San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

It's Switchfoot Bro-Am week. The epic, annual, San Diego-est thing—one of the best free beach parties in the country that does good for kids who need a community to rally around them. Doesn't just raise money, but makes the kids part of it. For this episode of Happy Half Hour, we asked Switchfoot lead singer Jon Foreman and drummer Chad Butler to take us to one of their favorite local spots—and they manifested poke bowls at Fish 101. Bro-Am is more rare and awe-striking than most people realize. A quick story. Before the Grammys, before they sold 10 million-plus records, the north county rock band took their first international tour to Australia in 2005. If you know anything about Switchfoot, the following story makes sense.  On the flight home, one of their first instincts was, essentially, "OK this might be the biggest thing we ever do. San Diego showed up for us and kinda gave this to us. So what are we gonna do for the city?" They decided to stage a huge free concert at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, where they grew up surfing. They used the spectacle as a way to raise money for unhoused, at-risk, underserved kids across San Diego County. They had no idea about city permits. They were in way over their heads. But they pulled it off. Twenty-two years later, Bro-Am has raised about $3 million for various organizations that help kids in various ways. Tens of thousands of people show up every year. Famous friends have joined in—Jason Mraz, Lauren Daigle, OK Go, John Rzeznik of Goo Goo Dolls, and members of the Foo Fighters. But again, it's about the kids. In 2024, Switchfoot brought Rady Children's patient Avila on stage and served as her backing band to sing her own song, "Live It Well." The Eastlake Top Choir got onstage to sing "Love Alone Is Worth the Fight." Special stuff. The morning of the festival is a group surf and surf contest with the Challenged Athletes Foundation. There are vendors and exhibits and crowds and four bands: this year it's Switchfoot, Sun Room, Telephone Friends, and local band Kimiku (winner of the annual "Battle for the Bro-Am" friendly competition). As for Fish 101, it's packed because it nails the local soul. Opened as a little Leucadia spot along Highway 101 by two friends and partners—restaurateur Ray Lowe and chef/surfer/spearfisherman John Park—it essentially distilled the laidback foreverness of North County surf culture into a casual fish shop that did it right—fish from local boats, treated simply and treated well. Now they've opened a second shop in Cardiff. While filming the show, the legendary skate photographer J. Grant Brittain stopped in for a bite. The artist who designed Bubble Gum Surf Wax's logo popped in. Pro surfers Jacob "Zeke" Szekely and Finn McGill casually crushed food on the patio, skaters Cordano Russell and Nyjah Huston showed up. None of this was planned (except for the show). Just kind of a usual afternoon at Fish 101. Over poke and a killer grilled filet sandwich (lemon aioli + toasted Sadie Rose brioche), Foreman and Butler talk about the feel-good magic of Bro-Am, the similar quasi-mystical release of live rock shows and surfing. We also name our favorite fish tacos in the city—from Barrio Logan to Oceanside and Hollywood Park. The festival's fundraising night is tonight, June 11 (if you can't make it, you can donate at broam.org—the first $75,000 will be matched and doubled). Then the big free festival is June 13, all day starting with the group surfs at 7 a.m. This year, BroAm is raising money for six kid-focused nonprofits in San Diego: Rady Children's Health — Pediatric care, research, education, and advocacy. Feeding San Diego — Hunger relief through food rescue and nutritious meals. A Step Beyond — Dance, education, academic support, and family services for underserved youth. Challenged Athletes Foundation — Adaptive athletic opportunities for people with physical disabilities. Monarch School — Education and support for students impacted by homelessness. Save The Music Foundation — Music education access for students, schools, and communities.   Follow Switchfoot HERE. Discover more at San Diego Magazine. 

The chef and owner of Luigi's shares his journey from opening a small bar above Lake Como to lines forming around the block in Golden Hill for his pies. At 23, Luigi Agostini left his hometown of Varese, Italy for America, finding his way to San Francisco in search of adventure and new beginnings. Living with 17 other strangers, he soon began working in restaurant kitchens across the city and eventually found his niche in making pizza. From Los Angeles to Hawaii, and eventually San Diego, he honed his craft before opening his first pizzeria in Poway in 2002. It was an instant hit. Six years later, when Guy Fieri walked in to record Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, lines began to form around the block to try Luigis' pizzas. Today, the shop continues to be one of the city's favorite places for a pie. In the episode, Agostini shares the lore surrounding his Crime Scene pizza made with meatballs, ricotta, and sauce on top. We also chat about Venim Locus, the Japanese-Mediterranean wine bar he opened next door to his Ocean Beach pizzeria through the back of an old tattoo shop, where a former Nobu chef de cuisine who showed up during Covid makes his own bread, butter, and pickles, and a mix-and-match charcuterie program.  The episode ends with a San Diego pizza fantasy draft including Tribute Pizza, TNT, Long Island Mike's, Amalfi Cucina Italiana, Milo's, Pizza Kaiju, Wayfarer Bakery, Catania in La Jolla, and Love Letters Pizza on El Cajon Boulevard.

The border is a huge part of why San Diego's food culture took off. The kitchen exchange of chefs and ideas and burning wood and seafood acid parties across San Ysidro built a Mexican-American style that's unlike anywhere else in the US.  That bordertown verve is the topic of conversation for the dinner party this week on Happy Half Hour. Hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant welcome back Claudette Zepeda—Imperial Beach–raised, border-crossing kid, plus Top Chef and Iron Chef Mexico alum—to talk through the stories in her debut cookbook Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States, out June 2.  They discuss how cartel violence around 2008 accidentally transformed San Diego's food scene when Mexican chefs came a few miles north and brought live fire, ash, char, and high-acid cooking into North Park and Little Italy kitchens with them. Claudette shares about manifesting her way into Bracero (the short-lived, highly acclaimed Mexican restaurant that earned a James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant in America), and how getting fired forced her hand into a new way of cooking. In food news, Urban Kitchen Group's new Bankers Hill restaurant debuts in 2027, Lucien earns a Michelin Guide recommendation, Fleurette launches chef Travis Swikard's first-ever tasting menu, Sugarfish opens in Little Italy, and the story of how Candy Land was invented in a Talmadge bungalow by Eleanor Abbott, who died in 1988 with $1.8 million in royalties and never once left her house. Discover more at San Diego Magazine HERE. Follow Claudette HERE. 

