Review: The Plot Restaurant

The bird has a plan. You stand between that bird and that plan. For the remainder of your ceviche, you’ll identify as collateral damage.

There are many other nearby birds with the same plan, absolutely sucking at trying to be nonchalant about it. The pigeons are by far the boldest on account of what we can all agree just by looking at them is sheer stupidity. They come right up and ask with their red murder clown eyes: “Can bite?”

Pelicans are the silverback gorillas of this bird gang, hulking and alpha. They periodically flaunt the acreage of their wingspan in the same way a schoolyard bully puffs out his chest. One could casually land on your plate and maintain constant eye contact as it slowly enjoyed your fish taco. You share this tacit awareness with it. But it doesn’t approach because there are always a couple off-duty fishermen eating at Mitch’s Seafood. Those salty dogs have been forced to beat the shit out of a pelican or two in their day, and they and the pelican also know that.

The snowy egrets pretend to not really want your food. They seductively lord on the tops of the sportfishing boats moored in front of the restaurant, fully aware of how hot they are—svelte fashion models, Ozempic with wings. They just turn their faces to the wind so that it blows their fabulous hair. They seem to expect tourists to be overcome by their avian Brad Pittness and just throw swordfish sandwiches to them in tribute. They refuse to demean themselves like the gulls do.

The gulls are shameless menaces. The linebackers of seabirds—a lot quicker than you expect given their big butts, full of schemes and microaggressions. They stand at a distance and mad-dog everyone, intimidate with their beaks the color of old bananas. Fear is not a seagull emotion. When they take a plate—and they will take a plate—there is so much flapping and fighting. They desperately bite and claw at fishermen’s stews like zombies who finally caught up to Rick Grimes. We see one that’s missing a foot.

At some point you will hear a baby cry. It’s not a baby. It’s a gull, who has learned to mimic the sound of human babies in distress so that parents feel the great evolutionary ache—and throw fries at the crying.

“Watch out for the crab cakes,” says a server to every person she drops them to. “Those are their favorite.”

The birds have opinions on the menu. And their presence at Mitch’s is better than any Yelp review. Think they’d risk life and limb for some recently unboxed frostbite tilapia down at the local skate rink? Yeah, probably so.

But these birds know the backstory of three longtime local fishing families who own Mitch’s: Brian Kiyohara and his wife, Viola; Randy Toussaint and his wife, Tracy; and namesake Mitch Conniff. Conniff cut his teeth as a young sous chef at Jsix (a long-gone restaurant that was, 20 years ago, a slow-food star under chef Christian Graves). Then he was executive chef of American Angler, the long-range Baja fishing vessel co-owned by Kiyohara.

It was on the Angler that Mitch reportedly looked at the restaurant that was previously in this location—on stilts over the water at Point Loma Sportfishing Dock—and said to Kiyohara, “Wouldn’t it be cool if a restaurant in that space used local fish from local boats and local people like us?”

And that’s how Mitch’s was born. Its doors opened in 2008.

The real story of Mitch’s is the wheelbarrows. Every morning, the crew rolls them along Driscoll’s Wharf down to Tunaville—the market also owned by local fishing families (including Conniff). The shop has a parking spot for local boats, who bring their daily haul there every morning. Mitch’s crew fills the wheelbarrows with fresh fish and wheels them back to the kitchen. Within hours or a day or so, some of it will be lunch, dinner, and bird crack.

There are no reservations at Mitch’s. More often than not, there’s a long line snaking out the door. It moves fast. Their tiny kitchen is remarkably efficient. Locals know to go for breakfast (get the crab avocado toast) or in the off-hours (11 a.m., 3 p.m.—just not noon and 6 p.m.). There’s a small-ish indoor dining room, tables that appear more lacquer than wood. It’s a shrine to local fishers, the wall’s a family photo album of tan locals beaming with pride over a record catch, pleasantly fatigued boat captains, sun-gnarled deckhands. Leave your partner in the line, and go peruse, get a sense for the humans out there in local waters, leaving their families for days and weeks and months at a time to provide. It’s a core San Diego way of life that built this city (tuna money poured the concrete at Point Loma High), once robust and now rare.

