The post Callie’s Travis Swikard Opening New French Restaurant in La Jolla appeared first on San Diego Magazine.
]]>He signed the lease today.
It’s going to be a free-standing modern French restaurant along the edge of La Jolla Commons (4747 Executive Drive). A 6,000-square-foot space with 24-foot-high windows harnessing that expensive San Diego sun. Indoor-outdoor seating. His own garden/micro-farm on property (really micro—I’m actually exaggerating using the word farm, but he’ll grow citrus and herbs and stuff). Studio UNLTD will handle the design. Compared to the “more rambunctious” Callie, Swikard says, the new spot will be “a little more buttoned-up and swanky.”
The restaurant doesn’t have a name yet. Target opening date: 2025.
“In the last year, I’ve walked through 25 places and they didn’t feel right,” Swikard says. “I saw this space on March 8, the day before my birthday. I flew to New York and sat down with Daniel [Boulud, my mentor] and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I told him about it. He said, ‘It’s an amazing opportunity. I would never get that in New York.’”
The big news is that his new restaurant will be French. Swikard spent a decade as the right-hand of Daniel Boulud, one of the most revered French chefs in the world. It was a tad surprising that Callie wasn’t all coq au vins and cassoulets (Callie is strictly Southern Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Southern Italian, North African—spice-driven and not French). That was by design. He needed to make his own mark.
Now, mark fully made, he will pay homage to his mentors and where he came from.
“Callie’s fun and loud, and this one is going to be the grown-up brother who spent a couple years in France and came home and did his thing,” he says. “It’ll be heavily inspired by the French-Italian Riviera: Cote d’azure, Provence, Liguria. I spent a summer in Cassis and Nice (the armpit where France and Italy come together) and the culture is swanky and fun. It’s cuisine soleil, or cuisine of the sun. San Diego is the same place—the ingredients, the fish, the farms, the sun, the ocean, and the mountains. We don’t have thousands of years of culture behind it, but it’s all here.”
The new restaurant will be more technical, but not white-tablecloth. Olive oil–forward. Fish and vegetables, roasted meats. “In the south of France, you have oysters and whole grilled fish or salt-baked fish or sole meunière,” Swikard says. “When I was in Provence, it felt like San Diego—fun, laid-back. That’s what I love about this place. People can have all the money in the world, but they don’t flaunt it.”
La Jolla Commons is an office city made of glass—a pretty stunning, LEED gold and platinum-certified sustainable build. When it opened in 2008, it was the largest net-zero project in the country. Tenants are lions of the financial world: US Bank, KPMG, Moss Adams, the like. Still, it’s not a reclaimed warehouse in the middle of Little Italy or some other restaurant row.
“It’s an incredible space,” he says. “You can’t find this anywhere else in the city. And I’d rather live with no regrets.”
The La Jolla Commons office park
Look. I always try to strike a balance between journalism and expletives in this space. Luckily, my assignment as a food editor is opinion. If anyone can make a destination restaurant in an office park work, I’d put my money on Swikard. Callie is not just one of the best restaurants to open in San Diego. It’s become one of the top eateries in the country in the last few years. The secret to that is equal parts hard-earned training and skills mixed with passion that borders on obsession.
Swikard continually texts me ingredient porn: piles of pronged uni still ocean-wet; bluefin tuna on his cutting board; dozens of passionfruits, figs, peppers. He’s not bragging or selling. He just gets truly, truly excited about wildly fresh ingredients. And he knows I nerd that way as well.
“When I was in New York, Daniel would order the best produce in the world,” he explained to me once. “And, every day, the farm box would show up, and it said San Diego on the side.”
When Swikard hired chef Mike Reidy from Fish Market last year, I texted him. You don’t hire a chef of Reidy’s skill and experience unless something big is in the works. One of the keys to Callie’s success and the group’s expansion is GM Ann Sim, a highly refined badass.
She worked her way up in Boulud’s NYC restaurants as well, then became captain at one of the best restaurants in the world (three-Michelin star Eleven Madison Park) before moving back to SoCal to help open Nomad Hotel (and did a stint at Curtis Stone’s Maude). You can make 19-star Michelin food, but if the front of the house is mediocre, it’s not going to matter.
“She’s my right hand,” Swikard says. “Opening another restaurant, for Ann and I, is [about] that gut feeling that we have more to share. We feel we can create something that’s, first and foremost, genuine and an expression of the high quality-people expect us to [deliver].”
Swikard grew up in Santee and always dreamed of being a chef. He got his first job at Kemo Sabe under chef Deborah Scott as a kid of 15, then moved over to Island Prime for four years. His career really took off when he took off, though. He left for New England Culinary Institute, then hopped to Europe to work under respected French chefs like Phil Thompson (Auberge du Lac) and Marco Pierre White. A fellow San Diego ex-pat Gavin Kaysen recruited him for Boulud in New York.
Years later, San Diego restaurateur David Cohn would convince Swikard to come home to San Diego. Cohn would help him fund his own restaurant.
It worked, pretty wildly. Now Travis just bought his first house for his family and set down roots, and they’re sketching out the second act.
“I’m a humble blue-collar kid who worked hard his whole life. I count pennies and dot my I’s and cross my T’s,” Swikard says. “Opening another restaurant is a graduation for me. I’ve been lucky to have the best mentors in the world and watch them do it.”
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]]>The post Farm Bathing at the Inn at Moonlight Beach appeared first on San Diego Magazine.
]]>Even with this sexy, tiny turtle car, this driveway is harrowing. If I hit the gas wrong, I’m going to take out the very lush porch, dismantling wide swaths of zen. If I have a mishap with the clutch, I’m sure to plow through the micro-farm stand (located halfway up the driveway, on the right).
I’m not sure what I expected of an “inn.” Not sure I’ve pondered what that word means since I was a young kid reading about the Jerry Springer-y birth Mary and Joseph experienced. Many lodging facilities across the US call themselves “inns” to portray a warm provincialism, to appeal to the traveling-aunt in us all. And then you get there and it’s just, like, a huge industrial dormitory with an Olde English–looking logo and weapons-grade carpet.
This place, though, is what I think an inn should be. A home, fascinatingly transformed into a snug alcove for weary life travelers.
