Ready to know more about San Diego?

Subscribe
Food & Drink JUNE 20, 2013

San Diego Best Restaurants 2012

A taste of San Diego's fab food scene

San Diego Best Restaurants 2012

Photography by John Dole & food styling by Maria Sparks

Go to page 3 to read food critic Troy Johson’s picks.

San Diego Best Restaurants

San Diego Best Restaurants

Baby Back Rib & Chicken Dinner from Phil’s BBQ

With more than 5,000 ballots submitted and nominations in 43 categories (that’s 215,000-plus votes!), we give you the 2012 list of best restaurants in San Diego County. Plus: Critic Troy Johnson’s picks.

READERS’ PICKS

Best of the Best

Truluck’s
Runner-up: Slater’s 50/50

Best New Restaurant

Slater’s 50/50
Runner-up: Burlap

Best Chef

Brian Malarkey, Searsucker
Runner-up: Antonio Friscia, Gaijin Noodle + Sake House

Best View

Island Prime/C Level
Runner-up: Bertrand at Mister A’s

Best Cheap Eats

Carnitas’ Snack Shack:
Runner-up: Rubio’s

Best Barbeque

Phil’s BBQ
Runner-up: Gingham

Best Service

Searsucker
Runner-up: Truluck’s

Best Happy Hour

Slater’s 50/50
Runner-up: Truluck’s

Best Hotel Restaurant

Nine-Ten
Runner-up: Jsix

Best Outdoor Dining

George’s at the Cove
Runner-up: C Level

San Diego Best Restaurants

San Diego Best Restaurants

Best Kid-Friendly

Corvette Diner
Runner-up: Station Tavern

Most Romantic

The Marine Room
Runner-up: Truluck’s

Best Neighborhood Restaurant

Gingham
Runner-up: Del Mar Rendezvous

Best Desserts

Extraordinary Desserts
Runner-up: Truluck’s

Best Burger

Slater’s 50/50
Runner-up: Burger Lounge

Best Pizza

Bronx Pizza
Runner-up: Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza

Best Small Plates

Café Sevilla
Runner-up: Burlap

Best Chinese

Del Mar Rendezvous
Runner-up: Jasmine

Best Thai

Lotus Thai Cuisine
Runner-up: Amarin Thai

Best Beer Selection

Slater’s 50/50
Runner-up: Hamilton’s Tavern

San Diego Best Restaurants

San Diego Best Restaurants

 

San Diego Best Restaurants

San Diego Best Restaurants

Fish tacos at South Beach Bar & Grille

San Diego Best Restaurants

San Diego Best Restaurants

FISH TACO Bracket

Looks like a different voter takes to a bracket—when given options (as opposed to the write-in survey below), readers chose Rubio’s hands down.

Best Coffee

Caffé Calabria
Runner-up: Bird Rock Coffee Roasters

Best Fish Taco

South Beach Bar & Grille
Runner-up: Rubio’s

Best French

Bleu Bohème
Runner-up: Cafe Chloe

Best Sandwich

The Rubicon Deli
Runner-up: Board & Brew

Best Japanese

Sushi Ota
Runner-up: Harney Sushi

Best Asian Fusion

Burlap
Runner-up: Roppongi

Best Mexican

Talavera Azul
Runners-up (tie): Miguel’s Cocina, Café Coyote

Best Greek

Café Athena
Runner-up: Daphne’s

Best Vietnamese

Le Bambou Restaurant
Runner-up: Saigon on Fifth

Best Vegetarian

(Tie) Del Mar Rendezvous, Sipz Fusion Café
Runner-up: Royal India

Best Steakhouse

Donovan’s
Runner-up: Ruth’s Chris

Best Italian

Bencotto Italian Kitchen
Runner-up: Cucina Urbana

San Diego Best Restaurants

San Diego Best Restaurants

Best Indian

Royal India
Runner-up: Bombay Exotic Cuisine of India

Best Cocktails

Craft & Commerce
Runner-up: Searsucker

Best brewery/Brewpub

Stone Brewing Co.
Runner-up: Pizza Port

Best Wine Bar

Wine Steals
Runner-up: The 3rd Corner

Best Breakfast

The Mission
Runner-up: Talavera Azul

Best Seafood

Truluck’s
Runner-up: Gabardine

Best Brunch

Burlap
Runner-up: Urban Solace

Best Business Lunch

Searsucker
Runner-up: Del Mar Rendezvous

Best Food Truck

MIHO Gastrotruck
Runner-up: Devilicious

Best Casual Gourmet

Croce’s
Runner-up: Waters Fine Foods and Catering

Best Salad

Tender Greens
Runner-up: Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza

Best Late Night Menu

Slater’s 50/50
Runner-up: The 3rd Corner

San Diego Best Restaurants

San Diego Best Restaurants

 