The prized seats are on the deck. Thirty or so metal bar stools are ponied up to a small counter attached to the wooden rail. Bendy metal rods cascade from the roof like eyelashes. “They were put in to deter the birds,” a server tells me. “It worked for about a week.”

The swordfish sandwich is just about perfect and a mission statement of the place—humble and simple, like fishing. A big-ole torta, a grilled filet not cooked to sawdust like American restaurants once did, with tomato, tartar sauce, and cilantro. It shouldn’t taste as good as it does, but clean local fish cooked well on bread is satisfying in an essential, basal way. Plus, that tartar sauce blows lesser tartars away. Conniff swaps out the pickle and onion for garlic, fresh parsley, and cilantro, so that it tastes closer to an herbed Baja crema. It should be criminalized and governed by people who make laws to atone for the lack of our own self-regulation.

The bowl of mussels and clams are the can’t-miss of Mitch’s—somewhere between French moules marinières, New England steamers, and Baja shellfish pots. The science: As shellfish steam, they release their own briny liquor, meaty ocean broth in a shell. The chef’s job is to complement that gift without clobbering it. Mitch’s uses white wine for acid and leeks (a milder, sweeter, more flavorful onion), Dijon, and butter. Their clams and mussels are bigger than normal, which brings stronger flavor, making that broth one of the best in the city, sopped with the baguette.

From the cold case, get the shrimp aguachile with housemade chips—a small bowl, green as radiator fluid, the chili water a light-pain blend of habaneros (the best tasting chili by a long shot), serranos, lime, and the soft, fat glove of avocado. They also serve a campechana—a Baja mariscos specialty with shrimp, Dungeness crab, octopus, and oysters in cocktail sauce and clamato. Important note here: Don’t eat either of these dishes right away. They come out fridge-cold (there are laws about storing raw seafood), which muzzles the flavor. Order them to sit. After 20 minutes, dig in.

The crab cakes get mixed reviews, but ours are delicious. They lean cake more than crab, which isn’t what you’d expect from a fisherman-chef’s stilt house, but that’s personal preference.

You’re going to order the fresh fish plate, blackened, because you’re good at ordering. It’s the truest expression of fisherman and fish. And what you’ll receive is a shockingly spartan plate—a paprika-crusted filet, a ramekin of slaw, some herb pistou. It is excellent, even if the universal governing body of wooden-spooned grandmas would suggest it needs a rice, a tater, a proper side dish.

My argument is that the slaw is side dishing. Coleslaw is, by and large, the great American fail. Most restaurants treat it like the younger sibling their parents made them bring along on a date. At Mitch’s, they treat slaw with respect. Starts with traditional cabbage, but then gets both fresh orange and lime juice, jicama, grilled corn, and cilantro. It’s Baja meets San Diego picnic food.

If, as dictated by the most basic laws of food criticism, I needed to find quibbles with Mitch’s, fine. I’ll be that guy who walks into a runaway hit dream of three local fishing families and pretends everything isn’t entirely perfect. I’ll express them in wishes.

I wish the baguette with the clams and mussels was lightly charred. The broth is nearly sweet, and sweet loves a good burn.

I wish there was an obscene amount of slaw with the fish plate. It’s that good, and the plate looks a bit bare.

I wish there was one housemade sauce in the condiment basket. You’ve got Heinz, Tabasco, Tapatío—all of which are fine and should stay. While I realize the kitchen is limited and the line of customers is eternal, Mitch’s would go up an even higher notch if there were squeeze bottles of one killer original dressing—housemade crema, a mojo, macha, or just an unending supply of that garlicky tartar. It feels a tad crimey to go through all this effort to source local fish and cook them well, and then top it with a sauce that has no San Diego or Baja or Mitch in it.

I honestly didn’t expect Mitch’s to be as good as it still is. Everything we ate (except maybe an octopus taco with tentacle bits fried into nubs) was good to excellent. The constant onslaught of locals and tourists and the excruciating intricacies of operating a business in California should have exhausted the will to live by now, let alone cook.

There’s a reason the birds are still outside, with crimes in their eyes and menu preferences.

I’m sitting in a slab of concrete under a freeway, eating a ceviche black as eyeliner.

There might be seven seats in this restaurant. Or maybe it’s 12 minus five. That area under the stairs might also be a couple seats, or it might just be a very inviting storage area with a flower vase. The restaurant is so small your core instinct is to count seats and tabulate if Alchemy – Choose Thy Poison is a real place with a sane business plan or if it’s a social art project designed to question the reality of restaurants and business plans.

There’s a large, floor-to-human-height window near our table. Through it, I notice someone didn’t make their bed this morning. It’s a decision I deeply empathize with. It’s moments like this that make you acutely aware that Alchemy is also technically the courtyard of a six-room micro-hotel called Narcissus. Not the kind of massagey boutique hotel you’re thinking of with soft woods, obscene amounts of linen, and opinions on bonsai therapy. It’s a near-Brutalist cube of base industrial materials—concrete and acrylics bent and molded into a series of alcoves, with pods to sleep in. Sculptures lie behind glass like Tilda Swinton circa 2013.

The window to the unmade bed forcibly crams light voyeurism into the dining experience. The hotel and Alchemy feel like the parts of Mexico I love the most. Although Mexico has its multimillion-dollar restaurants, a vast majority of the best street-level places feel like you’re temporarily recreating in a very lovely construction project.

Alchemy’s location is what most people comment on (“I can’t believe a place like this exists on a block like this.”)—jammed at the bottom of the freeway embankment on the northeast side of Barrio Logan. But that makes it distinctly Barrio, the historic cradle of San Diego’s Hispanic and Chicano culture. The I-5 freeway was built through Barrio in 1963—a fairly traumatic gashing of the neighborhood—and residents responded by painting epic murals on the ugly concrete belly of eminent domain. Where some would’ve just accepted the industrial blight, locals saw shade for a park. There is a deep history here of turning concrete into art, and Alchemy carries that on.

The vision for the property came from owner Benjamin Longwell, whose company—The Society of Master Craftsmen—sounds like it wears a monocle. Longwell is part of the new guard of developers who focus on urban infill. Instead of adding to the city sprawl, they find unused or underutilized parcels of land in established neighborhoods, then build creative mixed-use spaces that, in perfect scenarios, add something of value for locals.

I’m not making a case for architectural sainthood, but there isn’t a huge list of developers who would look at the line of cars exiting the freeway in front of Alchemy and think, “We must build here.” So in that sense, Narcissus and Alchemy feel additive to the community, not extractive.

It is fantastic—acidic but with a whole world of toasted, warm flavors, like ceviche that’s seen some things.

The menu from Cortes—a home cook his whole life, only having taken it professional a few years ago with his popular pop-up, Barracruda—is really a tour of specialties from various states in Mexico.

A crema de poblano has the blended ghost of rajas at its core: an emulsion of roasted poblanos with butter-sautéed onions and garlic, plus a touch of milk that’s topped with queso fresco, chile ancho, and morita oil. Morita—a smoky Mexican condiment made from dried and smoked red jalapeños for a less intense, fruitier cousin of chipotle—is the key here. It specializes in spiking fats (guacamole, fried eggs, burritos). Sop up the crema with house-baked garlic-rosemary sourdough, blackened from the ash of a corn husk.

Smoked tuna is a Baja gift that’s become an anchor for most San Diego taco shops, and Alchemy combines mesquite-smoked yellowtail with caramelized onions, sweet peppers, and Chihuahua cheese (the OG quesadilla filling), then stuffs it in a perfectly baked masa empanada. The result is somewhere between a TJ Oyster Bar taco, a calzone, and a tamale—but with extra flavor and more black hue from cuttlefish ink.

Alchemy’s huaraches de res is Cortes’ ode to where he’s from. Huaraches are the New Haven–style pizza of Mexican food—thick, oblong masa flatbread layered with refried beans and a payload inspired by the Mexico City markets the chef grew up roaming with his dad: braised beef (braseado), avocado salsa, pickled vegetables, salsa macha, and jocoque (Mexico’s fermented dairy product, like a cross between crema and labneh).