It is the first platinum WELL-certified hotel in the world. The WELL certification is kinda like organic food certification—but, whereas organic means that food was grown without pesticides and is expensive, WELL-certified denotes places where a shocking amount of things about the property are designed for human health and wellness.
Like this hedge of rosemary and lavender and a dozen other herbs lining the front of the property, used in tea and in your bath to create a sort of human potpourri. Or the succulent table (tiny, engorged, dinosaur-looking plants on a wooden bench, which guests can mix and match for their own parting gift of water-wise puffy plants). And the bug motel, a box of circular wooden tubes for them to rest their weary pollinating mandibles.
Insects are four-star guests here (but, it should be noted, they seem to not bother, maybe dissuaded by the essential oils and incense near the small altar of the owner’s guru, or maybe because they’ve got their own little inn of their own).
The whole property—basically a very large home a few blocks from the beach in Encinitas, turned into a wellness sanctuary—is a living, breathing thing. A home surrounded and hugged by a micro-farm. A farmer walks among the vines and shrubs and trees, pruning this and that. He’s thin, angular. He looks very plant-based, bearded as is written in farmer rules, his personality soft and amiable because he looks at plants all day instead of his damn phone. He is so calm and present that, just encountering him, you wonder if your own damn phone has zip-driven your soul.
When Shangwen Chiu Kennedy and her husband first bought this place in 2017, it was a pretty humble bed-and-breakfast—less “old” than just kind of existing. The dirt was that love-thirsty, latte-brown dust, a sort of Yuma hard pack, like the basepaths of abandoned Little League fields. In Shangwen’s vision of a wellness inn, she had to first bring life back to the earth. She dug it all up and piled it in the driveway, a giant heap of ground rehab, and started feeding it compost to it every day, covering it with a tarp.
If you pulled back the tarp and felt the black soil, she says, it was warm, almost hot—the exothermic effect of a billion-trillion micro-organisms building a society of nutrients. She eventually dispersed that supersoil and planted her little inn-farm that the Farmer of Calm patiently fusses with. She digs her finger in the dirt and picks a tiny purple carrot, the size of a baby thumb. Then, a strawberry off the vine. We walk through the noren and into the “lobby” of the inn, where she washes the fruit and places it on a tiny compostable bamboo tray.
The idea of all this, Shangwen explains, is that the warm earth and biodynamically grown organic food-plants and shrubs are exuding an oxygen and life force around the whole property. Nutrients vaporized (she didn’t say that unscientific gibberish; this is me imagining) so that you’re sleeping in the invisible lukewarm life steam of a giant naturalist diffuser. Farm bathing.
Shangwen’s a force. Two degrees from Cornell and Harvard in architecture, landscape, and urban design. She was on partner track at famed architecture firm NBBJ with her mentor, Alex Krieger (an Obama appointee). Together, they rebuilt the Shanghai waterfront (she’d done her thesis on it). She helped build one of the most famous waterfronts in the world—the Bund—before realizing she wanted to slow down and create things like this in San Diego.
In the main room, a couple of employees slowly, methodically do the work of the inn. They arrange cutting boards of fruits, dates, nuts, and raw honey from the local Mikolich family. They steep various teas using herbs grown all around the building. They take freshly picked lavender and other herbs and dip them into honey in jars, then seal them up and let them infuse along the west-facing windows. They dehydrate fruits. They teach classes on how to do all this stuff for guests who are interested.
There are various nuts you can crack. Dehydrated apples, things picked.
I’m here because my wife and CEO Claire has given me a day off. We took over San Diego Magazine almost two years ago. Our son was born the same week. Timing could have been better, things spaced out a bit. Should you ever consider doing those two things concurrently, know that I learned something important.
Before making two seismic decisions at the same time, it’s important to identify the environment in which you’re about to make the decisions and then remove yourself. Preferably you should go to a different country and culture, and, once you land, break all of your legs and drink from fountains to try to contract amnesia from the local water supply. Just do everything you can to really trap yourself there.
It has been the most fulfilling way to rapidly age. Once we had finally built our phenomenal team at SDM (the best creatives I’ve ever been around, the ones who can embarrass you with their intelligence), once we could take our own feet off the pedal for a second and sit under a tree or lower ourselves into a boat drink… we decided to launch the biggest food and wine festival we could possibly imagine, tripling our work. And a month ago, that festival, scary as hell, like extending your neck under the trellis of life’s guillotine, happened. And it was far more glorious than we ever could have imagined.
The point is, SDM Media is healthy, growing. This dream with more than its fair share of doubters, with two years of bone-grinding work and plans gone right and wrong, of staring at wild content ideas and P&Ls past midnights, all the blueprinting and filming and writing and editing and storytelling and hiring and pleading to various supernatural forces who might somehow aid us in navigating the modern media world… it’s now a mighty little organism. The soil of our creative house is warm and teeming, giving off a constant stream of ideas about a city, a people, a life, a culture.
And Claire said, “Go.” No dog, no children, no cooking, no dishes, no work, no alarm. Take a single day.
And so I take my Inn at Moonlight Beach key—a real key, with some round ornate keychain whose shape I’m sure is a symbol for some aligning force or is just cute and large enough that you won’t lose it—and go to my room. I crack open The New Yorker Book of Poems—that massive, dog-eared tome, a relic from getting a poetry degree almost 30 years ago. I sit on the balcony, breathe in that evaporating farm exhumation. I take 24 hours alone in this neighborhood. I drink great wine at Valentina. I walk to the beach and lay in the sand, read some Pynchon, embrace a disorienting sense of wild unproductivity. I nap for a good six minutes.
I wake, dig my ass into the sand I grew up in, and reset.
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]]>The post Best Dishes in San Diego: Sardine Toast at Pali Wine Co. appeared first on San Diego Magazine.
]]>As a trillion-headed seafood-eating beast, the whole hungry world gets itself into trouble when we figure out we like a fish—like salmon or tuna—and decide that’s the only thing we’re gonna eat until a scientist steps in and says, “Welp, they’re almost extinct because you just dug your heels in. Congrats on that.”
