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Miho Catering Co. now offers grass-fed burgers and registered nurses
The Feed / Miho Catering Co.
Kevin Ho and his business partner, Juan Miron, were in Vegas at a catering conference when news of the pandemic broke eight months ago (or 60 months or however long ago this started). A flood of cancellations for their MiHo Catering Co. started coming in. Hitting snooze on reality like many of us did, Ho came home to San Diego and went straight to a long-planned beach camping trip with his family.
The intent, as with most modern vacations, was to unplug from the bleeps and bloops and notifications. Not a shot.
“I was in denial a little bit,” says Ho. “But I kept getting blasted by my staff, rightfully so. I told my wife, ‘I need to plug in somewhere because I think the world is ending.’ So I went to a coffee shop and found out, oh… the world is ending.”
Catering hasn’t gotten the big “help” headlines during all this. Most media has focused on saving the restaurants, because they often have higher rent and fixed costs. Catering had been a bright spot in the food world—a US market that went from $58 billion in sales in 2017 to $64 billion in 2019. Restaurants, which operate on tiny margins (three to five percent, on average), were filling their bookkeeping gaps by catering events.
Then, events were canceled. Weddings, holiday parties, retirement parties, birthday parties, baby showers—all gone. Some caterers switched to providing meals for workers on the front lines. They tried doing family-style meals, delivering groceries to clients, tried everything.
MiHo, one of the city’s top caterers, went from over 100 employees to fewer than 30. Instead of competing with restaurants for meal-delivery business, they chose to help companies who had invested big in office culture—kombucha on tap, good coffee, food and drink as a work perk—re-create a little of that magic for their newly remote workforce. They’re also spearheading a movement to include mobile COVID-19 testing as one of their services.
I spoke with Kevin Ho this morning about the view from the catering world:
Kevin Ho: On the catering events side, that completely disappeared. We went dark right away. Unfortunately we had to furlough a ton of people. Our staff was bigger than it had ever been; that was such a huge disappointment—to tell that many good, hard-working people they don’t have a job.
We had to identify what changes would be cyclical and what was a structural, long-lasting change to the industry we know and love. We already had a pretty strong delivery program that we launched in 2017, so thankfully we were always approved by county health guidelines to keep offering delivery. But our bread and butter is corporate, and that fell off the map entirely.
As things started to improve, we developed our own health and safety protocols. That was treacherous, because everything was so uncharted and untested. It took us time to embrace the fact that it’s an essential, core responsibility. I truly believe that in larger firms you’ll see executive roles like “chief health and safety officer.’ That’s just part of the job now. We have policies we vote on and amend according to health orders, and training manuals and policies that we agree to with our clients.
Our policies are very strict. We’re demanding small guest counts, private residences, single-household. We really look to restaurants. Right now they’re not supposed to be serving guests indoors, so our practices go hand-in-hand. For the most part, people who are still inquiring about events aren’t as inclined to be as safe and health conscious as we would like them to be. There are [caterers] who are more stringent than we are, but a lot of our competitors have abandoned all public health and safety. We lose business to firms who are just going to let people gather without any kind of masks or restrictions. I’m not judging them at all. When I look back, my team and I will be proud of the way we went about it. We’d rather leave money on the table.
We have created some partnerships with local operators who provide licensed rapid antigen testing. We have registered nurses who we’ll send to clients, or they can do drive-thru testing at our site. They’ll get the results in 15 minutes before we do the event. Testing is just going to become part of everyday life. Even though the testing doesn’t eliminate COVID, it will allow schools and offices and hospitality to conduct their activities with a higher level of assurance.
It’s not a moneymaker. We spent so long writing our testing program and I will happily share it with every other operator. It’s crazy—I’m used to talking about food temperatures, and now we’re creating mobile COVID testing units. I hope that every single American can have free access to testing and ideally we can help with that. I hope Amazon starts shipping testing kits to homes. I hope one day I will have tests that my family and I can take at home weekly.
