Podcasts about cucina urbana

Grace Hood, wine educator and certified sommelier, and Robert Tas review the wine list at Cucina Urbana where they serve contemporary Italian cuisine with a focus on California seasonality and the bounty of local farms. Their wine program features 200+ labels from around the world, with an emphasis on Italian and California varietals and Grace peruses the wine list to find some hidden gems, including a white Bordeaux that has been described as “liquid gold” a fabulous Cremant, which equals Champagne if bubbles are on your mind, and a unique, pinot noir rose from Sancerre.   Wines reviewed include: 2020 Gruner Veltliner, Manni Nossing Winery,  Alto Adige 2017 Mayacamas, Mt. Veeder, Napa 2019 Grenache one from the Giovanni Montisci Vineyard, Sardinia For more information on today's episode, and the wines you love to love, visit www.corkrules.com.

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.

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

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

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

On this episode of NBC 7’s Scene in San Diego podcast, we speak with celebrity chef Brian Malarkey about how he’s running his local restaurants amid the pandemic and how his team recently rebooted their downtown San Diego spot, Animae.In addition to Animae, we’ve seen a few other local eateries revamping and rethinking their concepts during the pandemic. It’s a lot of change. This includes Cucina Urbana, who has temporarily moved out of Bankers Hill to go “camping.”But while some places have been able to shift gears during the pandemic, other restaurants simply can’t keep going. The latest permanent closure in San Diego’s food scene is Tiger! Tiger! Tavern in North Park, which really made its mark over its nine years in business.For more content from The Scene, visit this website. For more content from Eater San Diego, click here. And, to read our collaboration content with Eater and The Scene every week, click here.The Scene in San Diego Feat. Eater Podcast is hosted by NBC 7’s Monica Garske and Eater San Diego’s Candice Woo, and produced by NBC 7’s Matthew Lewis.

"Social Club" con Simone Dinoi e Camillo Demichelis. Ospiti : Laura (rist. Gigi Cucina Urbana), Mario Giunta (giornalista Sky Sport)

Introduction to wine tasting.. as I listened to the audio of this late night last night after a long day I was stoked to hear how many gems Josh Orr dropped during this session!! Invaluable for anyone serving wine in ANY CAPACITY.   We hosted a tasting on Thursday for a group of local industry peeps including Herb and Wood, Juniper and Ivy, Del Frisco’s, Cucina Urbana, Hilton, and Born and Raised.  The premise was let’s approach wine tasting with as much practicality as possible and build our vocabulary around the act of tasting and presenting wine.   Listen to Josh’s approach on tasting bubbles, the differences between Cava, Prosecco, and Champagne.  What defines a champagne; what are lees and why they matter. Off dry whites vs. neutral and high acid vs. rich and oaked; how do you describe them? What do they pair with? How do you surprise and delight a guest with some of these wines?  How do you navigate the confusing concept of sweetness (or lack of) in wine?  Why diversity in your list matters but why the ability to recognize what your market is asking for and how to deliver on that is crucial… Tasting reds… what do ‘impact aromas’ mean?  If you’re assessing a wine quickly, what are things that you are looking for to help define this wine accurately?  Basics surrounding ‘fortified’ wines, flavor profiles, and how to describe them.  Compare ruby, tawny and vintage port with madeira.

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! In the guest seat this week is Jason O’Bryan, bar manager at The Lion’s Share. Jason also recently joined Service Animals, a new beverage consulting company and developed the drink menu for The Florence in Poway. Jason talked about how The Lion’s Share has remained successful despite its hard-to-find location and upcoming changes on the menu, as well as what it was like opening a bar in suburbia. He also talked about Tortoise, an underground fine-dining pop-up restaurant he founded with his wife (who was a sommelier at Addison) that has only 16 seats available for its monthly event. Jason’s pick for Two People, $50 was Cantina Mayahuel, while the staff’s picks this week were The Taco Stand, Wayfarer Bread and The Smoking Goat. This week in Hot Plates, we talked about the impending closure of Paesano in North Park—an Italian restaurant that’s been in the neighborhood for 50 years—and what’s going in its place. Kensington is getting a new South American restaurant, Pachamama, which promises to have a menu that’s 100 percent organic. Consortium Holdings is working on opening another restaurant downtown while it renovates Neighborhood, J & Tony's Discount Cured Meats and Negroni Warehouse. Cucina Urbana has a new executive chef, Tim Kolanko, who was the founding chef at A.R. Valentien at The Lodge at Torrey Pines. The Hot Topic again is restaurant surcharges, which were recently back in the news: Paradise Point Resort in Mission Bay agreed to pay almost $35,000 to the City of San Diego in fines over its surcharges to customers. We have a phone number for this podcast now! We're going to end each podcast with a question for our listeners, and you can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave us a message. You can also email us at HappyHalfHour@sdmag.com. You can give us your recommendations for Two People, $50. It’s your last chance to join us at the Best of North County party, happening this Sunday! You don’t want to miss this party at the Park Hyatt Aviara where you get unlimited bites and sips from all the new and noteworthy spots in North County.

