Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This week's special guest is Gustavo Tonella of Doggos Gus in Imperial Beach. Gustavo started his catering company in 2010, serving up Sonoran-style bacon-wrapped hot dogs in brioche buns. Then in 2019, he opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant right across from the IB pier, and introduced micheladas and White Claws topped with chamoy to his menu.

Gustavo grew up eating street hot dogs in Mexicali, where they’re wrapped in bacon and topped with chipotle, vegetables, and meats like carnitas—what he says is a far cry from the hot dog offerings in the US. Realizing the missed opportunity, Gustavo started his catering business serving this specialty. He saw a lot of success in the wedding industry, as hot dogs are a popular late-night snack after all the pomp and circumstance is over. Two of his favorite menu items are the Sonoran, topped with queso, Soyrizo, and Ruffles chips, and the Surf and Turf, loaded with shrimp, bell peppers, and chipotle sauce. 

Like many businesses, the pandemic brought major challenges for Doggos Gus. Even though it’s now operating out of a storefront in Imperial Beach, a chunk of their income still came from catering, and 92 weddings and events cancelled practically overnight, resulting in a loss of nearly $100,000. In order to keep his staff employed, Gustavo started the Help the Helpers campaign, where customers could buy a catered meal for a front-line worker and he would match it with a second—and personally deliver the meals to the hospitals with the help of his employees. 

Gustavo credits this and a few other things with his being able to keep his team together even while restaurants are struggling to find help: He aims to create a fun, family-like atmosphere where his staff enjoys coming to work and gets to have fun experimenting with new ideas. Splitting tips evenly between front- and back-of-house staff was another incentive to keep his cooks motivated. Doggos Gus has been seeing some increase in business as weddings are starting to book catering again, and Gustavo experienced a little bit of normalcy as he recently catered for an outdoor concert and saw people enjoying themselves outside without masks on.

In Hot Plates, An’s Dry Cleaning, whom we voted best gelato in San Diego, is opening a second location in Del Mar Plaza in June. Two new food-and-drink spots are coming to Seaport Village: Zytoun Gourmet Mediterranean, from the owners of Aladdin in Clairemont; and a distillery and seafood restaurant by Old Harbor Distilling. Scoop San Diego is hosting a drive-thru ice cream festival this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with 23 samples of ice cream and gelato available. The event is a fundraiser for Feeding San Diego, and tickets are $45 for a carload of up to four people.

In Two People for Takeout / Two People for $50, Gustavo’s pick is Madison in North Park, where he always orders the pork chop. Noah’s pick for the week is Bánh Mì Hôi An in Point Loma for their Hôi An special, a fresh, inexpensive sandwich. Troy chose the recently redesigned Neighborhood for their new atmosphere and crispy potato served “animal style.” David tried out the brunch at Civico by the Park, where he got the French toast and tableside gelato.
 
Thank you for listening! As always, we want to hear from our listeners. Need a recommendation for takeout? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? Let us know! You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

Gustavo Tonella Is Bringing Sonoran-Style Hot Dogs to Imperial Beach

Happy Pride Week! Our special guest is Roanna Canete, owner of The Gluten Free Baking Company in North Park. Roanna founded the company in 2015 when her son was diagnosed with a gluten allergy and she started baking for him—that led to formally studying cooking and baking, and starting the business. The storefront opened on 30th Street in the spring of 2020 and offers donuts, brownies, bagels, and pastries that are all gluten free; they can also make wedding cakes and gingerbread houses. In honor of Pride Week, Roanna created a menu of cupcakes and a special Pride rainbow cake, and she’s donating 20 percent of the sales to The National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization focused on empowering the Black LGBTQ+ community. We talk with Roanna about the importance of allyship, and how business owners can get involved in social justice issues and help make a difference, even in small ways. 

In Hot Plates, the founding chef of Dija Mara is opening a new Southeast Asian restaurant in North Park. Buona Forchetta opened another pizzeria, its eighth restaurant in the county, in San Marcos. Attention Top Chef fans! Animae and Unplated are hosting a charity dinner on August 1 featuring four chefs from the most recent season, filmed in Portland, Oregon, and the proceeds are going to the nonprofit World Central Kitchen.

For Two People, $50, Roanna’s pick is the tangerine chicken at Plumeria Vegetarian Restaurant, and she’s also a fan of Meráki Café in University Heights. Troy recommends the Morroccan spiced lamb at the newly opened Verbena Kitchen in North Park. David tried the bone-in ribeye at Rare Society, and Marie visited White Elephant (a new Thai restaurant in Hillcrest) for the crispy duck salad.

Thank you for listening! As always, we want to hear from our listeners. Need a restaurant recommendation? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? Let us know! You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

We’re Celebrating Pride Week with Roanna Canete of North Park’s Gluten Free Baking Co.