Leucadia's charm is in no small part because someone planted eucalyptus trees for railroad ties, but that wood turned out to be useless. So they just let those peely giants grow and grow, which is why the Leucadia stretch of PCH is now a majestic leafy canopy into what Troy calls "the mood"—not a city, but a state of mind. Spiritually Spanish, no sidewalks, dirt under your toenails, more than its share of people who may or may not use crystals as financial advisors. Leucadia's pretty grand. Plus, the neighborhood used to be called "Merle," which we can all agree is fairly fantastic. This "mood" made it the perfect setting for a Bebemos Golden Hour at Mario Guerra's Spanish tapas spot on North Coast Highway.  Happy Half Hour co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant, along with Bebemos co-founder Preston Caffrey, indulge in a Bebemos Golden Hour and Spanish tapas at Valentina. Valentina GM Todd Henderson and Executive Chef Enrique Ñol walk the HHH crew through the menu: Potato pave done Thomas Keller-style in twelve to eighteen layers and fried into what they cheekily calls patatas bravas; jamón ibérico croquettes that give last night's dinner a second (and better) life… and, tequila; a matrimonio of salt- and vinegar-cured anchovies that pairs well with vermouth… and, tequila; pan con tomate that arrives as a Catalonia versus the rest of Spain political argument (plus tequila); salmorejo with blue crab; mushroom migas with an egg yolk the color of 1980s Tang. The crew also clinked champagne courtesy of Preston's wife, Shiloh, of We Drink Bubbles.  Tune in to find out which dish won the Leucadia fantasy draft, why Valentina's vibe and food are unique, and which of its dishes pairs best with Bebemos, the tequila of San Diego. Discover more at San Diego Magazine. Follow Bebemos HERE. Follow Valentina HERE. 

On this episode of Happy Half Hour, Relic Bakery owners Samantha Bird and Derek Hadden pulled up with a selection of their best fare including Crunchwrap Supreme croissants, paté en croûte, an XO sausage wrapped in laminated dough, and a tahini strawberry cookie. Derek and Samantha share their Midwestern pandemic love story and discuss their culinary training in Copenhagen which includes a bike crash outside of Noma (Chef Rene Redzepi's restaurant) that remains the most expensive night in bakery history. We also learn how the pair ended up in a 600-square-foot San Diego apartment with butter baked into the walls and an $800 electricity bill.  Offering a wholesale delivery service out of their butter-baked apartment (they bribed their neighbors with croissants), they soon graduated to a ghost kitchen. Last fall, they opened a proper café on 15th Street in East Village with a beer and wine license.  Listen to or watch the full episode now learn more about how Relic Bakery became one of San Diego's best.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine. Follow Relic Bakery HERE. 

The Blink-182 muse who grew up feeding Kelly Slater and Rob Machado at his mom's North Shore Hawaii house debuts Breakers Cafe, Bar & Grill Benji Weatherley walked into San Diego Magazine and immediately made everyone in the room feel like they'd known him their whole lives—which, if you grew up surfing in San Diego, you basically did.  The Momentum Generation kid; the guy whose mom essentially ran a free hotel for Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, and Shane Dorian while they were terrorizing Pipeline; the dude Tom DeLonge wrote "Mutt" about while they were roommates in a PB apartment—that guy is now a restaurateur in Encinitas.  Breakers Cafe, Bar & Grill is part Hawaiian comfort food joint, part surf museum, and part live music venue with three stages and a speakeasy called the Hideout that you get into by saying "snob" backwards. But the road to get here was genuinely brutal. Weatherley sold his house in Leucadia to save the original Breakers in Hawaii, but it ended up closing anyway.  When he eventually moved to Encinitas, he began work on his new restaurant, deciding to remodel the space by hand and opening it in July 2025. An eviction notice arrived two weeks after, right when daily sales hit $7,000 and was followed by a battle over his liquor license. After agreeing to teach hula dancing, his liquor license was approved and Breakers Cafe, Bar & Grill became a reality. During the episode he also shares why cooking saved him more than surfing ever did. Tune in to hear the whole tale.

Happy Half Hour co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant pull up to Moe's by the Beach for a live episode with two guests who, between them, have thrown some of the most legendary parties Mission Beach has ever seen.  Eric Lightstein—who gave San Diego Cane's, the city's scrappiest and most beloved rock club—now runs this steakhouse out of the old Saska's space, and he's grinding his prime steak trimmings into a Brie burger that stops conversation cold. Bebemos co-founder Preston Caffrey also joins us to celebrate its one-year anniversary with a bar crawl that starts at the Waverly and ends somewhere nobody will fully remember. Finally, in food news: Michelin is coming to town June 24, Mastiff is out at the North Park Beer Company, and somebody in La Mesa put up a full Blockbuster sign on April Fool's Day and broke actual journalism. In our carnivore fantasy draft we discuss oxtail at Trust, smoked duck at Kingfisher, lamb barbacoa in Chula Vista, salt and pepper wings at Royal Mandarin, short rib at Market Del Mar.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine. Follow Bebemos HERE. 

Some festivals happen because a city needs them. Others because one guy walked into a bar in Louisiana, saw someone playing accordion with their whole body, and never recovered. And thankfully, the latter is how Gator by the Bay became San Diego's largest Louisiana-themed festival. It returns to Spanish Landing park May 8 through 11. On this week's Happy Half Hour, co-founder Peter Oliver explains how a trip through Lafayette and New Orleans in the late '80s turned into a lifelong obsession with Louisiana music, dance, and culture. Its first version launched in 2001 with eight bands, a gospel tent, and about 2,000 people showing up more or less out of nowhere, Oliver shares. It also lost money. So they did it again. Then again. Somewhere along the way, the true believers stuck, they folded the blues community in, and the city got itself a waterfront party, Louisiana-style. Today, it features more than 100 performances across seven stages, dance lessons, parades, a musical petting zoo, and 10,000 pounds of crawfish trucked in from Louisiana because, "California crawfish just don't cut it." If you've ever been elbow-deep at a proper boil—corn, sausage, steam, spice, mudbugs, and somebody telling you to suck the head—you already know this is not a cuisine that rewards restraint. Also joining the episode is Derek Boykin of Beignet Belly, one of the festival's vendors and proof that fried dough can absolutely become a life path. Boykin—originally from Oakland, CA, but whose family's roots run through Baton Rouge—started tinkering with beignets after deciding he could make a better one himself. Now he and his wife Maria run the business as a pop-up, serving hot, powdered-sugar-covered pillows of joy at Oceanside Sunset Market and events around Southern California. Finally, Panda Fest hits Waterfront Park April 25 and 26, the San Diego Zoo's Food, Wine & Brew returns May 2, and Corbin's Q has officially reemerged as Barlando in Rolando.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine. 