This week we’re back at Fernside, the new South Park cocktail bar and eatery from Christian Siglin (Bracero, The Grass Skirt, Cutwater Spirits), Shane Gerde (UnderBelly, Cutwater Spirits), and Adam Cook (Bluefoot Bar & Lounge) and also one of the participating restaurants in this year’s SoNo Fest & Chili Cook-Off. In Hot Plates, we’re talking about more ramen coming to Hillcrest, Fashion Valley’s North Italia restaurant led by former Waypoint Public Executive Chef Rich Sweeney, a new mezcal bar that’s landed in Old Town, and awhiskey slash steakhouse spot coming to Gaslamp next year. Our guest is Alicia Bell, the District Executive Chef of Palomar Health and winner of the People’s Choice Award at our Top Doctors party. The San Diego native and classically trained chef tells us about going from “cooking for rich people” to cooking in hospitals, how her mother’s cancer diagnosis changed her career path, and why she wants people to eat at a hospital for lunch. Plus, she gives us the scoop on the award-winning tacos—and shares the recipe below! In Two People/$50, we’re recommending Cucina Urbana, Carnitas’ Snack Shack, Tacos el Gordo, and The Cork and Craft.

Chef Frankie Becerra of Cucina Urbana joins Nick as they chat about pizzas, polenta, pasta and the upcoming San Diego Restaurant Week menu. In the Farmer's Market Report, Nick is joined by Joe Herrmann and Brandy Reynolds! Today's report features a few new items (like squash) that hit the Farmer's Market this week, along with the last of the summer produce to be phased out! Also, Ashley Brophy joins the podcast to give the insider's scoop on SD Restaurant Week!