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! We are sorry, the audio quality this week isn’t fully up to par. You can blame David for being in Las Vegas for a heavy metal concert. This week our special guest is Ian Tenzer, the executive research and development chef at Puesto Mexican Artisan Kitchen & Bar. Ian joined the company last fall, which started in La Jolla and now serves its popular tacos and micheladas at nine locations in Southern California. Ian moved here from New York, where he worked with acclaimed chef Daniel Humm for several years and as sous chef at Eleven Madison Park, which has three Michelin stars and was named the World’s Best Restaurant in 2017. In his current role, Ian creates new menu items for all of Puesto’s locations, which he calls a “dream position,” and he's working on making their operations completely environmentally sustainable. We chat with Ian about what it really means to be a “zero-waste” restaurant and how he’s doing it, what it was like to cook at Eleven Madison Park, and the new fall/winter menu we can expect at Puesto. He also shares details about their newest restaurant, Marisi, which will open in La Jolla early next year. And if you want to experience more of Ian's cooking, he’ll be at a new local chef dinner series at the Estancia La Jolla Hotel on September 14.                                   

In Hot Plates, Tahini is expanding its shawarma restaurant in Kearny Mesa, and is also opening a new Middle Eastern coffee and dessert shop. Chula Vista Brewery is opening its second location soon in Eastlake; the new tasting room will also feature Texas barbecue from Oak and Anchor BBQ. In case you missed it, a local chef based in San Marcos is competing on Christina Tosi’s new Netflix show, Bake Squad. We also have a call for pitches for an upcoming issue of San Diego Magazine—tune in to find out how you can contribute if you have a story to share with us!

In Two People, $50, Ian’s recommendation is the Spam musubi from Leilani’s Cafe in Pacific Beach (which I was thrilled to hear!). Troy says to try the lamb meatball with ras el hanout (a North African spice mix) and naan at Arlo in Mission Valley. Marie's pick this week is the shrimp tempura udon at Musashiya in Kearny Mesa.

Thank you for listening! As always, we want to hear from our listeners. Need a restaurant recommendation? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? Let us know! You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

From Madison Avenue to Margaritas: Meet Ian Tenzer, Puesto’s New R&D Chef

Welcome back to the Happy Half Hour! This week our special guest was requested by listeners, and we’re excited to have him on the show: Kory Stetina, owner of Kindred in South Park. Kindred is a vegan restaurant and bar with a heavy metal vibe that opened in 2015, and it's regularly been named both a critic’s and readers’ pick for Best Vegan Restaurant in our annual Best Restaurants issue. 

Kory says he’s been vegan since his early 20s, and he was first exposed to vegetarianism through his love of punk rock. He initially started Kindred as a pop-up when he couldn't find any local food-and-drink events that catered to his diet, so he started with vegan dinners paired with beer. He anticipated a small crowd, but a couple hundred people came out instead—seeing that demand eventually led to him opening the full restaurant. Since then, Kindred has redefined ideas of what vegan cuisine is and could be, and its “Permanent Vacation” tropical-themed cocktail nights have been a hit—Kory estimates that most of his clients (80 percent) are not vegan, but enjoy the food and atmosphere regardless. We chat with Kory about music, the decor (and the famous bathrooms) at Kindred, and his upcoming project, Mothership, a tropical-themed space bar that’s opening in South Park. 

In Hot Plates, Oceanside is getting a new hotel (The Brick), and it will have a restaurant and bar from the team behind Louisiana Purchase and Miss B’s Coconut Club. San Diego breweries took home 18 medals at the Great American Beer Festival, and new breweries Puesto Cervecería and Tap Room Beer Co. won silver medals (congratulations!). In South Park, the owners of The Rose Wine Bar opened a new bakery, Secret Sister, next door, and they’re also working on Mabel’s Gone Fishing, a gin and pintxos (small appetizers in Basque country) bar in North Park.

For Two People, $50, Kory recommends the vegan chicken shawarma, fattoush, and falafel at Shawarma Guys. David’s pick is the spicy szechuan noodles with stir-fried veggies from Tribute Pizza, and Troy’s pick this week is the carne asada burrito and quesadilla from Roberto’s. 
Thank you for listening! As always, we want to hear from you. Need a restaurant recommendation? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? Let us know! You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

We Talk Vegan Food, Music, and Tiki Drinks with Kindred’s Kory Stetina

Welcome back to the Happy Half Hour! This week our special guest is David Contreras Curiel of Karina’s Mexican Seafood, a San Diego institution that is celebrating its 40th anniversary this week. David and his siblings are leading the family business that his parents started back in Spring Valley in 1981, and he shares with us the story of Karina’s humble beginnings. David’s father, Don Arnulfo Contreras, and mother, Maria Ines Curiel, founded the restaurant (which is named after their eldest daughter) to create a better life for their six children. Don was a good cook, so he built the business by preparing the seafood dishes that he’d grown up enjoying in his home state of Sinaloa, such as ceviche. For a short while, the entire family lived above the restaurant, and David started working there when he was six years old. Today, there are several Karina’s locations around the county, and the family also operates Savoie Italian Eatery, Taka Sushi, and Saffron Thai. David has 25 nieces and nephews, and he says they’ve all been involved in the restaurants or are currently working at them. We learned how they source their fresh seafood, the future goals for the company, and David’s expert tips on what to order when you visit. 

