A Per Se Alum Opens a Bodega and Ozempic is Bumming Out Restaurant Culture

#419 You've barely touched your fries. Why do you look hungry and not hungry at the same time? The big discussion on this week's episode: Ozempic is the wobbly, wet-gremlin Yelp commenter who wants to rain on America's happy restaurant parade. We re-air the interview you probably skipped the first time we had it a year ago because it sounded like tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory stuff. But now, the Ozempic effect is real. Almost every restaurateur who talks to food editor and Happy Half Hour host Troy Johnson is expressing the same thing. Makes sense. If 10, 8, or 1,000 percent of Americans are on a diet drug that makes them eat or drink less, it stands to reason it's going to affect businesses who sell eating and drinking. In food and drink news: San Diego's most iconic restaurant buildings in North Park sat vacant for seven years. Now a chef who trained at Jean-Georges is opening the first San Diego location of Bacari in the former Urban Solace space.  In La Jolla, you're getting Jaybird Superette, a bodega and pastries and snacks and wine and cheese shop from a baker from Thomas Keller's three-star Michelin, Per Se. San Diego legend George's at the Cove has completed its rooftop dining remodel and reopens this week for a new era from chef Trey Foshee. And two of the city's top young chefs—multiple Beard Award nominee Tara Monsod (Animae/Le Coq) and David Sim (Kingfisher) are trading places (kind of) for a special two-week collab. Is the Ozempic effect real? Listen to what great San Diego reporter Claire Trageser found in her research. Follow Claire HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine.