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EPISODE · Jan 8, 2026 · 39 MIN

San Diego's Roast Beef Awakening

from San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour · host San Diego Magazine

#415 On the latest Happy Half Hour, host Troy Johnson traces a proper Sunday roast into its evolution as a distinctly American handheld obsession. Following the breadcrumbs leads straight to Big Jim's Roast Beef in Pacific Beach, which is owned by today's guest, James Jones.    He's a North Shore Boston transplant who brought the "super beef" to our fair shores. His version has a griddled onion roll, rare- to mid-rare beef, and the cult-favorite James River barbecue sauce shipped in from back East. We also get a rapid-fire history lesson featuring British roast-beef nationalism, refrigerated rail cars, the invention of the meat slicer, and L.A.'s French dip origin story. Johnson makes the case that the piled-high roast beef sandwich is top-notch, cross-generational gustatory engineering. Follow Big Jim HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jan 8, 2026

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San Diego's Roast Beef Awakening

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