“Dinner would like you to remove all of the brown M&Ms from the bowl. Please use tweezers and not your awful, awful hands. Dinner will not leave its staging area until it is a perfect 98.6 degrees (the temperature of the mouth of its fans). It requires a hexagonal serving plate made from conflict-free Sierra Leone diamonds. Dinner would also like some sex. Figure it out. Failure to meet these requirements will void the contract, and dinner will have no choice but to cancel its performance for the evening.”
More than any other point in American history, dinner is a ****ing star.
If Billy Joel wrote “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant” today, he’d be forced to find romance in people taking photos of their carbonara. Restaurants look like the staff of TMZ was having a shift meal when they discovered the world’s tiniest celebrities on their plates—miniskirts askew, rehab mascara, holding bongs like clutch purses. A man with a semi-pro Kodak adjusts a micro-green just so, trying to capture the emotional depth of his short rib. A woman takes a kissy-face selfie with a branzino. The entire scene is screened real-time on Instagram (named Food Penthouse before the lawsuit).
Doors don’t separate the stoves from the diners anymore. Instead, we have “performance kitchens”—literal stages for the knife-and-fire show. Chefs are expected to entertain guests with the circus flair of a sword swallower and the spiritual gravitas of Mr. Miyagi.
Knowledge of hip restaurants is now essential to your status in the American middle-class. That “topic of conversation” used to be held by politics, but let’s face it: that’s depressing. If you haven’t been to Hot New Restaurant X, you are flirting with cultural illiteracy. Haven’t had a Sazerac made with bitters containing the sweat of a lemur in heat? Get with it, Yeti.
Not having reservations is the new not showering.
And now the backlash has begun. People are tired of seeing your illicitly glazed short ribs in their timeline. Your doughnut porn is douchey.
“It’s just food!” scream the naysayers. “It’s just a restaurant!”
But is it? Or have restaurants replaced the family home?
Sure, home used to be where we entertained our friends and family. But, at least for now, those days are largely gone. The restaurant is where families, friendships, businesses and cities are made.
When was the last time you sat down at a family dinner—not in front of the TV or hovered over a smartphone? Even if you’re a do-gooder who answers, “Every night!,” it’s hard to argue that the art of the family dinner is at an all-time low in America. Restaurants are the only place left where Americans still pause, face each other for a few hours, and engage. When you pay for a dinner experience, you’re not just paying for food, service and décor. You’re paying for the undivided attention of someone who’s important to your life. It’s gotten harder and harder to get the entire family to the dinner table. That makes restaurants vitally important to progress. It’s one of the only remaining places where we truly commune.
Dinner is where you break bread with your daughter’s new boyfriend to determine if he’s marriage material or a temporarily dormant restraining order. Restaurants are where amazing nerds sketch out the next Google. It’s where city officials hatch plans to save or screw the city. It’s where we come together, talk ideas, commune.
Not everyone plays golf. Everyone eats.
In 2015, restaurants are not merely alternatives to entertaining at home. They have become the replacement. This is especially true now for a few reasons:
In the ’50s, it seems most American professionals could afford a reasonable abode. With a sexist workplace and a stay-at-home wife able to spend the day preparing meals, the dinner party was a venerated tradition. It was how you let someone important—potential partners, bosses, friends, family members, etc.—into your life to see where and how you lived. They could go through your medicine cabinet during a trip to the loo. Now, we’re living in smaller spaces that are less equipped to host many humans. So we use home for sleep, and outsource the dinner party.
REASON 2: The new home-owning generation didn’t learn how to cook.
For those of us in our 40s, we grew up on microwave culture of the ’70s. We’re button pushers, not sauce reducers. We’re the generation who outsourced the chore of meals—whether it be to McDonalds, Van De Kamp or that killer bistro with five stars on Yelp. By the time we realized our lack of cooking skills was inconvenient, we were already too overworked and overtaxed by modern life to make it a hobby. Picking a restaurant, then, is how we entertain people at mealtime. It’s “skill replacement therapy” for a generation of shoddy cooks.
REASON 3: Fewer and fewer of us work in traditional offices.
The Information Age has drastically reduced the need for a proper office. Many of us are working from our laptops. “Third spaces” are where we conduct business. Our ad-hoc offices. Starbucks is the low-rent startup space. Meeting a client at Juniper & Ivy is like bringing them to your executive corner suite. Choose wisely.
REASON 4: We’re so damn busy.
Our day planners look like Guernica. Dinner is one of the only experiences in life that pauses the go-go-go, speed-dating ADD of modern American life. Even if we had a few extra hours, we treasure that downtime. It’s harder and harder to disconnect and be alone for a few minutes.
