Michael Smith remembers the first time he realized the Hawaiian food he grew up eating was actually a beautiful fusion of all sorts of Asian cuisines. “When we [would] go to Hawaii, I didn’t know that like, teriyaki and sushi were not from the same place as bulgogi and kimchi,” he says. One day, it clicked. “Oh, so this is from Korea. This is from China. This is from Japan,” he recalls. It was eye-opening, and a feeling he wanted to share back home in California’s farmland.
Smith says there wasn’t much culinary creativity where he was from, but he points to his Chinese-Portuguese heritage and his wife’s Mexican heritage as inspirations for his future cooking endeavors. His friend owned a burger restaurant, so Smith started adding toppings like mole and kimchi to the burgers to see what he thought. “This is really good, but you’ve got to go to a bigger city if you want to make food like this,” his friend told him. So he moved to San Diego.
Kinchana started in 2023 as a pop-up tent at breweries like Modern Times Beer in Point Loma and Harland Brewing in Bay Park. The name came from an interaction with a regular customer who always asked him how he was doing. He’d answer “Good,” until one day she asked him how he was really feeling. “As Americans, we always just say, ‘Oh, I’m good. How are you?’ And it’s like, why do we even ask each other that question if we’re not ever gonna give an answer?” he wonders. “Kinchana is kind of the Korean version of ‘I’m good.’”
Plus, he adds, even though the name comes from an inside joke, it isn’t too jokey. “When you open a restaurant, you hope it’s gonna last forever, and you want to pick a name that in 20 years, I’m not going to be embarrassed that I picked.”
The pop-ups got so popular that he ended up getting his own food truck, until health issues forced him to take an indefinite hiatus from it. But after a few months, his wife and best friend sat him down to talk about what was next for Kinchana. They laid it all on the line. “Let’s just chase the dream. Let’s open a real restaurant.” So they started looking.
When Smith saw the double storefront at 5712 El Cajon Boulevard, it was exactly what he wanted. One half will be Kinchana’s kitchen and restaurant, and the other half will be retail and artist space-slash-lounge for the community. “I don’t want this to sound corny, but I realized that a lot of people don’t have easy lives, and having a space outside of your house where you can just hang out and just be yourself and be an artist, or be whatever you are that makes you feel a little different, was crucial to me,” Smith explains.
He worked in mental health for over a decade, and remembered what it was like as a younger person to not be able to hang out in certain places with friends because he couldn’t afford to make a purchase. The suite is within easy walking distance of a church, dance studio, animal hospital, hair salon, and other small businesses—an ideal place to build a community gathering space. Remodel and permits pending, they plan to open this summer.
Kinchana’s menu will meld California comfort food with Mexican and various Asian influences to give customers a taste of something familiar, but different. Smith says he always tells people to come twice to give everything a try. “Come once and order the food that you’re familiar with, and then come the second time and order something you’ve never heard of,” he says.
One of his top-selling burgers is the Okonomi Burger, which features housemade okonomi sauce (basically a Japanese Worcestershire) made with marinated shishito peppers and topped with cilantro, daikon, pickled carrots, liver pâté, and cheese with a Thai chile chimichurri.
“Never in a million years had I thought I’d be selling burgers with liver pâté and shishito peppers,” he laughs. His take on poutine swaps the typical gravy and cheese curds with mole and panela cheese. What may be a familiar flavor to one person might be the first time someone else has tried it—and it’s that element of surprise and delight Smith says keeps him going.
“I don’t ever want to stop doing this,” he says. “Watching people enjoy food that we came up with and we cook—it’s like, oh man, I’m gonna chase this high.”
Kinchana opens this summer at 5712 El Cajon Boulevard.
San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events
California Wine Festival Coming to San Diego This June
Oenophiles, rejoice, for wine floweth your way. The California Wine Festival circuit lands in Carlsbad from June 20 through 21 at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, featuring hundreds of wines from all over California wine country. Choose between the VIP event on Friday night with rare wines (and limited tickets) or enjoy the Beachside Wine Festival on Saturday, which sounds a little livelier and ideal for fans of day drinking. There will be wine, of course, but also food, music, and absolutely no kids at this 21+ event. Can’t make it that day? Catch the festival at one of the other three locations: Dana Point (April 25-26), Santa Barbara (July 18-19), or Huntington Beach (October 17-18).
Valle
Beth’s Bites
- This week, Del Mar Wine and Food Festival dropped a teaser for its 2025 event taking place from September 10-14 featuring some of the region’s top chefs and beloved restaurants together at Surf Sports Park. This year’s culinary lineup hasn’t fully been announced but its hosts are back for a third year including Drew Brees, Rob Machado, Alex Morgan and Troy Johnson. Early bird tickets are on sale now.
- Huge hat tip to Roma Norte and chef Roberto Alcocer at Valle for making it to the semifinals of the 2025 James Beard Awards, but today, it’s Tara Time. For the second year in a row, chef Tara Monsod (Animae, Le Coq) has made it to the final round for the title of Best Chef: California, and although she’s got some hefty competition, San Diego is nothing if not a rabid fan base for our own. LFGSD!!
- I slept on Seaport Village for a long time, but recently, I’ve been making up for lost time. (Sure, it’s a little touristy, but have you seen those views?) Plus, there are a bunch of new(ish) restaurants that I happen to quite like (Mr. Moto, Spill the Beans) and a few more on the way that, so far, sound pretty legit. I’m keeping my eye on Zytoun, a Mediterranean restaurant that’s supposed to open sometime this year. Do I have a better estimate than that? No. Do you? Email me at [email protected].
- There must be some kind of magnetic culinary force field happening in Carlsbad, because the new restaurant announcements keep coming. Another addition to the already-stellar (and growing) roster is Fish 101, which is slated to open its third location (after Leucadia and Cardiff) later this year. To my untrained eye, this spot seems to be decently bigger than the other two—perhaps that’s wishful thinking, or perhaps there’s just a lot more poke in store for the masses. (I hope it’s the latter.)
Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].