CRITIC’S PICKS

San Diego Best Restaurants

San Diego Best Restaurants

The Creepy Guy at Table 5 By Troy Johnson

I’ve been writing about what we put in our mouths now for six years. I’m the guy in the corner booth who appears to be scribbling on his pants. It’s a mind-blowing honor, and a health hazard. I wake up hungry, having dreamt about skipping along the shore hand-in-hand with a drop-dead short rib. Or doing the backstroke through the creamy center of a giant burrata. I also have nightmares where my foot just rolls off into the street, dislodged by gout.

Food criticism should not be a pulpit for taking out latent grade-school trauma on small business owners. Done right, it’s an artful interpretation of a story. Restaurants are stories.

My average week includes a dozen or so meals around San Diego. I have a strict “two-bite rule.” Otherwise my torso would prevent adequate sunlight from reaching earth. But it’s not uncommon to schedule three lunches in a single day.

Restaurants are more than food. Before we take a single bite, we eat with our eyes. The Brawny Man décor at The Lodge at Torrey Pines makes my incisors sweat in anticipation of slow-braised animals. The minimalist hush of Wa Dining Okan urges the saying of grace. Craft & Commerce’s street art warns to expect the unexpected, and that sanity is tenuous. Restaurants are a break from our TPS report-filing, parking ticket-paying daily drudgery. If I wanted to eat in an uninspiring environment, I’d eat leftovers in my garage.

But of course, taste matters most. To me, that means three things: top-notch ingredients, balance (acid-fat, heavy-light, sweet-savory, soft-crisp), and living up to promises.

I don’t expect the Kebab Shop to shave truffles, and I don’t expect Addison to “loosen up.” I do my best to interpret the execution of visions.

San Diego’s food scene is drastically underrated. Compared to indoctrinated foodie havens like San Francisco and New York, our city is the Wild West. Major improvements happen daily. Making a “Best Of” list is like ranking family members. I had Mariscos German cued up for Best Mexican until a carnitas taco at Rudy’s—a Solana Beach box that sells Red Bull and ciggies, too—changed my mouth forever. It’s all subjective. I didn’t overthink it. I just gut-reactioned my most memorable meals of another year of excessively masticating in San Diego.

Eat well, support ethical foodmaking, and respect the makers even if it tastes like farm-fresh garbage.

Sincerely,

The Pants Scribbler

Best of the Best

Addison

Best New Restaurant

The Lion’s Share

Best Chef

William Bradley

Best View

Bertrand at Mister A’s

Best Service

Truluck’s

Best Happy Hour


BICE Ristorante

Best Cheap Eats

The Kebab Shop

Best Late Night Menu

Quality Social

Best Hotel Restaurant

Nine-Ten

Best Wine List

Addison

Best Beer Selection

Hamilton’s Tavern

Most Romantic

BO-beau Kitchen + Bar

Best Neighborhood Restaurant

The Linkery

Best Desserts

Park Hyatt Aviara

Best Fish Taco

Mariscos German

Best Burger

Bankers Hill Bar & Restaurant

Best Pizza

Basic

Best Fries

The Smoking Goat

Best Sandwich

Mona Lisa Italian Food

Best Salad

Tender Greens

Best French

Mistral

Best Chinese

Dumpling Inn

Best Japanese

Wa Dining Okan

Best Thai

Siam Nara

Best Asian Fusion


Gaijin Noodle + Sake House

Best Mexican

Rudy’s Taco Shop

Best Greek

Café Athena

Best Vietnamese

Phuong Trang

Best Vegetarian


George’s California Modern

Best BBQ

Gingham

Best Steakhouse

Cowboy Star

Best Italian

Bencotto Italian Kitchen

Best Indian


Surati Farsan Mart

Best Seafood

George’s

Best Breakfast

Snooze

Best Brunch

Le Fontainebleau

Best Business Lunch

Jsix

Best Outdoor Dining


1500 OCEAN

Best Food Truck

MIHO Gastrotruck

Best Casual Gourmet

Urban Solace

Best Cocktails

Grant Grill

Best Coffee

Caffé Calabria

Best Brewery

Stone Brewing Co.

