If you’ve been sentient in San Diego for a bit, you probably know who Brian Malarkey and Christopher Puffer are—Animae, Herb & Wood, Top Chef, Food Network, funny hats, no socks. But what you may not know is that Chris grew up on the east coast, Brian grew up on the west coast (Oregon). And Herb + Sea is their concept that marries both. It’s like a dueling piano bar of seafood.
For their next evolution, they tapped Owens. He started cooking when he was 15, working for a deli-slash-butcher shop in his hometown of Byron Bay, Australia. “The owner of that shop taught me everything about food and butchery,” he says. “He smelled like cigarettes and that morning’s coffee… but he taught me more than any book ever could.”
He came to San Diego, worked for one the city’s best (Brad Wise, Fort Oak) and then got the offer from The ChrisBrian. He’s young, looks younger. He gets it. But the talent and the smarts come through. “It was intense coming into kitchens when I was 20 years old. I had to kind of bulldoze my way through that age gap.”
Under his menu, H&S will do some highfalutin food here, sure. It’s a place where some of the city’s top chefs try to push what’s possible. But they’re not stuck in the clouds, daintily salt-bae-ing saffron down on us lucky masses. As Aidan says, “I can give these guys all the tweezers in the world, but sometimes a fish sandwich is going to kick its ass.
Get the roasted bone marrow with oysters, which are also roasted with Pernod and gruyere and kale and lemon and breadcrumbs and serotonin. Raw oysters are grand, but the cooked version should never have been left in the 80s with David Hasselhoff (all due respect to The Hoff, dreamboat king of our hearts).
Scoop an oyster, scoop some of that meat butter, spread it on great, slightly charred toast. It’s like an open-faced surf-and-turf hoagie.
