So she brings me some. And it is the best I’ve ever tasted. So now she’s going to make all our kimchi. Marcia Marcia Marcia kimchi.” In Hot Plates, we get the sad news out of the way—Metl in North Park, with their boozy milkshakes, had to close (their downtown location is going strong). Stone Brewing won its lawsuit against Molson Coors, whose rebrand of Keystone was deemed to be a pretty bad trademark infringement (the Keystone cans sure looked like the name was “Stone”). The San Diego Beer News Awards rolled out their winners, with some of the bigger awards going to Hopnonymous, McIlhenney Brewing, Pure Project, North Park Beer Co, Burgeon Beer Co., Stone, Societe, and Treevana. And this weekend, one of the best food events in San Diego is finally back after three years—”Celebrate the Craft” at the Lodge at Torrey Pines, an outdoor collaboration cooking event under the sun with Kelli Crosson (AR Valentien), Javier Plascencia (Finca Altozano), Eric Bost (Jeune et Jolie), Jojo Ruiz (Serea, Lionfish), and Travis Swikard (Callie). For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Troy is still a little stunned by how good Matsu is, and how chef William Eick can do what he did with that cabbage dish. David has a billion tasters of mezcal at Camino Riviera in Middletown/Little Italy, and Andy is all about the sole with white wine at San Diego classic, Anthony’s Fish Grotto. Thanks for listening, guys.

In 2004, Jon Bautista made his mom cry. She spontaneously wept when he told the family he’d enrolled in culinary school. To be fair, in the same breath he also broke the news that he’d dropped out of the undergrad program at SDSU to do so. Parents have news thresholds, and hers was breached. “This was before Top Chef,” he says. “She just said, ‘You’re never going to make any money.’” Now, 17 years later, Bautista is chef of one of the city’s most raved-about restaurants, Kingfisher, a partnership with the local family who owns the beloved local restaurant, Crab Hut. It’s modern Vietnamese. It’s also a bit Franco-Californian, because Bautista spent five years as chef de cuisine of George’s at the Cove under Trey Foshee. It’s a bit Filipino, he says, because he is Filipino. Cooking has never been more borderless. The Golden Hill restaurant is booked months out, with a long waiting list (they do have a few walk-in tables). Their duck—dry-aged in house, lightly smoked, brushed with palm sugar—is the treasure for early-birds. They only sell eight of them a night, and zip they’re gone. For this podcast—the first recorded in-person at the San Diego Magazine offices since 2020—Jon brought a beef tartare with toasted quinoa, pickled ramps, crispy shallots, chiles, cured egg yolk, sesame-rice crackers, watercress, lettuces, herbs. The not-secret ingredient—Red Boat No. 5 fish sauce—makes it a killer riff on a classic. And the joy of abundant ingredients is very Vietnamese (think of the pile of greenery you’re presented with your pho). “This is everything,” Bautista says of Kingfisher. “I was struggling during the pandemic. For the first time in my adult life I was unemployed. I was drinking too much, I gained weight, I was depressed. And then this happened.” We talk about the long road to here. In “Hot Plates,” we yap about The Friendly’s expansion to Pacific Beach, and what that says about America’s love affair with little places that could. Herb & Sea is throwing a party for Wildcoast, the San Diego-based group that does great work conserving marine ecosystems, with a five-course “Treasure Fish Feast” featuring lesser known local fish (eating only salmon and halibut and sea bass is not only boring but also creates a pretty unsustainable future). Over in North Park, Bivouac Ciderworks is throwing a four-course dinner to celebrate Women’s History Month that pairs Mexican-inspired dishes with special small-batch ciders (Mexican Hot Chocolate Cider, a beer-cider hybrid, etc.). Also, the owners of Tahini are opening up a Middle Eastern-inspired specialty coffee shop called Finjan, and this June the owners of Don Pietro are partnering with Gustavo Rios and Sal Busalacchi (of the Busalacchi Italian restaurant lore) for a two-story, jungle-themed concept in Old Town. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Jon shows the breadth of his food arts by nodding to both Callie and the almighty Filet-O-Fish, David raves about Cafe Madeleine, and I get wistful about my glory days as a struggling writer in Golden Hill and fondly recommend Krakatoa. Thanks for listening, everyone.