Ted Cochrane (@WheatandWater) of Wheat & Water  Website: http://wheatandwater.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WheatAndWater/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wheatandwater/ Ole Hickory Pits: www.olehickorypits.com/ Weber Grills: www.weber.com/US/en/grills Del Mar BBQ Championship: http://arlie-que.com/event_detail.php?event=10200 Article on Wheat & Water: http://www.lajollabluebook.com/blog/first-look-inside-wheat-and-water-la-jolla/ Bird Rock's Wheat & Water - The New Neighborhood Hangout: https://sandiego.eater.com/2016/12/6/13855404/wheat-water-la-jolla-boulevard-pizza-cocktails-bird-rock#0 Eater San Diego Article: https://sandiego.eater.com/2017/1/26/14404590/happy-hour-wheat-water-bird-rock-coffee-barcon-miho - Ted Cochrane, Owner of Wheat & Water located in La Jolla, San Diego - Fathers Day at Cali Comfort BBQ was the busiest day in history (see below picture from the end of the night) - Ted went to La Jolla High School in San Diego - Worked at El Pescador Fish Market & Restaurant in La Jolla: http://elpescadorfishmarket.com/ - Fern from Fern's BBQ (episode #001) worked on Fathers Day Sunday (see below) - "Work hard and you can live a good life, you can travel the world"  - Expanding too fast, trying to do too many things can ruin a business very easily - Ted wanted to find some good pizza in La Jolla but felt like he never could, so he was inspired to start his own pizza restaurant - Fun Fact: Gray hairs come in faster when you own a business - Ted envisioned Wheat & Water to be Wood-fired, roasted, charred pizza in a rustic setting - So much business turnover in La Jolla because rent prices are so high - Ted's biz partner, Doug Ritz - awesome biz partner - Hardest part about opening up was raising the money for the restaurant, He tried every method in the books - PROVE YOUR CONCEPT when trying to raise money - Pick a small location or find a restaurant that’s not doing well and see if there's any opportunity… - If you make good, quality food, people will come! - "LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION" - a wrong/old theory - "ATTITUDE ATTITUDE ATTITUDE - QUALITY QUALITY" - the new theory  - Beaumonts Eatery in La Jolla: www.beaumontseatery.com/ - Birdrock Coffee Roasters: birdrockcoffee.com/ - Tacos El Gordo: tacoselgordobc.com/ - Getting the restaurant open wasn’t easy for WW, it took 2.5 years to open the restaurant - You will hear the question, “when’s your restaurant going to be open?” all the time from friends and family - Raising money is so difficult, W&W was able to raise $1mil to open up in La Jolla - Wheat & Water has 30 taps, 6 for wines, 1 with cold brew coffee and the rest are beer   - Wheat & Water likes to do beer takeovers - Takeovers with Green Flash, Alpine, Societe, and Mike Hess - Don’t try and do "too much" too fast when just opening up, take time to see what works - Having a good restaurant atmosphere/vibe is very important, just having good food isn't enough these days - W&W is focused on building a lifestyle brand online  - W&W is on UberEats and GrubHub, is that a smart idea? Too much? - Services like GrubHub, etc are the exact inverse of catering - Have systems in place to keep your restaurant profitable - Restaurant business = perishable products / a very hard biz to keep open - RSI systems https://www.rsiweb.com/ - Wheat & Water has great wood-fired pizzas using white oak Double-split wood - California firewood californiafirewoodsd.com/ - New pizza called “La Pizza” chili verde, pork shoulder "MEXICO ON A PIZZA" - Tacos del Yaqui in Rosarito https://www.yelp.com/biz/tacos-el-yaqui-rosarito - W&W newest chef 'Chef Cristian Fiol' - has worked at Cucina Urbana & Galaxy Taco - Fun Fact: Valley Farm Market is looking to get into La Jolla for a second location - Live feed available of the farm where VFM gets their meat to show “how the meat was raised” - "Always be ready to educate the consumer on your product" - W&W used Guerilla Marketing in the beginnin...

“A toast to the restaurant community, especially in California…My toast is that we all find a harmonious relationship, keep each other safe and keep each other profitable.” - Sara Stroud “When you open a restaurant it’s like having a heart attack. You recover, but you’re never quite the same.” - David Cohn, Owner of Cohn Restaurant Group, San Diego Debi catches up with Sara Stroud, co-owner of Carnitas Snack Shack in San Diego. In this episode, they discuss whether you can teach hospitality, bosses good and bad, wages and tips in the restaurant business and the cutest pig in San Diego. Sara Stroud is the co-founder and Director of Brand Management of Carnitas' Snack Shack. Growing up in Illinois, Sara began working in the restaurant industry at the age of 15. Working at a small Washington DC batch bourbon/cigar bar in 1999, she decided to move out West to San Diego where she worked for the Cohn Restaurant group, managing Kensington Grill and Cucina Urbana restaurants, as well as Wine Steals. In 2011,  Sara Stroud partnered with her now husband, Chef Hanis Cavin, to open Carnitas’ Snack Shack, their first joint venture in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego. The “Snack Shack,” as it’s affectionately called, serves up thoughtfully-sourced, pork- centric American cuisine and local craft beers in a fun, no-fuss environment. Over the years Sara and Chef Hanis (and Carnitas–their pet pig!) have earned the respect of their colleagues through hard work, creativity, and dedication to their community. Inspired to share their passion for food and life with more people, the king and queen of pork launched a Snack Shack on the Embarcadero waterfront in Spring 2016, offering a full bar program and panoramic views of the San Diego harbor.Find more about Sara’s Snack Shack’s at the link below and email here directly at sara@carnitassnackshack.com https://carnitassnackshack.com “I love DC, it’s perfect ‘cause it’s just that little bit south of the Mason Dixon Line, the weather is not as brutal…I like the people, I LOVED the culture.” - Sara Stroud