REASON 5: We don’t let people into our homes like we used to.
We didn’t used to jump out of our skin when people knocked on our doors. American neighborhoods used to have an open-door policy. But, thanks, media. News outlets love to put the creeps and psychos in headlines. The 24-hour news cycle lays out their gory details over and over while we’re on the treadmill. Based on reporting alone, it would seem 40 percent of America is one angry moment away from discharging a firearm in your living room. Because of that paranoia, the once-welcoming, social American family home is now a panic room. A bunker. A safe haven. Best to entertain potential creeps in a neutral, public location that’s not your home address.
For all of these reasons—smaller living spaces, two working adults, lack of kitchen training, fewer of us working out of traditional office spaces, weirdos in the news—restaurants have become one of the most important places in modern American life. The ones we choose say a lot about us—just like our homes used to do.
That’s why we pay such cultish attention to which chef and interior designer are behind a restaurant. That’s why we obsess over a photo of a sous vide quail as if it was Marilyn Monroe standing over the windy street gate. That’s why restaurants and chefs are such ****ing stars.
I’d love to say, “Oh, it’s just food.”
But it’s not.
Restaurants are home replacement therapy. Now, more than ever.
Following the success of last year’s inaugural event—8,000 attendance, 100 of San Diego’s top chefs and restaurants, over 200 wineries and drink-makers, Food Network chefs, Alex Morgan, Drew Brees, Rob Machado, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, etc.—the second annual event returns to Surf Sports Park (formerly Del Mar Polo Fields).
This year brings more chefs from TV places—including Rocco DiSpirito, Maneet Chauhan, Aarti Sequeira, and Tiffani Faison.
The festival’s concept is threefold. First, bring some of the country’s top chefs with a global spotlight to cook alongside San Diego’s food and drink people—which helps put the city’s food scene in the national spotlight. Second, show off the city’s famed active lifestyle and culture through partners Alex Morgan and the Wave FC, Drew Brees and his pickleball tournament at Bobby Riggs, and a beach day with pro surfer Jake Marshall. Third, raise money for the hunger relief efforts of Feeding San Diego (year one raised $25,000).
This year’s festival will go from Oct. 2-7, culminating with the grand tasting on Oct. 5-6.
More names will be announced later, but the initial roster of national chefs coming to San Diego includes: DiSpirito, Chauhan, Sequiera, Faison, Aaron May, Eric Greenspan, Catherine McCord, Jackson Kalb, and Grill Dads.
From the local scene, early confirmations from some of San Diego and Baja’s big names: Brad Wise (Trust, Wise Ox), Brian Malarkey (Puffer Malarkey), Travis Swikard (Callie), Drew Deckman (Deckman’s en El Mogor/31Thirtyone), Roberto Alcocer (Valle), Javier Plascencia (Finca Altozano/Animalon), Benito Molina (Manzanilla), Claudette Zepeda (Iron Chef), and Claudia Sandoval (MasterChef). Wineries and drink-makers including Kosta Browne, Kistler Wine, Pali Wine Co., Storyhouse Spirits, Chateau Montelena, Bivouac Ciderworks, and Nova Kombucha will offer tastings of their latest creations.
“I’ve been lucky to live in two food worlds for a long time—writing about local culture through San Diego Magazine, and then being part of the national conversation on Food Network,” says Troy Johnson, SDM’s longtime food writer and festival culinary director. “With DMWFF, we’re bringing those two worlds together in one space.”
This year’s festival will kick off with an opening night celebration at Nolita Hall with San Diego’s new MLS team, San Diego FC, and will conclude with a collaboration between the San Diego Wave FC women’s soccer team and the Big Queer Food Fest on Sunday. Players from the San Diego Padres will also be making appearances throughout the week.
“The melding of food and drink culture with SoCal’s legendary active lifestyle was a no-brainer. Chefs and food are what brings people around a table. Or in this case, to a massive cookout by the sea,” says Johnson. “And what do you talk about when you’re around the table? You tell the stories of local culture.
And in SoCal that culture is active and outside. Having Alex and Drew and Rob and the Padres and Wave FC and San Diego FC be a part of this is huge. They’re a huge part of who we are.” Kyle Cook of Bravo’s Summer House will also be in town to showcase his portfolio of canned seltzers, cocktails, and teas.
For the latest updates and newest additions to the lineup, check out DMWFF’s headliners page and subscribe to the festival email newsletter for updates on this year’s event. Mark your calendars, reserve your tickets, and begin the countdown for San Diego’s greatest celebration of food and drink this year.
