The Kitchen – sandwich

Ligaya Malones

Chef Rob Ruiz is back. But the notable sushi chef and sustainable seafood advocate needed to grapple with grief and shovel literal fish guts to get here. We’re in between lunch and dinner service at The Kitchen, Ruiz’s new passion project in Vista.

“I learned all these things,” he begins: classical French cooking, Hawaiian Regional Cuisine (including how to slice sashimi from Alan Wong’s team), sushi, fine dining.

“After what all of us have gone through the last couple years, what’s my answer to ‘What could I do for people?’ And I’m like, I’m gonna make ’em really awesome food and I’m gonna do it for seven bucks.”

Welcome to The Kitchen

The Kitchen started as a commissary for Crownview Co-Occurring Institute’s food program, which Ruiz oversees. Crownview, located in Oceanside, shepherds recovery programs for people facing post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and other mental health conditions. Ruiz and team, including some Crownview graduates, make and deliver meals for its programs. On the day I visited, dinner was chipotle shrimp and penne pasta.

As of March, it’s also a fast-casual sit-down restaurant. From the counter, you order simple yet delicious food—delicately battered fish and chips, chicken sandwiches on housemade biscuits, salads, and burgers. All ingredients are either grown at The Kitchen’s farm in Bonsall or otherwise locally produced, which helps keep overhead low. Salads are named for the seeds that spawned their leafy greens, and virtually all dressings, condiments, and baked goods are made from scratch, which also keeps costs down. 

A Tsunami of Humility

Just a few years ago, before The Kitchen, adversity slammed Ruiz from every angle. His signature sushi restaurant shuttered. Death came for someone close to him. Then the pandemic came for us all. Ruiz, like many in the hospitality business, was furloughed. 

Fishmonger Tommy Gomes and team threw him a line processing fish to eke out a paycheck.

 “I was like, okay, put me wherever you want,” Ruiz says. “So they put me on the boat, right. And you’re on the boat, and they have a crane that goes down and picks up like 500 or 600 pounds of tuna at a time. There’s seawater washing through the deck of the boat—it’s in the harbor, but it’s still gonna move. And then you have a cutting board that you’re just hoping to land the fish on because it’s moving. The fish is moving. The crane is moving. You have 10 guys all around you, all moving.

“And my job was to pick up a 100-plus-pound fish by yourself, carry it over, put it down, then get the head off of it, hand the head off, break the fillets off, go all the way and break it down to nothing. And then go run and get another one. You just do that nonstop. And you can’t wash your knife; you can’t wash your cutting board.

 “This is just a few hours. These guys who do that for a living, these guys are beasts. These guys are a different breed. These guys are amazing.”

The point is, the once-rigid Ruiz is more malleable now, more balanced, yet the pursuit for bigger and better is still on. During the decade he spent cooking and surfing on Hawai‘i Island (the Big Island), some coworkers from Oaxaca gave him the kitchen name “El Diablo Sin Cola,” or The Devil Without a Tail.

“I really do things 110 percent,” he explains. He attributes his drive to his grandfather, a former Navy captain, who “always had a high bar of what was expected.” Give him a chapter to read and Ruiz will rip through the entire book, and then some. 

Fine dining is still on his mind, maybe, eventually. So are whole paycheck-worthy tasting menus. Right now though, Ruiz is giving The Kitchen 110 percent.

The post Chef Rob Ruiz Comes Home appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Everyone’s favorite pork joint, Carnitas Snack Shack, is finally looking ready to open at the Embarcadero this spring. This space (1004 N. Harbor Dr.) will have cocktails from San Diego’s RMD Group (Fluxx, Sidebar, Rusted Root) and tons of outdoor waterside seating….