At Pali Wine Co in Little Italy (a hell of a great back patio in the middle of the urban food bazaar over near India Street), exec chef Logan Kendall decides what he’s going to cook based on whatever the hell Tommy Gomes tells him to. Not really, Kendall’s a great chef. But Gomes is also one of the country’s top sustainably minded, local boat-supporting fishmongers (check out his fish shop, Tunaville). So Logan calls him every day or week and says, basically, “What’s best off the boats?”
And it results in a dish like this. Tunaville sardines, mixed with good olive oil and salt, and house-cured for three days. He sources his bread from Companion Bread (a little-known gem of a bakery, one of the few in the city milling its own wheat), toasts it with olive oil, takes ripe tomatoes, grates them and adds a splash of sherry vinegar, green garlic, tosses torpedo onions from Chino Farm in a little vinegar, and lays those now silky cured sardines up top. Order it with one of the low-intervention natty wines (Pali is a family-owned urban wine thing, showing off the wines from Lompoc).
It’s a hell of a rebrand, showing off a previously maligned beaut of a local fish.
Pali Wine Co., 2130 India St.
Have breaking-news, exciting scoops, or great stories about San Diego’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].
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Del Mar Wine + Food Festival, 2023, headliners
The food festival to end all food festivals arrives in San Diego September 6 – 11. Del Mar Wine & Food Festival. Celebrity chefs, TV stars, one of the world’s greatest soccer players, San Diego’s surfing icon, the country’s top wineries—they’re all part of the mix. Some guy named Drew Brees is hosting a pickleball tournament.The main event is the Grand Tasting—Sept. 9 and 10 at the Surf Sports Park (formerly Del Mar Polo Fields)—but there are more than 20 special dinners and events throughout the week.Check out our quick guide below or see an extended version of each day’s events here: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Wednesday, September 6
San Diego Wave FC Hosts Opening Party
6-9 p.m., Monarch Ocean Pub and the Del Mar Plaza
Tickets: $225
See full details for Wednesday’s events here
Thursday, September 7
Raw Bar + Seafood Lunch with Chefs Drew Deckman and Jackson Kalb
1-3 p.m., Pacific Coast Grill
Tickets: $200
Chateau Montelena + Rare Society Dinner
6-9 p.m., Rare Society Solana Beach
Tickets: $585
David Arthur Wine-Paired Dinner
6 p.m., Pamplemousse Grille
Tickets: $690
Aaron May WhistlePig Whiskey-Paired Dinner
6:30-9:30 p.m., Monarch Ocean Pub
Tickets: $200
Mille Fleurs 1er Cru Burgundy Dinner
6:30 p.m., Mille Fleurs
Tickets: $575
Tequila Reserva de la Familia and Adobe Guadalupe Wine-Paired Dinner
6:30-10 p.m., Valle
Tickets: $360
Chef Claudette Zepeda and chef Antonia Lofaso Host a Kosta Browne Wine-Paired Dinner
6:30 p.m., VAGA
Tickets: $210-$270
See full details for Thursday’s events here
Friday, September 8
Drew Brees Hosts the Whispering Angel Celebrity Pickleball Tournament
12 noon-4 p.m., Bobby Riggs Racket & Paddle
Tickets: $100-$500
SOLD OUT: Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston Host the Dos Hombres Mezcal Dinner
6-9:30 p.m., The Lodge at Torrey Pines
Tickets: $495
Winemakers of Napa Valley Tasting
6-9 p.m., Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa
Tickets: $240
Moet Hennessy Paired Dinner
6 p.m., Pamplemousse Grille
Tickets: $550
Celebrating a Century of Grgich at Ranch 45
6:30 p.m., Ranch 45
Tickets: $300
Fine Wines of Tuscany Dinner with chefs Jackson Kalb and Silvio Salmoiraghi
7-10 p.m., Cucina Enoteca
Tickets: $420
See full details for Friday’s events here
Saturday, September 9
Chef Catherine McCord Hosts Yoga & Brunch
8-10:30 a.m., The Deck at the Del Mar Plaza
Tickets: $120
Grand Tasting 2023 — Day One
1-4 p.m., Del Mar Polo Fields
Tickets: $175-$475
Richard Blais Hosts the After Hours Party
7-10 p.m., Pool House at the Pendry
10 p.m., Oxford Social Club
Tickets: $200
See full details for Saturday’s events here
Sunday, September 10
Rob Machado Beach Cleanup and Seafood Brunch with chefs Brian Malarkey and Aidan Owens
7:30-8:30 a.m., Cardiff State Beach
9-11 a.m., Herb & Sea
Tickets: $95
Grand Tasting 2023 — Day Two
1-4 p.m., Del Mar Polo Fields
Tickets: $175-$475
See full details for Sunday’s events here
Interested in attending Saturday and Sunday’s Grand Tasting events? Check out the two-day passes starting at $325 per person. For more information on the biggest food and drink event in San Diego, visit the official website.
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herb-and-wood-sdm-0223.jpg
Photo Credit: Bailey Films Photos
Del Mar Wine + Food Festival: Sunday, September 10
Rob Machado Beach Cleanup and Seafood Brunch with chefs Brian Malarkey and Aidan Owens
7:30-8:30 a.m., Cardiff State Beach | 9-11 a.m., Herb & Sea | TICKETS: $95Kick off Sunday with legendary pro surfer Rob Machado’s beach cleanup and seafood brunch with chefs Brian Malarkey (Top Chef, Herb & Wood, Herb & Ranch, Herb & Sea, Animae) and Aidan Owens (exec chef at Herb & Sea). The beach cleanup will take place at Cardiff State Beach, followed by brunch at Herb & Sea in Encinitas). There’s no cost to participate in the beach cleanup (7:30 to 8:30 a.m.). Brunch takes place from 9 to 11 a.m. and includes wines from Daou as well as food stations serving a variety of seafood options.