Best Wine Bar

The 3rd Corner

Subscribe to our newsletters

Select Options

By subscribing you confirm that you agree with our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Food & Drink JANUARY 16, 2026 (Updated Aug 23, 2023)

SDM’s Guide to San Diego Food & Drink

We speak with the city's top food and drink makers in this exclusive video series hosted by food critic and Food Network judge Troy Johnson

SDM’s Guide to San Diego Food & Drink
Courtesy of George’s at the Cove

Welcome to SDM’s Guide to San Diego Food + Drink, our new video series dedicated to our favorite food and drink in the city. At the end of the summer, we’re bring many of these restaurants to the Del Mar Wine + Food Festival for a massive party. You should come. San Diego restaurants, local wineries, Food Network chefs… it’s our big dream for the city.

Check back each week to catch our newest video:

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

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

Aqui Es Texcoco

Chula Vista

Tunaville

Point Loma

Stella Jean’s

University Heights, Pacific Beach, Point Loma, Kensington, South Park, Costa Mesa, Carlsbad

Troy Johnson

About Troy Johnson

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.

Everything SD FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Vote Now for San Diego’s Best Restaurants 2024

Help us pick the city's top places to dine and be entered to win a $200 gift card to Catamaran Hotel Resort and Spa

18b4129f-4cd6-49b9-a319-0adada31f201

Restaurants are the social lifeblood of a city. They offer a place to commune with friends and strangers alike, build relationships, explore new cultures through flavors, and offer a welcome escape from the reality of our own kitchens. All under the guise of getting something to eat.

With all restaurants do to nourish us, we invite you to give back to them by voting for your Reader’s Choice favorites in several categories.

Vote in as many categories as you like, but you can only cast one vote per category. If the altruistic love of your favorite spot isn’t enough, your vote will enter you to win a $200 gift card to the Catamaran Hotel Resort and Spa.

Winning restaurants earn bragging rights for the entire calendar year—and your continued love and support. So, go on. It’s up to you to decide on our city’s next culinary icon.

Voting has closed. View the Best Restaurants 2024 Winners here.

Food & Drink JANUARY 15, 2024

2024 Best Restaurants Marketing Toolkit

Spread the news. Share the poll. Voting ends on February 23, 2024.

You’ve served us delicious food all year, so, sit back and relax, and leave the marketing to us. We’ve crafted all the materials needed to recruit your biggest fans and followers to cast their votes for you. The marketing materials include logos, graphics for email and social media, restaurant signage, and cards to place in your to-go orders. All you need to do is start promoting on February 12.

Promoting & Voting Dates:

Voting: February 12 through February 18
Extended get-out-the-vote week: February 19 – February 23, 2024.

Awards and Bragging Rights:

Winning restaurants will be announced in the Best Restaurants issue of San Diego Magazine this May and will receive “2024 Winner” graphics to plaster anywhere that’s legal.

Winners will also be invited to participate at the Best of San Diego Party on August 2, 2023, where thousands of our readers await the chance to savor the culinary creations that earned you the top spot.


Let’s Get Started:

A series of “Vote for Us” graphics are below. All static marketing materials can be downloaded by clicking on the image. Follow the steps below:

Static “Vote for Us” Graphics:

• Click on the image you want to open Google Drive.
• Right-click or double-tap the image to open it larger.
• Choose download or click the down arrow on the right side of the opened image.
• Download your image.

Customizable “Vote for Us” Graphics:

• Click the graphic you want.
• Canva will open on your browser. If you don’t already have a Canva account, you will be asked to establish a FREE account.
• Once you log in, you can upload your photos, and add content to your graphics like the name of your restaurant and the category you aim to win.


Email Blasts:

Download an email blast graphic and send it through your email marketing platform! Don’t forget to link the email to the ballot page: www.sdmag.com/vote2024

Click the image above to download

Custom Email:

Click here to go to Canva and log in (it’s free to join). When you choose the graphic to edit, choose the prompt to “Duplicate” before you start. DO NOT CHOOSE EDIT. In your duplicated version, add your photos and text within the app. Download the type of file your email system requires. Don’t forget to link the email to the ballot page: www.sdmag.com/vote2024


Instagram

Instagram In-Feed Post

Don’t forget to include a link to vote in your Instagram bio: www.sdmag.com/vote2024.

Click the image above to download.

