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San Diego Restaurant News, Chefsgiving & Claudette Zepeda Makes Moves

Breaking down the city’s latest openings, chef news, and a few scary stories from the local dining scene

By Jackie Bryant October 23, 2025

NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDES Know the Neighborhood Where to eat, where to drink, and what it's like to live there. EXPLORE THE GUIDES

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.

About Jackie Bryant

Jackie is a long-time freelance journalist covering cannabis, food/restaurants, travel, labor, wine, spirits, arts & culture, design, and other topics. Her work has been selected twice for Best American Travel Writing, and she has won a variety of national and local awards for her writing and reporting.

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