Alchemy’s seared tuna crudo gets a tad abused by the riot of big flavors: charred hibiscus salsa, avocado salsa, pickled grapes, pomegranate salsa macha, and chipotle aioli. It’s a fate that also tempers the joy of the zarandeado, with the adobo marinade on the shrimp fighting a bit with recado negro and chipotle crema. Sticking with curmudgeonly food critic notes, flies are a part of the Alchemy experience, at least during our visit. They’re fairly hard to evict from the outside world, but more measures could be taken to discourage their participation.

The oxtail tetelas—like a Mexican pupusa—are a diary note from Cortes’ travels to Tlaquepaque, where they famously superboost their salsa with a touch of instant coffee. First, Cortes braises the oxtail with beer and Mexican spices. Then he blends that braising liquid into a salsa with beef tallow, guajillo, charred onions, tomatoes, and black garlic. Keeping with the goth food theme, the oxtail goes into masa negra infused with squid ink.

Desserts are where you realize just how deeply Alchemy is committed to the art bit. Rarely do you see a neighborhood bistro trying to pull off trompe l’œil—the French specialty of making pastries and other desserts look like fruit or other everyday objects. (The phrase means “to deceive the eye” and is the historical precedent for the Is It Cake? phenomenon.) Pastry chef Catherinne Avila does, though. A “Naranja” comes out in the form of a mandarin, but inside is orange blossom mousse, apricot jelly, and sablée (a delicate, crumbly shortcrust). A “Philosopher’s Stone” comes in the form of a brick of gold with a serpent on top; inside are mango mousse, mango-Tajín jelly, and a coconut dacquoise.

As Barrio Logan enters an apprehensive phase—its creative culture and restaurant scene growing rapidly, bringing economic promise face-to-face with the need to protect the Chicano way of life—this concrete tuckaway from a Mexico City kid feels like a good step. The Barrio has a long history of making art in unexpected places, and Alchemy carries that a little further.

Photos Credit: Dee Sandoval

Mike and AJ Aubuchon share one very important trait: Patience. The Aubuchons are the husband-and-wife team behind Koakai Brewing Company, a brewery that’s been in the works for roughly two years. Like many other food and drink businesses, they’ve faced delay after delay after delay. Lesser people would have given up—or at least seemed a lot more annoyed about it. I wouldn’t blame them one bit.

But the excitement in AJ’s voice is palpable. It’s like the night before Christmas for the duo, whose patience is about to pay off. Koakai is finally slated to open in Oceanside in mid- to late-April next to the Aubuchons’ other business, Kyoto Japanese Market. 

A North County native, Mike started his beer career in the bottle shop at Pizza Port Carlsbad before becoming a cellarman, then assistant brewer at the chain’s Ocean Beach shop. When the Carlsbad brewhouse needed a head brewer, he went back to his hometown and started racking up hardware at competitions like The Great American Beer Festival, where he won bronze in 2015, silver in 2017, and gold in 2020. He stayed for a little over 10 years before helping launch brewing operations at Heritage BBQ & Beer Co., now Hill Street Brewing.

Originally from Kyoto, Japan, AJ worked in restaurants from her teens until she moved to Oceanside to attend MiraCosta College. She also worked alongside Mike at Pizza Port, bartending, learning about craft beer, and making connections with other people in the industry—relationships they plan to bring into their operations through collaborative brews. 

“Koakai” has a double meaning: “warrior for the sea” in Hawaiian and “a little red” in Japanese. “My maiden name in Japanese is Kaiho and that means ‘saving the ocean,’” AJ explains, adding that when she first met Mike, a lifelong ocean lover, he was working as a professional surfboard shaper. “Also, my husband has a lot of Irish in his heritage, so our kids—we have four children—they all have a kind of reddish tint in their hair… so it kind of means heritage and family.”

Koakai’s inaugural lineup will feature a flagship Japanese lager, German schwarzbier, West Coast IPA, hoppy pilsner, Mexican lager, XPA, and a few collaborations like a West Coast IPA with RahrBSG, a craft malt supplier, and yet another IPA made with specialty hops, this one a collab with Cannonball Creek Brewing Company from Colorado. They’ll likely add more drinks later, such as a house seltzer, and dry Irish stouts on nitro, and even feature some imported Japanese sake. 

Patrons will be able to pick up food—items like onigiri, Japanese-style sandwiches, bento boxes, and sushi—from Kyoto Japanese Market next door. The brewery’s kitchen will offer fresh sushi as well as its signature blend of Japanese, Hawaiian, and Central Texas-style barbecue, similar to what the market currently serves on weekends (think sticky ribs, charcoal-grilled steaks, and yakitori-style chicken). Some of the dishes are based on AJ’s childhood favorites, like hambagu, a Japanese hamburger steak.

“It’s almost like a hamburger patty, but it’s more like meatloaf,” she explains. “It has a lot of different ingredients, caramelized onions, ginger, garlic, bread crumbs, and eggs.”

A lot—and I mean a lot—has changed in the craft beer world since the Aubuchons entered the scene, and they know it’s not an easy landscape for them right now. But they’ve both been around the beer block a time or two. They’re ready. “It’s our time to show people what we’ve learned and what we can do,” says AJ.

Koakai Brewing Company opens at 559 Greenbrier Drive, Suite B, in Oceanside in mid- to late April 2026.

San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

Beth’s Bites

• Lilo made huge headlines when the Carlsbad restaurant by John Resnick and chef Eric Bost earned a Michelin star less than two months after opening, but its next milestone takes place on Friday, April 17. To celebrate the first anniversary of opening its doors, chefs Travis Swikard (Callie, Fleurette), Tara Monsod (Animae, Le Coq), and Jason McLeod (Ironside Fish & Oyster) will join Bost for a one- night-only collaborative dinner with courses from each chef (the menu will be announced later, but I feel pretty safe predicting it’ll be world-class). Reservations are open now and will likely go quickly. 
• In Tagalog, “kain tayo!” means “let’s eat!” That’s exactly what I plan to do on Saturday, April 11, at Fall Brewing’s Miramar location during the Kain Tayo Fiesta, a Filipino festival with food vendors like Luna’s Lunpias, Snoice, All Things Ube, and more. Diners will also enjoy artists, live music, DJs, retail vendors, dance exhibitions, and even live tattooing. The free and family-friendly event starts at noon, and if you happen to have some new or gently used skate gear hanging around your house, bring it along. The festival coordinators are putting together a box to send to skaters in the Philippines so they can keep shredding.
• The Busalacchi family has been a San Diego institution since Joe Busalacchi opened Casanova’s Pizza in La Mesa in 1984. Since then, the Sicilian dynasty has only expanded its reach across the city’s dining scene, operating joints like Café Zucchero, Barbusa, Nonna, and Lala. This year, the family’s restaurant group will celebrate 40 years of pizza, pasta, and Peronis. The family that cooks together stays together, so it seems, so congrats to the whole Busalacchi fam—and here’s to another 40 years.

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Givino Rossini knows there are already a lot of great specialty coffee shops in San Diego. He likes to think he runs two of them already: Kettle On Grand in Escondido and Kettle On Main in Fallbrook. But rather than open another conventional coffee shop—with a few fun pastries and community events like DJ nights—he decided to kick it up a notch for his third location in Oceanside, Kettle On Coast.

“This is going to lean a lot more restaurant than fast-casual coffee shop,” he explains. The space, which housed Petite Madeline Bakery until March 15, comes with a full kitchen—something the first two Kettle Ons don’t have. And the menu won’t be typical coastal California avocado toasts and acai bowls. Chef David Lay, who’s worked at restaurants like the Michelin Bib Gourmand Kettner Exchange as chef de cuisine and at Juniper & Ivy as chef de partie, is spearheading the kitchen, developing to-go breakfast and lunch menu along with a pastry and coffee program. 

“I describe the food as rooted in African diasporic flavors and traditions, with influences from the Mediterranean and the Levant [the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia]. The opening menu is really meant to be an introduction to some of those ingredients, spices, and techniques in a way that feels approachable,” Lay explains. “But the long term vision is to continue exploring African culinary traditions more deeply as the menu evolves.”