The Wines
Daou Chardonnay Reserve 2021
Daou Discovery Rose 2022
The Food
Station 1: Grilled Oyster
Station 2: Tuna Carpaccio Toast
Station 3: Blinis Caviar Onion Dip
Station 4: Crab Niçoise Salad
Station 5: Lobster Roll Benedict
Station 6: Oyster Raw Bar
Station 7: Shrimp Brochette
Grand Tasting 2023 — Day Two
1-4 p.m. | Del Mar Polo Fields | TICKETS: $175-$475Day two gives you another chance to mingle with celebrity guests such as Alicia Gwynn ( Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, President and CEO of Gwynn Enterprises) and top chefs like Benito Molina (Masterchef) , Brad Wise (Rare Society), and Claudia Sandoval (Masterchef) serving delicious bites paired with hundreds of boozy beverages.Interested in attending Saturday and Sunday’s Grand Tasting events? Check out the two-day passes starting at $325 per person. For more information on the biggest food and drink event in San Diego, visit the official website.
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Catherine McCord, DMWFF
Del Mar Wine + Food Festival: Saturday, September 9
Chef Catherine McCord Hosts Yoga & Brunch
8-10:30 a.m. | The Deck at the Del Mar Plaza | TICKETS: $120Burn some calories before enjoying tasty breakfast eats during Yoga and Brunch on the Deck at the Del Mar Plaza. The workout is from 8 to 9 a.m., and the brunch—courtesy of chef Catherine McCord (American actress, model and TV hostess)— is from 9 to 10:30 a.m. It all takes place at Monarch Ocean Pub and the Del Mar Plaza. Attendees will be leaving with a signed cookbook from McCord and a custom LaCroix (event sponsor) branded yoga mat. The brunch menu has not been announced.
Grand Tasting 2023 — Day One
1-4 p.m. | Del Mar Polo Fields | TICKETS: $175-$475And now, the moment you’ve waited for. Starting at 1 p.m. (or 12 noon if you have an early entry or VIP ticket), Surf Sports Park becomes a dining and drinking pleasure palace dedicated to our amazing city of San Diego. Look for bites from celebrity chefs like Masterchef’s Claudia Sandoval and prepare to enjoy more than 200 wines, beer and spirits. The event ends at 4 p.m.
Richard Blais Hosts the After Hours Party
7-10 p.m., Pool House at the Pendry | 10 p.m., Oxford Social Club | TICKETS: $200
Still can’t get enough of day one? Celebrity chef Richard Blais (Top Chef, Juniper & Ivy, Ember & Rye, Crack Shack, California English) hosts the After Hours Party at the Pool House and Oxford Social (550 J St, San Diego) at the Pendry hotel. There will be a tasting station experience at the Pool House and a performance by a special guest at Oxford Social. Pool House goes from 7 to 10 p.m. while the Oxford Social party goes from 10 p.m. onwards.
Interested in attending Saturday and Sunday’s Grand Tasting events? Check out the two-day passes starting at $325 per person. For more information on the biggest food and drink event in San Diego, visit the official website.
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Bobby Riggs Racket & Paddle Drew Brees Del Mar Wine + Food Festival 2023 San Diego
Courtesy of Bobby Riggs Racket & Paddle
Del Mar Wine + Food Festival: Friday, September 8
Drew Brees Hosts the Whispering Angel Celebrity Pickleball Tournament
12 noon-4 p.m. | Bobby Riggs Racket & Paddle | TICKETS: $100-$500Former NFL star quarterback Drew Brees kickstarts Friday by hosting the Whispering Angel Celebrity pickleball tournament benefiting Feeding San Diego. Rob Machado, tennis pro Coco Vandeweghe, ex-NFL star Golden Tate, former Padre Mark Loretta, and our very own Food Network personality Troy Johnson will all be playing, plus other celebrities announced closer to the date. It’s a mix of pros and average joes. Players and spectators will have bites and sips from local restaurants.
The Food:
Baja Vida Jerky
Dang Brother Pizza
Lia’s Lumpia
NuttZo Bars
Palmys Pacific Beach Tacos
Sweetgreen Healthy Bowls
Temaki Hand Rolls
The Drinks:
Taptruck Cocktails: Hendrick’s Gin, Milagro Tequila & Monkey Shoulder
AleSmith .394
Ashland
Celsius
Dos Hombres Mezcal
Nova Kombucha
Rancho La Puerta (Agua Frescas)
Safu Sake
Volley Tequila Seltzer
Whispering Angel
SOLD OUT: Aaron Paul and Bryan Crandston Host the Dos Hombres Mezcal Dinner
6-9:30 p.m. | The Lodge at Torrey Pines | TICKETS: $495Breaking Bad leading men Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston host the Dos Hombres Mezcal Dinner at The Lodge at Torrey Pines. Guests will be served a five-course meal prepared by some pretty iconic chefs, including Food Network’s Beau MacMillan. The menu has yet to be announced (but we’ve been assured nothing “blue” will be involved). Reception starts at 6 p.m.; dinner at 7 p.m.
Winemakers of Napa Valley Tasting
6-9 p.m.| Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa | TICKETS: $240Oh, this is good. A healthy portion of Napa Valley’s winemakers and owners/partners are flying down with their prized bottles to eat and mingle on the grand croquet lawn at Rancho Valencia. The RV culinary team—headed by executive chef Chris Gentile—has created a feast of bites to go with the wines:
The Winemakers/Owners
(each bringing a minimum of two wines)
Atlas Peak
B Cellars
Baldacci Family Vineyards,
Paradigm Winery
Priest Ranch
Rutherford Ranch Winery
Schweiger Vineyards
Tournesol
William Cole Vineyards
The Food
Chino Watermelon + Moroccan Feta
San Diego Blue Fin Tuna Cornette
Chino Street Corn with Flowering Cilantro
Garden Heirloom Tomato + Ricotta Tart
Lamb Lolli + Tandoori Yogurt
Potatoes + Caviar
Wagyu Beef + Flowering Rosemary Skewers
Chocolate Bite Furnished by Valeria
Moet Hennessy-Paired Dinner
6 p.m. | Pamplemousse Grille | TICKETS: $550If bubbles are your thing, this is your night. Pamplemousse Grille follows Thursday’s event with Friday’s Moet Hennessy-paired dinner from chef Jeffrey Strauss. Guests will be treated to a reception and five-course meal along with cocktails, bubbly, and fine wines.
The Menu
The Reception
Wonton Chip with Glazed Toro + Osetra Caviar; Porcelain Spoon with Gnocchi, Parmesan Cream + Shaved Black Truffles; Fig Tart Surprise.