"I've wanted to be a chef since I was 4 years old. I'm a humble dude with a skateboard in the back of my truck. I'll stand behind the ingredients and let them shine before I do." This is why Travis Swikard has brought a plate of lightly poached local veggies to the Happy Half Hour studio this week. It's both not what you expect from a chef who's trained under some of the biggest global names in French cooking, and exactly what you'd expect from a San Diego native. When he was working as the right hand of famed chef Daniel Boulud in NYC, Daniel would order the very best raw ingredients he could find, as chefs do. Swikard would unpack the boxes of in-season fruit and veggies. On the side of that box often said the same thing: "San Diego, California." So this plate of veggies—served with garlic aioli that's aerated with a PSI machine into a bowl of aioli fluff, then dusted with dehydrated herbs de Provence—is everything when it comes to explaining the lighter French food at Fleurette. Haurkei turnips from JR Organics. First asparagus of the season from Stehly Farms. And the Cheetos-orange badger flame beets, Nantes carrots, and Pink Beauty carrots? From some guy named Jared in Lakeside. "These carrots taste like they took the souls of other carrots and made a supernatural heirloom carrot," says HHH host, Troy Johnson. Fleurette is not the buttery butter stereotype of French food (a kind of valid but unfair casting of French heritage, since they also gave us lighter, more ingredient-focused movements like cuisine minceur and nouvelle cuisine). Fleurette is "cuisine du soleil," and butter is barely in the house. It's lighter, olive oilier, seafood- and veg-forward—world-class ingredients tweaked just enough but also left enough alone. "Some type of food should taste like it's been kissed by the sun," says Swikard. Of course, since this is HHH and not a graduate seminar in regional French cuisine, the conversation eventually took a hard and proper San Diego turn into Travis's and Troy's favorite fish tacos, burritos, sandwiches, and other handheld seafood favorites from across San Diego—shout outs to Oscar's, Fish Guts, Tunaville, TJ Oyster Bar, and other places where do it messy and perfect.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine. Follow Travis HERE.

Brad Wise of Trust, Fort Oak, and Rare Society talks restaurant wins and terrors and names the best sandwiches in San Diego.   "We were scraping by, praying that we were going to have a busy weekend to make rent and—not only that, but payroll," recalls chef Brad Wise. Thank god his food was good and his wife had a job. It's been 10 years since his first existential terrors as a restaurateur. A decade of woodsmoke in nice places. When Wise and team first opened Trust around the corner from the main drag in Hillcrest, there wasn't anything like it. I'm sure there were outliers, but it sure felt like the only San Diego restaurants setting wood on fire were pizza joints and barbecue stands. Trust was San Diego's first to do Culinary Institute–style cookery over a blaze. Charred leeks. Smoked whole fish. Burning pineapples for cocktails. There is science behind the charms of this approach (woodsmoke gives off 400 or so more phenols and flavor compounds than food cooked on gas). And now it feels like every top restaurant has a pile of wood next to the kitchen. But back then, Trust was alone on that fire island. And it nearly didn't make it. Word eventually gets around. I named Trust my "Best New Restaurant" that year, because it was a perfect mix of cave people food and hoity-toity food. Eight years later, I named him my chef of the year because he'd dotted the map with some pretty great concepts—Fort Oak, Rare Society, Cardellino, Wise Ox, and the brand new smokepoint-French brasserie, À L'ouest. He's our guest in the studio for our Happy Half Hour podcast this week. In honor of him being a Jersey deli kid, we do a fantasy draft of our favorite sandwiches from across San Diego.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine. Check out Brad Wise HERE. 

A few years back, Accursio Lota—2017 World Pasta Champion and chef-owner of Cori Pastificio and the new Dora Ristorante which was named for his nonna—told us he raised snails under his family's staircase as a child in Sicily. Fattened them up on raw spaghetti and fresh herbs, eventually ending their journey on this planet with some butter and garlic. Turns out this was an entire neighborhood kid thing. Some kids ride bikes. Some puree their brains playing video games. Kids in Lota's neighborhood waited for the rain to come, then went around collecting a very Sicilian version of escargot. "There would be all of us kids out there with our grocery bags," he tells us on this week's episode of Happy Half Hour. "We'd all have bags full of snails." Lota was just awarded the Tre Forchette from Gambero Rosso (essentially the Michelin Guide of Italy). It's the very highest honor you can get as an Italian chef, equivalent to three Michelin stars. Lota's the only San Diego chef to receive the honor, and one of only 11 chefs outside of Italy. He brings some focaccia into SDM. We eat, we laugh, we talk about snails, art, the history of food, and why we should give a damn.

It is now time, when hot dogs become communion wafers once again. The weather is Joe Musgrove's elbow. The Fernando Tatis baseball dance-swagger reenters. He is the most exciting right fielder in the history of the game, almost appearing on every play as if he has no idea to execute the task in front of him—until he defies gravity and pulls a baseball out of the the beginning of space, then throws a 600 mile per hour strike to catch someone trying to steal. And for this episode of Happy Half Hour, we take the "Bebemos Golden Hour" tour into a Padres pregame classic—Bub's at the Ballpark. It started with Todd Brown moving to San Diego in a Winnebago, selling his wings at a gas station in Oceanside. Eventually he opened Bub's Dive Bar in Pacific Beach. Most of us leave PB when we're 28—when we look around at all the new ab muscles and feel like a senior citizen—but Todd and his wife stayed for 25 years and still own Waterbar in the 'hood. They opened this second offshoot in the historic Simon Levy building next to Petco Park in 2011.  And every game day, it is a scene. The Animal House of baseball joy. They've got tots and they've got kale. They have Steakums on the menu. Steakums, bless. It's like a bald eagle with a heart of a Ford F150. Every reasonably American ballpark has a place like this… a big, durable playground lacquered within an inch of its life to protect us from our excitable spillage. Its soul is Budweiser, but they've got everything on tap except pretension.  On March 25, Tony Gwynn Jr. will come to Bub's to hang with the Padres people, and kick off his new partnership with San Diego's upstart tequila people, Bebemos. Tony's sharing his family's recipe for a pineapple margarita that doesn't taste like a glass of insulin. Nearly an agua fresca. Co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant, Bebemos co-founder Preston, and Todd debate the greatest baseball food from restaurants across the city. That is to say, the best hot dogs—from Doggos Gus to Lefty's to Nason's Beer Hall to some random, open-all-night place Jackie found in downtown—plus some nachos and ice cream. Play ball.

All due respect to their highly sustainable role in the ecosystem and feeding the world, but sardines served as a dish on their own can be a significant challenge to your ability to enjoy eating as a concept. They are the seafoodiest seafood—as if the ocean itself was poured into a pot, reduced into a deeply intense stock, and served in tiny-fish form. But at The Fishery in Pacific Beach, chef-partner Mike Reidy—who cooked under two-star Michelin chef Josiah Citrin at Melisse, then was chef de cuisine at Callie for a spell—is serving one of the best versions I've tasted in a long while. Two of them served whole, blistered, glistening with olive oil and salsa verde, served with sourdough from Wayfarer Bakery.  The restaurant is the offshoot of local seafood supplier, Pacific Shellfish, started by fifth-generation San Diego fisherman Judd Brown and his wife, Maryanne. Their idea was to connect local boats to local restaurants. They originally set up shop in Barrio Logan in 1978. The city imminent-domained his shop with the construction of the I-5. Full of 1960s protest spirit, he nearly chained himself to his space to save his dream. But the city let him set up in this prime location in north PB. Maryanne then got swept up in the soft moonlight of Alice Waters' local-food movement, and did Judd one better by opening a real farm-to-table restaurant next door. Now their daughter Annemarie runs the legacy and has put modern oomph into it (her husband Nick runs the seafood).  So, every morn, Pacific Shellfish gets the best catch from local boats (plus imports off planes at Lindbergh). All Reidy has to do is walk through the double doors, grab the best looking fish he sees, and treat it well. At the bar, Zach Sheldon (who spent years at the city's cocktail shangri-la, Youngblood) is turning zero-waste impulse into creative drinks like the Sea & Spice. He takes lobster shells cracked for dinner and creates an upcycled lobster oil (blending them, so that the friction heat of the blades cooks the shells and imparts flavor to the oil). The finished concoction has curry leaf cachaca (Brazil's cousin-of-rum spirit), coconut palm, green curry coconut milk, peppercorn mélange, lime leaf, acid, and crimson droplets of that lobster oil. On this episode of Happy Half Hour, I talk about those sardines and that drink. I also discuss Accursio Lota, the Sicilian chef-owner of Cori Pastificio and Dora, who just got Italy's highest honor—the equivalent of a couple Michelin stars. I give a minor hit list of the best dishes I've eaten around town (the tomino cheese at Cucina Urbana, the kouign amann at Little While), plus news about San Diego's first electric food truck serving Middle Eastern food, Copper Kings burger heroes expanding into Oceanside, and the new sushi spot headed to Liberty Station (Ponzu). For the interview, we run it back with one of my favorite people in San Diego's food scene, Jon Sloan—culinary director of Juniper & Ivy and co-creator of the restaurant that won the fried chicken sandwich wars, Crack Shack. A hilarious, highly intelligent food mind.

As the food writer for SDM since 2011, Troy has been compiling the "Best Restaurants" list in San Diego Magazine for the past 15 years. All year long, he eats throughout the city and keeps a running Notes document filled with the best restaurants and dishes and drinks he finds. It operates like his personal leaderboard. He shares that list in the issue every year alongside the readers' picks. He's putting this year's list together right now, out June 1. For this episode of Happy Half Hour, he pulls back the curtain on the process. How this massive issue comes to be. He also reveals his short list for a couple categories—Best Burger, Best Italian, and Best New Restaurant. Then asks the audience for their recommendations to go try as he finalizes his picks. "Everyone tells me I have to try North Park Beer Co's burger, so I'll start there," Troy says. "What else am I missing? Tell me my picks are dumb, show me the error in my burger ways." More from the episode: 02:25 The story of how Troy nearly killed "Best Restaurants" when he and Claire took over San Diego Magazine, and what made him change his mind 05:20 The criteria for making his picks. Michelin only takes into account food—not ambiance, plating, or service. Troy takes in the ambiance. "I go to a restaurant to be transported, otherwise I'd eat fried chicken in my backyard," he says. "But that doesn't mean it has to be a million-dollar buildout. One of my favorite ambiances is Fathom Bistro, which is a tiny hot dog stand on a fishing pier."    Troy also takes into account the values/ethics of a restaurant. "If I've got a tie and I know one chef treats people really well and buys as sustainably as possible, I'm going to go with that restaurant," he says. "We eat with our mouth but also our heart—values matter." 04:52 How he doesn't overvalue his own opinion. "I've been studying food for a long time and have been lucky to eat out a lot, try food from some of the best chefs in the country," Troy says. "But I don't eat with your mouth. I don't propose this is the ultimate list or any such hooey. It's just my list that I give to family and friends I care about whenever they ask, 'What's the best Thai restaurant in San Diego?'" 03:20 The annual question of whether or not lists like these are pay for play. "Not even close—you don't work for 20 years getting an audience to trust what you say and then throw that away," Troy says. "I have so much respect and gratitude for the restaurants who support what we do at SDM. But I don't think they want me doing that, either. I trust they want to support a real media co that doesn't bullshit people. If they're just trying to buy the list, it's probably not a long term relationship anyway." SDM's annual Best Restaurants issue is out on June 1. You can vote now at https://bosdvote.sdmag.com/.

The industry built this one. Had it been half-ass, it never would've worked. Lion's Share opened up 14 years ago, a sliver of a dark den of a craft cocktail bar and semi-restaurant near Seaport Village. But on the wrong side of the street. Not a destination. Foot traffic, zilch.   And yet, the bartenders were some of the best in the city, experimenting with the fringes of what was possible. Back then, craft cocktails were actually a new thing. We were coming hot and heavy off of the bottled-juice-and-vodka generation. The concept was quirky enough—cooking alternative proteins (boar, frogs legs, venison, elk, etc). The owners lived upstairs.    Lion's Share became where your favorite bartender ate, an icon among those in the know. It got new owner blood last year with two chef brothers, Dante and Danny Romero. One had cooked briefly at the three-Michelin-star Addison. The other rose through other kitchens, eventually overseeing a massive casino food program.    Together, they were the opening chefs at Wormwood in North Park. They formed a pop-up dinner series called Two Ducks, then debuted Service Animals with cocktail guy Ian Ward, and now handle the food program at Ponyboy in Point Loma. The brothers come into SDM to talk about life in Calexico, in the kitchen, and the evolution of a city's food culture. Oh, a furry lion visits the studio, too. Check out Lion's Share HERE.      Discover more at San Diego Magazine. 

San Diego's next-gen Filipino American chefs are bringing their adobo roots to the top kitchens     Multiple-time James Beard nominee Tara Monsod comes in to talk about kitchen life and the rise of Filipino food—the fare she grew up with—in San Diego. She and host Troy Johnson run through their list of the best date spots in the city, including oysters on the only rooftop hideout in North Park (Deckman's North), a tuckaway in Mission Hills that Troy named "Restaurant of the Year" (Wolf in the Woods), a Point Loma classic laden with enough candles to conjure even the sleepiest libido (The Venetian), and other spots where food doesn't disappoint the ambiance.   As for Filipino food, it was just a matter of time. Sisig and lechon kawali would not be denied their rightful glories. San Diego has one of the strongest Filipino American communities in the US. For decades, the cuisine was represented by a few staples in National City (shout out, Tita's Kitchenette). The best adobo was in the parks, cooked by local families. The kids of those families who chose to cook for a living learned in French and Italian kitchens.   Eventually, they'd turn those skills to the dishes they grew up with. In San Diego, chefs like the late Anthony Sinsay, Craig Jimenez, Phil Esteban (White Rice) and Tara are leading the way. Follow Tara HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine.

Terra chef Jeff Rossman spills secrets of the catering world and we name our favorite farm-to-table restaurants One of the absolute best deals in San Diego recently? A $12 ribeye from one of the better chefs in the city. A $10 pasta dish he made for a wedding. Jeff Rossman was one of the first local chefs to cook modern farm to table with his restaurant, Terra. Opened it in 1998 with his dad, who had run a restaurant in Mission Valley called Pam Pam.   Last year, he started getting so much catering business that he converted his restaurant in College Area to a catering hub. The secret about catering? When you order steak or a pasta or some elaborate farm to table dish for your big life event, the caterer cooks an "overrun"—15-20 percent more food than they think will be needed based on the amount of guests.  Nothing worse than running out of food at a wedding. Usually, the unused overrun goes to staff or is donated—both of which Rossman does. But now he's started something called "Zero Waste Gourmet," where he sells those dishes at his restaurant space the day after for some ridiculously low price. A ribeye in a bordelaise sauce with some smashed potatoes and glazed local farm carrots for less than $15 (I'm making this up now, because it always changes based on the event). Rossman makes his food costs back as a business owner, and those in the know get a screaming deal on big-day meals. Rossman comes into the HHH studios to talk about the ins and outs of the catering world. We also hail the magic of Sushi on a Roll, and name some of our top farm to table restaurants in the city—the ones really doing it right and working with farmers, ranchers, growers, makers. And doing it well. From Nine-Ten to Callie to Market and others.  Follow Terra American Bistro HERE. Follow Jeff HERE.     Discover more at San Diego Magazine.  

At Coco Maya, try chef Phil Humphrey's skirt steak with chimichurri, his big-knuckle lobster tacos, and a damn phenomenal coconut shrimp (the '80s classic will be slandered no more). What's your favorite soup in San Diego? The one that rearranges your DNA into a dumb, smiley emoji?  On this episode of Happy Half Hour we do a fantasy soup draft of our 12 favorites in the city—from the corn piñon soup at Wolf in the Woods to the pozole at Super Cocina and pho at Pho Hoa. We set up shop in the Yucatan rooftop wonderland that is Coco Maya and get the story from co-owner Rob McShea, who tells us how he went from working as a door guy at Thrusters in PB to opening up his first restaurant (Miss B's Coconut Club, which is still kicking so he did OK) despite having absolutely no clue how to run one, searching out the best damn chef in New Orleans and convincing him to move to San Diego to open Louisiana Purchase, and then finally taking the big gamble in the restaurant big leagues of Little Italy. And, we drink copious amounts of Bebemos. It's "Bebemos Golden Hour" with co-owner and lifelong San Diegan Preston Caffrey—our citywide search for the best dishes to pair with the tequila of San Diego. Follow Coco Maya HERE. Please listen responsibly.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine.    

#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. 

Broadcasting from The Shanty in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Happy Half Hour looks at the week's biggest restaurant news, including the upcoming closures of Dreamboat and Vulture and the shuttering of Cucina Enoteca—plus an examination of why unpretentious neighborhood bars continue to anchor San Diego communities.  Host Troy Johnson also checks in on what's opening, welcomes back Bebemos tequila founder Preston Caffrey for a Golden Hour conversation about building a drinks brand in a tough market, and wraps with Shanty co-owner Mike Tornado on the staying power of a truly local bar.  

One of Little Italy's top chefs is back. Hard to overestimate how much Ironside Fish & Oyster changed the game when it opened in Little Italy in 2014. It was the dream concept for Jason McLeod, a chef who'd earned two Michelin stars in Chicago (for Ria). Little Italy was the unloading dock of San Diego's legendary fishing fleets, had that rich seafood history but no epic seafood joint. McLeod and CH Projects took over the old Farkas furniture store and turned it into a sort of ghost ship ocean liner (the suitcases along the wall are an ode to those roots) and oyster bar. The lobster roll was the headlining dish that floored a city. But the real story was the relationships that McLeod formed with local fishermen who were pulling their boats into the nearby Tuna Harbor. There was no back door to Ironside, so the fishermen would lug their catch through the main dining room. Fast forward… McLeod split with CH Projects, went on to help concept and launch a bunch of big-name things in Vegas (like Proper Eats, the food court in the Aria hotel). And now he's back. Not as a figurehead, but in the kitchen. It's his restaurant. His new dream. His new rebuild (a wood fired kitchen is coming). He comes into Happy Half Hour to talk with Troy about the dream and what Little Italy was like in those early days. Follow Jason HERE.

Patricia Sebold, Kalani Millsaps, and Kerry Pierce join Happy Half Hour to discuss their new concept: a women's-focused sports bar opening in North Park. We find out how the project came together and why San Diego is ready for it now.  From Title IX to the Wave's record-setting crowds, they talk about the rise of women's sports, the frustration of watching games on phones in bars that won't put them on TVs, and how packed pop-ups proved there was real demand for a permanent space.  One of Us is slated to open this March, just in time for March Madness and the NWSL season. Follow One of Us HERE.   Discover more at 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.

On this episode of Happy Half Hour, co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant sit down with Niccolò Angius, the Italian-born chef-owner behind Cesarina and Elvira, to explore why pasta holds such an enduring grip on our hearts, memories, and nervous systems. Raised in his parents' Roman trattoria in Trastevere, Angius traces his journey from Rome to San Diego, where he and his wife Cesarina Mezzoni launched a farmers' market pop-up in 2015 focused on handmade vegan pastas and all-natural sauces. That project evolved into Cesarina in 2019—now a perennial San Diego Mag Best Pasta winner and Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient—followed by Elvira, their Roman-focused restaurant in Ocean Beach. Angius also discusses their next chapter: Corallino, opening on Shelter Island this spring. Follow Elvira here.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#413 On Happy Half Hour, host Troy Johnson talks with chef Elijah Arizmendi about leaving home at 15, training in Vegas and New York, and opening Lucien — an ingredient-obsessed, 30-seat destination built around San Diego produce, house ferments, and meticulous coursing. On this week's Happy Half Hour, host Troy Johnson sits down with chef Elijah Arizmendi, the 30-year-old behind Lucien, La Jolla's new 12- to 13-course tasting-menu destination that's already getting "best in the city, maybe the country" texts from chefs like Travis Swikard (Callie, Fleurette). Arizmendi traces his no-shortcuts path: leaving home at 15, early kitchen reps in D.C. and Sacramento, then Vegas (Spago), Robuchon, and a New York run that included opening The Bay in Tribeca… before choosing San Diego for what he calls the ultimate advantage of produce and microclimates. The conversation gets deep into Lucien's obsessive pantry-building: a house-fermented calamansi kosho (with habanero), a red curry squash "miso" inoculated with koji, a lineup of finishing salts, and multiple shoyus, including a koji shoyu he'll drip onto everything from raw fish to a polarizing uni ice cream. Tune in for more details about San Diego's latest culinary force. Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#412 This week, Happy Half Hour host Troy Johnson talks with Food Network megastar Guy Fieri about how a one-off Flavortown joke grew into a national food brand, from pop-up kitchens to a fast-growing sauce line and a major new partnership rolling its offerings into 6,500 Circle K stores.  The two also revisit Fieri's early Food Network days, the demo tape that launched his career and the evolution of shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Guy's Grocery Games, where Johnson frequently appears as a judge. Fieri also reflects on the work of the Guy Fieri Foundation, which now mobilizes volunteers and chefs to produce thousands of meals for families and first responders. Follow Guy here. Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#411 Bebemos cofounder Preston Caffrey and Waterfront Bar & Grill's Dennis Glover talk cocktails, what makes a good regular's bar, and running a local legacy This week on Happy Half Hour, the crew posts up at the iconic Waterfront Bar & Grill, open since 1933 and still run by the same family. Co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant are joined by Bebemos Tequila cofounder Preston Caffrey and Waterfront GM Dennis Glover for a drink-fueled dive into one of San Diego's most beloved institutions. They talk through the bar's nearly century-old history, why Bebemos' $15 pour might be the best deal in town, and what it means to run a bar that still feels like home but serves some of the most high-quality pub grub in the city. To follow Waterfront click here.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#410 We sit down with San Diego's longtime restaurant power duo to unpack their two-decade partnership and their latest La Jolla project. On this episode of Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson catches up with chef Brian Malarkey and restaurateur Chris Puffer to explore the story behind their newest venture inside the iconic former Herringbone space, now reborn as Le Coq. The trio rewinds through the early days at Ocean Air, the explosive rise of Seersucker, and the city-shaping impact of Herb & Wood—while reflecting on the hard work, near-misses, and creative friction that have defined one of San Diego's rare enduring restaurant partnerships. To Follow Le Coq click here.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine.

#409 Andrew Zimmern, a four-time James Beard Award–winning TV host best known for Bizarre Foods and for using food as a lens into culture joins Happy Half Hour co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant this week. A longtime champion of global food culture, Zimmern shares his new book, The Blue Food Cookbook: Delicious Seafood Recipes for a Sustainable Future and discusses why Americans misunderstand seafood and what San Diego can teach the rest of the country about primarily eating from the water. Zimmern's new book is a guide to buying and cooking seafood in ways that are smarter for the oceans and the people who harvest from them. He breaks down the biggest myths that hold Americans back from cooking fish, shares stories from decades spent traveling and reporting on global foodways, talks about why markets like Tuna Harbor matter more than ever, and explains why harvesting food that comes from our oceans is the key to achieving sustainability goals. To follow Andrew click here. Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#408 On this week's Happy Half Hour, co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant sit down with Joe Bower and Dan Valerino, the duo behind Finca, one of North Park's buzziest and newest restaurants. The pair met during their Juniper & Ivy days and reunited to open a spot that blends the warmth of Spanish wine culture with California's seasonal bounty and upscale tapas culture. They dive into vermouth, sherry, and what it means to build a neighborhood restaurant and wine list with soul while reminiscing about the grind that shaped them. To follow Finca click here. Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#407 You've probably seen the video: A woman casually hand-rolling gnocchi on a cross-country flight, dusting flour across her tray table like it's just another day in the friendly skies. That woman is Katie Brooks, founder of Buona Pasta, and she joins Happy Half Hour co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant on this week's episode to talk about how a mid-air pasta moment went viral—and how it all started long before that flight. From leaving behind a stable corporate job to honoring her parents through handmade Italian recipes, Katie shares the story of building her business and her following, feeding strangers out of her Ocean Beach apartment, and turning a doughy side hustle into a full-time dream featuring a cookbook. To follow Katie click Here.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#406 On this week's Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson traces how our beer nerds turned San Diego into a food town—from Karl Strauss in '89 to the Brewers Guild in '97, the 2018 peak of 150+ breweries, and today's saner "new normal." Guests Estela Davila (Guild president), Kevin Hellman (Capital of Craft co-founder), and Brandon Kroegel (Coronado Brewing) preview San Diego Beer Week and its kickoff party, Capital of Craft. The event takes place Saturday, Nov. 8 at San Diego Harley-Davidson with more than 40 breweries participating and special collab pours. We discuss West Coast IPA's DNA, hop tech (cryo, terpenes), the rise of NA brews, and why this scene still runs on collaboration—plus quick bites on new bakery openings, anniversaries, and what to hit all week long. To follow Capital of Craft click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine  