Hot Plates this week is a lot of talk about the Michelin guide (and it’s big news!). Michelin announced it awarded four stars to San Diego restaurants: Addison was promoted from one to two stars, and Jeune et Jolie, Soichi Sushi, and Sushi Tadokoro each received one star. Earlier this month, five local restaurants received Michelin’s Bib Gourmand designation: Callie, Cesarina, Ciccia Osteria, Dija Mara, and Morning Glory. What do you think about the results of the awards? Let us know! In the last news item, Andrew Bachelier, formerly of Jeune et Jolie, confirmed that he and pro skater Tony Hawk are opening a new chicken restaurant in Encinitas called Chick N’ Hawk.

In Two People, $50, David Contreras Curiel recommends the quinoa bowl with chicken at Little Lion Cafe in Ocean Beach, and any of the entrées at Harbor Breakfast in Little Italy. My pick is the papa rellena at Too Sabrozo Delicatessen, a new Colombian food stand at local farmers’ markets. David Martin says to get the royal pho at Pho Ca Dao, and Troy’s pick this week is the crispy chicken buns and coconut shrimp at Sbicca Del Mar. 

Thank you for listening! As always, we want to hear from you. Need a restaurant recommendation? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

A Family Affair: Karina’s Mexican Seafood Celebrates 40 Years in San Diego

Welcome back to the Happy Half Hour! This week, we’re chatting with Rachel Shemirani, senior vice president at Barons Market. Barons is a gourmet grocery store that was founded by a local family in Point Loma and has nine locations in San Diego and Riverside. Rachel's father, Joe, started the business in the early ’90s because he couldn’t find an organic grocery store that sold food he enjoyed. Rachel and her sister, Dana, started working in the stores as cashiers when they were in high school, and now they both hold leadership positions in the company. Rachel oversees advertising and marketing, and is also the gatekeeper for new products—she leads weekly food panels to hand-select new products, which involves 40 people sampling anywhere from 80 to 120 different products, and whittling down the best. Rachel says that everything sold on Barons’ shelves has made the taste testers’ cut. 

We chat with Rachel about how they compete with large grocery chains and what sets them apart, how they’ve been weathering the pandemic, and how they’re dealing with current supply-chain issues. We also get insight on what it’s like to work with your family every day, how organic foods have improved drastically over the years, and some of the cool new foods you can find in their stories.

In Hot Plates, CloudKitchens—which launched a ghost kitchen in Barrio Logan last spring—is opening a second location over by San Diego State University. Mamá por Dios, an upscale Mexican restaurant that started in Beverly Hills, is opening in the Gaslamp. And Convoy Street got a new restaurant, Eastern Dynasty, specializing in Cantonese barbecue. 

In Two People, $50, Rachel’s pick is Harry’s Taco Club in Pacific Beach; she says to get any of the burritos and margaritas. Troy’s pick is the burger at Harbor Town Pub in Point Loma. David went to Sandfish Sushi & Whiskey in Palm Springs, and recommends the scallops with walnuts and yuzu. Marie's pick this week is El Cacho in Chula Vista for mariscos.

Thank you for listening! As always, we want to hear from you. Need a restaurant recommendation? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

We Go Inside Barons Market, a Local Family-Owned Grocer

Wait, what? Longtime writer and person on TV Troy Johnson and his wife Claire have become the new majority owners of San Diego Magazine. When did this happen? How did this happen? Are writers allowed to own things? In this special edition of “Happy Half Hour,” David demands some answers. He interviews Troy and Claire and asks them all the major questions, about their hopes and dreams and whether or not David will be getting a substantial raise. Questions like: WHY? Will Troy still write and host podcasts and be on Food Network? What changes are coming to San Diego Magazine? The short version: Troy and Claire believe in SDM and local media and local people. This is them, investing everything they are into where they live. For the long version, take a listen. A new SDM is currently being blueprinted and dreamt up and mapped out in our offices and on our Zooms. It’s all very exciting.

Did Troy Johnson and his wife Claire really just buy San Diego Magazine?

Atiim “Tee” Smith is now one of the promising young cooks at one of the city’s better restaurants, Cucina Enoteca. He started his kitchen career a few years ago at Water Grill, also worked at Jake’s Del Mar. It’s quite a positive development because, in 2014, he was facing 64 years to life in prison. 