Veuve Cliquot Rose, Woodenville Bourbon Old Fashioned, Belvedere Silent Spring
First Course
Lobster Poached in Savoy Cabbage, Tomato Confit, Caviar Pepper Beurre Blanc, Puff Pastry Lobster.
2012 Dom Perignon, 2013 Dom Perignon
Second Course
Porcini-Dusted Dayboat Scallop, Petite Tri-Color Beet Fondant, Cherry Balsamic Reduction.
Krug Grande Cuvee 171 eme Edition
Third Course
Risotto with Hudson Valley Duck Confit, Morels, English Peas.
2018 Cloudy Bay Te Wahi Pinot Noir Central Otago, New Zealand; 2021 Freestone (by Joseph Phelps) Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
Fourth Course
Telecherry Lightly-Peppered Venison Chop, Asparagus and Tri-Color Carrot Bundle, Truffle Reduction.
2010 Joseph Phelps Insignia; 2015 Joseph Phelps Insignia
Dessert Course
Pear Tarte Tatin, Vanilla Gelato, Melange of Berries.
2003 Chateau D’Yquem
Celebrating a Century of Grgich at Ranch 45
6:30 p.m. | Ranch 45 | TICKETS: $300Del Mar’s Ranch 45 hosts Celebrating a Century of Grgich at Ranch 45 with a five-course menu paired by award-winning chef Aaron Schwartz (Bernard’O Restaurant, Ranch 45). A San Diego native, chef Schwartz grew up frequenting Chino Farm, getting a taste of fresh produce regularly. Today, he continues to seek only the best and highest quality ingredients to create his menus.
The Menu
Reception
Chef’s Bite
Grgich Hills Estate Napa Valley Rose 2022
First Course
Grilled Shrimp, Thai Carmel Sauce, Herb Salad
Grgich Hills Estate Napa Valley Paris Tasting Commemorative Chardonnay 2020
Second Course
Smoked Colossal Rib, BBQ Sauce, Tallow Roll
Grgich Hills Estate Napa Valley Zinfandel 2018
Third Course
Dry Aged New York, Chino Farm Corn-Potato Hash, Green Peppercorn Sauce
Grgich Hills Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2011
Grgich Hills Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2014
Fourth Course
Seared A5 Wagyu, Blackberry Demi
Grgich Hills Estate Yountville Single Vineyard Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
Dessert
Vanilla Semi Frido, Chino Farms Berries
Grgich Hills Estate Napa Valley Violetta Late Harvest Dessert Wine 2018
Fine Wines of Tuscany Dinner with chefs Jackson Kalb and Silvio Salmoiraghi
7-10 p.m. | Cucina Enoteca | TICKETS: $420Cucina Enoteca’s chef team Cesar Sarmiento and Tim Kolanko have invited two pretty remarkable friends for a collaborative dinner—a Michelin-star Italian classicist from Lombardy, and one of the top Italian chefs in the U.S. Each course will be paired with rare Tuscan wines. Silvio Salmoiraghi is the Italian master who runs Michelin-starred Acquerello and is also partner at Ambrogio by Acquerello in La Jolla.Jackson Kalb is the rising U.S. star who trained at a couple of the country’s top three-star Michelins (Joel Robuchon, Alinea) before being cast on Top Chef and opening his own spots in L.A. (Jame Enoteca, Ospi, Jemma di Mare).Together, they’re cooking:
The Menu
Amuse bouche
Course 1 – Chef Silvio Salmoiraghi
Stravaganza Mediterranea (seafood)
Isole e Olena ‘Collezione Privata’ Chardonnay 2020
Course 2 – Chef Jackson Kalb
brentwood corn cappelletti, parmigiano fonduta, shaved truffle
Castell’in Villa Chianti Classico Riserva Poggio delle Rose 2008
Course 3 – Chef Silvio Salmoiraghi
Rossini Acquerello (vegan) – grilled eggplant steak & daikon
Marchesi Antinori ‘Pian Delle Vigne’ Brunello di Montalcino 2009
Course 4 – Chef Jackson Kalb
Wagyu strip & beef cheek brasato, potato puree, shallot confit, “succo vietnamita,” herbs
Tenuta San Guido ‘Sassicaia’ 2008
Montevertine ‘Le Pergole Torte’ 2018 Magnum
Course 5 – Chef Cesar Sarmiento
Hazelnut semifreddo, poached peach, caramelized honey
Paneretta Vin Santo del Chianti Classico 2007
Interested in attending Saturday and Sunday’s Grand Tasting events? Check out the two-day passes starting at $325 per person. For more information on the biggest food and drink event in San Diego, visit the official website.
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Herb & Sea
Encinitas
Ranch 45
Solana Beach
Ambrogio by Acquerello
La Jolla
Matsu
Oceanside
George’s at the Cove
La Jolla
Arlo
Mission Valley
Beeside Balcony
Del Mar
Crab Hut
Kearny Mesa, Downtown, Mira Mesa
Tribute Pizza
North Park
Gwynn Foods
Catering
Civico 1845
Little Italy
Le Parfait Paris
Gaslamp, Point Loma, Mission Valley
Gwynn Foods
Little Frenchie
Coronado
Mujer Divina
Barrio Logan
Nine-Ten
La Jolla
Jeune et Jolie
Carlsbad
Marisi
La Jolla
Rosemarie’s
Mission Beach
Avant
Rancho Bernardo
Cesarina
Point Loma
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]]>What started with five of us sitting around a table in a trailer in the dirt is now The Del Mar Wine + Food Festival, a week-long celebration with 20-plus food and drink events around the city, all leading up to the big show: the Grand Tasting on Sept. 9 and 10.
Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad fame are doing a mezcal dinner at The Lodge at Torrey Pines with executive chef Kelli Crosson, two of Baja’s most iconic chefs (Benito Molina and Drew Deckman), and a pal from Food Network (Beau MacMillan). Almost 100 of the city’s top restaurants are signed up to cook for the Grand Tasting.
Alex Morgan came on as a partner before she left for the World Cup. Wave FC agreed to host the opening night party at Monarch Ocean Pub. Drew Brees, who can throw a football pretty well and can also apparently swing a tiny racket, is hosting a celebrity pickleball tournament at Bobby Riggs Racket & Paddle. Rob Machado decided to host a day at the beach, after which we’ll all walk to brunch nearby at Herb & Sea. Like I said, things evolve fast.
