From celebrity pickleball tournaments to intimate dinner parties with your favorite Food Network chefs, here are all of the can’t-miss events going on Sept 30–Oct 4
Play is underrated. Somewhere along the way, someone decided it was something we should outgrow. That you A good song comes on, and they dance. A game appears, and they’re in. Someone hands them a melting ice cream cone, and somehow it’s the best part of the day.
Adults tend to need a reason. Or maybe just the right setting.
That’s part of what makes the Del Mar Wine & Food Festival feel different. Yes, the week revolves around food and wine, with celebrated chefs, winemakers, and restaurants drawing crowds from across the region. But what lingers afterward is the conversations that stretch a little longer than expected, the strangers who become dinner companions, the live music that pulls people out of their seats, and the rare chance to spend a few hours simply enjoying yourself without much of an agenda.
The Grand Tasting is the festival’s centerpiece, bringing thousands of guests together over two days for hundreds of bites and pours. But some of the week’s most memorable experiences happen on a smaller scale. In the days leading up to the main event, intimate dinners, chef collaborations, and guided tastings create opportunities for guests to interact more closely with the people behind the food and wine and with each other.
Signature San Diego Opening Night Party at Monarch Ocean Pub
Start festival week the San Diego way: ocean views, Baja-inspired bites, and a drink in hand as the sun goes down. The Signature San Diego Opening Night Party at Monarch Ocean Pub sets the tone for the week ahead with a walk-around tasting experience celebrating the flavors that make this city impossible to replicate. It’s an evening of fresh coastal cuisine, bold Mexican flavors, Baja seafood, and plenty of local favorites—all served against one of Del Mar’s most iconic backdrops. Consider it your first official toast to the weekend ahead…
Celebrity Pickleball Tournament Presented by Justin Vineyards & Winery
Wine and competition make an unexpectedly perfect pair. You can join Drew Brees and celebrity players at Barnes Tennis Center for a pickleball tournament benefiting Feeding San Diego, where the sidelines are just as exciting as the court. Grab a paddle, cheer from the sidelines, or simply enjoy a glass of wine while the action unfolds. The day blends friendly competition with an all-inclusive tasting experience.
Since year one, Del Mar Wine & Food Festival has partnered with Feeding San Diego to raise $100,000 in support of the organization’s mission to fight hunger across the region. Every serve, sip, and bite helps give back to the community that makes this festival possible.
This is essentially a passport to Spain with no airport required. Set among the lush grounds of Rancho Valencia, Rioja Uncorked celebrates one of Spain’s most iconic wine regions with an evening of exceptional pours and thoughtfully paired bites. Guests will sip their way through Rioja wines while enjoying a menu featuring everything from Hiramasa crudo and uni toast to duck rillette, birria mini tacos, Cardiff Crack tri-tip sandwiches, and a sweet finale from Karen Krasne of Extraordinary Desserts (date night plans, solved).
Rancho Valencia | 5921 Valencia Cir, Rancho Santa Fe
Justin Wine Dinner with Chefs Kaitlyn Weber, Buddha Lo & Jackson Kalb
Justin Wine Dinner sounds simple: three chefs, one unforgettable table. But chefs Kaitlyn Weber (Estancia La Jolla), Buddha Lo (Top Chef), and Jackson Kalb (Top Chef) are taking you on a one-night-only culinary ride where three styles collide over a multi-course menu paired with exceptional pours from Justin Vineyards & Winery. Set in Estancia’s coastal estate, the evening unfolds course by course with pairings from Justin wines as each chef brings their own style to a menu focused on craft, connection, and a bit of friendly culinary overlap. It’s the kind of culinary conversation that only happens when very, very talented people cook together.
Estancia – Olive Lawn | 9700 N Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California
Because every great festival day deserves a nightcap! Del Mar Wine & Food keeps the party pouring at Guesthouse La Valle with innovative craft cocktails, premium spirits, and chef-crafted bites that turn smoky, citrusy, herbaceous, rich, and bittersweet flavors from the glass to the plate.
Guesthouse Hotel At La Valle | 5690 Cancha De Golf, Rancho Santa Fe
The week’s smaller gatherings may set the stage, but the Grand Tasting is where everything converges. Over two days at Surf Sports Park, thousands of guests spread out across the lawn to sample hundreds of bites and pours, watch chef demonstrations, and discover something unexpected along the way. It’s the kind of event best experienced without much of a plan, leaving plenty of room to wander from one tasting to the next.
Attendees can choose between General Admission and VIP experiences. Both bring you into the heart of the festival, but each offers its own way to play.