The huge opportunity we saw was, all of these employees are working from home, some very happily and safely. Our corporate clientele tend to be firms that have the same values we do—purpose-driven and really, really appreciate their teams and want to create an environment they’re proud of. So break rooms had kombucha on tap and Topo Chico water and good coffee. I would go to some of our clients’ offices and I’m like, “Dang, can I work here?” So we talked to them and said, “You’re still that kind of company; let us help you create that.”
We’ll ship packages to their employees to give them those creature comforts and the same pride that went into their office culture. We’ll have locally roasted coffee beans, because you used to roll into work and get free coffee. Handmade snacks. We’re making immunity supplements because wellness is one of our biggest values.
Yeah, it’s called Concord. It’s basically a single-payer system with individual ordering. So if a client wants to do an employee appreciation lunch or celebrate something, employees can go to our site and order their meal, then we’ll deliver it to their homes across San Diego County. We’re also launching experiences. We have our gastro-truck, so for the bigger occasions, a company can send our food truck to grill grass-fed burgers fresh right in front of someone’s house.
Ha. No. There’s no profit for us. What we’re actually creating is a corporate subscription membership where you can subscribe for a monthly fee for each of your employees—you get access to delivery meals, the gastrotruck, multicourse meals, gift boxes for birthdays and anniversaries or hitting certain company goals. We’re also doing multicourse dinners with beer and wine pairings.
Until people can get together, we’re not going to break the rules and push for this. For me as the owner of this company, I really need catering. That’s what keeps food on my kids’ table. But personally, I don’t think you should have a wedding today. I really hope you call us and we can book one for 2021 or 2022.
To be honest, I’d rather support my local coffee shop and pizza place and burger joint than support MiHo, who’s headquartered in Kearny Mesa. With my $10 for dinner tonight, I want to support the mom-and-pop that I know really needs my business. The headlines and PR and stuff, we don’t want to take that away from them. Obviously we’re getting our ass kicked, but so are other people.
PARTNER CONTENT
We were thinking about doing a “Save the Dives Tour.” We’ll park the gastrotruck in front of our favorite dive bars in the city, serve food, and help dive bars sell drinks to go.
Troy Johnson is the magazine’s award-winning food writer and humorist, and a long-standing expert on Food Network. His work has been featured on NatGeo, Travel Channel, NPR, and in Food Matters, a textbook of the best American food writing.
For our Best Restaurants issue, we nod to the trends that marked the year including the evolution of Kearny Mesa's food hub
The magic of convoy right now is the convergence of two (sometimes three) generations.
Grocery store Woo Chee Chong opened along Convoy Street in 1979. From its aisles fanned a whole scene of mom-and-pop cooks and chefs, often first-generation Americans launching humble spots in the area’s innumerable strip malls— like Tina Tran, who cooked phở and Vietnamese signatures for her neighbors until the demand grew into Phuong Trang (opened 1992).
Now, the next generation is sprucing up the area, bringing modern design and obsessive maker culture, a movement arguably kickstarted by Common Theory and its pan-Asian speakeasy Realm of the 52 Remedies. The Convoy charm is expanding beyond Kearny Mesa, too. The family behind popular seafood boil room Crab Hut got a James Beard nomination for Kingfisher in Golden Hill a few years ago, and Cross Street’s Korean fried chicken is now in Del Mar.
Three things especially marked the area this year: After being destroyed by a fire in 2020, beloved made-to-order Cantonese dim sum spot China Max reopened under next-gen ownership who leaned into dumplings, noodles, and xiao long bao but retained the footprint for weddings and cultural events. Longtime local Japanese grill master Tatsuro Tsuchiya (Yakyudori, Yakitori Hino, Sushi Tadokoro) opened Yakitori Tsuta, his 18-to- 20-course concept with 12 seats, giving the binchōtan coal-art of Japanese grilling its first omakase experience. And super grocer Zion Market started working with designer Michael Soriano (Vin de Syrah, Realm of the 52) and should be unveiling a wildly immersive, multiple-restaurant-and-bar world on the rooftop later this year.
Troy Johnson is the magazine’s award-winning food writer and humorist, and a long-standing expert on Food Network. His work has been featured on NatGeo, Travel Channel, NPR, and in Food Matters, a textbook of the best American food writing.
