San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

This week's Happy Half Hour features mother-and-son duo Lia and Spencer Hunter of Lia's Lumpia. Their come-up story is a fascinating blend of family tradition, cultural preservation, and innovative culinary fusion that began long before the Hunters' foray into food competition TV. Spencer learned how to roll the thumb-thin Filipino fried and stuffed rolls from his mom, who learned from her mother, Spencer's grandmother, who opened the first Filipino restaurant in National City, called San-Loy's Lumpia and Food To Go. After stints cooking for the Malarkey universe and in the Panamanian jungle, he and his mom decided to strike out on their own with their unique soul food lumpia and other fusion dishes.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 is sprawling views of Coronado and the bay. Directly to the right, the Midway, and to the left, a bunch of hotels, docks, and the Coronado Bridge. We sat down with Top of the Market'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 San Diego, 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 local 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 said he was always a tinkerer, experimenting with ingredients, often ones that don't seem to make much sense together, to see what happens. He said 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 Top of the Market's famed cioppino, a hearty fish stew the restaurant has been serving for decades. There's good drinking at Top of the Market, too, James assures us, and 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 talked the news in this episode: 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, 2024 with over 40 restaurants. And OB's Gianni Buomono Vintners is moving away from its long-held Newport Ave. spot. It'll be opening near Sports Arena soon.

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.

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.

Sometimes, it's the most fun to chop it up with friends. And when your friends include legendary sushi chefs and top DJs, all the better. This week we brought to Happy Half Hour Chris Cantore, a former voice across San Diego's radio airwaves, and his long-time buddy, North County sushi chef Tyler Mars. Troy goes way back with the duo, having been both a music and food journalist during his career. The pair just launched Needlefish, an omakase and record-spinning pop-up that they plan to take around San Diego, and hope to one day make a brick-and-mortar location. In fact, they held their first event for SDM staff just a few weeks ago to rave reviews. The idea is simple: fresh fish and good tunes, vinyl-only. Cantore says he likes to bring back the classics, like 90's hip-hop, punk, and stoner rock like Queens of the Stone Age. Tyler pairs that with his own sliced fish creations, served on warm vinegared rice and usually in combination with other condiments and ingredients you haven't experienced eating sushi before (think thin-sliced prime rib eye and chimichurri, for a non-fish example). Though Needlefish is new, the duo's idea is not. They both wanted to open up a spot together 25 years ago. But they were scared, and life happened. So did kids, and marriages, and careers, and the transitions of said careers, and Mars' eventual cancer diagnosis. The latter came in 2021 but Mars is now in remission. “It's really because of what happened to Tyler that we finally had the courage to pull the trigger on this,” Cantore says. “We realized that life is short, and you don't know how much time you have left. You have to do what you love to do, and this is what we love to do.” Stay tuned to our pages to find out more about where these guys will be popping up and when. Follow them on @needlefishco on Instagram for the latest updates. We also chat other food news around town including our Best Restaurants issue! Mission Hills' jewel Wolf in the Woods took home the top prize of Best Restaurant, while North County brunch temple Atelier Manna won Best New Restaurant. Check out all the other critics' and readers' picks here. Basic Pizza is also closing its doors, which opened in 2006, when Petco Park was just two years old. It's moving to the other side of the park, though, so fret not (and, also, it's the same owner as all the URBN restaurants with similar menus). And, finally, beloved LA Japanese chain Katsuya is coming to UTC with Katsuya Ko, which offers more of an izakaya-style menu geared towards younger consumers.

Jordan Howlett just needs a minute. Give him that, and he's liable to have you hooked. Thanks to his highly recognizable, signature mirror-selfie videos, Howlett (San Diego Magazine's cover star for our 2024 Best Restaurants issue) has amassed upwards of 30 million followers across his social channels by sharing fast food hacks and wisdom with deadpan delivery and a genuine love of food. Some 70 million people see his videos every month on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. He's a one-minute, one-man daily Netflix special. But it hasn't been easy. Growing up financially strapped meant that Howlett's opportunities were often limited. Stress has been a theme. He's been belittled and bullied. He slept in his car while chasing a dream. It took a maniacal work ethic and healthy amount of delusion to propel him to the social media stratosphere. “I didn't realize how creative my parents were until I realized just how much we were really struggling,” Howlett tells us in this episode of Happy Half Hour. Born in LA County, Howlett moved to Oceanside in the fourth grade after spending his early life in the desert town of Victorville. Howlett began attending Oceanside High as a sophomore, where he joined the baseball team. “Originally, I was thinking maybe football,” Howlett says. “I'm on my way to the football field and the baseball coach sees me, and he points me right at the baseball field and says, ‘Why don't you go over there?'” That interception changed the course of Howlett's life. At 16, with no sports experience, Howlett became hooked on baseball. Before long, he started dreaming of playing Division 1 ball. He wanted to go pro. But his teammates had been playing since preschool. Howlett had some catching up to do and 100 people—teammates, coaches, everyone—telling him he had no chance. But Howlett didn't care. He just got to work, training every spare minute, working three times harder than everyone else. It paid off. Howlett found himself on fields he was never supposed to see… at least until Covid killed his baseball career. Then it was back to low-wage fast food jobs—until that work ethic came in handy for growing a social media audience. In this episode of HHH, Howlett joins us in the studio to recount his childhood in Oceanside, his path from awkward high school baseball wannabe to Division 1 athlete, and his road to internet superstardom. Along the way he recalls how his Fast Food Secrets Club came to be, recoils from pickle pizza, and tells us about one of his absolute favorite local spots to eat. Want to see his videos? Follow him at @jordan_the_stallion8.

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 Katie Garret, 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.” Garret, 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, Garret 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.

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.