GA is a surprisingly modest name for an experience that includes this much. Starting at $185 for a single-day ticket, it gives you access to the full festival grounds, where San Diego’s top chefs, Food Network favorites, and culinary tastemakers serve up everything from Wagyu burgers and beef tallow fries to yellowtail tuna tostadas and unforgettable bites from some of the region’s most exciting restaurants.
And yet, the food is only the beginning.
Throughout the festival, you’ll find wine, cocktails, and tastings from brands like Aperol Spritz, Hendrick’s Gin, Tequila Ocho, Mezcal Vago, Rioja wines, and Temecula producers woven throughout the experience. Beyond the bites and pours, guests can explore chef demonstrations, cooking collaborations, art installations, lawn games, sponsor activations, and plenty of unexpected moments along the way.
If your festival philosophy is less “explore every corner” and more “skip the line and get straight to the good stuff,” VIP might be your lane.
Starting before the gates officially open, VIP guests get an early look at the festival with exclusive experiences like Whispering Angel Rosé, welcome cocktails from Tap Truck, chef demonstrations, fresh bluefin tuna breakdowns, hand-rolled pasta, and maybe even steak and eggs topped with caviar. Because if there’s ever a time to justify caviar before noon, this is probably it.
Inside the VIP Tent, the experience continues with specialty tastings you won’t find anywhere else, including Brandt Beef bone marrow luges paired with Dos Hombres Mezcal, curated Daou wine pairings, Napa Valley Vintners pours, and dishes from some of San Diego’s standout restaurants, including Fort Oak, Kingfisher, Marisi, Jeune et Jolie, Valle, Mister A’s, Matsu, Wormwood, and more.
Think of VIP as the festival’s more intimate side: a little more exclusive and a little more relaxed. VIP tickets start at $425 and include pre-festival experiences, a dedicated VIP area, and a curated selection of specialty food and beverage offerings.
Wander the lawn with a tasting glass in hand or settle into the VIP experience. There’s no wrong way to do the Del Mar Wine & Food Festival. The best part of any playground is choosing how you want to play.
Isabella Dallas is a freelance writer for San Diego Magazine and the Arts and Culture Editor at The Daily Aztec in her final year at San Diego State University. She previously worked as an editorial intern for SDM, but when she’s not writing, you can find her trying the best coffee spots in SD, devouring the latest rom-coms, and indulging in anything and everything pop culture.
Tickets to the Del Mar Wine & Food Festival get you in the door. The real fun is figuring out who you’ll run into once you’re there. This year’s weeklong schedule of exclusive events, running September 30–October 4, includes dinners, tastings, and loosely-supervised chaos where celebrity chefs and local icons finally let their hair down.
The festival has a track record of the unexpected: Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul once toasted their mezcal brand Dos Hombres with an intimate dinner at the Lodge at Torrey Pines (and then, evidently unsatisfied, kept drinking it on the cliffs above Blacks Beach with a rotating cast of San Diego and Food Network chefs. Alex Morgan showed up for a dinner under the lights honoring the country’s most badass women chefs). Drew Brees ran a celebrity pickleball tournament where the guy from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia got absolutely humbled by locals.
If you scored a ticket to last year’s Grand Tasting, you might’ve caught Guy Fieri doing exactly what Guy Fieri does: strolling the grass, signing t-shirts and foreheads, and hanging off the DJ surf van like it was built for him. Meanwhile, local chef Ethan Yang of Glass Box walked off with the Chef Competition surfboard.
So whether your plan for 2026 is to corner legendary San Diego chefs like Victor Jimenez of Cowboy Star and Jon Sloan of Juniper & Ivy in person, or just aim for a spontaneous golf cart ride with a Food Network star—here’s your cheat sheet for where to run into a celebrity chef, TV personality, award-winning winemaker, or pro athlete at this year’s Del Mar Wine & Food Festival.
Courtesy of Del Mar Wine & Food Festival
Troy Johnson, Karen Krasne
Signature San Diego Opening Night Party
September 30 | 6 – 9 p.m. | Monarch Ocean Pub
Consider this your soft landing into festival week—the walk-around tasting that eases you in before things get chaotic later on. Monarch Ocean Pub hands its patio over to the flavors that define San Diego eating: Baja seafood done right, coastal bites, Mexican flavors with some heat behind them, all the staples locals will fight you over.
The celebrity sightings here lean more “bump into” than “spot from across the room.” Troy Johnson—Food Network judge, San Diego Magazine chief content officer and co-owner, Emmy-winning host, a man who has eaten his way across the entire country professionally—is the type to materialize at whichever station has the longest line, because he already knows it’s worth the wait. Ask him what he’s had so far. He’ll have opinions.