Tahini is a values-based business that proves doing good will never leave a bad taste
TAHINI-guy-fieri
John Dole
What’s a guy to do with a Harvard Law degree? For Osama Shabaik, the surprising answer was to join forces with good friend Mahmoud (Moody) Barkawi to open up a Middle Eastern street food restaurant—Tahini—and earn the Guy Fieri Triple D stamp of approval.
“We were lamenting over the fact of how inaccessible [Middle Eastern food] was,” Shabaik explains of Tahini. “It’s the food we grew up with and that we always reminisce about. But a bigger part of it was, ‘How can we own a business that we’re proud of in terms of the values that it embodies?’”
What started off as a 10’ x 10’ farmers’ market stand run by two students with one shawarma machine in 2013 turned into a values-driven, brick-and-mortar business in 2017. “For us, there was a fear of going and working for a company or someone where our values may not have aligned. One of the big reasons as to why we went forward with Tahini was to be able to chart our own path,” explains Shabaik.
TAHIHI-pita-falafel
John Dole
It’s easy to see why Tahini is catching the attention of locals (and Fieri) in Kearny Mesa. The casual atmosphere and easily-customizable menu almost downplay the fact that everything is made using top-notch ingredients—such as the antibiotic-free chicken and beef, marinated in more than 10 fresh herbs and spices. Their claim to fame is their chicken shawarma pita (a.k.a. The Esquire) packed with french fries, garlic, Sriracha, tomatoes, and pickled cucumbers.
Little things also count—like their squeaky halloumi cheese sticks. Breaded and fried to crispy, non-oily bites, dip them into a serving of sticky-sweet fig jam. Though the Tahini fries are a loaded, nap-inducing joy, the pickled turnips are the best thing on their menu.
TAHINI-fries
John Dole
Beyond food, Shabaik and Barkawi were determined to create a welcoming space to hire refugees coming from the Middle East. “For folks that may or may not speak English, it’s just one small way to give them a taste of home,” says Shabaik. The duo have also established a working business model, an increasingly hard thing to accomplish in the restaurant industry.
They provide above-minimum wage pay to all staff members, invest in eco-friendly, biodegradable packaging for food items, and commit to halal meats, local produce, and a from-scratch approach for all their menus. As their website says, “When it comes to respecting the earth and the communities that make it up, no price is too high to pay.”
Sabrina Medora is a national food writer living with her husband and golden doodle Albus in San Diego. Her work has appeared in award-winning publications like Food & Wine Bon Appetit Wine Enthusiast and more.
Dine outdoors in the neighborhood that has San Diego’s best Asian food
It might be tucked into a corner of a strip mall, but just look for their big electric sign and you can’t miss it. This cozy little spot serves coffee and frozen desserts, including rolled ice cream, soft serve, OB Beans coffee, and melon bingsoo, a popular Korean shaved ice dessert. Get ready to be one of those people who takes pictures of their food, because you won’t be able to resist capturing their watermelon bingsoo, served with snow ice, condensed milk, fruity pebble cereal, mochi, and vanilla soft serve. Even their rolled ice cream is Instagram worthy; it comes in strawberry, green tea, cookies and cream, banana, black sesame, coffee, Thai tea, and cereal.
4425 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-276-9479
When Common Theory says fusion, they mean it, with a menu featuring elements of Korean, Chinese, Mexican, and American cuisines. The Convoy Pork and Shrimp Katsu burger, featured on an episode of Food Network’s Burgers, Brew & ’Que, is a must-try—a fried pork and shrimp patty with pickled onions, butter lettuce, mustard spread, and radish aioli on a brioche bun. Other favorites recently brought back to the menu include the barbecue chicken flatbread and bulgogi rice bowl. While they offer a rotating selection of over 30 craft beers on tap at one time, change things up by participating in their weekly Brew Battle, where two breweries go head-to-head to survive another week on the leaderboard. Right there on the patio, you and your friends can grab a flight consisting of two beers by each brewery in matching styles, blind-test each, and vote for your favorite, labeled A, B, C, and D.