Courtesy of Del Mar Wine + Food Festival
Here are a few things you should know ahead of the 2024 Del Mar Wine + Food Festival:
When is the 2024 Del Mar Wine + Food Festival?
The 2024 Del Mar Wine Wine + Food Festival will take place October 2-7 throughout San Diego county.
Where is the Del Mar Wine + Food Festival?
The main event of the 2024 Del Mar Wine + Food Festival, the Grand Tasting, takes place on the Del Mar Polo fields also known as the Surf Spots Park at 14989 Via De La Valle, Del Mar.
A wide variety of exclusive dinners, drink tastings, and other lifestyle events are available for purchase individually on DMWFF’s website. These festivities include chef-curated dining experiences across San Diego’s hottest restaurants, a celebrity pickleball tournament, a golf tournament for charity, wine tasting, and plenty more.
When is the 2024 Grand Tasting?
The Grand Tasting takes place this year on Saturday, October 5 and Sunday, October 6.
How much are tickets?
General admission for the Grand Tasting event starts at $165. The festival also offers an Early Access General Admission option for $225 offering an additional four hours before general admission to meet, greet, and feast. VIP tickets will grant guests access to unique pre-festival experiences including food and drink tasting experiences.
Where can I buy tickets for the 2024 Del Mar Wine + Food Festival?
Unfortunately only service animals are allowed into the venue. Kids must be 21 years old to attend the festival.
Editor’s Note: San Diego Magazine and SDM owners Claire and Troy Johnson are partners in Del Mar Wine + Food Festival. They/we created it to bring something awesome to the city’s food and drink culture. There is absolutely bias here, but we thought you should know about this. For an independent take, please read this article in Forbes.
Cole Novak is an award-winning writer with a passion for highlighting local figures, small businesses, and nonprofits. Born and raised in San Diego, Cole is passionate about photography, surfing, art, the local food scene, and the great outdoors.
Each month in 2023, we’re asking a local artist to recreate one of our iconic covers from the past 75 years. For November, we tapped celebrity chef Claudia Sandoval and Shavone Charles, technology executive and multi-hyphenate creator, to help us recreate San Diego Mag‘s June 1956 cover with creative direction by SDM‘s Art Director Samantha Lacy and Alexandra Ott of Chrome City Creative. Check out the recreation here and learn more about chef Claudia in the Q&A below:
Tell us about how you found your distinguished style and honed your skills.
Everyone always thinks that my red hair was just inspired by my fiery latinidad, but the fact is, it’s actually because since I was a teenager in my punk days I have loved dying my hair and changing my look often.
I have been buzzed, shaved head, bald, and [have had] long flowing locks of fire engine red. The red stayed as my signature look because I was asked by production at MasterChef to not change my color post auditioning.
I go back and forth often on whether it should go, or should stay because I miss changing up my hair color, but people love the red. I would be lying if I didn’t share that once, without announcing it, I changed my hair color so much that it made me sad and didn’t feel like me. [So I] had to dye it back in a couple of days.
Courtesy of Chef Claudia Sandoval
What chefs do you admire or look up to? What makes their work so special to you?
My greatest idol is and has always been Dominique Crenn. Her ability to blend food and storytelling is something that speaks to my book nerd heart. I grew up reading novels like LikeWater For Chocolateby Isabel Allende and have always found that food tells a story, whether it be of resourcefulness, heritage, or the journey of the chef or ingredients.
Chef Crenn is not just an icon in the kitchen but a person who often gives back to her community and I try to do half of what she does to give back.
How do you think your food reflects the southern California lifestyle?
Having been born and raised in San Diego with a mom born in Tijuana, and family on both sides of the border, meant trips across the border often to visit abuelos, familia, and simply to get tacos and culture—rich food that couldn’t be found in the countless taco shops in San Diego.
With more than 90,000 people crossing the border daily, it’s no secret that this border region is unique. My food embraces the deep traditions of Mexican gastronomy, with the richness of local ingredients of San Diego and Tijuana. The Cali-Baja style of cooking is innovative, exciting, but most of all, delicious.
What are some of the brands you have enjoyed working with the most and why
I love working with brands that make a difference. Among them I have most enjoyed working with ChefWorks who gives back to the chef community often, especially in the realm of mental health. I love working with Sprouts Farmers Market who source from local small businesses and local regional farmers to supply their national brand. Every Sprout’s store has different purveyors, and that connectedness to the local community makes such a difference in what we put in our bodies, but also in the financial sustainability of our communities.
What do you have on the horizon workwise?