Smith turned his own life around, a success of his own design. But he had some help from one of the more inspiring organizations in San Diego—Kitchens for Good. KFG is a nonprofit that essentially provides a free culinary school for people who need a second shot for a variety of reasons. Their apprenticeship program offers technical skills, some life coaching, career counseling, a network of support. Their “Hunger Relief” program prepares over 100,000 healthy-side meals every year to help San Diego families, seniors, and anyone facing food insecurity. 

Both Tee Smith and KFG director of programs Dennis Crosby join us on this episode of “Happy Half Hour” to talk about Tee’s personal evolution and how Kitchens for Good has managed to make an impact. The segment is just in time for the opening of their new store in Pacific Beach. There, they sell top of the line kitchenware that’s already been cooked with but lightly used, so it’s affordable for cooks on a budget.

In “Hot Plates,” we talk about the pop-up LEGO bar coming to San Diego for a few days only (you can book your tickets here). The space in North Park where the beloved Tiger! Tiger! Recently closed is getting a new location for Sushi 2. Verbena Kitchen in North Park is putting on a special dinner as a fundraiser for neighbors who had a devastating fire. The team behind Kettner Exchange and Camino Riviera and Grass Skirt—which includes damn good chef Brian Redzikowski and top bar man Eric Johnson—is bringing a new 19th century pirate bar (OK, it’s just old-school nautical but in our book that means pirates) with a gin focus. After a wildly successful run and acquisition by AB-InBev, Saint Archer has been discontinued and removed from retail shelves. 

In “Two People, 50 Bucks,” Troy raves about the shawarma egg rolls at South Park food truck, Shawarma Guys. David ate his way through the menu at Wormwood and can’t stop talking about it, Dennis gives the worst performance in the history of “Two People, Fifty Bucks,” and Tee tells us what his favorite dishes to order at Cucina Enoteca.

Thank you for listening! As always, we want to hear from our listeners. Need a restaurant recommendation? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? Let us know! You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

The Massive Impact of Kitchens for Good

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.

Kingfisher Takes San Diego by Storm

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.

Ranting About Food with Padres Funnyman, Mark “Mudcat” Grant

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.

Natural Wine and Petco Park’s Facelift

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.

A Local Cook Was Gifted a Restaurant - This is Her Story

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.

The Woman Behind La Jolla’s Secret House of Food

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.

Three Thanksgiving Cooking Tips from Top Chef Josh Mouzakes of Arlo

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!

Creating Consortium Holdings: The Story Behind Its Success

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.

The Food People of the San Diego County Fair

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.

Openings, Closings, Bib Gourmands & Machaca

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.

The Hit of Coronado

“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.

Eat With Your Hands

Our Happy Half Hour guest today is the local chapter CEO of probably one of the most beloved and recognizable charities in the world: The Make-A-Wish Foundation, San Diego chapter. 

We invited Suzanne Husby, who garnered her title in 2021, to talk all things Make-a-Wish at Matsu in Oceanside. Husby has been with the foundation for 17 years, moving up the ranks from intern to wish coordinator, a few more big titles, and finally ending up as chapter CEO most recently. 

Her specialty was overseeing wish-granting operations, volunteer management, and medical outreach, and she was key in granting a whopping more than 3,200 wishes for local children. 

Recently, the Foundation decided to partner with executive chef/owner William Eick of Matsu to host their upcoming gala and collaborate on special appearances to benefit Make-A-Wish. When gala chair Dai Logan first approached chef Eick, it was instant kismet. Logan had been a superfan of the chef while chef Eick has always had big heart for the organization. The pair formed a new friendship and partnership shortly after.

In the episode, Husby chats wish fulfillment and details several wish-making missions that have taken place in San Diego during her decades-long tenure at the organization. 
As we chat, Logan opens up about her Happy Half Hour fandom as well as her recent trip to Japan, during which she existed solely on chef Eick’s recommendations, and shares a special bottle of sake with us that she brought back to the states. Finally, we get the scoop on the foundation’s Make-a-Wish gala which takes place on October 12 at the Park Hyatt Aviara with chef Eick.

Closing out the show, Troy discovers radishes at Marisi; Jackie finally finds NY-style pizza that she likes; 24 Suns pop-up is teaming up with IRS Cocktails to open Swan & Fox in Oceanside; the Puesto group is opening a CDMX-style restaurant at The Headquarters; and The Del is opening beer spot The Laundry Pub as part of its new sprawling reno.

Making Wishes Come True With Chef William Eick

This week’s Happy Half Hour extra special guest is a longtime friend of San Diego Magazine, Feeding San Diego. If you tune into our channels, this fantastic organization probably doesn’t need much of an introduction. And if you’re lucky, you would have caught Troy emceeing their gala last month (in a sequin jacket, of course).

But for the uninitiated, Feeding San Diego is easily one of the most impressive non-profits in town. We’ve covered ‌food insecurity before in the magazine’s pages. Through our other partnerships with the organization on social media and online, and in this episode, we continue to shed light on one of our region’s most dire problems. In partnership with a network of nearly 350 local community organizations, including local charities, schools, faith communities, healthcare providers, and meal sites, Feeding San Diego collects food and financial donations, moves and distributes food to communities who need it, and advocates to end hunger. 