Custom In-Feed Post

Click here to go to Canva and log in (it’s free to join). When you choose the graphic to edit, choose the prompt to “Duplicate” before you start. DO NOT CHOOSE EDIT. In your duplicated version, add your photos and text within the app. Download the type of file your email system requires. Don’t forget to link the email to the ballot page: www.sdmag.com/vote2024

Instagram GIFY

Official Best Restaurants voting stickers are available in Instagram stories. Search Best Restaurants and add a sticker GIFY to your content. Click on the graphic to go to download. Don’t forget to include a tap-to-vote link in your story: www.sdmag.com/vote2024.

Click the image above to download.

Custom Instagram Story

Click here to go to Canva and log in (it’s free to join). When you choose the graphic to edit, choose the prompt to “Duplicate” before you start. DO NOT CHOOSE EDIT. In your duplicated version, add your photos and text within the app. Download a .png or .jpeg. Don’t forget a tap-to-vote link in your story: www.sdmag.com/vote2024.

Click the image above to download.


To-Go Order QR Cards

Get out the vote by placing one of these cards in all your to-go orders. A convenient QR code that links to voting is on each card. The QR Code will take your customer directly to vote at www.SDMag.com/Vote2024

Click the image above to download.


Poster

Print and hang a poster in your restaurant! The QR Code will take your customer directly to vote at www.SDMag.com/Vote2024

Click the image above to download.


Logos and Icons

Add a logo or icon to your email or website. Don’t forget to include a link to vote: www.SDMag.com/vote2024

Click the image above to download.


All Graphics

Click here to download our full suite of assets.

Studio S JULY 7, 2026

Xplosion Box: A Customized Keepsake Your Loved Ones Won’t Forget

A customized memory-filled explosion gift box is a creative way to show someone you care

Xplosion Box: A Customized Keepsake Your Loved Ones Won’t Forget
Hero image – Birthday Explosion Gift Box

Finding a gift that feels truly personal can be surprisingly difficult. In a sea of generic options — flowers, gift cards, candles, and the like — Xplosion Box offers something more lasting: a customized keepsake built around the photos, messages, and memories that matter most. 

Founded by Southern California entrepreneur Jay Vijay, Xplosion Box LLC creates fully customized explosion gift boxes that arrive professionally designed, printed, assembled, and ready to gift. Each box opens layer by layer to reveal personal photos, heartfelt messages, pull-out albums, origami-style photo pockets, and hidden notes, turning a simple gift into an emotional reveal. 

The brand was built for people who want to give something meaningful without spending hours printing photos, cutting paper, folding cardstock, or assembling a DIY project. Customers simply choose a box, upload their favorite photos, add personal messages, and the Xplosion Box team transforms those details into a polished keepsake that feels thoughtful, personal, and beautifully made.

Xplosion Box offers personalized gift boxes for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, proposals, bridesmaid gifts, long-distance relationships, and thoughtful “just because” moments. 

Customers can choose from flexible customization options starting at $27. The Mini Surprise Box includes 10 photos, three message cards, and one hidden secret note, while the Mega Surprise Box offers a fuller keepsake experience with 40 photos, three message cards, and one hidden secret note. 

What sets Xplosion Box apart is its high level of customization combined with convenience. Filled with personal photos, custom text, decorative details, and layered surprises, each box gives customers the freedom to create a gift that feels one-of-a-kind — without having to make it themselves. 

At its core, Xplosion Box helps people turn favorite photos, stories, and words into something tangible: a keepsake that can be opened, revisited, and remembered long after the occasion has passed. asion has passed.

Partner Content
Everything SD DECEMBER 27, 2023

20 of the Best New Restaurants in San Diego 2023

From world-famous hot pot to a tiny fish shop, food critic Troy Johnson names his top new eateries of the year

20 of the Best New Restaurants in San Diego 2023
Photo Credit: James Tran

Logically, the restaurant scene should’ve been dead-silent this year. Food costs went berserk. Labor costs swelled. We all knew how to cook because we were marooned in our own homes for a few years. And yet San Diego’s food scene unveiled a few dozen more pretty fantastic restaurants in 2023. This is what I love about restaurants and the people behind them. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Sure, money is to be Danny Meier’d for the few and the lucky and the ulcered.

But financial analysts who are not sadistic would advise you to put your money into the stock market, into real estate, into off-brand Beanie Babies before putting it into the restaurant industry. That means all you’re left with are people who do it because they have to, or because the dream of creating a hospitable place that makes humans happy is just too compelling to ignore. 

Here are the new arrivals that won me over in 2023 and became part of my own personal hit list of the best new restaurants in San Diego.