I am currently working as Host of La Mesa Mexa, a Bite Originals digital series that I developed with Gordon Ramsay productions and FOX. Additionally, I am in the process of writing a cookbook titled Taco Nation, exploring how the humble taco has been embraced by this great nation and all cultures as a vehicle to share amazing recipes. The book is set to come out in late 2024/early 2025. Who doesn’t love tacos?
Where do you like to go to get away and relax?
This might sound so silly, but when I need to relax I usually visit my mom’s house or family. Home is where the heart is, and where I feel like I get grounded. They make me laugh, feed me, and allow me to unplug from work, social media, and the public life—if just for an evening or a couple of hours.
This respite is super critical to me being able to keep doing what I do. At times even going to a store or dinner means I have to be “on” but being with family is private, cozy, and restorative. I can show up sans makeup in frumpy clothes and all of my family and friends know that no pictures are allowed.
Where can people find your work to admire or hire you?
Set to open early 2023, celebrity chef Richard Blais has partnered with Longfellow Real Estate Partners to bring a unique combination of English gastronomy and local California ingredients to the Sorrento Mesa district. “[California English will be] a cuisine inspired by my personal family history, the UK, and its influences, told with our local California accent,” says Blais.
California English will be the first restaurant of the Longfellow x Blais partnership, with plans to open another the next year at Longfellow’s development Bioterra. “I’m hitting that point in my career and life where I’m creating the things I’ve always wanted and that’s thanks to great partners and a community that’s been incredibly supportive since my arrival in San Diego just around 10 years ago,” says Blais.
California English outside
The 6,000-square-foot restaurant plans to seamlessly intertwine work and play, creating a perfect spot for date night or a business meeting with their all-day menu which will include “everything from tikka masala to spaghetti bolognese and of course fish and chips,” says Blais. “I’ve had the idea for it occupying many pages of moleskin for 20 years.” Following a many-months-long residency in London, Blais was able to refine, update, and solidify his vision of marrying the two cultures.
“Our team is thrilled to welcome Chef Richard Blais and his newest restaurant, California English, to Longfellow’s campus next year,” said Nick Frasco, chief investment officer west & managing director at Longfellow Real Estate Partners in a release. “Developments like Biovista and Bioterra thrive on the forward-thinking live-work-play campus model, and the partnership between Longfellow and Mr. Blais will not only enhance these campuses, but the entire community with these world-class dining options. California English is a testament to Longfellow’s continued investment in the region.”
Entrepreneurs typically launch businesses because they’re passionate about a product or service, not because they want to manage its finances. While working to carve out a niche in their respective industries and drive their companies forward, many business owners find themselves bogged down by day-to-day accounting. Their existing accounting tools don’t provide the necessary visibility or insight, and they don’t have the time or resources to hire additional staff or a chief financial officer. That’s where NOW CFO comes in.
For more than 20 years, NOW CFO has been pairing businesses across the country with experienced accounting and finance professionals. Its outsourced model allows clients to customize solutions that match their individual needs, size, and financial challenges, whether that’s fractional or interim support, project-based services, or full-time placement.
NOW CFO’s clients range from startups preparing for rapid growth to established companies that need additional financial leadership without the commitment or expense of building an in-house team. However, many of these companies don’t fully understand their needs until they experience a “trigger” event: preparing for an acquisition or capital raise, navigating a first-time audit, or another period of transition. With a team of over 300 consultants nationwide, NOW CFO can start quickly and match the right expert to the right business.
“It’s important for companies to have financial visibility, and we can help them avoid a lot of the potholes that companies often run into,” says Mariah Block, a partner at NOW CFO’s San Diego branch. “Roughly half of our clients have an in-house finance person or department, and we’re resourced for more bandwidth when they need an extra set of hands at the staff or senior accountant level, or the controller or CFO level. Some clients use this a few hours a month and others use multiple people close to full-time. Our model is solution-based and customizable. We’re like a faucet you can turn on and off.”
With NOW CFO, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Solutions are based on the client’s individual goals, challenges, needs, and budget, meaning a client never pays for more than they need. Whether it’s a few hours of executive-level guidance or a full accounting team to support daily operations, NOW CFO meets businesses where they are and grows alongside them.
“We pride ourselves on providing our clients with the right resources at the right rate and being able to evolve as their needs evolve,” says Block.
And clients appreciate on-demand access to cost-effective support designed to improve performance and profitability.
Luxury car storage service Auto Concierge has partnered with NOW CFO to support growth over the past year. The arrangement began with a staff accountant who covered a leave of absence, but as the client’s needs changed, they also added a controller role. This allowed Auto Concierge to put effective processes in place and navigate operational challenges. Lori Church, Auto Concierge’s chief operating officer, says NOW CFO has been an “outstanding resource” and a “true strategic partner.”