4805 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-384-7974
Stand aside, Colonel; there’s a new “KFC” in town—the Korean fried chicken at Cross Street. You can never go wrong with the soy garlic wings, a classic Korean duo, but their seasonal garlic butter honey flavor is so popular, they’re thinking of adding it to the menu. If you’re in the mood for spicy, the Seoul Spicy is a house favorite, with a sauce inspired by the Korean home staple gochujang, a red chili paste. Stay awhile in their patio or additional outdoor seating and enjoy a full or half order of wings, boneless tenders, or drumsticks and pair it with your choice from a variety of draft beers.
4403 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-430-6001
This family-owned and operated business is known for being one of the first restaurants in San Diego to offer freshly made xiao long bao, a Chinese soup dumpling. Dumpling Inn also remains dedicated to serving classic Chinese comfort cuisine, such as ma po tofu, honey shrimp, and pork pot stickers. Their extensive parking lot patio can be enjoyed all the more with a cold beer or cocktail.
4625 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-268-9638
This restaurant serves more traditional Korean meals, like their popular soondubu, a spicy Korean tofu soup with egg and a choice of seafood, pork, beef, or kimchi. If you want it even spicier, one of their top menu items is the kimchi jjigae, a spicy kimchi soup with pork, veggies, and sliced tofu. Choose one of five different spice levels to really test how much you can handle. Cool off from your meal in the cozy outdoor patio enclosed by plants galore.
4647 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-292-0499
While you may not get to experience the joy of having your food announced in Japanese before seeing it launched to your table on a conveyor belt, Kura’s $2.80 sushi plates—spanning an assortment of salmon, beef, shrimp, eel, scallop, and tuna nigiri, as well as various rolls, hand rolls, and gunkan—are still worth dining outside for. Choose from a selection of over 140 dishes in their extended parking lot patio just out front. Each sushi dish is covered with a plastic top for safety, so the joy of eating good sushi will still be there, even if it’s brought out by a human and not a machine.
4609 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-715-4605
Manna BBQ is one of Convoy’s most popular all-you-can-eat Korean barbecues. With outdoor seating right out front, you can cook your meat on an electric grill and watch the hustle and bustle of the neighborhood go by. Choose between the pricier A1 set, which has premium meats at $29 per person, and the standard A2 set at $25 per person. Both offer classic menu items like the chadol baegi (beef brisket), bulgogi, and pork belly, as well as sides like gaeran jjim (steamed egg), corn cheese, and thick rice paper.
4428 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-278-3300
See for yourself if Olleh really is the “best Korean BBQ in San Diego.” At $21 per person for lunch and $25 per person for dinner, this all-you-can-eat restaurant offers quite a few marinated options for each type of meat—beef belly, pork belly, brisket, barbecue chicken, bulgogi, and kalbi. Leave just a little room for their popular unlimited sides, like the steamed egg, japchae (stir-fried glass noodles), and kimchi fried rice. Aside from a wide variety of meats and sides and the free shaved-ice dessert, Olleh has a decent-size parking lot, which is just the cherry on top of any Convoy visit. They’ve switched almost everything to be disposable—plates, bowls, utensils, and even bottled water.
4344 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-492-2121
It may be a little difficult to choose from the more than 100 appetizers, soups, noodle dishes, and main courses on Phuong Trang’s astonishingly large menu. But don’t be put off: Whatever you order, you will still get an authentic Vietnamese dish. The vermicelli noodle bowls—thin rice noodles served cool with shredded lettuce, cucumber, mint, bean sprouts, crushed peanuts, and fish sauce—are one of the most popular orders, and you can add various meats and seafood. You can never go wrong with classics like fried egg rolls and fresh spring rolls filled with pork and shrimp, and both the garlic and glazed wings are popular favorites.
4170 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-565-6750
In a new parking-lot setup, RakiRaki has an ample amount of outdoor seating to enjoy your favorite ramen dish in, along with a drink from their selection of local craft beer and sake. If you want a ramen that packs a punch, try their Rikimaru spicy miso tonkotsu ramen, a premium miso tonkotsu broth with noodles, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, a five-spice soy sauce pickled egg, and your choice of organic chicken, chashu (grilled pork), or flame-blistered underbelly. In addition to a wide variety of ramen, RakiRaki serves other authentic Japanese dishes, including tsukemen (dipping noodles), charcoal-fired yakitori, curry, ramen burgers, and specialty sushi rolls.