“Close my eyes, she's somehow closer now / Softly smile, I know she must be kind / When I look in her eyes / She goes with me to a blossom world” The lyrics to the iconic Beach Boys song “Good Vibrations,” penned in part by Mike Love, are likely about a woman from long ago. But they could just as easily be about the flavors and sensations from his brand new rum, Club Kokomo Spirits. We had Love in-house along with his children who work for the spirits company to chat all things San Diego, award-winning rum, and good vibes on this week's Happy Half Hour. Also joining us was Geoff Longenecker of Seven Caves, the brand's distiller, who was shaking up mojitos for us in real-time. In case you aren't already aware, he's one of the preeminent spirits distillers in San Diego. “It's pretty damn good, isn't it?” Love whispered loudly to me, leaning in as he sipped. Indeed. Both Love and The Beach Boys have a storied history in San Diego. They shot the Pet Sounds album cover at the San Diego Zoo. They played countless concerts at the Rady's Shell, Del Mar Fairgrounds, and what was formerly Jack Murphy Stadium; Mike Love used to live in Rancho Santa Fe (where his daughter went to Cathedral Catholic); and, of course, the fact that it's distilled right here. Love's aspirations started years ago when he was enjoying a “perfect” mojito in New York with his wife, Jacquelyne, while humming the chorus of his co-authored hit song, “Kokomo.” His penchant for wordplay took over as he uttered the word “Kokomojito,” and ever since, Mike's dream has been to share the spirit of Kokomo with the world, he says. Currently, Club Kokomo Spirits makes award-winning rum and gin-based canned cocktails and a line of bottled rums. The company prides itself on using high-quality ingredients, including natural sugars and flavors, like a unique blend of demerara cane sugar rum and traditional Jamaican pot still rum. “Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take ya / Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama / Key Largo, Montego / Baby, why don't we go? / Jamaica…” Again, the song is about something else, right? Or…? Love says, “Kokomo is a state of mind.” He smiles and takes a sip, and grins once again.

Everyone's favorite Mission Hills karaoke joint, the Lamplighter, has brought its talents down the hill to the Gaslamp—and so has this podcast. The team, led by fourth-generation bar owner Frankie Sciuto, launched the Gaslamplighter, a new upscale cocktail and karaoke bar, in January. Sciuto joins us on the Happy Half Hour podcast today as we check out the bar's digs. Sciuto hopes the Gaslamplighter will become the go-to spot for San Diego's nightlife scene, like its successful sister hangs, The Lamplighter and Side Bar. (In other words, it's not just a joint for tourists.) “It's an honor to follow in my family's footsteps,” he adds. “After working through the ranks in the nightlife industry from a barback to a bar owner, I am incredibly proud to bring this concept to life.” Surely you've heard that the “mob wife” aesthetic is trending on the internet? The Gaslamplighter is that brought to life, and it's a blast. Designed by GTC Design Studios, the 1,600-square-foot venue took over Ciro's Pizzeria and Beerhouse. Sciuto says the bar pairs “classic style with a vintage-industrial 1920s flare,” which he hopes invokes nostalgia for better bar-drinking and song-singing days. It's intended to look like an art-deco speakeasy, with shades of green and navy and plenty of rose-gold metal. Of course, the drinks add to the glitz and glamor. Its cocktails have a luxury bent: Picture a white negroni topped with 24-karat gold, a carajillo, and an “Instagrammable” dirty martini with caviar. Guests will also find a mocktail menu and many more options. Karaoke runs from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. You can sign up the old-school way by putting your name down on a sheet at the DJ booth, but you might want to warm up those vocal cords first—your rendition of “Sweet Caroline” may be followed by a surprise performance from a local underground star. Guests can book private booths or opt for bar seating, and the whole space is available for private rental. Of course, the Gaslamplighter isn't the only hot spot downtown. News today focuses on the neighborhood, especially with the Pads' home opener happening this weekend. Otay Mesa's Vega Caffe replaced Lolitas next to Petco Park with an expanded menu, and Puesto brought back cans of Clara, its 4.7 percent ABV Mexican lager, to Petco Park. Plus, the owners of Verant Group (which is behind such lauded locales as Barleymash, Mavericks Beach Club, Tavern at the Beach, and Sandbar) are opening a new hotel called Casa Nova in Valle de Guadalupe with other partners.

If you received this month's San Diego Magazine, you already know about Warung RieRie. Happy Half Hour host and food critic Troy Johnson dubbed it “the star of the city's thrilling backyard restaurant scene.” Wait. There's a thrilling backyard restaurant scene in San Diego? Indeed, there is, and the individual restaurants are formally dubbed MEHKOs—Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations. We had Chef Rie Sims and her right hand—husband, sous chef, host, and marketing manager Dave Sims—in to talk about their Sumatran hut that they transported via Bali to their Serra Mesa backyard. In that hut is Warung RieRie, a fine dining restaurant operated out of their home kitchen. “For chefs like Rie, MEHKOs are a way in, or just a different way,” writes Johnson in this month's review. “Few people can afford to open a restaurant, which can run (at the very lowest end) tens of thousands to millions of dollars and lock dreamers into long-term leases. In 2013, California implemented the Homemade Food Act, allowing anyone to make and sell low-risk foods (granola, jam, the like) out of their homes. Hot meals were a no-go, deemed too dangerous.” “But on Jan. 1, 2019, AB 626 allowed cooks in California to run restaurants out of their homes, serving all but the most notorious get-sick foods (like oysters and tartare). The new restaurants were called MEHKOs.” With a year-long waitlist, Warung RieRie is undoubtedly the city's most famous backyard joint. We hear about the couple's movie-worthy love story, their journey from Bali to the US, Rie's former career as one of the most prominent film directors in Indonesia, and that time she cooked traditional Indonesian food for the Indonesian Prime Minister. As for news, we discuss LA-based Brewjeria Company opening in Chula Vista; Padres will re-debut their “Clara” beer at Petco Park; and Vega Caffe will open just next to the park, as well.