“From the controller to the bookkeeper, every professional they’ve placed has brought a high level of expertise, responsiveness, and professionalism to our organization. Their team took the time to understand our business of high-profile clients and needs, adapted quickly to our fast-paced environment, and became a trusted extension of our team,” she says. “As Auto Concierge continues to grow, having a reliable financial partner like NOW CFO has allowed us to strengthen our financial and business operations while remaining focused on delivering exceptional service to our clients.”
Richard Blais received a gift from his neighbor over the pandemic. It was a cease-and-desist letter. Because you can tell someone like him to stay home, but good luck stopping the show. Blais has used theatrics and pyromanic tendencies to get people interested in food ever since his days on Top Chef (he won Top Chef: All-Stars in 2010, and is set to be a judge on the show this season). He’s got real serious training (The French Laundry, Chez Panisse, El Bulli), and is intentionally unserious. Escoffier skills, Gene Simmons heart.
So this summer he used his back deck in Del Mar as an R&D lab for the grilling arts, broadcasting his experiments on Instagram and TikTok. Every time I checked his feed, he was aggressively waving tongs at a Big Green Egg, with some prehistoric cut of meat glistening in a cauldron of fire and smoke. At one point he pulled out some homemade weapon—like a five-foot Super Soaker that shot blue flames instead of water.
It’s possible this was the moment counsel was retained.
But it was for legit reasons. Blais was tinkering in preparation for his first new fine dining restaurant in San Diego since opening Juniper and Ivy in 2013. Called Ember & Rye (after his daughters, Embry and Riley), it’s the showpiece of Park Hyatt Aviara’s $50-million renovation, replacing Argyle Steakhouse. At 8,500 square feet indoors and a 5,000-square-foot patio overlooking the 18th green, the 266-seat venue is massive ode to vintage golf culture and good old-fashioned charcoal designed by D.C.-based GrizForm Design Architects.
Ember & Rye opens March 18. For a full visual tour of the new space, scroll down. Or keep reading to see the vision in Blais’s own words:
Troy Johnson: You’ve got cookbooks, 400 podcasts, a live touring show, TV gigs—why open another restaurant?
Richard Blais: I hate to say something that sounds overly romantic, but it’s in my blood. It’s the way I operate. It sounds like a cliché answer, but it’s fun. It’s chaos, it’s madness, it’s hard, it’s laborious, my knees hurt for the first time in my life. I’m not sure if that’s because I take a lunch break hitting golf balls or if I’m old enough now that bending over to an oven and placing steak is making them hurt. I’m rickety, but I’m up for the challenge. Plus, I happened to fall in love with golf right before this opportunity presented itself, so it just kind of worked out.
How’s this one different?
It’s a luxury resort. That’s a type of project I haven’t done before. It’s not a mom-and-pop shop on the corner somewhere downtown. So that’s the challenge for me. A lot of times you get vibes from restaurants that are part of a hotel and you’re like, “This hotel is really nice… why isn’t the restaurant better?” So that’s the personal challenge. And it is still a challenge in this very moment I’m talking to you. But if you’re afraid to fail, that’s never a good space to be in.
This isn’t something where you simply design the menu and then bounce. You’ve been working on this for 18 months?
I’ve been involved in all of it from the beginning—the vision and the concept, not just creating a menu. You can’t just insert a menu into an existing space. Part of the fun of this—and I’m starting to sound like a TikTokker—is creating the vibe. It was paying respect to that vintage golf world and knowing that the golf course is designed by Arnold Palmer. Even the music we pick out. It has to match the things you’re trying to do in the kitchen. With this project, I was able to sit down with the interior designer and the architect and say, “Let’s make sure this all makes sense”—even down to the way the staff is dressed.
So what is the vibe?
It’s that vintage late ’60s golf culture, all the way up to probably super-early ’80s. It’s plaid and argyle and Arnold Palmer and his bright yellow cardigan. It’s more Queen’s Gambit and Mad Men than 1940s Scottish golfer. With the food, it’s a steak on a plate with a great martini next to it, a bourbon old-fashioned. Sure, there’s going to be liquid nitrogen, but we’re cooking over open fire.
What parts of the design are you most stoked about?
We created an outdoor grill that overlooks the green on the 18th hole, cooking on mesquite wood all day long—our steaks, seafood, lots of vegetables. I’ve been cooking in my backyard during the pandemic on all sorts of wood and charcoal, so the wood-burning grill is the big anchor of the kitchen. At the bar itself we have a snack bar. We just hung a leaderboard—at a golf tournament you’ll have a leaderboard where it says Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson; ours will say lobster roll, caviar. We’re keeping track of the sales of these items and updating the leaderboard throughout the day. Is it fun and whimsical? Yes. Is it campy? No. I can get a little campy at times. That’s been the real challenge, making it elegant and fun without being campy.