Kinme in Banker's Hill was one of San Diego's best new restaurants in 2023.
Photo Credit: James Tran

Kinme

Omakase-only sushi spots took over the whole dang scene (omakase means you eat what chef deigns their best and most creative stuff that day, with no menu to choose from). Azuki in Bankers Hill has long been one of the city’s favorite sushi spots. It was never hype-trained. It just quietly, consistently snuck up on us all, probably because of owner Shihomi Borillo and chef Nao Ichimura’s obsession with the good-food movement.

Kinme is their tiny (900 square feet), 10-seat, omakase-only concept a block up the hill. It’s a mix of Edomae-style sushi and kaiseke, a seasonal, multi-course Japanese meal. The menu changes all the time, but it has included things like grilled corn with koji miso and tomatillo salt, A5 wagyu in ginger shoyu, and chawanmushi, plus Japanese whiskys, rare sake, and top-notch tea to finish.

Fish Guts was one of the best San Diego restaurant openings in 2023.
Courtesy of Fish Guts

Fish Guts

A hell of a fish-taco-and-sammy shop. San Diego born and raised, Pablo Becker helped open some of the bigger Mexican restaurants in the country with his cousin, famed Mexican chef Richard Sandoval. He needed a break, so he moved to Chicago for five years and became a line cook. He was offered management roles, refused. Head down, cooking. Five years.

Fish Guts is his return home, a small-but-mighty corner spot in Barrio Logan. It serves sandwiches during the day, tacos at night, using almost all sustainable fish from local boats. Get the blackened whitefish with the jalapeño-cabbage slaw, the mushroom taco, or the fantastic Negra Modelo beer–battered lunch sammy with Mexican tartar sauce.

Best New San Diego restaurant opening in 2023 Make Cafe in North Park featuring a brunch spread featuring french toast, veggies, and an espresso drink with flowers in the background
Photo Credit: Cole Novak

MAKE Projects

MAKE Projects is one of the city’s most inspiring food nonprofits, helping low-income refugees and immigrant women learn farming, cooking, and catering skills and earn a living as they acclimate to their new life in the US.

During the weekends, the women cook and sell specialties from their native countries—East African mandazi (they’re like beignets), halloumi with farm veggies, pancakes with Cambodian orange syrup, Afghan chicken tacos with Haitian pikliz—made with ingredients from their urban farm. Now they have a permanent home in North Park.

Lia's Lumpia was one of San Diego's best new restaurants in 2023.

Lia’s Lumpia

I could hang on this back porch all day, joy-shoveling lumpia with a couple beers. Chef Spencer Hunter’s grandma owned one of the first Filipino restaurants in San Diego decades ago and was famed for her hand-rolled lumpia (being lazy, but real close to accurate, let’s call it the egg roll of the Philippines).

Spencer went to college for sustainable hospitality and cooked in huts in South America, then came home to work through some top-notch kitchens (Searsucker, Waters Fine Foods + Catering). He and his mom, Benelia Santos-Hunter, started doing lumpia pop-ups at festivals, including Coachella. They went on Great Food Truck Race, nearly and probably should’ve won (a contestable second place), and found a permanent spot in Barrio Logan in an old house filled with pop-culture and Filipino cultural knicknacks.

It’s a total work in progress, design-wise. This is two family members ad-hoc’ing a dream, and I like that. Spencer will do seasonal riffs (ramen lumpia, Thanksgiving lumpia), but get “Lola’s Lumpia,” stuffed with a mix of beef and pork marinated in oyster sauce and various things. And don’t miss their ube-coffee ice cream with white chocolate shavings. 

El Sueño Mexican restaurant and bar in Old Town San Diego featuring three cocktails at a bar
Courtesy of Old Town San Diego

El Sueño

Troy Johnson

About Troy Johnson

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.

Everything SD NOVEMBER 15, 2023

Callie’s General Manager Has the Mother of All Resumes

Ann Sim partnered with chef Travis Swikard to build a million-dollar baby—and now they’re doing it again

Callie’s General Manager Has the Mother of All Resumes
Courtesy of Ann Sim

Ann Sim is telling me about her children. She says she has 50 of them, give or take, and her main job is protecting them and providing them everything they need to succeed. 

It’s not uncommon to hear restaurant managers refer to their staff this way, but, unlike most of them, Sim has a necklace that I noticed when we sat down: a thin chain with “Callie” written in gold, like some people wear with the names of their actual kids. You get the sense Sim really means it. 