Stop us if you've heard the Happy Half Hour cast claim a particular food item was the “best in San Diego” before (to be fair, San Diego Magazine devotes an entire issue to the topic). If we assign superlatives, we tend to stand behind them, so buckle up for the following: We've found the best falafel in San Diego. Hands down, bar none, et cetera. Falafel Heights takes up a small storefront on 30th, near Lincoln, in North Park. This block, formerly decrepit due to many closures (Toronado, Streetcar Merchants, and others), is about to veritably pop off. Falafel Heights opened last fall, high-end dive Happy Medium (by Fernside, SDCM, and former CH barkeeps Christian Siglin and Eric Johnson) opened last week, CH's new Persian spot is currently under construction, and Saigon Coffee is just across the street, as is Second Chance Brewing, and other businesses. Owner and founder Lialie Ibrahim, a staple in San Diego's running community, opened Falafel Heights after years of pop-ups and people goading her into sharing her exceptionally poppable treats. See, falafel comes in many forms. There's Egyptian falafel, which is large–almost bready. Baked Lebanese falafel fits in the palm of your hand. Ibrahim's falafel—quarter-sized balls deep-fried and served street-style as she experienced in Palestine's West Bank, where she has lived—is meant to be popped as finger food. Dipped in sauces, loaded on fries, or served in a wrap or bowl. It's addictive, and when served with one of her many sauces, including a hard-to-find Iraqi mango amma, I promise it will stick in your memory. Ibrahim is originally from the Bay Area, where her Palestinian parents settled after immigrating to the United States. She tried her hand at journalism, doing mostly radio work before moving to San Diego. While here, she got into local running clubs, started making falafel for friends with her family's recipes, and even helped her good friends (part of her running club) start a little old kombucha brand, which would eventually become Boochcraft. “Upon moving to San Diego, I wanted to taste falafel the way I fell in love with it as street food in the West Bank,” Ibrahim says of her desire to jump into the professional frying pan. “I grew up eating falafel made from scratch, which involves soaking the beans overnight, blended with fresh ingredients, and cooked upon request.” She believes that's the only way to serve it, so that's how it is at Falafel Heights. Fresh, hot, delicious, and plentiful. She's even got a mascot, Phil, a walking, talking falafel wrap. In addition to stuffing our faces with chickpeas, we also talked about the news, all of which concerns North Park, and some of which I previewed earlier in this post. Happy Medium finally opened on 30th and Lincoln; Bivouac Adventure Lodge opened last week in a huge yurt-like space next to the original bar room; Trust's Brad Wise will open a French brasserie next year on 30th and University; On March 13, Black Radish will host a five-course menu with wine pairings from Napa's El Molino and Memento Mori; and Jersey Mikes and Belching Beaver have both opened in North Park.

To know the illustrious Tony Tee, real name Antonio Ley, is to love him. The Chula Vista-born-and-bred, man-about-town has appeared in popular shows, like Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and Vice News, and he even had a brief career as a politico after he got his law degree in Tijuana. These days, the former party promoter is running a food truck parked in North Park at Fall Brewing. Called Corazon de Torta, it specializes in guisados, and is a local favorite. It's half of the reason we brought him on Happy Half Hour this week. The second reason? Ley recently started a tennis league in South Bay aimed at increasing Latino representation in the sport and we had the opportunity to feature his work in our February 2024 issue. Hardly an athletic guy until recently, Ley has come to love playing tennis and diving into a more athletic life. “I went into diabetic ketoacidosis one day, landed myself in the hospital, and realized I had to change my life,” he says. At the time, he was a new father who knew things needed to change, so he lost a ton of weight, quit boozing so much, and kick-started an athletic routine. He began playing tennis when he had an idea. “There was a void in the Latino tennis community,” Ley says. “[Latinos] are half of California, but, as far as I know, we have one guy, Emilio Nava, who is on the tour representing us. Pro tennis has serious Mexican and Mexican-American representation problems. It's an accessibility problem.” To help close the gap, Ley founded the hard-court club, called Club Raquetas, in 2022, intending to introduce more Latinos to the sport. He's the perfect spokesperson, mainly because it took him some time to get into tennis himself. Also, because he's got a big mouth and he's not afraid to use it. Longtime San Diegans might remember seeing a more heavyset, still boisterous Tee leading Bourdain around Tijuana in a pink limousine. They also might remember the professional Mexican basketball team he founded, called the Tijuana Zonkeys, which made Tee a convicted felon (long story). They also might have crossed paths with him during his 15 years as a club promoter south of the border. However you know him, whether it's tennis, tacos, or Tijuana, Tony Tee is a San Diego legend. In addition to catching up with Tony, we also talked the news: beleaguered brewery Eppig Brewing will open its newest location in downtown, next to Petco Park in the former Stone location; Roman Wolves opened in Little Italy from the Rusticucina folks; Common Theory will open in South Bay this month; Coop's BBQ is looking for some financial love; and Nat Diego just announced its summer dates (June 28 & 29). And if you're around this weekend, come join us for our Taste of South Bay event on Sunday, February 25. There will be birria, short rib ramen, guisados, Chamangos, drinks, entertainment and Troy likely dressed in a very loud t-shirt.