What’d you learn cooking in your backyard over the last year?
You’re always learning as chefs. Every day. No one knows everything, whether it’s cuisine from a different culture or a different technique or something you observed. For me this summer, it was like, “What about throwing two steaks for my family directly over the coals, like right on the fire?” Or, “What happens if I throw the steak in there and just let it burn? Oh my god, it’s actually delicious—or it’s horrible.” I got that time to R&D. It’s nothing crazy or inventive. I put a plancha directly over the fire so you get that sear and the smoke, and people were like, “What is that crazy tool and where do I get one?” It’s not crazy. It’s a cast-iron pan over a fire. For example, one of the vegetables we have here is Chinese broccoli cooked in a wok. I threw a wok over the fire this summer and you get all that fire and smoke. It’s so obvious. I’m sure someone has done it before, but I hadn’t—and it makes a huge difference.
How else are you using that campfire?
We’re making our own sour cream. We take some of the charred wood at the end of the night and submerge that in fresh cream and then start the culturing process. So it creates this marshmallowy, smoky, ember flavor. It’s great, but all we did was throw a piece of charcoal in the cream. And we’re just getting started. We just turned on the grill five days ago. Once you start throwing 30 steaks on a grill, you’re gonna start learning a lot of things. We’re also making an XO sauce, which is usually dried shrimp and seafood. Well, we have these hooks hanging over our grills. What happens if you hang our red snapper there over the grill and use those bones to make stock? Or your chicken wing tips, which otherwise might end up in the trash: What happens if you throw those in the grill instead of making your standard chicken stock? It’s really a lot of that—“Let’s try this and see how it goes.”
You’ve been stereotyped as a liquid nitrogen guy, but you’re classically trained; you have all the Old World techniques down. Is Ember & Rye a return to that?
I look at it like this: I travel a lot. And when you’re on the road, what do you eat? I’m not usually ordering the most crazy thing I’ve ever heard of. Or, I’ll order that, but I’m also going to order a steak. Though to be clear, we’re going to do it both ways. There will be weird things. One of the dishes we’re going to have is raw radishes dipped in white chocolate. It’s like a chocolate-dipped strawberry. Radishes dipped in melted butter is a classic French dish, so this is just a version of that.
So it’s got some of the bells and whistles we expect from you.
Yeah. It’s got an egg yolk that’s made of mango, we’ve got oysters and pearls. The thing with Ember & Rye is that it wasn’t developed to appease the crowd, which is honestly something I think I can fall into. I can make the mistake of “Oh, they see me doing liquid nitrogen on TV, let’s do it.” Funny thing is, if you see me do liquid nitrogen on TV, that usually means I know I’ve lost. I know this is going bad, so we might as well set something on fire and get 15 seconds of good TV.
Tell me about your beef fat gadget.
An ancient thing, but you don’t see it too often. It’s an ancient iron cone; you put rendered beef fat in it, and it drips over whatever you’re cooking. So if you’ve seen new sashimi, where they pour hot oil over the fish, this is like that. So it’s ancient cooking combined with modern techniques, but neither one overriding the other just for the purpose of theater.
What’s next?
I still want to do it all. I still get as much joy creating a new podcast or live stage show as I do opening a restaurant. But this is where you’ll find me in San Diego. Opening a restaurant is a marathon, not a sprint.
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.
San Diego’s Best Restaurant of 2018: The Finalists
San Diego Magazine's Best Restaurants issue comes out in June. Here are food critic Troy Johnson's finalists for the best of the best.
Trust Restaurant in Hillcrest is one of the finalists for top restaurant of the year in San Diego. | Photo: Sam Wells
By Troy Johnson
The restaurant business didn’t get any easier this year. Costs went up across the board. Operating a restaurant is like trying to tame a wild animal that feeds on your life savings. With our annual Best Restaurants issue coming up, I have to pick the “Best of the Best” category. Meaning the best dang dining option in town. We have established chefs and restaurants who’re always in consideration. But new blood must be recognized if new blood is good. My finalists for this year are a mix of new and old. The winner, along with our readers’ picks, will come out in the June issue. And for me it came down to these:
Addison at the Grand Del Mar will always be in play. Under the technical mastery of chef William Bradley, it’s simply one of the best restaurants on the planet, let alone San Diego. The fact that it’s not won a James Beard Award yet is a product of bias, not value. It’s a special occasion restaurant, for sure, based in the Fairmont Grand Del Mar resort. It’s not cheap. It’s very, very formal. And it’s pretty spell-binding.