4646 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-573-2400
This little shop offers ah-boong, a Korean-inspired dessert with soft serve in a baked, goldfish-shaped waffle cone. They’re not the crunchy cones you get at other ice cream shops. While still crispy, this goldfish cone is softer and chewier, a perfect complement to the creamy goodness of soft serve. Mix and match your soft-serve flavor (milk, ube, black sesame, matcha, or a swirl of two flavors) with your filling (red bean, taro, custard, or Nutella), and top it off with your choice of fruity pebble cereal, Oreo crumbs, rainbow sprinkles, graham crackers, and more. There are a couple of small tables outside, but if you can’t get a table there’s plenty of sidewalk space to spread out on too.
4620 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-939-0388
As you make your way down Convoy Street, it’s pretty hard to miss Steamy Piggy’s large wooden signage, with their signature neon pig acting as a beacon for the whole strip. Everything about this place is meant to look good as well as taste good. The modern atmosphere is great for a trendy lunch date, and the vertical garden backdrop on the patio is the perfect photo op. They serve classic dishes from China, Korea, and Japan, including dumplings, bao, rolls, ramen, fried rice, and meat bowls. Their popular dumplings are served fresh every day, but all of their dishes are made for family-style sharing, so don’t stress too much about choosing one thing. And you can’t leave without trying their Kawaii Buns, custard-filled steamed buns in the shape of a little pig. They’re almost too cute to eat. (Almost.)
4681 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-492-0401
Before diving into a steaming bowl of ramen, start your meal off with their most popular appetizer, the pork gyoza. Then give their house favorite a try, the curry ramen, which comes with an original tonkotsu chicken and pork broth mixed with special spiced curry, egg noodles, half a ramen egg, and your choice of pork or chicken chashu. If you’re thinking of bringing a date, plan for the Tajima Tuesday special: buy one ramen, get one 50 percent off.
4681 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-576-7244
Tofu House
Eui Jong Kim
Their iconic stone-pot-scorched tables have moved outdoors so you can enjoy a nice, piping-hot bowl of tofu soup in the fresh air. Established 1998, what was created to make Korean immigrants feel at home in San Diego with warm and comforting food has grown to become a Convoy staple loved by the community as well as customers from different backgrounds. Be sure to try their iconic tofu soup, like their chef’s special, which comes out hot and bubbling with shrimp, pollack roe, clams, oysters, scallops, and mushrooms in addition to soft tofu. They’re also known for their hot stone crispy rice bowls, which also comes out in a piping-hot stone pot. Pro tip: Don’t ignore that basket of eggs on your table—use the unlimited supply they provide anywhere in the soups, on the hot rice, or as hot meat dip.
4646 Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa | 858-576-6433
The menus at these three Japanese restaurants vary, but all are known for their variety of yakitori—bite-sized grilled chicken skewers made from different parts of the bird, such as the breasts, thighs, skin, liver, and other innards, like chicken heart and gizzard. They also offer other grilled skewers like beef tongue, bacon-wrapped asparagus, and quail egg. If you’re not in the mood for yakitori, Yakyudori and Hinotez offer a variety of ramen and donburi (rice bowl) dishes, while Taisho has some deep-fried options to choose from. Although its yakitori selection is smaller than the other two, Hinotez also features sashimi, sushi rolls, and yakisoba.
4898 Convoy St., Kearny Mesa | 858-268-2888
5185 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Kearny Mesa | 858-752-0468
7947 Balboa Ave., Kearny Mesa | 858-565-4244
Common Theory
James Tran
The annual event honors middle market companies creating jobs, scaling up, and investing in the region
San Diego is known for its startup culture and innovation economy, but what happens when the company moves beyond its early-stage years? The San Diego Business Impact Awards aim to answer that question, spotlighting the middle market businesses helping drive the region’s economy.