I think it's fair to claim that this week's Happy Half Hour guest is the most special visitor we've ever had on the podcast (which is saying something): Jason Mraz, the two-time Grammy Award–winning singer and songwriter who has gone platinum and multi-platinum in more than 20 countries. His tune “I'm Yours” also surpassed one billion streams on Spotify and was the most-streamed song by a solo artist in the naughts. His eighth album, Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride, dropped last June. In other words, he's kind of a big deal. Mraz lives in North County's greater Fallbrook area, where he runs Mraz Family Farms, providing companies like Chipotle with a steady stream of San Diego County–grown avocados (and providing this podcast with great talking points). In addition to chatting about his coffee farm and avocado-growing prowess, Mraz shines a light on his upcoming Kaleidoscope community concert, which will take place at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, on Saturday, February 17 at 7 p.m and on Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets will be available via JasonMraz.com this Friday, December 15th at 10 a.m. PT. Mraz will hit the stage alongside performers from eight local arts organizations: A Step Beyond Dancers, Banding Together, Diversionary Theatre, Monarch School Project, San Diego Young Artist Music Academy, Tap Fever Studios, Tierra Caliente Academy of Arts, and Wheelchair Dancers. They're all beneficiaries of grants from The Jason Mraz Foundation, which is dedicated to improving access to the arts for kids. It's a cause close to Mraz's heart for obvious reasons, considering his long, successful career in the arts. We recap it all—the open mic performance that launched his career (which Troy almost missed in favor of a punk show), the Dave Matthews endorsement that helped catapult him to fame, and, of course, his fan-favorite turn on Dancing with the Stars. “Over the past few months, I pushed myself creatively, and physically more than I have in decades,” Mraz says of his time on the show. “I revisited what it was like to be a beginner in the performing arts, to immerse myself in something completely new, finding strength, joy, self-acceptance, and pride as I learned and grew every week.” And Mraz isn't the only one experiencing growth. We offer reports from the front of San Diego's ever-expanding restaurant scene: First of all, a hell of a lot of fried chicken is coming to town. South Korean Fried Fave BHC Chicken will open in Sorrento Valley and Dave's Hot Chicken will open its sixth location in Mission Valley. Plus, tapas and small grower wine spot Finca launched in North Park with a crew formerly from Juniper & Ivy, and Priscilla Curiel will open Mujer Divina on Chula Vista's Third Avenue. See you next week! More information on the Jason Mraz Foundation: https://jasonmraz.com/foundation/ https://www.instagram.com/jasonmrazfoundation/ https://www.facebook.com/JasonMrazFoundation/

“It's not just a spirits company, but a way of life.” That's what Fierce & Kind's owners and founders, Cyndi Smith and Basem Harb, say when talking about the ethos behind their company. In addition to peddling high-quality vodka and bourbon, Fierce & Kind donates a whopping 25 percent of net profits to charity. To learn more, we asked them to come on Happy Half Hour. Smith and Harb, former tech entrepreneurs, stopped by the SDM office one Friday with bottles in tow. Fierce & Kind's American bourbon is aged two years and five months, clocks in at 86 proof, and drinks almost like a Scotch: It's smooth, accessible. The cloyingly sweet aspect present in other bourbons is missing. This is intentional, Harb says. “I'm a Scotch drinker,” he tells us. He wanted to emulate some of the sippable qualities of Scotch, including its peatiness and vanilla notes. The bourbon is made with heirloom corn and other grains, adding complex flavor profiles that are missing from single-grain Scotch whiskeys. And bourbon isn't the only creation on the distillery's lineup that is great on the rocks. While he doesn't mind a good cocktail, Harb prefers sipping spirits neat. He and Smith wanted to make an exceptionally drinkable vodka that could stand up on its own, sans mixers. The result is a six-times distilled vodka that's a far cry from the Dubra handles of college lore. It's creamy and surprisingly light on the finish. It also won gold at the 2023 TAG Las Vegas Global Spirits Competition. Harb said that he's been doing restaurant tastings around town and may have even convinced some barkeeps to offer it as a sipper. But while the booze is fantastic, there are plenty of excellent spirits brands out there. Why buy from this one? The answer lies in ethics for those who may want to be more conscious about who they spend with. Fierce & Kind operates with an internal stock options program and equity crowdfunding campaign that is currently in-progress, making it an employee- and consumer-owned company. There's also the aforementioned charity component, which feeds directly into The Fierce & Kind Equity Foundation. The first organization supported by the Foundation is City Heights–based Nile Sisters, which provides predominantly working-class and immigrant women training for healthcare careers. Since the brand is on the newer side, this endeavor is just getting started, but the duo said they will continue to identify and support building “economic opportunities and entrepreneurship in historically disadvantaged communities.” In addition to tasting world-class tipples, we also talk about the news. Shearwater at the Del closed and world-famous Nobu will be taking its place as the final portion of the resort's $550 million renovation comes to a close; Vegas-based Clique Hospitality will unveil The Kitchen and The Clubhouse in Del Mar with an exec chef formerly from Miho Catering; Burgeon Beer Company opened a new Vista taproom; and Vietnamese-Latin fusion joint Chao XO just launched in National City. Two words: BIRRIA PHO. We'll see you next week!

In case you haven't noticed, we just debuted our first-ever issue dedicated to all things South Bay. On February 25, we are also holding our first Taste of South Bay food and drink extravaganza at Novo Brazil Brewing in Imperial Beach. In conjunction with that, we're also asking various South Bay food folks to come on to the HHH podcast to talk about all things south of the border…of the city of San Diego, that is. This week, we asked to chat with Jose Barajas, a television chef and the owner of Mmm…Cakes, a Golden Girls-themed bakery and coffee spot on Chula Vista's Third Avenue, near F Street. It opened in 2021 after a huge Covid derailment, a familiar tale—it was originally supposed to open in March or April 2020. And all of that after 15 years of baking in his home studio, as well as other area hotels and bakeries, culinary production teams, and on camera on several Food Network and TLC shows, like The Next Great Baker and Gingerbread Showdown. Mmm…Cakes' decor is over-the-top, as one would expect from a Golden Girls-laden cake shop. It's tropical, decadent, and loud, and it's even got a vintage Tiffany lamp (Barajas told me he bought it on Amazon for a steal). “You know,” he says in the episode. “It's gotta be good for the ‘gram!” We talk about his various inspirations and just how much damn fun it is to hang out there. Readers of the magazine can also get a peek at our host Troy Johnson's food feature this month, which shows a few gorgeous images of the space and Barajas' confectionary creations. Barajas shares his humble beginnings cooking at home with his mom, who decorated cakes. “I started off young, not so much cake decorating, but just cooking. Then my mom started working, and she said, “You're helping me, so that was that.” He says he took to it because he wasn't such a great student, but he was super into his art classes. It stuck. When he eventually started working as a dishwasher in a sushi kitchen, moving up the ranks to eventually start training as a sushi chef, he found out he had been accepted to culinary school. One baking class later, and the rest is history—Barajas is a cake guy now. We also chat about his long television career, during which he thrived on camera but especially in production, owing to his recipe he developed while at culinary school and then in his own professional kitchen. He also talks about some of his favorite spots in South Bay, and marvels at how far downtown Chula Vista has come. In food news, Tara Monsod of Animae was nominated for a James Beard award. She's a semifinalist for Best Chef California and is San Diego's only nominee, and Tacos El Franc is coming to National City. Earlier this week, we broke the news that the famed Tijuana taco spot will open its first U.S. location at the Westfield Plaza Bonita mall this summer, replacing Funky Fries & Burgers (we'll call that an upgrade); CH Projects opened LouLou's at The LaFayette Hotel and temporarily closed the beloved Starlite for renovations; downtown's Lavo shutters after just over a year in the former Searsucker location; and a food website called “LoveFood” named Smoking Goat's fries the best in California. We then discuss the merits of truffle fries. Thanks for tuning in. See you next week!