Sim is the general manager of Callie. She opened the East Village Mediterranean-style gem with chef Travis Swikard in the middle of 2021, and now they’re joining forces again for their second location, a to-be-named French restaurant in La Jolla Commons. Much has been made of Swikard’s experience, and rightfully so—more than a decade alongside Daniel Boulud in New York tends to draw eyes—but in terms of pure tonnage of resume fireworks, Sim might have him beat.

GM of restaurant Callie, Ann Sim, arranges a table before a dinner service
Courtesy of Callie

She’s worked at some of the most well-respected places in New York and Los Angeles, including a marquee stint as a captain at Eleven Madison Park, what was—at the time, by every metric available—the best restaurant in the world.

You wouldn’t know it to talk to her. The SoCal native is approachable with an easy laugh. But to watch her at the restaurant is to witness a pro at work. You see it in the way she adjusts a napkin or pushes in a chair, the way she glides between tables or opens a bottle of wine. But you also sense it in the warmth with which she greets guests, touches tables, and coaches her staff. 

The front of house at Callie is, like the cuisine, a union of world-class refinement and California vibes. The synthesis of these apparent contradictions is a big part of why Callie is such a local treasure—and why it has earned it national and international recognition (as well as this magazine’s award for Best Restaurant two years in a row). It’s an impressive CV for a woman whose main professional goal throughout college was to get out of restaurants for good.

The daughter of Korean immigrants-turned-restaurateurs, Sim was born and raised in Orange County. As a kid, Sim was “free child labor,” she quips—she worked the counter, grilled chicken, waited tables, whatever her parents’ business needed that day. She stayed in restaurants through college, serving and bartending, and graduated from UC Irvine sans debt. The tradeoff: They were bad places with toxic cultures. She had different ideas of success.

Prawns al ajillo from San Diego Mediterranean restaurant Callie
Photo Credit: Luciana McIntosh
Prawns al ajillo from Callie

After college in 2011, she took her meager savings and moved to New York, something she had wanted to do since she was a kid. Though she had planned to change industries, she needed a job, so a friend got her an interview at Daniel Boulud’s celebrated Mediterranean restaurant, Boulud Sud, as a host.

For all her experience, she was completely unprepared. “I didn’t know who Daniel Boulud was,” she says. “I didn’t know what fine dining even meant. I never heard the phrase.” What she did know, however, was how to work hard and learn. She absorbed everything she could, bouncing from the host stand to the events team to management. 

It was there that she first met a young Swikard and other high-caliber restaurant pros, and it opened her eyes to what this life could be. “They were so good at what they did that I was like, ‘Oh, this is actually a career. This is a profession. This is actually something very respectable,’” she recalls.

Her next job was at Eleven Madison Park. The restaurant already had three Michelin stars, and, during her tenure, it earned an exuberant review from the New York Times, a James Beard Award for outstanding service, and the title of Best Restaurant in the World from the World’s 50 Best. 

Ann Sim general manager of San Diego restaurant Callie standing infront of a table
Courtesy of Ann Sim

When Eleven Madison Park closed for renovations, Sim took the opportunity to come back to California. She arrived in LA at the end of 2017 to open the area’s NoMad Hotel, and did a stint as the GM of Maude in Beverly Hills. After the start of the pandemic, she got a random text from Swikard, her old Boulud Sud colleague, who was trying to open a restaurant in San Diego and had just lost his GM. Did she know anyone who might want the job?

Callie is theirs. It is her and Swikard’s united vision of hospitality and what a restaurant should be. She’s not courting the 50 Best awards—she’s too “old and jaded,” she says, and those things come at too high a human cost (she still can’t watch The Bear, for example). To her, success comes from working hard, taking care of her people, and connecting with the community. Nearly two and a half years after she and Swikard opened the restaurant’s doors, the reservation list at Callie is still full pretty much every night.

“I genuinely care about the business as well as every single one of my employees,” she says. “So I don’t care if anyone’s like, ‘Oh, you wear a necklace with the name of your job?’ I don’t think it’s weird, because for me, it’s like, ‘I also pushed this baby out.’”

And with her and Swikard’s second culinary progeny incoming, she may have to add another charm.

Partner Content JULY 10, 2026

Health & Wellness Summer 2026

It’s a Self-Care Summer. Because your best self is our favorite self.

Health & Wellness Summer 2026

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.

Partner Content

Eat Like a Local (Who Knows a Guy).

Restaurant news, culinary storytelling, and Troy Johnson’s sharp takes delivered straight to your inbox twice a month.

Close the CTA

Contact Us

1230 Columbia Street, Suite 800,

San Diego, CA