Then there’s celebrity pastry chef Karen Krasne, owner and executive pastry chef of Extraordinary Desserts, James Beard House alum, and a woman Forbes once ranked among the top 10 pastry chefs in the country—which tracks, because you might find her holding court next to a tray of her roasted pecan shortbread dipped in white chocolate, explaining exactly why this is the flavor combination. You will listen to every word, too, because you’ll want to try that cookie.
This is an opening night party where the person next to you in line might just be the one who baked the thing you’re about to eat.
Courtesy of Del Mar Wine & Food Festival
Bryn McArthur, Mawa McQueen
Chateau Montelena’s 50th Anniversary Celebration
October 1 | 6 – 9 p.m. | Fairmont Grand Del Mar
Fifty years ago, a Napa Chardonnay beat France at its own game and rewrote what the world thought it knew about wine. This dinner is that legacy, poured by the family who built it, course by course.
Under the arches at Fairmont Grand Del Mar, Ernie Hahn and the Hahn family, who partnered with the Barretts to revive Chateau Montelena into the Napa powerhouse it is today, host an evening built entirely around the winery’s most iconic pours. Every course gets its own pairing straight from the Montelena portfolio, so you’re not just hearing about the Judgment of Paris, you’re tasting the wine that started it.
Chef Mawa McQueen, a former James Beard Best of the West winner out of Aspen, brings globally inspired cuisine and serious technique to the table. Alongside her, Fairmont Grand Del Mar’s executive chef Bryn McArthur leans into farm-to-table sensibility shaped by a career of global kitchens. Together they’re building a menu meant to hold its own against wine that already changed history once.
This is the rare dinner where the wine isn’t just accompanying the meal, it’s the reason the meal exists. Fifty years after Paris, the rematch is happening right here in Del Mar.
Isabella Dallas is a freelance writer for San Diego Magazine and the Arts and Culture Editor at The Daily Aztec in her final year at San Diego State University. She previously worked as an editorial intern for SDM, but when she’s not writing, you can find her trying the best coffee spots in SD, devouring the latest rom-coms, and indulging in anything and everything pop culture.
After 15 years married, my husband and I tend to agree on most things. But there’s one argument we both refuse to bend on—I prefer okonomiyaki Osaka-style, and he’s a die-hard Hiroshima-style devotee. (To be fair, we both adore both styles, but at this point, it’s just fun to have a low-stakes disagreement.)
Okonomiyaki is one of Japan’s greatest comfort foods, a savory pancake that’s about the size of a DVD, if you aren’t too young to know what that is. It’s not terribly hard to make—it’s flour, eggs, dashi stock or water, and a whole heap of shredded cabbage, plus optional fillings like green onions, pork belly, or bonito flakes, all cooked fresh on a flat top griddle. Drizzle some kewpie mayo and okonomiyaki sauce on top, and you’re hot to go.
However, it’s not easy to make well, and as you now know, people have capital-O Opinions about Osaka-versus-Hiroshima. Hiroshima-style layers the ingredients one by one rather than mixing them together, adding a layer of soba or udon noodles and topping it all off with a fried egg. For Osaka-style, all the ingredients are mixed together and then cooked on the griddle, so every bite includes every ingredient in a hodgepodge of deliciousness. (One Osaka variation called modan-yaki does include soba noodles mixed in the batter, but they’re not traditionally used in that regional version.)
Despite a childhood spent in Osaka, Japan, Kumi Alexander specializes in making Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. “Okonomiyaki has been part of my life for as long as I can remember,” she explains. “My parents ran their own business when I was growing up, so Saturdays were often busy, and okonomiyaki was one of my mother’s go-to lunches because it was simple and easy to make.”
Alexander came to San Diego seven years ago with a desire to bring a part of her culture with her—not just a product, but a feeling. “When I thought about what could do that, the answer was almost obvious: okonomiyaki,” she says.
She originally launched Surf’n Slaw as a mobile pop-up food stand in August 2025, offering what Alexander calls Japanese-meets-California okonomiyaki. “Our full Surf’n Slaw includes cabbage, noodles, umami dough, beef, shrimp, and vegetables,” she explains. The menu also has a “Green Wave Slaw,” an Osaka-style version that can be made vegan and gluten-free, as well as matcha drinks.
Currently, Surf’n Slaw pops up at farmers markets in North Park, Scripps Ranch, Hillcrest, La Jolla, and La Mesa, as well as other local markets and community events. Eventually, she may expand to a permanent location, but that’s a future goal. And while Alexander hopes that one day okonomiyaki will be as well-known to American audiences as ramen or sushi, for now, she’s just happy to share a bit of home with San Diego.