Feeding America says nearly 300,000 people in San Diego County, including almost 80,000 children, are hungry. Feeding San Diego is Feeding America’s only local partner food bank, established in 2007, and beyond just banking and distributing food, it rescues 1.2 million pounds of high-quality, edible surplus food monthly from local grocery stores alone. It also manages around 875 pickups of food donations a week from local retailers and provides food assistance to kids, families, seniors, college students, military families, veterans, and the unhoused via about 300 food distribution sites around San Diego County.

“There are many faces of hunger,” says Kate Garrett, Feeding San Diego’s Director of Supply Chain, who represented the organization on this episode. “It can be your neighbor, a coworker, a kid your child goes to school with, seniors on fixed incomes living in rural towns, military families, and veterans. Hunger can affect anyone.”

Garrett, who in a past life was once a zookeeper at a zoo in Greece and is an accomplished horseback rider, has been with the organization for over six years and was a shortlisted nominee of the Food Chain Global Youth Champion Award in 2022. She’s responsible for figuring out the logistics of all the aforementioned, which is no small task considering the numbers involved. 

One of the biggest misconceptions about food rescue and re-distribution, Garrett says, is that people assume the food collected is expired or somehow lesser quality. “Our goal is to make food as accessible as possible,” she says. “And not just any food, but edible and nutritious food. Want to make sure that what we're providing is really high-quality and good for people to eat.” She adds that the food they collect is merely surplus, meaning it is still perfectly edible and within sell and use-by dates. A good example she gives is supermarket bread: it’s baked fresh every day, but not every loaf will sell, and they are required to throw it out at the end of the day. It’s still in perfect, fresh condition, of course. But now it’s become surplus. That’s where Feeding San Diego comes in, to give just one example of what they do and the types of logistics Garret manages.

In addition to solving local hunger issues (one can dream), we also talked about local food news. Donut Bar opened its augmented reality donut experience on Columbia Street near the waterfront (and SDM HQ), Anime’s Tara Monsod is a finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef, California award (the first from San Diego to get this far, ever!), and Shorebird Restaurant, which has outposts in Newport Beach, Palm Desert, and Sedona under the WildThyme Restaurant Group umbrella, will open in Seaport Village some time in 2024.

Feeding San Diego Rescues 1.2 Million Pounds of Food a Month

Did you know one of the country’s most celebrated sommeliers lives and works in San Diego? It’s true! This week, we welcomed Coco Randolph of Black Radish and San Francisco’s Californios to the Happy Half Hour podcast.
 
Randolph is new-ish to town, having moved here about a year and a half ago from San Francisco, where she helped her family run two Michelin-starred Californios. Her sister is married to its decorated chef, Val Cantu, and the whole Randolph clan (plus Cantu) started the restaurant in 2013. Since then, Californios has been granted many awards and accolades from various organizations (like Michelin), including for its wine program, which is under Randolph's direction.
 
When her Texas-born-and-raised family first embarked upon opening a restaurant, the clan tasked Randolph with being its sommelier as well as the general manager. No idle hands in this crew. The only problem was that Randolph knew little about wine, though she knew she loved Mexican food after having lived there for years following homeschooling and graduating from Texas Tech. No problem. She’s an autodidact, sharp as a whip, and incredibly ambitious. She picked up a copy of The Wine Bible, studying obsessively every second she wasn’t working Californios’ front-of-house.
 
In 2015, just two years after opening, Michelin awarded Californios its first star. By 2017, the restaurant had the distinction of being the world’s only two-star Michelin spot focused on Mexican cuisine. And Randolph’s wine program, which started as a list with a dozen producers and had expanded to a cellar boasting hundreds of the world’s finest vintages and rarest allocations in less than a decade, was awarded the Best of Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator and the Best Wine Restaurants nod from Wine Enthusiast. In 2021, Randolph was awarded Michelin’s first-ever Sommelier of the Year designation; she was just one of two somms to receive the nod.
 
While she’s still involved with Californios and the family from afar, her heart and body are very much in San Diego. She’s growing Black Radish’s wine program exponentially by regularly bringing top producers to town for special wine dinners and other events. 
 
And there’s more good news. “I moved here for my lover boy!” Coco excitedly exclaims any time anyone gives her the chance. She didn’t come here for food or wine, but for love, which to me signals she’s planting deep roots. “It’s true, we are fully staying here, building a life,” Randolph confirms. Expect to hear a lot more from Coco wherever anyone’s pouring grape juice in town. 
 