Hey, Del Mar. New chef in town for you guys this spring. Steven Lona is relocating from the L.A. area, the former exec chef of Bistro 45 (Pasadena) and worked under James Boyce and Craig Strong at Montage in Laguna Beach. He’s part of the team opening Tasting Room Del Mar (next to the Starbucks at 15^th Street and Camino Del Mar) with a talented wine connoisseur in Rusti Gilbert, formerly of Addison at Grand Del Mar, which is like the Coachella of sommeliers…

I love Carlsbad. But its food and drink scene has needed to wake up and smell the decade for a while. It’s got some standouts, like Land & Water Co. (one of the best sustainable seafood chefs in San Diego in Rob Ruiz). But the most exciting opening-to-be is Campfire—creator John Resnick was one of the main faces and brains that helped Consortium Holdings (Craft & Commerce, Ironside) develop into a top-notch food and drink company. He’s hired Bells and Whistles to design his new 6,000 square-foot space, which will include a Quonset hut, for that post-WWII barracks drinking vibe. Carlsbad will be better off for this one, slated for sometime mid-2016…

I was mixed on my review of The Hake on Prospect Street a couple years ago, but have since returned and had some seriously good dishes (their ahi taco with jicama tortilla is pretty fantastic). And not a week goes by if someone asks proudly if I’ve tried the place. Well, now they’re adding 2,000 square feet to their subterranean semi-ocean perch, which means they’ll have a new outdoor dining space and an ocean view. Trying to do business on Prospect without an ocean view is like trying to do business on Morena Boulevard without a stripper pole…

Pizzeria Mozza’s sad and not terribly surprising demise at The Headquarters was big news. Now its replacement is nearly ready for business (early March). Flour & Barley is a concept from our bedazzled brethren in Vegas that does brick oven pizzas, plus Italian apps and over 150 draft, bottle and canned beers….

Westgate Hotel is one of my favorite hotels in Downtown San Diego. Looks like a fossilized doily, in a good way. They just announced their second annual Spirit of Baja Dinner, which’ll take place on April 15—inviting chef Javier Plascencia (Bracero, and new James Beard nominee) to collaborate with Westgate’s talented chef, Fabrice Hardel on a meal. Mezcal reception, Baja wines. You can buy tickets here. …

Now that the craft beer movement is into its 30s, its expanding its horizons. No longer is it “just a lot of hops plus fermentation and a beard.” We’re seeing lighter beers, sour beers, and now, especially, citrus beers like Grapefruit Sculpin. Now one of my favorite breweries in San Diego, Green Flash, just announced its new lineup under new brewer Erik Jensen, and he’s got a Passionfruit Kicker (American Wheat Ale with passion fruit), a “Soul Style” (tangerine India pale ale). They’re also releasing “Cosmic Ristretto” this Friday, a Baltic Porter with espresso and Candico, a caramelized Belgian candy sugar. For more on the new lineup, click here…

The other release of note is from the ever-awesome Lost Abbey. They’ve partnered with North Carolina’s Wicked Weed Brewing and tomorrow (Feb. 24) will release the finished product—Ad Idem, a French oak-aged golden sour ale with peaches and brett. It’s a blend, between a brettanomyces blond ale and a sour blond ale, aged in neutral wine barrels with whole, local peaches…

Everyone likes a free meal. And Leap Year babies (those of you born on Feb. 29, feeling like you don’t exist every three out of four years) get a free one from the Hard Rock Café on Feb. 29….

I love pairing dinners, mostly because I like food and drink. But I also like poking fun of pairing dinners. And that’s what San Diego band Splavender will do on March 18 at Mike Hess Brewing. Instead of pairing the beers with food, the beers will be paired with original Splavender songs written for the beer. For example, the Honeysuckle & Sho’Nuff Beer, a rye imperial stout, will be paired with a deep, contemplative groovy synth song. Sounds absolutely ridiculous. I like ridiculous…

San Diego Magazine’s cocktail feature is coming out in the March issue. In there, I express extreme admiration for Grant Grill and mad-scientist cocktail guy Jeff Josenhans, who has ushered a slew of “firsts” into San Diego’s cocktail scene. However, more needs to be said about the Grill’s “chef de bar,” Cory Alberto. Well, now’s the chance to see his work. He just released a menu of cocktails inspired by his favorite musicians, including Howlin’ Wolf (Johnny Walker Red, cane sugar, chocolate, bitters and cigar foam), Ella Fitzgerald (Remy Martin 1738, Crème Yvette, rose water, tangerine, prosecco), Dick Dale (Mt. Gay Black Barrel US Grant Blend Rum, El Silencio mezcal, La Gitana sherry, tarragon orgeat, lime, pineapple, tiki bitters and a splash of absinthe), plus boozy odes to B.B. King, Ali Farka and Preservation Hall (the legendary venue in N’Awlins)…

Info Tapas

The Howlin’ Wolf cocktail, part of Grant Grill’s new menu dedicated to music legends.

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