I’m not sure how many stages of coping there are, but when Greg Hess told his wife and family they were moving to San Diego to start one of the first “nano breweries” in the country—I’d bet they ran through most, if not all of them. Probably added one or two. Harris’ brother, Mike, had the idea in 2010 to go even smaller than a microbrewery. Launched a brewery in an 800 square-foot cubby hole. It may not have sounded like a “sure thing,” but it sure became one. Now Mike Hess Brewing is one of the most recognizable names in local craft beer, with tasting rooms in North Park (the OG, opened in 2013), O.B., Imperial Beach, Seaport Village, and Walnut Creek (where the Hess clan is from). For today’s podcast, he joins us under the metallic tower of funfear that is the Emperor, SeaWorld’s new roller coaster—the fastest, tallest, and longest plunge coaster in California. To commemorate the unveiling at the tap, Hess Brewing created the Emperor Hazy IPA, which will be served exclusively at the park. A portion of the proceeds for the beer will go to Penguins International to fund their conservation, education, and research efforts for the species. We also talk about the future of Hess, including the deal they signed to revive the iconic location where Alpine Beer Co. was created—a 4,000 square-foot space with a 5,000 square-foot patio. They’ll carry on the tradition of having a beer wonderland in the nearby hills of San Diego. In “Hot Plates,” Mabel’s Gone Fishing–an oyster and gin shop from the beloved local owners of The Rose natural wine bar—is making its long-awaited debut in North Park soon. L.A.’s famed breakfast tacos joint, Homestate Tacos, is landing in the Freeman Collective in South Oceanside, joining BlackMarket Bakery, Northside Shack, Corner Pizza, and Artifex Brewing. The Freeman project should be a hangout for a long, long while. In Sherman Heights, Cafe X is opened by a mother-daughter duo in the cultural hub that is 1835 Studios—a spot for food trucks, art galleries, community doings. And a while back we did the hunt for the best birria in San Diego, and El Prieto was our personal favorite—a food truck in the parking lot of a muffler shop by the border. Well, they just opened a second spot in Mira Mesa and you should go immediately. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” Troy pays homage to a San Diego icon of brunch and points you to the liquid obscenity that is the bloody Mary at Hash House A-Go-Go (pair it with the sage fried chicken with polenta and fried leeks). David recognizes the continuing evolution and betterment of San Diego mainstay, Crazee Burger, and Greg Hess hails the almighty Rocky’s Crown Pub. See ya next week.

I’m suspended fourteen stories above San Diego Bay. I am being dangled over the edge of a cliff made of metal. I smell vaguely of quality craft beer. I am an offering to the gods of amusement. Questioning life choices, my emotional state in that jittery nook between joy and terror. Just hanging there, looking directly down, wondering how good latch technology is these days. Intellectually, you know how safe this is. You know the byzantine safety measures in place. But intellect is no match for that primal scream inside you that says “WHAT THE NO.” This roller coaster’s new trick (new to me, at least) is that, instead of just plunging you down the thrill drop, it dangles you over the edge and then stops for a full 3-5 seconds. Lets you take it all in. Then it lets you go. It just drops you, at a 90-degree angle, 143 feet down, 60 miles per hour freefall. Your feet just dangle the whole wild time. The Emperor, SeaWorld’s new roller coaster, opens tomorrow (March 12). It’s been two years in the making. It’s the tallest, fastest, longest dive roller coaster in California. And it’s where we podcast from this week. You can hear our adrenaline shakes. To commemorate the coaster’s arrival, local craft brew success story Hess Brewing created the Emperor Hazy IPA—a juicy little number that’s available exclusively at the park. And it’s coinciding with SeaWorld’s Seven Seas Food Festival and Craft Beer Festival, which runs now through May 1. VP of Marketing Erika Diprofio—whose name either sounds like a law firm or an expensive perfume—explains the coaster, the beer, and the cause (a portion of sales of the IPA will go to Penguins International). We also hassle the newest member of the SDM media team—our social media manager, Rachel Frank—and make her get on the mic with us to meet you guys. Rachel is a ball of energy and creative force. She created and ran her own music platform, www.listensd.com. She dressed as a panda “to meet friends” in San Diego, and it became such a big hit that she ended up dancing on stage in panda gear with Snoop Dogg, The Flaming Lips, you name it. During the pandemic, she created a short film, “I’m An Ant,” about the meaning of life in an ant costume. It’s wonderfully weird, charming, creative. And… it’s a finalist at Cannes World Film Festival—after winning Best Experimental Short at the Paris International Film Festival. She’ll be creating the new SDM on social media going forward. We actively adore her. Point is, it feels good to be podcasting in public with real people again. Our Zoom-exclusively podcast era has come to a merciful end. In “Hot Plates,” we talk about one of San Diego’s best brewpubs, Gravity Heights—a collaboration between master brewer Skip Virgilio (he co-founded AleSmith) and chef Ryan Johnston and Whisknladle Hospitality—which is planning to open a second location in Mission Valley, and Anthony Wells of Juniper & Ivy is a semifinalist for a James Beard Award. For “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” David’s has a codependent relationship with soup (this time at Pho on Fifth), Erika professes her love for all things Callie, and Troy found himself in a sweet life spot while staring at warm focaccia bread with melted brie cheese, balsamic, and Granny Smith apples at Seneca, the rooftop restaurant from Consortium Holdings.