In addition to trying some of Coco’s wine selections, of which you can hear more about in the episode, we also talk about the news. Crack Shack is opening its fifth location in Pacific Beach; even more Korean Fried Chicken called Season Ave is arriving to Clairemont Mesa; Eleven Madison Park and Herb & Wood alum Sebastian Becerra is opening Peruvian spot Pepino in La Jolla to much fanfare; Gator by the Bay is in town once again beginning May 9, and Oddish Wine turns 1 on May 11.

Michelin's Sommelier of the Year is Serving Wine at a Bistro in North Park

This week we got out-broadcasted on Happy Half Hour, and we couldn’t be more honored to pass the torch, to, as Troy dubbed it, “the best monosyllabic baseball broadcast duo in the major leagues.” The crew went to Petco Park ahead of the start of the Padres/Rockies series to chat with the voices of the franchise, Don Orsillo and Mark Grant (the Friars lost last night, but there’s another game beginning as I type. Go Padres!).
 
Orsillo and Grant are better known to the masses as Don and Mud, the announcers of our beloved Major League Baseball franchise. The voices of the Friar Faithful, or, as we like to call it, two brotherly types yukking it up as if they were hanging out on a fishing pier, or, as so many fans like to imagine, in our own living rooms. 
 
Mud’s been with the team as PadresTV’s color analyst for 29 years, since 2024. He actually pitched for the Padres from 1987 to 90, and was originally selected by the San Francisco Giants with the 10th pick in the first round of the 1981 Draft out of Joliet (IL) Catholic High School. He played parts of eight Major League seasons with San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston and Colorado before retiring from the sport 1995 and beginning his broadcasting career as a sports anchor at KMFB Radio, eventually moving to the Padres airwaves over time. Outside of baseball, he’s a passionate advocate for the Down Syndrome Association of San Diego, as well as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of San Diego and St. Madeleine Sophie’s Center in El Cajon.
  
Orsillo, beloved throughout the country and the MLB for his 15-year-long tenure at the Red Sox before joining the Padres in 2016, also calls nationally broadcasted MLB games for FOX, FS1 and TBS during the regular season. His numerous accolades include five Emmy Awards for outstanding play-by-play (2003 and 2004 with Boston, 2018, 2019 and 2022 with the Padres) and two New England Sports Best Play-by-Play awards (2014 and 2015). The current Coronado resident and lifelong broadcaster was named Massachusetts Broadcaster of the year twice in 2005 and 2015, and, through his role with the Red Sox, has also appeared in a few movies, including 2013’s The Heat, 2010’s The Town and 2005’s Fever Pitch.
 
Orsillo is also, we learn in this episode, a cult-famous home cook, regularly cooking for friends and enjoying his wares so much that–we also learn!!—he has never tried Petco Park stadium food. No Cardiff Seaside Market tri-tip, no An’s Dry Cleaning Gelato. Nary a Board-n-Brew Turknado in sight. He tells us that it’s hard to get up, considering his job requires him to be tied to a mic. 
 
But the real reason he doesn’t dabble in Petco’s many incredible food options is that he’s such a good cook, he just doesn’t really need to eat anyone else’s food (which we respect on this here food podcast). Unable to resist the obvious temptation at hand, and being the friendly trolls that we are, Mud, along with the hosts, ushers Orsillo into his first-ever stadium bite on this show. I won’t spoil the goods here, but it’s worth tuning in to find out because it includes a fried fusion mash-up dish that’s likely to become a Petco Park food icon after this season ends.
 
There’s a lot more brotherly banter to go around, and the truth is it’s best heard wherever you listen to your podcasts, and probably not in this written post, owing to the fact we are talking to some of the most celebrated broadcasters in the game. But we also talk the news: CH is bringing pan-Middle Eastern cuisine to North Park, Rancho Valencia is launching a summer dinner series with newly minted Michelin-starred Baja chef Javier Plascencia, as well as Fauna’s David Castro Hussong, and Izola is staying in East Village by opening its new, enormous Fault Line Park storefront soon.

Trying The Best Food at Petco Park with Don & Mud

This week’s Happy Half Hour takes place from one of the best perches in all of San Diego: Top of the Market. It’s a fully windowed and partially outdoor restaurant, separate and with a more fine dining or special occasion bent than its counterpart downstairs, the equally beloved and lauded Fish Market. To our front are sprawling views of Coronado and the bay. Directly to the right, the Midway, and to the left, hotels, docks, and the Coronado Bridge.

We sat down with the restaurant’s executive chef, Robin James, who is, in my opinion, the most San Diego San Diegan to ever do it. His first cooking job was on the line at the iconic Anthony’s Fish Grotto. After that, he got his cooking degree at the Art Institute and became the executive chef at The University Club and Bali Hai. 

These days, he’s slinging creative seafood dishes at Top of the Market. But what makes him deeply local, despite his life resume and of course being born here, is that his parents met while working at Jack-in-the-box. Come on. He’s a living legend, and we get the story of his parents’ meet-cute in the episode.