Although the headlines have been taken by the Crack Shack, their casual fried chicken offshoot, Richard Blais’ marquee fine-dining warehouse has continued to exceed expectations since opening in 2014. Blais lives locally, takes a very active role for someone with a TV and book career, and his team is one of the best in town, especially Executive Chef Anthony Wells, who spent a year at Thomas Keller’s Per Se and was the opening-day butcher at Jonathan Benno’s Lincoln Ristorante.
First off, it’s the most beautiful restaurant in town. Chef Brian Malarkey and his partner/GM Chris Puffer captured some Victorian magic in the old Mixture art warehouse. Malarkey and chef de cuisine Shane McIntyre have never been short on talent. It’s always just been a question of, “How involved will Malarkey be?” When he left Searsucker, quality suffered. But H&W is his baby, and it’s arguably the best restaurant he’s ever done.
Chef Trey Foshee is one of the best in the country. To boot, he’s also one of the most sustainable, ethical chefs around, meaning that his kitchen cooks for the head and the mouth. Doesn’t hurt that he’s perched over La Jolla Cove. But what really pushed the George’s empire up in recent years is the bar program, which, under Stephen Kurpinsky, has finally reached the same level as the kitchen.
Chef Brad Wise seemed to come out of nowhere. His tenure at JRDN in Pacific Beach wasn’t buzzed about. But when he partnered with GM Stephen Schwob (ex-Addison) to open this hip, minimalist restaurant in Hillcrest, they’ve both consistently blown minds of anyone I’ve sent there. That oxtail raviolini, the vinegar whipped-cream potatoes, the whole damn thing, is excellent.
Carl Schroeder seems to get overlooked, possibly because of Market’s quirky location between Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe. It’s not a road traveled much unless you own a horse and an Aston Martin. But Schroeder’s a perfectionist and incredibly talented chef, and his staff totally buys in and knows the food and wine down to the smallest detail.
3702 Via de la Valle, Del Mar
Pick up San Diego Magazine‘s June issue later this month to see who wins.
San Diego’s Best Restaurant of 2018: The Finalists
Trust Restaurant in Hillcrest is one of the finalists for top restaurant of the year in San Diego. | Photo: Sam Wells
If you’re anything like us, it can be easy to get so caught up in taking care of everyone else, that your own needs get lost in the ether. But while this may be a cliché, that doesn’t make it any less true: You can’t give your best self to other people unless you’re taking care of yourself.
Sometimes, that looks like stopping in for your regular acupuncture or chiropractic appointment. Other days, it means giving your body the fresh, organic fuel it needs to truly feel and function at its best. And some other times still, it involves leaving your responsibilities behind for a weekend to pamper yourself at an incredible resort and spa.
Only you can decide what your truly need. We’re just here to help you find the best ways to get it.
Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa
Island living meets desert luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells. When you step onto the 11-acre property, you’ll be surrounded by sweeping view of the Santa Rosa Mountains with olive trees and fragrant citrus groves decorating the grounds. In other words, everything about this relaxed but refined resort is primed to help you let go of the stress from home and enjoy easy sun-soaked days and gorgeous starry nights.
The rooms blend calming, woven textures with Tommy Bahama’s signature tropical prints and feature private lanais, making it easy unwind the moment you walk in the door. If you book one of the four Villa Suites, you’ll be treated to exclusive Tommy Bahama furniture and unique personal touches to further that feeling of instant ease.
At the award-winning Spa Rosa, the expert team will help reset and recharge your body and mind using methods and rituals inspired by the desert. The 12,000-square-foot retreat includes outdoor soaking pools, eucalyptus steam rooms, and outdoor cabanas, as well as massages, facials, and body masks—all aimed at creating a day dedicated to you. We’re particularly partial to the Day Long Escape, an indulgent all-day affair of CDBs soaks, renewing scrubs, life changing massages, and transformative facials.
Following your treatment, continue the experience with a meal on the patio at Grapefruit Basil. We love the Hamachi Crudo, a light, citrus-forward dish featuring premium yellowtail, house-made ponzu, creamy avocado, and fresh seasonal garnishes.
Whether you’re strolling the gardens, relaxing beside its saltwater pools, or indulging in a restorative treatment, you’ll be able to escape in style and relax in luxury at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa.