At least 10 of my friends from Food Network or food TV say they’re showing up: Antonia Lofaso, Aaron May, Catherine McCord, Beau Mac Millan, Eric Greenspan, Brian Malarkey, Carlos Anthony, Claudette Zepeda, Claudia Sandoval, and Tommy Gomes. Two Michelin-starred restaurants stepped up to cook in the VIP tent.
One of the country’s top wine minds, Ted Glennon, who started in San Diego before working with a three-Michelin-star restaurant and launching his own vineyard, is joining. And we partnered with Feeding San Diego and designed a large portion of the events to raise money for their hunger-relief efforts.In short, people have rallied. For Claire and me, it’s a dream event. After all, part of our purpose for doing this whole owning-a-media-company thing was about building experiences for the city. And we’re incredibly grateful.
At the very least, we’re bringing a massive portion of the city’s food and drink culture to an epic lawn by the sea for a serious celebration.
Hope you can join us (tickets here). Here’s a sprinkle of favorites from the 300-plus samples and sips awaiting you at the DMWFF:
SCHEDULE & HIGHLIGHTS
(For full schedule, visit delmar.wine)
The Main Event: September 9-10
Grand Tasting
Del Mar Polo Fields (Surf Sports Park)
Around 80 of the best restaurants and drink-makers from SoCal and Baja. More than 200 wines. Live music on double-decker buses. A massive putting green. Art. Games. Maybe a unicorn or two. Get your tickets here.
September 6
Opening Night Celebration
Monarch Ocean Pub
San Diego’s pro soccer heroes, the Wave FC, host the party at the epicenter of social life in Del Mar. GET TICKETS.
September 7
Chateau Montelena + Rare Society Dinner
Rare Society
Chef Brad Wise cooks a four-course dinner paired with wines from the Napa Valley. GET TICKETS.
Claudette Zepeda & Antonia Lofaso Dinner With Kosta Browne Wine
Vaga
Two of SoCal’s most celebrated chefs you know from Top Chef and Food Network cook at Zepeda’s signature restaurant at Alila Marea Resort. Wines from legendary Sebastopol pinot noir specialist, Kosta Browne.
Tequila Reserva de la Familia & Winery Adobe de Guadalope Dinner
Valle
San Diego’s newest Michelin-star chef, Roberto Alcocer, teams up with Eduardo Morali (Pangea; Top 50 Best Latin American Restaurants) for a six-course pairing dinner. GET TICKETS.
September 8
Whispering Angel Celebrity Pickleball Tournament
Bobby Riggs Racket & Paddle
Future NFL hall of famer Drew Brees, celebrity chefs, pro athletes, and other famous friends compete for bragging rights. Plus, it’s a big fundraiser for Feeding San Diego. GET TICKETS.
Dos Hombres Mezcal Dinner with Aaron Paul & Bryan Cranston
The Lodge at Torrey Pines
The Breaking Bad stars stop by for a five-course dinner made by celebrated chefs using their Dos Hombres mezcal as an ingredient. GET TICKETS.
A Century of Grgich Hills Estate
Ranch45
The iconic winery brings the newly released Paris Tasting Chardonnay and Yountville Old Vines Cabernet, plus others, for a five-course pairing dinner from chef Aron Schwartz and Brandt Beef. GET TICKETS.
September 9
Catherine McCord Yoga Brunch
Del Mar Plaza
Yoga on the deck, then brunch by the Food Network personality, cookbook author, mom, and CEO of Weelicious. GET TICKETS.
After-Party
The Pendry
Chef, great-hair guy, Top Chef All-Stars winner, and co-star of Next Level Chef Richard Blais hosts the after-party with some chef friends.
September 10
Rob Machado Beach Cleanup
Cardiff Reef
Spend the morning at the beach with San Diego’s surf legend, then join him at Herb & Sea for brunch food from chef Brian Malarkey. GET TICKETS.
DEL MAR WINE + FOOD FESTIVAL: THE FOOD
For the DMWFF Grand Tasting (Sept. 9-10), 80-plus restaurants are scratching out recipes and assembling their teams. A two-day cookout on an epic lawn by the sea. As a leadup to the event, food editor Troy Johnson revisited many of them, told their stories. And he found some remarkable dishes on their current menus that you should try right now if happiness is a current life pursuit. (For food at the festival, some of these might be present, or they’ll create something new altogether).
George’s at the Cove
Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake
Most restaurants peak, then ride that hype into a long, slow decline. After 40 years, George’s is still sitting pretty at the top. Exec chef Trey Foshee deserves credit, but talents like pastry chef Aly Lyng should also get their due. Lyng’s sticky toffee pudding cake is a more interesting cousin of the molten-lava classic. A deep, rich sweetness comes from date paste, and the amaretto toffee sauce is so good, it’s an emotion.
Arlo
Brick Oven Bolognese
Arlo’s Josh Mouzakes has the chops to do fancy-innovative dishes, and he does. But his bolognese, inspired by his grandpa, is one of the best bites in the city. A combo of beef, veal, and pork with fennel seed are simmered in a creamy, pink tomato sauce, then served in a semolina bread bowl and snowed in with pecorino and basil.
Cowboy Star
Roasted Pacific Halibut
“Indie steakhouses” are rare things. Most dry-aged specialists have been hooked up to their chain motherships by now. That’s why C-Star is so loved. I judge steakhouses by how they cook non-beef, like chef Victor Jimenez’s Japanese-inspired halibut. It’s cured in koji and served with garlic scapes and roasted maitake mushrooms, wading in a bacon dashi.
Kingfisher
Snake River Farms Wagyu Skirt Steak
It’s not a Kingfisher dish without a spark of fish sauce. When it comes to this steak (Snake River does phenomenal beef), exec chef David Sim smartly treats it hands-off, just upping its ante with a flavor-cranking beef jus. The salad cuts through the richness with corn, tomatoes, and—you guessed it—fish sauce. The fried squash blossom is stuffed with Kingfisher’s own tofu mixture, a riff on the Vietnamese dish dau hu thit.