Avid HHH listeners will remember a few episodes back, when we announced that Ramen World, celebrity chef Lauren Lawless' first restaurant, would open somewhere in San Diego. That opening is imminent, and so we decided to have the cooking show star and Pacific Beach native in to tell us what's up. Ramen World's opening is notable for a few reasons, but mostly that it's the country's first serve-your-own ramen joint. The model is otherwise popular in Japan and Korea, Lawless told us during the episode. This San Diego location will be the planned chain's first location, and then she hopes to expand throughout California and to Arizona and eventually the east coast, she also explained. We wondered aloud what the experience would be like: Will there be chefs cheffing the steaming bowls right in front of our faces? Will it be gluten-friendly? How will it be priced, by weight or by ingredient, like with serve-your-own fro-yo? She shared some special details: yes, it will be gluten-friendly; there will also be packaged ramen noodles, as well as a machine cutting and serving fresh noodles for those who'd like an upgrade. She's still working on the pricing, but thinks it'll be somewhere in the fro-yo pricing universe. We also get to know Lawless on a personal level, too. She shares stories of the tragic death of her parents and sister, her emancipation from her family while she was still a teenager, how she overcame trauma and abuse (and how cooking played a huge role in that), and how she was working a ho-hum sales desk job when she decided to take a shot at a cooking show audition that eventually changed her life. Lawless has an engaging and warm personality, and she leads with obvious confidence, which is infectious to be around. We hope you feel it through the airwaves, and are similarly inspired about her story cooking her way up through the television ranks, which is where she first met our co-host, Troy Johnson. We also talked the news: RoseAcre, a new multi-experience, design-forward restaurant from Paul Basile and Jules Wilson has broken ground on Girard Street in La Jolla; OB's The Joint spun off a new ramen spot called The Bowl on Newport Ave; and Spanish and California tapas and wine bar Finca will open on Grim Street in North Park by crew formerly of Juniper + Ivy.

Our HHH guest this week, the legendary Trey Foshee of George's at the Cove, has been in San Diego's restaurants for a long time. Actually, scratch that. He's been in one kitchen during the entire 27 years he's lived, cooked, and managed here, and that's in La Jolla at George's (and its related establishments). In an age where people hop around faster than you can post about a new job on Instagram, there's something to be said for digging in your heels and perfecting your craft, and, in turn, turning out a generation of decorated chefs whose careers started in your kitchen. That's exactly what Foshee has done. This year brings the 40th anniversary of the George's empire, one of the longest-running and consistently most delicious in town. We asked Foshee to come on the pod to talk about changes to the restaurant scene and its menus over time, what he's learned in the last few years during which he stepped out of the kitchen for the first time and into management, what working with his daughter is like, and to talk about the anniversary celebrations at the restaurant. About those celebrations, they are decidedly stacked with world-class talent, all of which began in Foshee's George's kitchen once-upon-a-time. Beginning in January, visiting chefs who once worked there will cook special supper club–style dinners on specific Wednesdays, with two seatings each night. Connor McVey, who went on to work in the Wolfgang Puck Universe; pastry chef Christine Rivera, who was at California Modern for a long time and helped open Sandpiper and now is the executive chef of The Bishop's School; barkeeps Stephen Kurpinsky and Sam Peters, who helmed the Georges-centric cocktail book Neighborhoods of San Diego; and Christopher Costa of Michelin three-star Meadowood are among the notable guest chefs. Foshee also dishes on his not-so-secret but still effective weapon (and that of chefs around the county): Chino Farm. “Coming to San Diego,” he says of his move to town over two decades ago, “[Chino Farm] was a really big part of it. I won't say it's the reason we came here, but it was a really big fringe benefit. It's one of the reasons why we looked at North County to settle down in, because it's on my way to work. I can just stop off at the farm, and having them in your backyard is just a really special thing.” We also get into some news: Las Ahumaderas, the famous adobada taco spot in Tijuana, opened in Chula Vista; so did Butcher's Plate in National City's Market on 8th; Ambrely Ouimette told us she pulled out of her partnership with Hasekura, the omakase-only spot that will be opening in Barrio Logan above Fish Guts. She says she's got “a full sushi restaurant” and no space, and is looking for takers…same with Hasekura, which now needs a chef; Downtown Chula Vista is hosting their annual Taste of Third event on March 21; and Oceanside's Northern Pine Brewing Co. opened an Idaho-inspired restaurant by the same name with a former Dija Mara chef at its helm.