The opening menu includes items like French toast with a cinnamon sugar crust, Moroccan tres leches, and crème fraîche; miso cheddar grits with a sunny-side-up egg, berbere (an Egyptian spice blend), and chives; Aleppo fried chicken with chermoula (a North African sauce and marinade somewhat similar to chimichurri), tahini, preserved lemon relish, and herbs; and a grilled mochi with honey, berbere, and crème fraîche for dessert. Guests will order at the counter and either take their food to go or have it delivered to their table. 

Kettle On Coast will soft-open in early April, initially rolling out between nine and 15 of Lay’s menu items and ramping it up from there. Rossini expects to have everything in place for a grand opening in early summer and hopes to introduce the same sort of community-specific events to Oceanside as he has in Escondido and Fallbrook. 

“Each location has its own unique kind of concept and energy around that space,” he says. “We kind of tailor each space to what we feel is missing or what’s needed in that community.” In Escondido, it’s been events like skate competitions, while Fallbrook has put on poetry readings. But in Oceanside, the future is yet to be written.

Kettle On Coast will soft-open at 223 N. Coast Hwy. in Oceanside in April 2026. Initial operating hours will be Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

First-Gen Boba Shop Celebrates One Year in Kearny Mesa

I only got really into boba tea in the last couple of years, but once you go full “QQ,” you never go back. For those unfamiliar with the concept, QQ is a Taiwanese term referring to the springy, chewy texture of elastic-y foods that seem to bounce against your teeth—things like fish balls, tendon, or boba pearls. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea (pun intended), but if it’s yours, tons of tea shops have sprung up around San Diego to satisfy a wide range of flavor cravings, from classic milk tea to out-there options like matcha-mango with cheese foam and popping pearls.

If you’re not sure where to start, Boba Religion in Convoy District is celebrating its one-year anniversary on March 21-22, giving patrons a chance to try the shop’s Vietnamese-sourced tea, coffee, matcha, and other specialty drinks with a buy-one, get-one-free promotion on Saturday and buy-one, get-one-half-off on Sunday. So, whether you’re a QQ fan already or QQ-curious, this weekend might be a good time to give the squishy, fun to chew pearls a try. 

Beth’s Bites

• In all my travels, I haven’t yet made it to the Adriatic shores of Croatia. So when I saw Garibaldi at the InterContinental San Diego is highlighting the Land of a Thousand Islands for its next monthly Mediterranean dinner series, I decided to take a peek at the menu. From Friday, March 20, through Sunday, March 22, executive chef Franck Tasic and his team have put together a menu of interesting coastal items like salata od rajčice (a Croatian tomato salad), fuži s tartufima (homemade Istrian fuži pasta), and knedle sa šljivama (plum dumplings) for dessert, with an optional Croatian wine pairing available. Sign me up for a sail through the Adriatic!
• An’s Gelato has ranked No.1 on national and local ice cream lists since USA Today named it the best ice cream shop in the United States two years in a row—something we San Diegans already knew, of course. The creative creamery now operates locations in North Park on Adams Avenue (I don’t dare say Normal Heights, lest angry readers correct me in a huff), Del Mar, Ocean Beach, and Petco Park. This summer, An’s will come to Oceanside at the Top Gun house. The iconic Queen Anne cottage—at the Mission Pacific Beach Resort next to Valle—housed the hand-pie shop High Pie from 2022 through 2025, and if I had to guess, the high-traffic location will be home to the popular scoop shop for quite a few years to come. 
• Padres opening day is right around the corner—Thursday, March 26, to be exact—and there’s no shortage of parties around town to kick off the season. Close to the ballpark, the rooftop at Margaritaville Hotel San Diego Gaslamp Quarter will start rocking at 3 p.m. with a DJ and drink specials, or fans can grab a $18 beer and a shot at The Blind Burro just northwest of Petco. And for a little pre-season excitement, stop by Harland Brewing in Scripps Ranch on Tuesday, March 24, for a free meet-and-greet with the Padres’ Jake Cronenworth from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. While you’re waiting in line—because you know there will be a line to meet #9—try the Crone Zone, Harland’s collaborative brew with the popular infielder. I’ve had it (more than once…), and it gets my drinks expert stamp of approval.