In addition to his hometown bonafides, James is a serious cook with an Escoffier tattoo, who is consistently trying to take things to the next level. He was always a tinkerer, experimenting with ingredients, often ones that didn’t seem to make much sense together, to see what could happen. He did a lot of that during Covid, while temporarily laid off from work, itching to create, and now he’s stretching his wings more with his seafood menu. 

One of his more surprising dishes on Top of the Market’s current list are seared sea scallops with Spanish chorizo, dehydrated mushrooms, and big white beans. Scallops, mushrooms, and beans isn’t a dish I knew I wanted, but now I can’t stop thinking about it. 

James is also cooking an Alaskan halibut on the menu with many green, spring flavors, and served with a punchy tzatziki heavy on the cucumber; he also has a seared octopus served over hummus with pickled red onions and mandolined radishes. There are crudos; and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s a chocolate cake a la Elvis, with bananas, bacon and honey. James assured us there are plenty of classics on the menu, too, like the restaurant’s famed cioppino, a hearty fish stew its been serving for decades. 

There’s good drinking, too, James assures us. The wine list is evidence of that. James and his team have been running thrice yearly wine dinners with top California producers—the next is in September with  Grgich Hills. In the meantime, they also have one of San Diego’s best wine steals: a list of 30 bottles of wine for $30, every Tuesday. 

We’re not talking two buck chuck or plonk; this is from the real wine list, made specially available for those extra fun people who want to clink glasses on a Tuesday.

We also talk food news. Baja came up big in the reveal of Michelin’s first guide to Mexico. The French tire company gave one star to Animalon (Javier Plascencia and Oscar Torres), Damiana (Esteban Lluis), and Conchas de Piedra (Drew Deckman and Hugo D’Acosta). Many other Baja California restaurants were recommended or named bib gourmands. Taste of Little Italy will be returning on June 18 and 19 with more than 40 restaurants participating. And OB’s Gianni Buomono Vintners is moving away from its long-held Newport Ave. spot. It’ll be opening soon near Sports Arena.

Inside an Icon: Top of the Market

He got fired. He sold fruit out of a postal truck. He slept near the citrus. Then he and his family became the backbone of the restaurant culture in San Diego. The wild, never-give-up story of Bob Harrington, his brothers, and Specialty Produce.

San Diego’s King of Produce

Truffles are food gold, one of the world’s most famous ingredients. Musky, lovely, funky, delicious, expensive, and fickle as hell. Why do some of them taste like cardboard? Did you know you can grow very good ones in the U.S., but that it might take over a decade to yield your first “crop”? 

On this episode, we pay a visit to San Diego Magazine’s 2024 “Chef of the Year” Brad Wise. He introduces us to his truffle guy, Vincent Gentile of Seminalia Truffles. Vince worked at Alinea with famed chef Grant Achatz until he and his partner launched their own truffle business. 

We go into some of the myths and science of growing, sourcing, and coddling one of the world’s most rarefied ingredients. We also talk with Brad about his whole-animal butchering classes at Wise Ox, which sell-out a lot faster than expected in a post-pan food world where we’re all more interested in doing the entire food experience ourselves.

San Diego Mag's Chef of the Year + His Truffle Hunter

For podcasts like Happy Half Hour, events like the fair are basically our Christmas. Yeah, we love the rides, the activations, the camaraderie, the merriment. But to be totally honest, we’re here for the food. Dip us in corn batter and fry us. Dust some powdered sugar on our heads. Load us up with fatty, drippy, sloppy, sweet and salty goods. This episode, Troy and the crew hit up the San Diego County Fair, and they brought along Z90.3’s Rick Morton to yuk it up while they test the Fairtastic Food Competition finalists. We also had on Lori Sutherland, who owns fair favorite Tasti Chips, to weigh in. We came, we tasted, we judged, we crowned. Tune in to find out all the winners, as well as all the deets on this year's fair food.

Deep-Fried Delights at the San Diego County Fair

We’ve got a Happy Half Hour double-header today: chef Michael Vaughn, who is coming up on his first year at the helm of La Jolla’s iconic Marine Room, and also Baja-based superstar Javier Plascencia, whose under-a-200-year-old-oak tree restaurant Animalón just got a Michelin Star. Both chat philosophy, process, and their cooking histories, and as a special bonus, Plascencia drops the details on his super special festival for the 100th anniversary of the Caesar salad.

Javier Plascencia Talks Michelin Stars and the Caesar Salad's 100th Anniversary

This week, Troy and Jackie are joined by Doug Haster, master brewer at Mission Valley’s Puesto Cervecería. Hasker goes way back with beer in this town–he moved to San Diego in 1998 to head brewing at Gordon Biersch’s then-Mission Valley location and stayed until Biersch sold its operations to Puesto in 2019. Not ready to hang up his skates, he stuck with the Puesto folks, tweaked his brewing style from German to Mexican lagers, and carried on the building’s legacy of being home to some of San Diego’s finest suds. These days, Hasker is catching attention for the beer he brewed for the Padres, Puesto’s Clara. He tells us about this special beer and shares stories from his decades spent brewing beer in San Diego.

Meet the Man Responsible for Light Beer's Craft Comeback

Martin Short is the Current Mayor of This Food-and-Drink-Obsessed San Diego County Town

If your time spent in OB and Point Loma spans decades, not just years, you likely know all about the Coulon family, proprietors of the well-loved but now-shuttered Belgian Lion. And there’s a good chance that you also know about their granddaughters, Anne-Marie, Jacqueline, and Dominique, who own Point Loma’s The Little Lion, now entering its tenth year of service. Chef and co-owner Anne-Marie joins Happy Half Hour to talk about her family’s storied culinary history and deep roots in OB, what it was like growing up in a restaurant kitchen, and the challenges of running a small but beloved restaurant in an increasingly expensive San Diego.

The Little Lion’s Chef Learned Everything from Her Grandparents at The Belgian Lion

San Diego Magazine's weekly podcast covering all things drinks, dinner, and dessert happening San Diego.

Happy Half Hour - Episode 1 - June 21, 2016

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This week’s special guest is Avonte Hartsfield, owner of Rollin’ Roots food truck in Kearny Mesa. Rollin’ Roots has been serving comfort foods, like loaded fries and sandwiches with deep-fried “shrimp” and Buffalo “chicken” that are entirely vegan, since it opened last fall. Avonte is passionate about breaking the stigma that vegan food has to be expensive, and he started a pay-what-you-can option at the food truck and provides meals for those in need.

Avonte has been working in the restaurant industry since he was 14, starting as a dishwasher and working his way up to management. He grew up in Riverside, and has been living in San Diego for about seven years after residing in Rosarito and Tijuana. 

He started serving vegan food at local farmers’ markets after deciding he wanted to eat less meat but couldn’t find anything vegan that he liked. He originally planned to open a restaurant, and the shutdown in March 2020 forced him to transition his business model to a food truck. Avonte doesn’t use any soy-based meat substitutes—he says they contain a lot of allergens, and that eating processed meat alternatives every day is just as bad as eating meat every day. 
 
His menu is also fighting the preconception that “vegan” just means “salad.” Avonte says he’s encouraging people to eat a wider variety of plant-based foods, both for their health and the health of the planet. Part of his goal is to create familiar foods, like deep-fried mac and cheese and po’boys, that have the same taste and texture as their non-vegan counterparts.

Giving back to the community has always been a part of Avonte’s business model, dating back to when he worked at farmers’ markets donating food. After seeing and personally experiencing the financial struggles the pandemic caused, he decided to offer a free or heavily discounted meal as a permanent option at the food truck. He plans to switch to a sliding scale payment system, so that every person who comes up will pay based on their ability, to save face instead of having to ask for the free meal. Avonte readily admits that vegan food is more expensive to make, but he’s still hoping to make it accessible for everyone. You can find Rollin’ Roots parked every day at 8040 Armour Street in Kearny Mesa.

In Hot Plates, Furn Saj, a popular Lebanese bakery and restaurant from LA, is bringing shawarma and saj, a grilled flatbread, to Hillcrest this summer. Resortwear line Tommy Bahama opened its Marlin Bar restaurant-retail concept, which has patio dining, in Fashion Valley mall. Breakers Coffee and Wine is getting ready to open at the Del Mar Highlands Town Center on the mall’s Sky Deck. The owner, Kyle Rosa, grows the coffee at his farm in San Marcos.

In Two People for Takeout / Two People for $50, Marie’s pick is the tropical sangria and five-spice pork belly appetizer at Wet Stone Wine Bar in Bankers Hill. David’s pick is La Justina in Tijuana, where they give you popcorn seasoned with the scrapings off the grill while you're waiting for your order. At Gihon Ethiopian Kitchen, Troy recommends the tibs, meat stew, and garlic tofu, along with their distinct berbere sauce made with spices prepared and shipped by the owner’s family in Ethiopia. Avonte chose Veg’n Out in Grossmont Center for their vegan burgers, pork belly hot dogs, and kombucha.

Thank you for listening! As always, we want to hear from our listeners. Need a recommendation for takeout? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? Let us know! You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

Indulgent Vegan Food? Avonte Hartsfield of Rollin’ Roots Shows It’s Possible

The weekly guide to San Diego's food + drink scene, hosted by award-winning food writer and Food Network host Troy Johnson and San Diego Magazine's culture brain, Jackie Bryant. Field notes and perspectives on restaurants, bars, and chefs—including dishes and drinks you gotta try, restaurant openings and closings, events worth your time, and laugh-cry interviews with chefs, restaurant owners, farmers, brewers, and makers who make San Diego's food + drink scene hum.

San Diego Magazine

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