When your boss tells you to do something, you do it. When your boss is Troy Johnson, food critic and Chief Content Officer of San Diego Magazine, texting you: “I just left Tunaville. He's doing amazing stuff. Get Tommy on the podcast,” well, you get Tommy Gomes on the Happy Half Hour podcast. Gomes, a commercial fisherman by trade and blood, is no stranger to the airwaves and pages of SDM. He's been a guest on the pod a few times before, and we've written about him glowingly because of the work he's doing to improve San Diego's fisheries and the shopping options for the people who eat from them. These days, Gomes runs TunaVille, a seafood shop at Driscoll's Wharf in San Diego Harbor that serves local, only. It opened last May. The fish is caught by residents on city boats, and is delivered 10 feet away to the storefront. “It never sees the back of a truck, our fish,” Gomes says in the episode. Tunaville is a partnership with another fisherman and local seafood icon, Mitch Conniff of Mitch's Seafood, and a handful of other local fishing families who have bought in. Restaurants like Herb & Wood, Solare, and Juan Jasper, for example, are clients, sourcing their treats from the sea from Gomes. Gomes is also tinkering with different fish preparations, some of which we sample on air. He's experimenting with dry aging tuna—traditions popular in Japan and Spain, for example—and he brought in everything from a gorgeous 15-week aged bluefin slab to mojama, a cured tuna muscle not unlike Jamón Ibérico. It can be found mainly on tables in bars in Southern Spain, and not many places else. Except for TunaVille. While he's doing all this, Gomes also has a top-rated show on Outdoor Channel, aptly called The Fishmonger. In it, he travels around the country telling the stories of fishing families and their plights of declining stocks, closed fisheries, tough regulations, and other woes of a struggling American industry. We talk about all of this and other issues with sustainability and greenwashing in this episode. We also get into some news: Troy and I discussed our end-of-2023 articles detailing the best new restaurants in San Diego and dining trends we saw last year, some of which we expect to continue into next year (inflation, omakase-everything, more actually-good Italian restaurants, bakeries); cake donut wizards Sidecar Donuts will be opening a new spot on Kettner Boulevard in Little Italy; and Food Network star Lauren Lawless will be opening Ramen World, a serve-your-own spot somewhere in Mid-City.

According to some of San Diego's finest food minds (umm, us), one of the hottest restaurants of 2023 is easily Bird Rock's Paradisaea. The Michelin Guide thinks so, too—it recently gave the restaurant, which opened in late 2022, a special recognition for being pretty damn good (and also new). A year or so is a good length of time for a restaurant to find its groove. Ideally, the service kinks will have been worked out, the menu will have found its footing. Paradisaea's first year also saw the departure of the restaurant's founding chef and culinary director, Mark Welker. Jeff Armstrong stepped in to take his place. Jeff will kick off 2024 with a new menu. We brought Jeff and his boss, Paradisaea's co-owner Zoe Kleinbub, into the studio to talk shop. Zoe is a native of Westchester County, NY. She moved to San Diego—where her husband Eric Kleinbub (also a co-owner) grew up—a handful of years ago. The Kleinbubs met moving around in San Francisco's food circles, and, once they arrived to our sunny shores, it became crystal-clear that they had to open a restaurant here. When an iconic Bird Rock piano store hit the market four years ago, the Kleinbubs instantly moved on it. What followed—the construction and opening process—was an intense labor of love. They tiled the interiors in Josh Herman ceramics and built an expansive open kitchen at the heart of the restaurant's dining room and operations. In this episode, we also talk about Zoe and Jeff's long history working together and how his entry into one of Zoe's kitchens has become a fortuitous union for everyone involved. We each take a few cracks at the restaurant's spelling, which is difficult to nail on the first try, even for a bunch of writers. We also bungle its pronunciation a few times, but by the end, we're flying (we promise), unnatural vowel combos hugging in tow. We also talk about the news: Jasmin and Richard Blais released Plant Forward, a cookbook not totally meatless or dairy-less, but instead centered around de-prioritizing meat on the plate; North Park 's hopeful pop-up success story, Long Story Short, is unfortunately no more after just a month of service; and The Busalacchis are back in Little Italy with Zizzo, an Italian cocktail bar serving pan-Mediterranean food. We also played “Which restaurant in North Park will open first?” which is always a fun and mind-bending exercise. Thanks for tuning into HHH this year. We will see you in 2024!

“I said to myself, this was the biggest failure of my whole life,” recalls Tiago Carneiro, founder and owner of Nova Kombucha and Novo Brazil Brewing. In this week's episode of Happy Half Hour, he's talking about his business' epic near-crash-and-burn during the pandemic. Which, if you do some quick back-of-the-napkin math, wasn't all that long ago. We learn a lot in this episode. Tiago tells us he's from a restaurant family in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, which is the cattle- and therefore beef-producing region of the country. His dad started in bakeries (giving Tiago his first up-close look at fermentation, a big theme in his adult life) and moved on to restaurants, eventually founding a major Brazilian fast-food burger chain and craft soda brand. Tiago went to college to study engineering, only to feel the pull back to his family roots and switch gears to food science. From there, he launched an award-winning brewery that would go on to become South America's largest and winningest. To know Tiago is to know that best is simply never enough, so he decided to try to bring his business to what he considers to be the best beer city in the world: San Diego. His wife initially wasn't down, but she agreed to visit with a pit stop in Los Cabos. I won't spoil the whole story here, but it involves a very long bus ride up the peninsula to Tijuana, after which the couple finally ended up in San Diego, where Novo Brazil Brewing was born in the Eastlake part of Chula Vista. Enter the pandemic, near-ruin, and a fermentation-experiment-turned-sales miracle, and we have one of San Diego's most successful beer and kombucha stories—which is saying something in a town known worldwide for its fermented drinks. Tiago's story is fascinating and inspiring, and it comes across best when he tells it himself. He brought infectious energy, a deep belief in God, and unmatched ambition to the podcast and SDM's offices. That he also brought Novo's picanha steak (in an actual cast-iron pan) and burger for us to sample didn't hurt, either. We also learned that, once upon a time, Troy graduated from Chico State with a poetry degree and a plan to learn Brazilian Portuguese so he could teach English in Brazil. He never made it down there, but he did make his way through language lessons. It is my new favorite fact about our dear host. Speaking of hosts, I (Jackie Bryant, San Diego Magazine‘s managing editor) am joining Troy and David as a co-host. I'll be handling the news portion of the podcast. This week, that means talking about Il Posto, a fresh Italian joint that will take the place of Eclipse Chocolate on Fern Street in South Park; the replacement of H Street's Tacos El Gordo with a new taqueria; the arrival of Tahona Mercado in National City; and the new indoor-outdoor, multi-experience seating and dining area on the rooftop at downtown's beloved Callie. I'll also be writing these blog posts. Send me some tips, or feel free to just say hi. Cheers to this next era of HHH. We will see you next week! P.S. Just a quick reminder that we will be hosting our Taste of South Bay event at Novo Brazil Brewing's Imperial Beach location, which has stunning views, the best brewery food, and a whole lot of bells and whistles from all kinds of South Bay businesses just for ticket holders. It's on February 25, and you can buy tickets here.