Hosted by San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and JPMorganChase, the second annual awards celebration takes place on Thursday, July 23, from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Scripps Research Auditorium. More than 200 executives, entrepreneurs, and business leaders are expected to attend the networking and cocktail event honoring some of San Diego County’s fastest-growing companies.
Businesses headquartered in San Diego County that have operated for at least two years are encouraged to submit their nomination by Thursday, June 18 at 4 p.m. Companies across industries—from technology and life sciences to tourism and consumer products, as well as pre-revenue startups—are eligible for recognition.
For EDC President and CEO Mark Cafferty, the event is as much about building connections as celebrating success. “We’ve had a longtime partnership with JPMorganChase; their work aligns with our efforts to support underserved communities and drive talent development,” says Cafferty. “And the networking was invaluable last year. I’m still in touch with people I met at last year’s awards.”
EDC is an independently-funded nonprofit that works directly with San Diego companies to help them grow the local economy, make the region as a whole more competitive, and attract and retain top-tier talent with quality jobs. Through EDC, companies can get help starting or expanding their business with support for things like site selection, permit navigation, and regulatory guidance, plus connections to local resources and potential business collaborators.
The San Diego Business Impact Awards began as an idea with one of EDC’s longtime strategic partners, JPMorganChase. The two organizations share a commitment to San Diego and are dedicated to bolstering middle market businesses.
“We’re blessed with a robust innovation economy and startup community,” says Aaron Ryan, San Diego Region Manager for JPMorgan’s Commercial and Investment Bank and vice chair of the firm’s’ San Diego Market Leadership Team. “But one of the segments of the business community we felt was overlooked was emerging middle market companies—the businesses that are no longer small but not yet large.”
Ryan says supporting those companies is critical as they scale and decide where to invest, hire, and grow.
San Diego’s high cost of living remains one of the region’s biggest business challenges, making talent recruitment and retention increasingly competitive. But local leaders point to the region’s quality of life, climate, and collaborative business community as advantages that continue to attract employers and workers.
“In order to support thriving households, there has to be enough high-quality jobs for people to be able to afford to live here,” Cafferty says. “Once a company grows and excels past that middle market point in their growth cycle, they become much more likely to pay higher wages and compete globally.”
Both Cafferty and Ryan proudly tout the unique collaboration that exists among San Diego County businesses. Bringing together top universities producing high-quality talent, cutting-edge research institutions, a robust military and defense presence, leading ocean science and environmental organizations, and a binational, cross-border identity creates a distinct business ecosystem that defines and strengthens the San Diego region.
Last year’s San Diego Business Impact Awards celebrated nearly 60 honorees from 49 industries, representing a total of 8,232 jobs across eight sectors, including: software and technology, healthcare and life sciences, consumer goods, professional services, finance, construction and manufacturing, defense, and hospitality and tourism. On average, honoree companies doubled their revenues over the previous year, employed more than 145 San Diegans each, and offered an average annual compensation of $192,415.
Top honorees included defense contractor Innoflight, environmental consulting firm Bancroft Construction Services, life sciences startup Element Biosciences, defense technology contractor GALT Aerospace, organic grocery store chain Jimbo’s, and biopharmaceutical company LENZ Therapeutics. During the event, Innoflight Founder and CEO Jeff Janicik held a fireside chat offering his insights on investing in the community and embracing San Diego culture.
This year, organizers hope to continue highlighting the middle market players driving economic impact across the region. Nominations are now open through June 18 at 4 p.m. Get your tickets to the San Diego Business Impact Awards celebration to enjoy drinks by Snake Oil Cocktail Co., light bites, live music, and networking.
Iconic Dudley's Bakery to open deli in Kearny Mesa
San Diego has some solid bakeries now, from Bread & Cie to Con Pane and Sadie Rose. But ask any local for their first memory of lust-worthy, high-quality bread?
The answer is almost always Dudley’s Bakery—where for the last 50 years, every San Diegan with an operable sense of smell has stopped for some potato bread on their way to “see snow” in Julian.
Now San Diegans won’t have to drive so far for their fix. Evan Brunye, son of Dudley’s owners Barry and Laurie Brunye, is opening Dudley’s Deli in Kearny Mesa (9119 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.) in the former Chick-A-Deli. Brunye opened the first offshoot of the bakery last year in Santee. This location, which he hopes to open within three weeks, will be the first that isn’t a hell of a drive for us city folk.
Menu standouts include the Strawberry Turkey (that famed potato sheepherder bread with a layer of fresh strawberries and strawberry preserves), the TBA (turkey, bacon and avo on their Western Wheat Bread), and California Roast Beef on jalapeño-cheddar loaf. You can also build your own starting with your favorite Dudley’s bread, then meats and some inventive condiments (cilantro-garlic mayo, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, crab apple jelly, pico de gallo, peanut butter, etc.). Open from 6AM to 4PM, Dudley’s Deli will bake its own pastries. The bread will be delivered from the mother ship every other day.
“We tried to bake the bread onsite in Santee, and it’s just so much bread,” explains Brunye. “The ovens in Santa Ysabel you can fit 20 people in. We don’t have that kind of space.”
Evan, a mechanical engineer by trade, raised the money for the delis the hard way. Walking at night in Mission Beach in 2011, he was attacked from behind and ultimately stabbed in the leg four times. The police didn’t arrest the attacker, because Brunye had defended himself pretty well and given the attacker a black eye. “So I had to sue the guy, and won enough to start my own business,” explains Brunye, who made a full recovery after a year of rehabilitation. “If it wasn’t for that, I’d probably still be an engineer.”
INCOMING: Dudley’s Deli
Iconic Dudley's Bakery to open deli in Kearny Mesa
San Diego has some solid bakeries now, from Bread & Cie to Con Pane and Sadie Rose. But ask any local for their first memory of lust-worthy, high-quality bread?
The answer is almost always Dudley’s Bakery—where for the last 50 years, every San Diegan with an operable sense of smell has stopped for some potato bread on their way to “see snow” in Julian.
Now San Diegans won’t have to drive so far for their fix. Evan Brunye, son of Dudley’s owners Barry and Laurie Brunye, is opening Dudley’s Deli in Kearny Mesa (9119 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.) in the former Chick-A-Deli. Brunye opened the first offshoot of the bakery last year in Santee. This location, which he hopes to open within three weeks, will be the first that isn’t a hell of a drive for us city folk.
Menu standouts include the Strawberry Turkey (that famed potato sheepherder bread with a layer of fresh strawberries and strawberry preserves), the TBA (turkey, bacon and avo on their Western Wheat Bread), and California Roast Beef on jalapeño-cheddar loaf. You can also build your own starting with your favorite Dudley’s bread, then meats and some inventive condiments (cilantro-garlic mayo, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, crab apple jelly, pico de gallo, peanut butter, etc.). Open from 6AM to 4PM, Dudley’s Deli will bake its own pastries. The bread will be delivered from the mother ship every other day.
“We tried to bake the bread onsite in Santee, and it’s just so much bread,” explains Brunye. “The ovens in Santa Ysabel you can fit 20 people in. We don’t have that kind of space.”
Evan, a mechanical engineer by trade, raised the money for the delis the hard way. Walking at night in Mission Beach in 2011, he was attacked from behind and ultimately stabbed in the leg four times. The police didn’t arrest the attacker, because Brunye had defended himself pretty well and given the attacker a black eye. “So I had to sue the guy, and won enough to start my own business,” explains Brunye, who made a full recovery after a year of rehabilitation. “If it wasn’t for that, I’d probably still be an engineer.”
INCOMING: Dudley’s Deli
Scripps study shows that some patients may be able to taper their dose and maintain results
While glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agents have been used to treat Type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years, their recent emergence as weight-loss wonder drugs marked a new frontier in medicine. But their effectiveness has left some patients wondering what to do once they’ve reached their goal. Stopping the medication could mean regaining some, if not all, of the weight. A Scripps Clinic internal medicine physician recently conducted a small study of whether GLP-1 patients who had reached their goal weight could maintain that weight by taking their regularly prescribed injection every other week instead of weekly. Spoiler alert: 30 of 34 patients did. Read more about the study here and what that may mean as pharmaceutical companies roll out oral GLP-1s.
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