#405 This week on Happy Half Hour, co-host Troy Johnson heads north to Solana Beach, where LANA has transformed the old California Pizza Kitchen space into a relaxed, wood-fired restaurant with real neighborhood soul. Co-owners Travis LeGrand and Mark Wheadon have built something rare for the coast: a spot that's stylish but still feels local, where dishes like gold-spotted Baja sea bass with agua chile and a half-roasted Jidori chicken that's fast becoming a San Diego classic.    At the bar, beverage director Brandon Curry keeps things bright and balanced with creative cocktails built around Bebemos Tequila, the local brand founded by Preston Caffrey that's showing up everywhere great drinks are poured. Between sips, the crew talks about Solana Beach's evolving food scene and the art of keeping things simple behind the bar. To follow Bebemos click HERE. To follow LANA click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#404 This week on Happy Half Hour, co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant go solo for a special Halloween episode. They talk restaurant news like Chefsgiving at Provisional Kitchen on November 13 benefiting the San Diego Food Bank; Valle's four-year anniversary dinner; and celebrity chef Claudette Zepeda's departure from Leu Leu to focus on filming projects, Chispa Hospitality, and her upcoming book. They also preview Orexi, a new Mediterranean-California spot opening in Little Italy, and Puesto's move to become the first Mexican restaurant group in the US to go completely seed-oil free. Other topics include Juniper & Ivy's Cayuse Vineyards dinner, the Ukrainian-owned Need to Eat Café in Poway, and Cambodian-Filipino pop-up Ming Oun's Kitchen.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#403 This week on Happy Half Hour, co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant head to the Marine Room, La Jolla's oceanfront dining landmark waves slam against windows and the food matches the drama. Chef Derek Dupree introduces new fall dishes, including roasted king trumpet mushrooms with garlic miso emulsion, butternut squash with goat cheese espuma and toasted hazelnuts, and blackened swordfish with crawfish and forbidden rice. We also sip Bebemos Tequila with founder Preston Caffrey, who joins us to talk about what makes the spirit work across savory courses. GM and wine director Nicholas George explains how the Marine Room's legendary High Tide Dinners are timed with summer king tides and why the restaurant's global wine program mirrors its coastal setting. To follow Bebemos click HERE. To follow The Marine Room click HERE. Discover more at San Diego Magazine    

#402 Happy Half Hour co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant sit down with Sami Ladeki, one of the most influential figures in San Diego dining to trace his long and unlikely career. He shares stories of leaving Lebanon in his twenties, washing dishes in Germany, running food and beverage at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and eventually landing in San Diego to open Sammy's Woodfired Pizza in 1989.  Ladeki reflects on the rise of California-style pizza, the lessons of building a restaurant empire, and why he's bringing back Roppongi, the La Jolla restaurant that once defined Pacific Rim cuisine in the city. Executive corporate chef Alfie Szeprethy joins him to share stories from the 1990s Roppongi kitchen and what it's been like to help reopen the place that shaped his career, as well as what guests can expect in the new iteration. To follow Sammy's click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine  

#401 After the economic sucker-punch of Covid robbed chef Eric Bost of his LA restaurant Auburn, he entered into a values-first partnership with restaurateur John Resnick. Despite months of permitting and supply snags and personal and operational hits, the two succeeded at last in turning an old Carlsbad boogie-board factory into all-day bakery and cafe Wildland and the smaller, tasting-menu-only Lilo, which nabbed a Michelin star just six weeks after opening.  On this week's episode of Happy Half Hour, the duo joins hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant to break down Lilo's vibe-forward approach (vinyl, reel-to-reel, open kitchen), the caviar-and-almond-ice-cream course that anchors the menu, and why hundreds of small service cues liberate staff to actually connect with guests.  In food news, we discuss Encinitas' Necessity Coffee new location, the $25.5M waterfront plan from the Fish Market group, Communion's mai tai world title, the closing of Woodstock's in PB, Mothership's October takeover, and Fink's Wine Spectator nod. Listen to the full episode now. To follow Lilo click HERE. To follow Wildland click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#400 On this week's Happy Half Hour with hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant, we're joined by siblings Sam Tall and Rebecca Tall-Brown, the second-generation owners of City Farmers Nursery in City Heights. They talk about their family's 52-year journey turning discarded plants and reclaimed materials into a thriving nursery, the importance of biodiversity and community support, and how Nate's Garden Grill—operated on site by a family friend and lessee—has grown into one of the city's most beloved live-music-and-food hangouts. In "Get Some," we shout out local favorites including Sang Dao for Laotian papaya salad and tom kha soup, Pho Hoa for classic beef pho and plum soda, The Daily Grind for family-friendly breakfasts in Rolando, and The Flying Pig in Oceanside for modern bistro cooking with Southern details. To follow City Farmers Nursery click HERE. Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#399 This week on Happy Half Hour, Troy and Jackie sit with one of San Diego's most influential chefs, Carl Schroeder, who rarely interviews. After years at the helm of Market Restaurant + Bar, Schroeder has sold his shares and is stepping back. We talk about the glory days of Market, the early 2000s when "farm to table" actually meant something, his start in storied San Francisco kitchens, and why he's finally ready to trade the pressure of a fine-dining kitchen for time with family (and maybe a pool float). To follow Market click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#398 On this week's Happy Half Hour, Troy and Jackie camp out on Monarch Ocean Pub's waterfront deck in Del Mar Plaza where owner-operator Drew Vick runs plates of halibut ceviche, pepperoni-and-broccolini flatbread, and that five-day–brined short-rib pastrami while Bebemos Tequila cofounder Preston Caffrey pours crisp paper planes and talks zero-additive agave and San Diego roots. We hit festival season high notes like, cough cough, Del Mar Wine & Food kickking off here next week, and then slide into a lively burger draft that swings from Drugstore Burger at The Lodge to Rocky's, Majorette, Beef 'n Bun, Wise Ox, and a sleeper Wagyu at Gaslamplighter. To follow Monarch click HERE. To follow Bebemos click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine  