“People are always like, ‘You're a chef I'm sure you're smoking your turkey,'” says Brad Wise, head chef and owner of Trust Restaurant Group. “But I've tried it every way and I'm telling you that old bag is the best.” At his restaurants, he jockeys a nightly parade of red oak to smoke and char meats into various forms of yes. But for Thanksgiving turkey—the good ‘ole Reynolds' Oven Bag. “I told a friend to try this and he said, ‘No way.' I said ‘OK suit yourself. He came back a week later and said, ‘OK fine I did it and you were right.' It's perfect. The bag basically bastes the bird in its own fat and keeps it from drying out.” This episode of Happy Half Hour, we sit down with Brad at Wise Ox, the butcher shop he took over during the pandemic. The little shop in North Park is a throwback to the days when people knew their meat guy; could ask for different cuts. Starting in the ‘80s, the butchering process was shifted further and further away from public view; little butcher shops were kind of tucked into the back of a larger grocery outlet. “I'm from Jersey,” Brad says. “On the east coast there are all these little butcher shops where you get your meat. You know the guy, he knows where the meat comes from.” On the podcast, we pester Brad for all his Thanksgiving tips. We crush one of the best Philly cheesesteaks in the city.

Susan Feniger and Liz Lachman pop. I first encountered their mutual hurricane of wit at the Del Mar Wine + Food Festival. They were setting up their table to cook. It looked like a movie set. Lachman immediately cordoned me, made me one of her own. Both of them struck me as whip-smart, funny, alive. James Beard Award–winning chef Feniger and Emmy-winning filmmaker Lachman join us this week on Happy Half Hour, our podcast exploring the world and people of food. They talk life and art and their new documentary film, Susan Feniger: Forked.  They're in San Diego tomorrow to screen Forked at the Coronado Island Film Festival. They'll watch it with the crowd of food and film people, do a Q&A, cook some food, share some food, shoot the shit. They've been married for a long while, so Forked is Lachman capturing Feniger's life and creative process on film as only a partner could. All Feniger's defenses are dropped. We get to see one of the country's top chefs with her quirks and impulses laid out, vulnerable, as she takes on the maddening process of concepting a restaurant, then bringing it to life from scratch and begging the city to approve everything in a sane amount of time. Feniger has been to the mountain in the chef world. In the '80s, she was invited by her friend (and eventual restaurant partner) Mary Sue Milliken to not-so-casually break the gender barrier in a very fancy Chicago restaurant (the chef had told Milliken he didn't hire women in the kitchen, period—she proved him wrong and brought Feniger along).  The duo left to open their own restaurant in LA, Border Grill, which would become very famous and catnippy for food lovers. The duo—who bicker and play beautifully—were among the early stars of Food Network, making more than 400 episodes of their TV show, Too Hot Tamales. Feniger worked under Wolfgang Puck when he was merely a free-jazzing, mellow-cool Austrian chef making waves in LA. One day, when Border Grill's buzz in the city was just heating up, Julia Child walked in. She and Feniger became friends.  And then, after a long and fruitful working relationship with Milliken, Feniger decided it was time to do her own thing. She embarked on the seemingly endless, intricate, frustrating-as-hell road to opening another LA restaurant, Street, with a different creative partner.  This is what Forked documents. It straps us to Feniger's back as she grits and hustles to execute a new dream. And she burns the salmon. Dear god, she burns the salmon. Chefs like her occasionally burn salmon.  Susan Feinger: Forked will screen at Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. at the Coronado Island Film Festival.

They got weird with it, and it worked. Understory is a concept bar in the middle of a Noah's Ark-looking food hall called Sky Deck in Del Mar, where it is surrounded by nine sit-down restaurants. “Understories” are the natural world of shade-craving trees, soils, and organisms in any forest. And so, this bar—along with its own barrel-aged boozes (their Woodford Reserve is used to make a fantastic Old Fashioned)—is filled with plants and plants and plants and white pseudo-tree limbs that look both modern and apocalyptic. It has tables made out of trees millions of years old. When fossils become bars. It's the shared botanical booze vision of two San Diegans who've had success in other food realms. Scott Slater, an SDSU grad who launched his food empires in the many parking lots of Home Depots, eventually coalescing all that R&D into the better-burger enterprise known as Slater's 50/50 (half the burger patty was beef, the other half was ground up bacon—an oh-duh idea that a billion people couldn't believe they didn't think of first). He's since sold that brand and these are his new ideas. And his good friends Guillaume and Ludivine Ryon, Parisian expats who created one of the city's finest French bakeries, Le Parfait Paris. Food courts have gone ballistic. And it makes perfect sense. Meal monogamy is out. Gone is the tyranny of forcing four or six or two friends to pick one unifying restaurant that will somehow cater to all of their dinner desires (I believe that's called Cheesecake Factory, a wondrous place). With modern food courts like Sky Deck trade the Orange Julius and Cinnabons for omakase sushi spots and noodle restaurants and next-wave pizza places. Understory… well, that's just the loam moat of designer drinks in the middle of all this. And probably why it's become a hell of a first-date place in San Diego. After all, you have no idea what this new Tinder person truly wants in a meal or life, so bring them to a sea of choices and judge them by what they choose. Then un-awkward the whole night by drinking a craft cocktail in the loam. And, they have DJs (ambient chill, not oontz-oontz) on weekends. For this episode of Happy Half Hour, we sit down for drinks with Slater, Ryon, and the man who runs Understory's day-to-day, and un-awkwards a lot of lives, Mr. Chance Curtis.