Healcove Chiropractic
There’s no shortage of ways to stay active in San Diego—but if you really want to enjoy everything the city has to offer, you’ve got to make sure you’re giving your body its tune-ups. Enter: Healcove Chiropractic. The board-certified chiropractors and wellness professionals at Healcove are experts at addressing that stage where you’re not injured, exactly, but you’re not at 100%, either. Maybe you’re feeling a bit tense or stressed out. Or it could be that you’re not quite moving the way you want to. Sometimes, it’s just that the accumulation of days, weeks, or even years of daily strain is starting to take a toll. No matter what stage you find yourself at, the Healcove Chiropractic team can provide integrated, preventative care centered on long-term, science-backed approaches that ensure you can always stay active and live the life you want to live pain-free.
This starts by providing truly individualized care. Every patient can expect a thorough 60-minute consultation session that includes a posture and movement screening. This allows the team to develop a completely personalized plan. That plan might include chiropractic care, acupuncture, or massage therapy, as well as functional fitness training, vibration and sound therapy, and Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization, a clinical rehabilitation method that retrains the body’s stabilization systems. Whatever the team recommends, you can be sure that it’s tailored to meeting your body’s needs today and the future.
There’s a reason that San Diego Magazine named Healcove the “Best Chiropractor in San Diego”—don’t wait until you’re struggling with an injury to find out why. Book an appointment today for holistic, integrated care that helps ground and heal your body before it reaches a crisis point.
Juice Holler
West Coast wellness culture meets the community feel of Southern Appalachia at Juice Holler. Juice Holler’s menu consists of made-to-order smoothies and smoothie bowls, as well as grab-and-go cold-pressed juices, wellness shots, salads, and more. It operates from the blissfully simple premise that fueling up with food and drink that’s guilt-free and good your body should be simple, accessible, and, above all else, delicious. And if you haven’t yet made it out to the Encinitas café, which opened just this year, let us be the first to tell you: Juice Holler delivers on each and every of these fronts.
We love the Supercharger smoothie, a mood-lifting and body-fueling option made with banana, almond butter, blue spirulina, maca, grass-fed whey protein, raw cacao nibs, medjool dates, and coconut milk. We’re also partial to the Thrive Alive smoothie bowl, where avocado, mango, sea moss, spirulina, mint, coconut milk, and agave are mixed and topped with coconut, chia seeds, strawberry, mango, and chocolate drizzle. The wellness shots include the Detoxifier, a cleansing blend of kale, cucumber, lemon and spirulina, plus a shot specially designed to fight inflammation (named, fittingly, Anti-Inflammation). Probiotic overnight oats, lemon turmeric bars, and strawberry shortcake chia pudding are other standouts on the grab-and-go menu.
Much of the vibe feels beachy North County chic—think green tile with orange and pink accents, grounded with greenery and natural wood—but Juice Holler founder Kelly Sergott, a longtime Encinitas local, has also enfused the space with her Kentucky roots. In Appalachia, a holler is small valley between hills and mountains, where nature reigns, community is king, and nourishment comes right from the land. At Juice Holler, Sergott has created a holler for the busy modern times, using local ingredients to create a spot for people to come together and enjoy fresh, fast, feel-good fuel for their day.
Everwell Acupuncture
We’ve all had that experience with a medical professional where we’ve felt rushed, ignored, or misunderstood—and ultimately, like we didn’t get the answers that we needed. But at Everwell, the holistic acupuncture practice located in Solana Beach, the care team wants to transform your understanding of what healthcare can look like.
Patients at Everwell experience care rooted in intentional listening and radical empathy—and trust us, those aren’t just corporate buzzwords. This place actually puts those ideas into practice. You will always be given the time you need to tell your story— initial in-take appointments are two hours long—and you can rest assured that your story will be believed. Every single question and concern will be addressed by a dedicated practitioner who wants to find the specific solutions that work best for you, and you’ll receive care that’s aimed at healing the body, mind, and spirit.
Everwell’s highly trained, doctorate-level practitioners blend evidence-based acupuncture with the practice of classical Chinese medicine. (If you’ve never tried acupuncture before or aren’t sure if the team will be a fit, we’d highly recommended Everwell’s complimentary 20-minute consultations.) Research shows that by stimulating specific points on the body, acupuncture activates a natural healing response in the body, helping to restore balance, regulate the nervous system, and improve overall wellbeing. This allows the practice to address an incredibly wide range of conditions from chronic pain and autoimmune disorders to digestive issues, from stress and burnout to headaches migraines, fertility and postpartum struggles, hormonal imbalances, sleep concerns and more.
At Everwell, you can expect to feel heard, trusted, respected, and cared for. This is a space that doesn’t want to be just another healthcare provider you visit; it wants to provide patients with dedicated partner who will be there for their entire health journey.