Izola Bakery announced big plans for a second location and bakery HQ (checks notes) over three years ago and it’s kind of been crickets since then. But there may be movement in the expansion plan—the East Village bakery recently put out a hiring call for “the people we need to help us build what’s next.” Here’s hoping things get cooking (or baking, as the case may be) soon.
As a California-born, East Coast-raised foodie, I can confidently say the East Coast has the deli game on lock. So whenever anyone announces they’re bringing an East Coast-style sandwich to the West Coast, I remain cautiously optimistic until proven otherwise. (Big Jim’s in Pacific Beach is a phenomenal example of a transplant done exceptionally well.) Los Angeles-based Ggiata Delicatessen recently announced plans to open a location in Encinitas, promising authentic Italian staples like meatball parmesan subs, cheesesteaks, and Italian cold cuts. Don’t let me down, guys!
Unfortunately, it’s not all openings and expansions. Nola on 5th in Hillcrest permanently ceased operations without warning or explanation. We can probably pick from one (or more) squares on Restaurant Closure Bingo for the reason (increased costs for ingredients, labor, equipment, etc.), but for the jambalaya enthusiast, it doesn’t really matter why. It’s simply adieu to a slice of The Big Easy in San Diego.
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Beth Demmon is an award-winning writer and podcaster whose work regularly appears in national outlets and San Diego Magazine. Her first book, The Beer Lover's Guide to Cider, is now available. Find out more on bethdemmon.com.
Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art
Now through Jan. 10, 2027
Sift through over 200 photographs, sketches, letters, and costumes from “The King of Vogue,” who photographed World War II, modernized royal portraits, and created the aesthetic for 1920s socialites in London.
Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea
Natural History Museum
Now through Feb. 28, 2027
Walk through an 18-foot whale ribcage (and a couple dozen other marine-creature sculptures) made entirely of plastic bottles, flip-flops, lighters, rope, and other plastic detritus found on the beach in the Nat’s 3,000-square-foot second-floor gallery.
Forging a Legacy: 15 Years of Landmark Acquisitions
San Diego Museum of Art
Now through May 31, 2027
Part of SDMA’s centennial, “Forging a Legacy,” highlights artists from the past (Picasso, Monet) and modern day (Hugo Crosthwaite) who contributed to the museum’s collection.
ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year
Fleet Science Center
Now through 2027
See the stars (without the smog) at their best from the winners of the world’s largest astrophotography competition—all in the Fleet Science Center’s new basement gallery, specifically dimmed to let the cosmos shine.
Begin Again
The Old Globe
Sept. 6–Oct. 11
From the 2013 silver screen to this year’s The Old Globe stage, you can “Begin Again” (again) with a world-premiere musical adaptation featuring new songs—courtesy of Train—and a story overflowing with hope.
Dear Evan Hansen
Cygnet Theatre
Sept. 9–Oct. 4
“On the outside, always looking in…” marks the emotional crux of the Tony-, Grammy-, and Emmy-award winning musical coming to the Cygnet Theatre.
Kumeyaay Comics by the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project
Museum of Us
Opening Sept. 12
Learn the history of the Kumeyaay Nation from the perspective of the members themselves in an immersive exhibit inspired by graphic novels “Our Past, Present, and Future,” and “Beyond Gaming.”
Good Night, Oscar
North Coast Repertory Theatre
Sept. 16–Oct. 11
During Oscar Levant’s appearances on “The Jack Paar Show,” he explained his reality with mental illness—the institutionalizations, electroshock therapies, nothing was too taboo for him. “Good Night, Oscar” takes us backstage in the raw moments before his 1958 television appearance.
Visiones Nocturnas: Queer Nightlife in Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Sept. 19–Jan. 17, 2027
A disco ball isn’t just a disco ball. It’s a symbol of where queer communities can finally exhale and be their fullest selves. “Visiones Nocturnas” uses paintings, sculptures, textiles, performances, photos, and videos from Latin American artists to explore what’s at stake when nightclub lights shut off.
Silent Movie Mondays
Balboa Theatre
Sept. 21, Oct. 26, Dec. 7
Guest organists from across the country will come to the Balboa Theatre to accompany a new silent film for each performance. This year closes out with The Headless Horseman (1922), Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920), and a holiday triple feature of Laurel and Hardy films.
Oh, Mary!
Civic Theatre
Sept. 29–Oct. 4
“What if Abe’s assassination wasn’t such a bad thing for Mary Todd Lincoln?” was the question that inspired Cole Escola’s play “Oh, Mary!” In the production, Mary Todd desperately tries to return to the cabaret stage, but her husband (President Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War) keeps getting in the way.
Photo Credit: Anja Koehler
October
Payare Leads Strauss’ A Hero’s Life
Jacobs Music Center
Oct. 3–4
Conductor Rafael Payare opens the San Diego Symphony’s 2026-2027 season with a three-part concert featuring composers Sofia Gubaidulina, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Richard Strauss.
Emily–No Prisoner Be
Baker-Baum Concert Hall
Oct. 8
Two dozen of Emily Dickinson’s poems are turned into songs—composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts and performed by Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato—for a one-night-only exploration of love, loss, loneliness, and mortality.
Ripcord
The Roustabouts Theatre Co.
Oct. 8–Nov. 1
Roommate beef has no age limit. The latest play from Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire turns that experience into a comedy through retirement home roommates Marilyn and Abby and the bet between them to see who will break first and move out.
Des Canyons aux Étoiles
La Casa del Zorro
Oct. 12
Composer Olivier Messiaen has chromesthia, so for him, sound evokes a visual connotation. His work “Des Canyons aux Étoiles” brings desert rock and the night sky to mind. See what he means from La Casa del Zorro in the Anza-Borrego Desert, in this performance immersed within nature.
San Diego International Film Festival
Locations Vary
Oct. 13–18
San Diego International Film Festival salutes the silver screen for a 25th time, now with a sixth day adding extra time for parties, screenings, and movie-star tributes.
Considered one of the masterpieces from opera great Giuseppe Verdi, San Diego Opera’s “Rigoletto” sees what happens when the prurient Duke of Mantua and his sharp-tongued court jester become entangled in a fatal curse.
Grim
La Jolla Playhouse
Oct. 27–Nov. 29
When the Grim Reaper’s job becomes too…grim…and he retires after 300,000 years, his daughter picks up the family business. But when she falls for a human and finds beauty in the souls she’s meant to reap, she questions her purpose.
Photo Credit: Ron Kerner
November
Skate Craft
Mingei International Museum
Nov. 21–May 9, 2027
San Diego is nothing without skate culture. Mingei’s “Skate Craft” portrays skateboarding as “living folk art” via its DIY roots (skateboards built in garages) and shows how that ethos shapes the future.
Emma Veidt is an editor at San Diego Magazine. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Missouri School of Journalism. She loves running, hiking, and rock climbing, but really, she mostly loves encounters with the street cats around North Park.
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
Implementing a farm-to-table model hardly deserves acknowledgement these days. It’s not a stretch. It’s not innovative. “It’s the bare f**king minimum,” says Herb & Sea‘s executive chef Aidan Owens.
When I arrive at the Encinitas restaurant, I’m ready to talk sustainability, farm-to-table stuff, with Owens. “Did you see the chin on that?” he says of the extra big jiggly chin on the sheephead that just arrived with the day’s fresh catch. I did. It was Jay Leno adjacent.
I learn quickly that he somehow oozes both charm and stone-cold honesty. Maybe he could construct a new dish with chin goo, like he did when he had a bunch of tuna scraps and voila’d it into a smooth and crowd-pleasing ‘nduja. “I want to know what’s in there,” he says.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
The instinct to look closer, to dig into what others might discard, says a lot about the chef’s approach. I guide him back to our topic, but he has something else on his mind. “We’re overcomplicating food—what happened to just cooking good food and having fun with it?”
Owens grew up on a farm in Byron Bay, Australia, where sustainability wasn’t a concept you chat about so much as a way of life. Think dirt roads, backyard chickens, pulling vegetables straight from the ground, and a mother who believed that if you couldn’t pronounce the ingredients on a package, you shouldn’t eat what was inside.
Food wasn’t precious or performative. Making it was what you did because you were hungry and that’s still what inspires Owens today. “I like to cook good food because I like to eat good food,” he says.
His approach to sustainability at Herb & Sea began so naturally that it felt just like instinct. “I was just like, ‘Let’s order food from the people who live and work here,’” he says.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
And why wouldn’t he when lives in San Diego? Cities all over the world vie for our goods. Our tuna is sent overseas. Our spiny lobsters hit dinner plates in China and Japan. Not to mention California’s producing a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts.
“Why would we outsource when it’s all here?” Owens asks.
Sustainability, in this context, is about cooking what exists in abundance, nearby, right now. “I love the local fish here. It’s f**king delicious and San Diego citrus, I mean, it is so f**ing good,” he says.
Instead of importing ingredients, Owens also looks for nearby alternatives. “You can find really cool things in the local waters,” he says, pointing out that stingray cheeks taste similar to scallops.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
Whatever he finds in that sheephead chin might just be the next substitute for marrow. But to make this work, it means getting diners amped up about the slightly unfamiliar.
Tasting menus, where diners are completely in his hands, become an opportunity to gently push boundaries. “I’ll serve mackerel, because people think they hate it,” Owens says, noting that the abundant local fish can have some fishiness. “But when it’s fresh, it’s arguably one of the best fish in the ocean.”
He also tweaks the language on the menu so people might feel more compelled to give dishes a try without preconceived notions. He might use “lengua” instead of “tongue.” “Whelk” instead of “snail.” When he puts “stingray throat” on the menu, he disarmingly calls it “skate.”
To reduce waste, scraps aren’t always discarded but rather turned into something new. Sometimes they’re smoked, cured or fermented. Apples going bad turn into apple ponzu. Lemons turn to marmalade, which stretches their usefulness far beyond peak season. “And it’s super tasty on our pizza,” he says.
What makes the food even richer, is the relationships he’s built with farmers. Though it didn’t always feel natural, Owens sought personal connection first. He recalls approaching a fisherman at the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market. “I was awkward,” he says. “I went up to him and said, ‘I like your fish.’”
Owen’s is now so close to his suppliers—like fishermen Ryan Sebo and Joe Daly—that he gets texted pictures of fresh catches right as they flop on the boat. The messages always ask if he wants first dibs. “I say yes to a lot of fish,” Owens says, noting that Herb & Sea can go through 2,000 pounds of seafood a week.
Courtesy of Herb & Sea
The next evolution of sustainability, in his view, will be chefs working directly with producers such as his alliance with Sebo, cutting out middlemen and purveyors where possible. “It will put more money in the pockets of the people doing the work,” he says.
It will mean that chefs can’t just know their local farmers and producers, but they’ll choose to work with the ones who have the best practices. Dining and sustainability will become much less about the final plate. “It will be more about the impact that plate has on the Earth,” he says.
Ultimately, he believes sustainability doesn’t need to be loud. It doesn’t need hashtags. It just needs to be honest.
“We aren’t saving lives. We’re feeding people good food,” he says.
And yet, in feeding people well—simply, thoughtfully, responsibly—something meaningful happens. Guests leave satisfied. Ingredients are respected. Local ecosystems are supported and food returns to what it has always been at its core: nourishment, pleasure, and a quiet reflection of the place it comes from.
Tokyo unquestionably holds the title as one of the best, if not the best, food cities of the world. But despite the plethora of Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurants and hole-in-the-wall ramen joints, you’d be remiss in walking past glowing signs beckoning you to enter one of the 56,000-plus konbini across the country.
Konbini cafes like Lawson’s, FamilyMart, and 7-Eleven may look like run-of-the-mill convenience stores, but convenience store culture is a completely different animal there. Absent are the sad, floppy hot dogs sizzling sweatily on a rotating wheel of misery. Instead, konbini are stocked with a bevy of hot and cold drinks in every imaginable flavor, meals like tamago sandos (Japanese egg salad sandwiches) and prepacked bento boxes, snacks like onigiri (handheld triangles of rice and seaweed, often filled with fish or pickled plum), and even limited-edition merchandise (not unlike Wawa’s line of merch).
Soon, Hillcrest will get a taste of konbibi culture. Hako Hako opens in front of Uptown Inn by Vantaggio, next to Ramen Ryoma, in early 2027.
Kenji Blouin-Ito, a half-Japanese, half-French San Diego native grew up eating Japanese food at home and during trips across the Pacific. “I remember looking forward to eating bentos on the train,” he says, grabbing quick items to munch on without sacrificing quality or succumbing to cost. When in France, he saw a rise of appreciation for casual Japanese cuisine, “long before it happened here.”
Courtesy of Hako Hako | Photo Credit: @josh_walker.26_genteel
So he decided to bring it here. After AB 626 passed in 2018 to allow different jurisdictions to permit Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations (MEHKOs), Blouin-Ito launched Foodnome, the first legal marketplace for homemade food in the US. Eventually, the national nonprofit The Cook Alliance took over the project, leaving him open to the next new idea but with the experience of running a food-based business.
“That experience changed how I think about food, not just what makes it good but what makes it work,” he explains. Bento boxes felt affordable in a time of inflation, convenient in a bustling world, and versatile to a variety of palates. When he got the chance to open a konbini himself, he went for it.
His family runs Uptown Inn, a mix of apartments and hotel rooms that’s seen increased food traffic over the past few years. “We had a small space in front of the building that wasn’t being used, and it just made sense,” he says. Hako means “box” in Japanese, a reference to both bentos and small space from where he’ll sling freshly made bentos, coffee, drinks, pastries, snacks, and a small retail selection.
Hako Hako will initially open for morning and afternoon hours, but you don’t have to wait until next year to get a taste of Japanese culture. Blouin-Ito’s concept is popping up at various coffee shops around San Diego, with a few coming up: Easy Does It on September 19 and Cafe Moto on October 17. Until then, practice the art of gaman: patience with grace.
Hako Hakoopens at 819 University Avenue in Hillcrest in early 2027.
Sushi Tadokoro held on to its Michelin star for three years—no mean feat for anyone. But now, the Old Town restaurant is changing things up, eliminating lunch and à la carte service at the end of September before transforming into an omakase-only experience in October. The dining room will close from October 1 through October 22 to make the change, but promises it will be “more intimate. More personal. More focused on each guest and every piece we serve.” Sounds worth the wait.
Bock brought new life to South Park when the German-inspired beer bar opened after a long construction process by owner Brian Jensen (Vino Carta, Bottlecraft). Now, Bock is getting its own shot in the arm with a new in-house kitchen from the people behind Majorette, Love Letters Pizza, and Scrimshaw Coffee. Kurz, or “quick” in German, is already open, serving European-inspired bites like the requisite currywurst, Bavarian pretzel, and schnitzel, along with some newcomers like a pierogi and famous “Majorette burger.” (I can confirm it’s a damn good burger.) Reminder: Bock and Kurz are 21+, so leave the kinders at home.
The popular Japanese dessert chain Warabimochi Kamakura already has 70-plus locations in Japan, Australia, China, Thailand, and the U.K. (to name a few), but is finally opening a location in Convoy District at 8322 Clairemont Blvd. After a successful pop-up test run at Asa Bakery, Warabimochi Kamakura will bring its signature warabimochi (a traditional simple, jelly-like dessert), plus tea like matcha and hojicha, as well as soft serve as soon as October, but possibly November. (Although warabimochi is sometimes considered a summer treat, I’m pretty sure I can make an exception for autumn.)
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Beth Demmon is an award-winning writer and podcaster whose work regularly appears in national outlets and San Diego Magazine. Her first book, The Beer Lover's Guide to Cider, is now available. Find out more on bethdemmon.com.
Two San Diego Wine Pros Are Betting Big on Tinned Fish
With Sosal Line, Heidi Greenwood and Juerie Masters are importing traceable seafood from small producers and building a global pantry business along the way
Courtesy of Sosal Line | Photo Credit: Madison Daube
No matter your job, it’s helpful to find some sort of joy in it to avoid going completely insane. Some people savor the variety of personalities when dealing with customers. Others find comfort in the predictability of closing a bar after last call, counting tips and wiping counters. Perhaps achieving Inbox Zero really gets your blood pumping, or shipping a new product design sparks joy.
For Heidi Greenwood and Juerie Masters, work doesn’t get better than logistics and operations.
“[We] both love all the unsexy parts of supply chain and backend management,” laughs Greenwood. Tracking outbound orders? Ensuring compliance? Managing inbound freight? Stop me if this is getting too hot for you!
Not enough people think about the unsexy reality of running a business before launch, but effectively and consistently keeping an eye on operations separates successful companies from out-of-business ones. Both Masters and Greenwood already own their own businesses—Greenwood is behind the wine zine Campestre Mag and runs the online wine shop Esquina, and Masters co-owns Clos Wine Shop and Fintastic Provisions in University Heights with her husband Paul. Apparently, these gigs weren’t enough to satisfy their collective yearning for spreadsheets and inventory maintenance.
So, they decided to start another business together—Sosal Line, a San Diego-based import and distribution company specializing in global pantry items. The pair launched Sosal Line at the beginning of 2025 and currently only sell three brands of tinned fish, but Greenwood says they plan to expand their offerings as they discover other small or family-run businesses that share their values.
“We want to work with brands and with products that really have a sense of place and actually tell a story—not just the product, but the people behind it too,” she says.
Masters and Greenwood are both Korean-American and named this burgeoning business after Haenyeo, the legendary free-diving women of Jeju Island in South Korea. Traditional Haenyeo equipment and garb include oribal (swim fins), yeoncheol (lead belts to help them sink), and the company’s namesake sosal, a hand-held fishing spear (sometimes called jaksal).
The average person, if sitting completely still, can stay underwater for up to a minute and a half at most. Haenyeo can hold their breath for up to three minutes while actively foraging, harvesting, and swimming. Scientists say these diving women spend more time underwater than any other group of humans on earth. Not badass enough for you? The average age of Haenyeo is around 70.
Courtesy of Sosal Line | Photo Credit: Luke Schmuecker
“Fishing is a strong heritage for Koreans, and it’s the same here in San Diego with the Portuguese settlers,” Greenwood explains. (We aren’t the tuna capital of the US for no reason.)
Sosal Line carries 100 percent traceable, wild caught fish from Galicia in Northern Spain and the Pacific Northwest, all family-owned companies who don’t compromise on sustainable practices. Tinned fish has never been more popular—or more debated—but there’s more to it than cute labels designed for maximum Instagram reach. “I want to know who I’m purchasing from,” says Greenwood. One of their suppliers, Craft Fish Co., which is based in San Diego but fishes in the PNW, is run by JJ and Jessica Gerritsen. JJ catches, Jessica packages, and it’s a business relationship on a first-name basis. “You can’t find that when you’re working with some nameless brand.”
San Diegans can find Sosal Line products at local retailers like Clos/Fintastic (obviously), allmine in Oceanside, Always Hungry Grocery & Goods in Carlsbad, J. Brix Wines in San Marcos, Collins & Coupe/Tablespoon in North Park, and Green Acre in La Jolla. They’re also available in select retailers in Northern California, Oregon, Arizona, and strangely enough, South Carolina. Expanding its client base is, of course, a goal. But not at the expense of quality or joy of discovery.
“I would love to see people try food from different cultures and be excited about it,” says Greenwood. “Maybe make them want to travel to experience different areas of the world.”
Beth Demmon is an award-winning writer and podcaster whose work regularly appears in national outlets and San Diego Magazine. Her first book, The Beer Lover's Guide to Cider, is now available. Find out more on bethdemmon.com.
SeaWorld dazzles with a drone show, big-name entertainers, new animal adventures and more
By Partner Content
Nights are heating up at SeaWorld San Diego. The quintessential summertime staple on Mission Bay is transforming into a destination for unforgettable day-to-night adventures, bringing back some of its most popular Summer Nights programming and introducing exciting new experiences sure to delight both kids and adults alike.
The 2026 Summer Day to Night at SeaWorld San Diego is the park’s most ambitious season yet. SeaWorld has planned a highly anticipated entertainment lineup that features nine weeks of throwback concerts featuring R&B and hip‑hop favorites from the ‘90s and early 2000s, including Jordin Sparks, Too $hort and Warren G, Ashanti, and an array of boy band heartthrobs performing together as part of the Pop 2000 Tour.
New this season is perhaps the park’s most visible update: a nightly drone show, Ocean of Dreams, which illuminates the sky with hundreds of synchronized sparklers. Drones form sea otters, sharks, dolphins, and a majestic orca that tell a breathtaking 12-minute story of marine life and underwater ecosystems. The show culminates with a spectacular electric neon finale celebrating hope, wonder, and ocean stewardship.
Nighttime visitors are also in store for animal adventures that fuse education with high-energy fun and the dreamy ambiance of nighttime. The park has launched two all-new animal presentations: Shamu’s Celebration:Light Up the Night and Dolphins: Touch the Sky. Shamu’s Celebration:Light Up the Night features vibrant lighting, music, and dynamic choreography that celebrates the power and beauty of killer whales. Dolphins: Touch the Sky showcases playful bottlenose dolphins and the special connection between humans and the natural world. And back by popular demand is fan-favorite Sea Lions Tonite. See the charming pinnipeds splash, play, and parody pop culture in this refreshed crowd-pleaser.
More must-sees: a newly reimagined Shark Encounter, one of the country’s more immersive exhibits highlighting 11 different species up close, SeaWorld’s beloved BMX Blast! stunt show, and high-seas escapade, Pirates Ahoy! The Battle for Mermaid Cove. And don’t miss the park’s all-new Deep Sea Disco, which encourages guests to dance the night away under the glow of the SkyTower, and vibrant closing time laser light display Laser Reef Summer Spectacular.
Amp up the nighttime vibe with local craft beers, curated cocktails, and nostalgic theme park treats with $1 beer all summer long. SeaWorld is the place for day to night summer fun. When the sun goes down, SeaWorld lights up, and inspires guests of all ages to embrace their inner whimsy and see why generations of San Diegans head to SeaWorld to make memories they’ll never forget.