Ain't easy being a vegan. Harder being a vegan in the Midwest in the ‘90s. Your eating options were the steamed broccoli at the steakhouse (hold the butter), some room-temp air, or learning to cook in self-defense. “That's why I learned to cook,” says Roy Elam, chef and owner of Donna Jean in Bankers Hill. He's wearing a death metal t-shirt in our conference room. Actually I could have that wrong. It may be doom core or emo-dream core. So many dooms and cores. Point is, he and David are really getting along on this episode of Happy Half Hour (David plays in a doom or core band you should check out, Weight of the Sun). In the September issue of San Diego Magazine, we tasked our food writer with creating the ultimate guide to plant-based restaurants, or plant-based friendly restaurants, in the city. Donna Jean is on that list. Roy's been vegan for a few decades, having trained under one of the most-respected plant-based chefs in the country—Matthew Kenney and Scott Winegard at Plant Food in Venice, before becoming head chef at SunCafe in Studio City. He got a call from a longtime friend and one of San Diego's most prominent plant-based restaurateurs, Mitch Wallis, who owns Evolution Fast Food and Plant Power. He had a restaurant space available, wanted to create a more modern, sleek, attractive place. Elam signed on, naming the restaurant Donna Jean in tribute to his mom, who he lost to cancer. “When she was diagnosed a second time, the doctor gave her a lot of recommendations for foods that would help,” he says. “I was helping her cook, and realized most of them were plant-based. It made me realize, ‘Why wait until something bad happens? Why not just eat more plants?” spots. “I don't even want to be known for plant-based food,” he says. “I want to be known for just food.” For this episode, Matt comes in and talks music and food and plant-based and family. When you go to Donna Jean, try his pizza. He learned to make the dough by sitting at the counter of Tribute Pizza, asking questions, just watching. He says the cooks there have enormous patience. He's on his 100th iteration of his dough recipe. We eat it in house amid some conversation about POD and how many hardcore bands come from church backgrounds. It's got a garlicky white wine sauce, spinach, cashew ricotta, plant-based mozzarella, spinach, pistachio, and preserved lemon-infused olive oil. It's named “Thunderkiss 65,” a classic White Zombie song. All his pizzas are named after bands parents hate.

On this week's Happy Half Hour podcast… Pablo Becker named his new restaurant Fish Guts. That's the kind of humor and gall you need to make it in life. It's gonna make me like you. It helps that he's using the 90 percent local seafood, the best damn things pulled off the boats a few blocks from his Barrio Logan fish sandwich-and-taco shop. “It's crazy to me that you have the best seafood in the world right over there,” he says, pointing out of the SDM podcast studio window at the bay. “And 80-something percent of restaurants here import their fish.” I bite his sandwich. Tell him it reminds me of a Filet-O-Fish if a Filet-O-Fish used fresh local rock fish and brioche buns and the best ingredients from local farms. And if the Filet-O-Fish, all due respect, was twenty or thirty times better. It's a fantastic sandwich, beer-battered and slathered in a just-spicy-enough Mexican tartar sauce (seared serranos, Mexican herbs). “My restaurant is like 500-square-feet,” he says. “It's me, a plancha, and a deep fryer.” That tiny space is Pablo's comfort zone. After it all fell apart, this kind of heads-down cooking is where he found his groove again. A San Diego native (his parents moved here from Mexico City), Pablo had been part of the opening team on Isla inside Vegas' then-newly redesigned Treasure Island. It was widely hailed as one of the best Mexican restaurants in the state. He learned restaurant operations and cooking under his famous chef cousins, Patricio and Richard Sandoval. Richard is one of the most revered Mexican chefs in the world, with 60-plus restaurants flung across the globe. In 2007, Pablo opened one of central San Diego's first upscale, CIA-style Mexican restaurants, El Vitral. It was terrible timing, signing his lease at the top of the market when the economy was going nuts, and just months before that same economy took a floundering dive into a deep recession. “After it closed, I was going through some stuff,” he says. “My cousin called me and said, ‘We're opening a restaurant in Chicago, why don't you come out for a while?' I said, ‘Nah man I'm good.' And he said, ‘No, your dad already bought you a plane ticket you're coming next week.'” Pablo went, figured he'd stay a month, brush the dirt off. He'd eat in their restaurant. He started bugging the cooks—nearly all first-generation Mexican-Americans—to let him cut a few things, tinker on the line. He told his cousin he was ready to get back in the game. His cousin pointed to one of the multiple restaurants they were opening, figured Pablo could run one of them. Be the boss. He was an operator, had all the skills. “No, I want to be a line cook,” Pablo told him. And for five years, a very good restaurateur just cooked. “I learned more about my Mexican culture and roots from those guys in the kitchen than I had learned all my life,” he says. “It was the best five years of my life.” Last year, he came home to San Diego. He opened Fish Guts—a simple, honest fish sandwich and taco shop in Barrio Logan from a guy with a hell of a pedigree. His mom occasionally comes down and helps out. Walk in, and you'll probably see Pablo in that tiny space—his plancha, his fryer, his prep nook—just like the space he had as a line cook in Chicago, the space that brought him back.

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 happyhalfhour@sdmag.com 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!