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Another Top Chef Opens a Local Restaurant

Pacific Standard Coastal Kitchen takes over the former China Max and Fat City spot

By Troy Johnson August 23, 2016

Another Top Chef Opens a Local Restaurant — Pacific Standard Coastal Kitchen. | Photo: Paul Body

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San Diego is becoming a hotbed for kitchens helmed by chefs who’ve done well on TV. There’s Top Chef alums Brian Malarkey and Richard Blais, MasterChef contestant Nick Nappi (Bar One), and now San Diego native Giselle Wellman (Top Chef, last season) is in charge of Pacific Standard Coastal Kitchen. Wellman’s got a hefty resume, having worked under Thomas Keller and Mario Batali before becoming the youngest female executive chef in L.A. at The Petrossian. And the Pacific space is pretty iconic, formerly Fat City and China Max, just west of Little Italy’s main drag. The menu is water-facing, with oysters, crab cakes, scallops, and lobster, plus land classics like steak frites. Consider us starstruck.