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San Diego’s Roast Beef Awakening

Digging into the invention of the meat slicer, LA’s French dip origin story, and Boston super beef with James Jones of Big Jim’s Roast Beef

By Jackie Bryant January 8, 2026

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On the latest Happy Half Hour, host Troy Johnson traces a proper Sunday roast into its evolution as a distinctly American handheld obsession. Following the breadcrumbs leads straight to Big Jim’s Roast Beef in Pacific Beach, which is owned by today’s guest, James Jones.

He’s a North Shore Boston transplant who brought the “super beef” to our fair shores. His version has a griddled onion roll, rare- to mid-rare beef, and the cult-favorite James River barbecue sauce shipped in from back East. We also get a rapid-fire history lesson featuring British roast-beef nationalism, refrigerated rail cars, the invention of the meat slicer, and LA’s French dip origin story. Johnson makes the case that the piled-high roast beef sandwich is top-notch, cross-generational gustatory engineering.

About Jackie Bryant

Jackie is a long-time freelance journalist covering cannabis, food/restaurants, travel, labor, wine, spirits, arts & culture, design, and other topics. Her work has been selected twice for Best American Travel Writing, and she has won a variety of national and local awards for her writing and reporting.

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