Civico 1845
Raviolo Ai Gamberi
It’s time America realized butter is merely the raw ingredient destined to become brown butter: butter heated until the milk solids are toasted and caramelized and form one of the best flavors on the planet. And this ravioli—stuffed with local prawns and ricotta, tossed in brown butter-thyme sauce—is like a documentary film of its charms.
The Marine Room
Dry Aged Bluefin Tuna Carpaccio
The best food news of recent times is that the stock of bluefin tuna has now recovered to a point that NOAA considers it a “smart seafood choice.” So local bluefin is, once again, a San Diego calling card. Enter Marine Room chef Mike Minor’s wild, pretty carpaccio—thin-sliced bluefin, lemon zest, apple blossom, lemon oil, truffle oil, yuzu salt, micro-cilantro, summer truffles, coral lace.
Marisi
Marisi G&T
Marisi’s Spirits VP Beau du Bois is a refined booze encyclopedia. But sometimes the best drinks don’t require nouveau science. Just a slight shift of perspective. Take this Portuguese riff on the classic gin and tonic. The addition of white port—fortified, sweet wine—creates a bright, peachy, almost vanilla sweet-bitter cocktail that’s worlds better than just juniper and quinine.
Valle
Wagyu Strip
When chef Roberto Alcocer opened Valle in 2021, he said his goal was a Michelin star. This July, he got it. The only option for dinner is an eight-course prix-fixe that includes this stunner: Wagyu strip steak with shiitake mushrooms, plus daikon radish that’s confit (or marinated) in bone marrow.
Mister A’s
Caviar Tater Tots
One of the top French Chefs in the city offers his take on the best thing that ever happened to American school lunches. If you don’t like them, you may be broken. They’re “loaded tots” made in a Mister A’s way, with caviar, chantilly cream, and chives. Four-star snack bar.
Cucina Enoteca
Octopus
Octopus done wrong is old erasers. Done right, it’s this—tender, with the right bit of chew, edges charred crisp. Enoteca exec chef Cesar Sarmiento has a doozy of a version that sings thanks to a hazelnut romesco sauce you could bottle and guzzle.
Solomon Bagels & Donuts
Everything Bagel
Local bakeries have tried all kinds of soul-trading to recreate the almighty boiled-shiny NYC bagel, but still we suffered. Enter Jeffrey Wang, bagel hero. He started in New York and built a bagel empire. His were so good that he eventually sold the whole shebang to Einstein Bagels and retired in San Diego. He came out of seclusion to grace us with Solomon Bagels, one of the best in the city.
Paradisaea
Kurobuta Pork Chop
It is lovely in here. A designer’s dream built into a former La Jolla piano showroom— and also a pretty fantastic restaurant. Chef Mark Welker was the executive pastry chef at NYC’s Eleven Madison Park (widely regarded as one of the best restaurants in the world). Try the chops, blush-pink Kurobatas in a tarragon cream sauce and jus with lapsang souchong, a Japanese oxidized black tea.
Nine-Ten
Grilled Half Jerk Chicken
Chef Jason Knibb was born in Jamaica and raised in SoCal, so no surprise his jerk with local-farm co-stars is fantastic. It’s a half-chicken, brined for 24 hours to guarantee juiciness, stacked with those famous jerk spices, then smoked and charred on the grill. It comes with confit Japanese sweet potato and a Fresno chili sofrito.
Juniper & Ivy
Tuna Wellington
Welcome back, ’80s fashion and beef Wellington. You love puff pastry? Juicy steak catalyzes your happiness? How about we wrap that steak in puff pastry? Only, in San Diego, we don’t really ranch. We fish. Juniper & Ivy chef Anthony Wells has a long track record of loitering on local fishing boats. He Wellingtons top-quality local tuna instead of steak and serves it with a tuna bordelaise.
MUST-TRY WINES AT THE DEL MAR WINE + FOOD FESTIVAL
Calera Winery
“Josh Jensen was a California wine legend,” says Glennon. “He left us in June, 2022. The Calera wines are admired as part of the history of great wines in California.” In the early 70s, Josh went to the graceland of pinot noir—Romaneé-Conti, in Burgundy, France—and fell hard. He came home and spent two years looking for the perfect limestone-rich soil. He found it in Mount Harlan near Monterey. For a year he lived in a trailer with his wife and child, got to planting. He’d eventually be on the cover of Wine Spectator and be named SF Chronicle’s “Winemaker of the Year.” An icon.
Made By Light
At wine festivals, you should be able to taste what’s known and discover what’s next. Made by Light—from Mark Valin, who started as a busboy at Bridges’ country club in San Diego and eventually started making his own wines—is bringing his very first bottles to DMWFF. “I have been watching this develop for a long time,” says Glennon. “These wines come from a 30-acre vineyard planted at 1,500 feet along the Southern face of the Santa Rosa Plateau in De Luz Valley, the vineyard is farmed beyond organic and focused on Rhone and Sicilian varietals.”
Skylark Wine
Winemaker Robert Perkins is coming home for the DMWFF. “He grew up on Coronado and found his way to winemaking via being a sommelier in San Francisco,” says Glennon. “I have always loved these honest and delicious wines.”
La Caccia
La Caccia comes from “a Tuscan estate untouched for 1,200 years,” Glennon says. “The wines are now produced under the eye of Napa superstar Marc Gagnon, and they possess great potential for cellar aging.”
Chateau Montelena
This one is personal, with ties to both San Diego and DMWFF co-founder, Ernie Hahn. Most wine people know Montelena as the Napa winery that beat out French chardonnays in a blind tasting (called “The Judgment of Paris,” it was a historic moment in California and U.S. wine history, and the premise of the 2008 Alan Rickman film, Bottle Shock). Fewer know that Hahn’s grandfather (also Ernie)—a developer famous for developing the concept of suburban shopping malls—was one of the founding partners who helped bring Chateau Montelena’s first wine to barrel in 1972 (a riesling). He and partner Jim Barrett hired Mike Grgich as their winemaker.
Aperture Cellars
The winery founded by world-famous photographer Andy Katz (his photos are everywhere, but pop for pop culture fun, also on the cover of albums by the Doobie Brothers and Dan Fogelberg). His son Jesse is now the winemaker. “In 14 short years these wines have taken on a mythic status—rare creatures sought after by collectors and hedonists,” says Glennon.
