Your Favorite Bartender Eats at The Lion’s Share

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.