#397 This week on Happy Half Hour we sit down with Kory Stetina, whose first restaurant Kindred shifted San Diego's idea of plant-based dining. He's since teamed with CH Projects on Mothership, and now opened Dreamboat and Vulture in University Heights. Dreamboat is a compact, all-day diner; Vulture is the moody dining room behind it, serving martinis fussed over for a year, lion's mane "Steak Diane," mushroom pâté with sourdough, and a baked Alaska set aflame at the table. We talk about how punk and skate culture shaped his path, and why he wants these new spaces to feel indulgent and welcoming without the baggage of old vegan stereotypes. To follow Kindred click HERE. To follow Dreamboat click HERE. To follow Vulture click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#396 Herb & Wood changed the city's dining culture when chef Brian Malarkey and Chris Puffer opened it in Little Italy 10 years ago. In restaurant culture, 10 years is 100 years. A feat. But how do you stay relevant in the new-new-new social-media restaurant craze? You hire a "kid" like Aidan Owens, who's one of the fastest-rising young chefs we've seen in the city in a long time. He started cooking at an early age to pay his way through teen years. Now he's got a rep for whole-animal butchery, fermentation projects, and amiably stalking fishermen and farmers. He's rehabbing the menu at Herb & Wood, basing it completely on ingredients. This is his story. To follow chef Aidan click HERE. To follow Herb & Wood click HERE. To follow Herb & Sea click HERE. Discover more at San Diego Magazine

"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.

#394 This week, Happy Half Hour details Del Mar's legendary past with longtime restaurateurs John and Sara Wingate of En Fuego Cantina & Grill. Co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant retrace the beach town's transformation from Victorian bathhouses and racehorse legends to its current food scene, anchored by icons like En Fuego, which is now celebrating 30 years in business. The Wingates reveal how the once-humble house-turned-restaurant became a locals' clubhouse and a celebrity magnet. They also introduce La Tienda, their intimate new cocktail bar tucked upstairs, featuring 200+ tequilas and mezcal barrels they personally selected in Mexico. To follow En Fuego click HERE. Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#393 This week on Happy Half Hour, co-hosts Troy and Jackie sit down with Emily Brubaker, executive chef of Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, to talk about her recent win on the premiere season of Yes, Chef!, a national cooking competition judged by Martha Stewart and Spanish-American chef and restaurateur José Andrés.  Brubaker shares what it was like to step away from her kitchen and her family for six weeks to compete, and how she approached the challenge of cooking food that's technically sharp but still grounded. In this episode, she discusses the moment Martha remembered her from a past Chopped season, working alongside her husband in the finale, and how she's bringing pieces of the show's mentorship and menu ideas into her work at the resort. To follow Chef Emily Brubaker click HERE. To follow Omni La Costa click HERE. Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#392 On this episode of Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant take the show to Waverly in Cardiff for a tequila-soaked taste test with San Diego-based brand Bebemos. The mission continues to find the ultimate dish to pair with their joven-style tequila. Along the way, they're joined by Camino Riviera and Waverly bar manager Stephen O'Halloran and SDCM executive chef Brian Redzikowski to explore the nuances of agave, mezcal, and the power of local sourcing. Tune in to find the surprising not-super-summery dish that won this round of the pairing tour. To follow Bebemos click HERE. To follow Waverly click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#391 This week on Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant sit down with Jason Mraz and Vallie Gilley to talk about the new life of Jitters Coffee Pub, the first coffee shop to open in Oceanside back in the '90s. After 24 years, Vallie and her husband were ready to let it go until Mraz, a longtime regular, stepped in as a partner. What followed is a full-circle revamp complete with vegan comfort food from chef Felix Alcaide, a tiny new stage for original music, and a gold-plated bathroom. Yes, that's right. Tune in to hear all the gilded details. To follow Jitters Coffee Pub click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#390 This week's HHH is posted at Veranda, the breezy new restaurant inside the freshly renovated $550 million Hotel Del Coronado, and features a feast of scallop risotto, charred artichokes, and massive secret-menu tomahawks. Executive Chef Brian Archibald joined Troy and Jackie to talk about rebirthing one of America's most iconic resorts (and why he left Florida for San Diego). Also at the table is Michael Feuerstein of Nature's Produce, whose family has sourced local fruits and vegetables for generations. We also chat the news: Barrio Logan's new Café Madeline, Wildwood Flour's East County comeback, and a food-nerd deep dive into the San Diego Zoo's fine dining scene. To follow Veranda at the Hotel Del click here.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine  

#389 Happy Half Hour heads to the oceanfront deck at Nobu Del Coronado, one of the newest openings as part of the Hotel Del's recently completed $550 million renovation. Chefs CJ and Victor walk us through dishes like yellowtail crudo with jalapeño, crispy rice with spicy tuna, three-day miso cod, and real wasabi grated on sharkskin, as well as the philosophical underpinnings that make Nobu, well, Nobu. To follow Nobu at the Hotel Del click here.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine

#388 On this episode of Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson sits down with Ron and Isabel Oliver, the duo behind Somos Maíz. Isabel grew up in Michoacán learning how to make masa the traditional way. Ron spent 20 years as chef de cuisine at the Marine Room. Now they're sourcing heirloom corn from farmers in Mexico and turning it into fresh masa that's showing up on plates at Valle, Tohono, and beyond. They chat about how most tortilla makers get it wrong, why blue corn usually isn't blue corn, and what makes real masa so hard to get right. To follow Somos Maiz click HERE.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine