The Privateer Partners
Partners Jamey Stone, Hector Reyna, and Charlie Anderson (from left)
When co-owner Jamey Stone strolls into The Privateer, it takes him a long time to make his way across the room, what with all the hellos, high-fives, and tat-sleeved smacks on the back from the local crowd. As the publisher of Skateboarder Magazine and a South Oceanside resident, the guy knows practically everyone in the packed room. “He’s such a social butterfly,” quips his partner Charlie Anderson, the former publisher of TransWorld SURF. “But the funny thing is that I do the same thing.”
Chicken Wings
The Privateer, a coal-fired pizza and brew joint with a nautical-beach house design, is one of Oceanside’s new hot spots. While Stone and Anderson run the front of the house, executive chef Hector Reyna, the third in The Privateer trio, hangs in back, helming the kitchen and 800-degree coal-fired oven. This bustling place is Oceanside inside and out, as these three hometown guys grew up here and raised their children here. Now their kids work at The Privateer, as do their wives. “We are a family business from the ground up,” Stone says. “Our sous chef is Hector’s son, Stephen, who has a degree from the Culinary Institute of America in New York.”
When they opened The Privateer in October 2012, Stone and Anderson worked at rival media companies GrindMedia and TransWorld, but they’ve been best friends since second grade. Stone says, “Charlie and I have a soul connection—we’re both Scorpios, born three days apart.” Anderson counters, “Most of my early memories happened with Jamey. We used to do this amazing skateboarding run from our house up in Fire Mountain down to Buccaneer Beach, skating our favorite places from Palmquist Elementary and Lincoln Middle School, where we were students, down to the coin wash curb and our favorite 7-Eleven, which happens to be our location of The Privateer now.”
The Privateer Kitchen
Aaron Checkwood
While they were growing up, Reyna, the older brother of pro surfer Chuy Reyna, acted as a mentor to them. “We all looked up to Hector. He taught us about the ocean and was one of the guardians of the gate,” Stone explains. Reyna, a former photographer, ended up at California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and has a solid 20 years in the restaurant business.
Anderson points out that, during the endless skate sessions and epic surf days of their youth, they met most of the friends and customers who frequent the restaurant today.
So what was it like working at rival companies by day and slinging pizza together by night? “Ironically, my company just bought Charlie’s, so that’s not an issue anymore,” Stone says.
Anderson adds, “We are blessed with the relationships we have in both the surf and skate realms. For our monthly art wall installations, we rotate from skate-inspired artists to surf-inspired artists, featuring people we have both worked with, like Steve Sherman, Aaron Checkwood, Russ Pope, B.B. Batista, and Grant Brittain. Our jobs also gave us a great social media reach to a large audience.”
What they all can passionately agree on is that Oceanside was ready for some good food. “We knew the south side of town was ready to blow up. We conceived a plan for a coal fire restaurant with an industrial-meets-maritime-meets-Buccaneer Beach vibe and it was on,” Anderson describes.
Since its launch, The Privateer has been packed nightly with families, friends, and action sport demigods like moto madman Travis Pastrana, surfer Taylor Knox, and skater Brian “Slash” Hansen, enjoying IPAs and thin-crusted, crispy-on-the-bottom-with-great-chew-in-the-middle coal-fired pizza. Their farm-to-table appetizers also have a dedicated following, like the spicy pan-roasted cauliflower or tasty grilled Brussels sprouts in lemon vinaigrette. Nothing is frozen or in a can—rather, they favor high-end ingredients like Fiore de Latte cheese; homemade marina sauce spiked with pork rib nuggets; and fresh herbs, tomatoes, and chiles from the rooftop organic garden. Reyna adds, “We cook with love.”
“It’s super humbling to grow up in South O and be able to open a restaurant in that same neighborhood, where we have such amazing support from the community,” Anderson says. “And I get to work with my family and my best friend, which has only brought us all closer together. But the food is what brings everyone back.”