Bodegas Estefania
“Raul Perez in Bierzo in Northwest Spain is one of the world’s great winemakers,” says Glennon, “working with very old vines he brings forward spicy, elegant, satisfying wines.”
Ross Cobb
Ross Cobb is well known to California pinot noir fans. A skate punk who grew up in Marin County and fell worked on his family farm in Sonoma County as a kid. Now in his 22nd vintage, he’s a Pinot Noir icon and gets his music fix by making wines with Primus bassist, Les Claypool.
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This shot of a holiday feast at downtown’s Little America Westgate Hotel appeared in the mag in 1975—but you probably already knew that, thanks to the lurid colors and napkin swans.
Food was first deemed worthy of cover-model status in San Diego Magazine in 1975. A single sultry cream puff, its protruding fluffy middle, come-hithering on newsstands across the city. An object of desire. Food as abs. Food as décolletage. If it were a few decades earlier, buttoned-up parents might cover childrens’ eyes from that illicit pastry smut. But this was the late ’70s, an era disco-dancing its way through one forbidden pleasure after the next.
Photographer John Oldenkamp not only shot this seductive cream puff for our November 1975 cover—he baked it, too
SDM’s editors seemed to recognize the lust they were peddling, as the headline read: “The X-Rated Bakeries.”
Of course, food writing wasn’t new. It’s cave-painting stuff. Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin penned The Physiology of Taste 150 years earlier. Twain wrote exhaustively about food. The world’s greatest cookie writer was Proust.
Food critic Tom Gable’s 1976 story describes a deluge of tips from SDM readers lauding strip-mall Chinese food spots
Brillat-Savarin was the one who coined, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” That statement seems a tad pretentious in a modern food climate that’s more humble, sure. But the nugget rings true. Because the best food writing is never a discussion about how well cooks comingled their fats and acids.
Through a plate of food, you can tell entire stories of history, culture, religion, socioeconomic strata, ecology, economics, and the personality of the person making it. Shepherd’s pie speaks of Irish suffering. Birria is a story of Spain colonizing Mexico with a bunch of annoying goats. The Big Mac Index is a widely used, very real economic tool designed to analyze the strength of global currencies. Food writing took off because it attracted great writers, the poets who could juggle and sword-swallow the English language.
In 1975, William Thomson, the executive chef of a pre-Mediterranean Room iteration of the La Valencia hotel, posed for a piece on holiday eats
One of SDM’s earliest food critics, Tom Gable, would go into restaurants anonymously with a microphone in his pocket, wired up his sleeve to record his thoughts without detection. Restaurant criticism was very serious business, real covert-ops stuff. Just a bunch of hyper-literate Jason Bournes saving San Diego’s humankind from subpar soufflés.
Gable and SDM’s other great food writer, David Nelson, created literary opuses about a city and its people, using beef Wellingtons and bánh mìs as their entry points. Nowadays, food writing, even criticism, is less about playing food god and thunder-bolting your judgment and more about telling a damn good story about a place in San Diego and what it says about our city and humans at large.
San Diego Mag has always invited readers to shift their perspective, as evidenced by this innovatively angled seafood shot in our August 2002 issue
SDM’s food photography in the ’70s and ’80s was wild. US culture was focused on largesse, and this media company was not immune to the “more is more” impulse. Each photo in the mag looked like Jesus was there, feasting with a backstabber. In those early days, San Diego’s food scene had its bright spots (courtesy of restauranteurs like Gustaf Anders and Bertrand Hug), but all in all, it was not well.
Serious chefs seemed to come here to half-heartedly pre-retire—or were dragged here in the trunk of life’s car. We have the hotels to thank for ending our food dark ages. Places like the Hotel Del, Loews Coronado (which tapped in chef Michael Stebner), the Lodge at Torrey Pines (chef Jeff Jackson), and El Bizcocho (chef Gavin Kaysen) hired the country’s best talents and supported them with big banquet money from events and weddings.
SDM readers voted Mister A’s San Diego’s best restaurant in 1981. The local institution remains in our 2023 Best Restaurants issue.
SDM’s coverage during the ’70s and ’80s was all about imported foods—first from the most adored food culture in the world (France), then other European countries and, eventually, Asia. Commercial airline travel was democratized in the ’70s, and people were flying to far-flung places and coming back with tales of new foodways to enlightenment. In the hills surrounding us, San Diego farmers were growing the best produce on the planet (SD has more small farms per capita than any US county), and yet our top restaurants were getting their food from the airport.
Now-shuttered Coronado fine-dining spot Marius was declared San Diego’s Best of the Best in 1994—after, the editors noted, sneaky repeat ballots were thrown out
That changed with the farm-to-table movement in the early 2000s. It wasn’t “new.” Cooking food you find nearby is how humanity started. It just got lost, especially in the US, when the Nixon administration demanded American farms “get big or get out.” Eventually the hotel chefs led the charge back to local farms, and the wave went indie at spots like Region (led by Stebner, who would go on to help launch True Food Kitchen), The Linkery, and Whisknladle.
Our 2012 Asian food guide shouted out a number of still-popular spots, including Tajima, Sushi Ota, and Bahn Thai
“Food porn” gave way to ingredient porn. And most recently, both food justice and ecology became a crucial part of the conversation. SDM talked about restaurants frauding farmers; about the delicate balance between the demand for seafood and the livelihoods of the people who go out and catch it; about the work of first-generation Americans who started with their life savings and a shingle in a non-famous part of town.
Back in 2013, Troy’s number-one best restaurant pick, Addison, was yet to score even one of its now-three Michelin stars.
Food writing nearly died. Some say it has. But SDM is still pepper- spraying the coffin brokers. Our contribution to the discussion around food has always been one of longform cultural exploration, ideally with many good sentences that make you think or understand the world differently. We’ve taken our storytelling to podcasts and video and internet-friendly best-of lists that provide our readers with brief info glitter that they love, too.
In 2012 (long before he and Claire purchased San Diego Magazine), Troy penned his first review for the mag, singing about the duck confit mac at the defunct Solace & The Moonlight Lounge.
It’s all part of what we do here, guiding our readers through the best meals in the city. We’ve been at it a long time.
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