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After 13 years of serving only-in-San Diego favorites like a Cardiff Crack sando and cocktails like a bacon-cheddar vodka-infused Bloody Mary mixed with housemade tomato juice—Bier Garden Encinitas is ready to take their show on the road. They’ll open a second location in downtown Oceanside on Monday, March 16.

Owner David Creviston is hardly the first to eyeball the coastal North County city as a food and drink destination. Key & Cleaver, Odie’s Pizza, Merenda, and 24 Suns have all either recently opened or are on the cusp of opening in Oceanside, and Bier Garden’s location just steps from local institutions like one Michelin-starred Valle and Craft Coast (who, hilariously, is reverse-migrating to open their own new location in Encinitas).

“I think the culture of our new restaurant is going to fit incredibly well here,” he says. North County vibes tend to be chill, but still lean on a bit of a higher-end side. Creviston says he wants to offer a laid-back type of place where you can bring a date just as easily as your grandparents, but still get a great cocktail and food. 

The food and drink menus will look very similar to Encinitas—short rib nachos, Baja fish tacos, and the signature Cheeseburger 101, plus 24 taps of craft beer, craft cocktails, and a slightly bigger wine list. (“We have a bigger wine cabinet,” he explains.) They’ll also be able to try a few new specials like a bulgogi bowl and lake trout to see how they hit with guests. 

With March Madness coming up quickly, Creviston says he hopes to be a destination for viewing parties and other future sporting events. “We’ve structured the bar to be an indoor-outdoor patio bar, similar to Encinitas,” he explains. The Oceanside spot will have a total of 16 TVs—not to become a dedicated sports bar, per se, but to at least be a destination for people who want to catch a game and some grub that goes beyond a pile of soggy tots. 

Bier Garden Oceanside opens at 201 N. Cleveland Street, Oceanside on Monday, March 16. Hours will be Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

Mike’s Red Tacos Goes National

Who doesn’t love a San Diego success story? Rubio’s may have been the first local taco chain to make it big, but Mike’s Red Tacos has made a huge run in the hand-held taco land. Originally launched as a food truck only a few years ago (and quickly getting named one of the top places to eat by Yelp in 2023), the birria-based chain currently only has three locations in San Diego (Point Loma, Clairemont Mesa, and the newest in Mira Mesa). Now, it’s going the massive franchise route, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Mike’s fans can expect to see 200-plus new locations across the country over the next couple of years.

Beth’s Bites

• Lately, there have been a lot of changes with the Puesto group. We said goodbye to the awesome but poor-locationed Roma Norte, hello to Puesto Taco Bar, and are patiently awaiting Ikaria, a new Eastern Mediterranean concept coming later this year. Now there’s a new executive chef at the helm of Marisi. Kaitlyn Smith, most recently the chef de cuisine at Wildland in Carlsbad, is in command of the impeccably designed Italian eatery in the heart of downtown La Jolla. It sounds like the heart of the menu will remain the same (still making all the pasta from scratch, of course), but expect a few tweaks to the entrees and antipasti menu. 
• Pi Day is (nearly) upon us and I’d be remiss to avoid mentioning Pop Pie Co.’s 9th annual Pi Day celebration—this year with three different collaborative pies with local chefs. Chef Tara Monsod from Animae and Le Coq is bringing a pie inspired by tinola, a traditional Filipino chicken soup typically made with ginger, garlic, and fish sauce, with hers folded with Yukon potatoes, green papaya, spinach and green onion. The Friendly taps in next with Rob Striker’s take on the eatery’s signature dirty flat top cheeseburger with grilled beef, butter braised onions, American cheese, garlic aioli, and banana peppers wrapped in an all-butter crust. (As the first Pi Day without The Friendly founder Brandon Zanavich, this one feels particularly significant). Finally, Matt Lyons from Tribute Pizza brings it home with his You Knew This Was Coming Pizza Pie with mozzarella, Bianco DiNapoli crushed tomatoes, pickled jalapeños, red onion, smoked cheddar, and an everything bagel crust. All of these will be available at each Pop Pie location on Saturday, March 14 until sold out and yes, as is tradition, the first 20 guests at each location will also get a free slice of sweet pie. 

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