San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour San Diego Magazine

This week, Troy and Jackie are joined by Doug Haster, master brewer at Mission Valley’s Puesto Cervecería. Hasker goes way back with beer in this town–he moved to San Diego in 1998 to head brewing at Gordon Biersch’s then-Mission Valley location and stayed until Biersch sold its operations to Puesto in 2019. Not ready to hang up his skates, he stuck with the Puesto folks, tweaked his brewing style from German to Mexican lagers, and carried on the building’s legacy of being home to some of San Diego’s finest suds. These days, Hasker is catching attention for the beer he brewed for the Padres, Puesto’s Clara. He tells us about this special beer and shares stories from his decades spent brewing beer in San Diego.

We’ve got a Happy Half Hour double-header today: chef Michael Vaughn, who is coming up on his first year at the helm of La Jolla’s iconic Marine Room, and also Baja-based superstar Javier Plascencia, whose under-a-200-year-old-oak tree restaurant Animalón just got a Michelin Star. Both chat philosophy, process, and their cooking histories, and as a special bonus, Plascencia drops the details on his super special festival for the 100th anniversary of the Caesar salad.

For podcasts like Happy Half Hour, events like the fair are basically our Christmas. Yeah, we love the rides, the activations, the camaraderie, the merriment. But to be totally honest, we’re here for the food. Dip us in corn batter and fry us. Dust some powdered sugar on our heads. Load us up with fatty, drippy, sloppy, sweet and salty goods. This episode, Troy and the crew hit up the San Diego County Fair, and they brought along Z90.3’s Rick Morton to yuk it up while they test the Fairtastic Food Competition finalists. We also had on Lori Sutherland, who owns fair favorite Tasti Chips, to weigh in. We came, we tasted, we judged, we crowned. Tune in to find out all the winners, as well as all the deets on this year's fair food.

Truffles are food gold, one of the world’s most famous ingredients. Musky, lovely, funky, delicious, expensive, and fickle as hell. Why do some of them taste like cardboard? Did you know you can grow very good ones in the U.S., but that it might take over a decade to yield your first “crop”?

On this episode, we pay a visit to San Diego Magazine’s 2024 “Chef of the Year” Brad Wise. He introduces us to his truffle guy, Vincent Gentile of Seminalia Truffles. Vince worked at Alinea with famed chef Grant Achatz until he and his partner launched their own truffle business.

We go into some of the myths and science of growing, sourcing, and coddling one of the world’s most rarefied ingredients. We also talk with Brad about his whole-animal butchering classes at Wise Ox, which sell-out a lot faster than expected in a post-pan food world where we’re all more interested in doing the entire food experience ourselves.

He got fired. He sold fruit out of a postal truck. He slept near the citrus. Then he and his family became the backbone of the restaurant culture in San Diego. The wild, never-give-up story of Bob Harrington, his brothers, and Specialty Produce.

This week’s Happy Half Hour takes place from one of the best perches in all of San Diego: Top of the Market. It’s a fully windowed and partially outdoor restaurant, separate and with a more fine dining or special occasion bent than its counterpart downstairs, the equally beloved and lauded Fish Market. To our front are sprawling views of Coronado and the bay. Directly to the right, the Midway, and to the left, hotels, docks, and the Coronado Bridge.

We sat down with the restaurant’s executive chef, Robin James, who is, in my opinion, the most San Diego San Diegan to ever do it. His first cooking job was on the line at the iconic Anthony’s Fish Grotto. After that, he got his cooking degree at the Art Institute and became the executive chef at The University Club and Bali Hai.

These days, he’s slinging creative seafood dishes at Top of the Market. But what makes him deeply local, despite his life resume and of course being born here, is that his parents met while working at Jack-in-the-box. Come on. He’s a living legend, and we get the story of his parents’ meet-cute in the episode.

In addition to his hometown bonafides, James is a serious cook with an Escoffier tattoo, who is consistently trying to take things to the next level. He was always a tinkerer, experimenting with ingredients, often ones that didn’t seem to make much sense together, to see what could happen. He did a lot of that during Covid, while temporarily laid off from work, itching to create, and now he’s stretching his wings more with his seafood menu.

One of his more surprising dishes on Top of the Market’s current list are seared sea scallops with Spanish chorizo, dehydrated mushrooms, and big white beans. Scallops, mushrooms, and beans isn’t a dish I knew I wanted, but now I can’t stop thinking about it.

James is also cooking an Alaskan halibut on the menu with many green, spring flavors, and served with a punchy tzatziki heavy on the cucumber; he also has a seared octopus served over hummus with pickled red onions and mandolined radishes. There are crudos; and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s a chocolate cake a la Elvis, with bananas, bacon and honey. James assured us there are plenty of classics on the menu, too, like the restaurant’s famed cioppino, a hearty fish stew its been serving for decades.

There’s good drinking, too, James assures us. The wine list is evidence of that. James and his team have been running thrice yearly wine dinners with top California producers—the next is in September with Grgich Hills. In the meantime, they also have one of San Diego’s best wine steals: a list of 30 bottles of wine for $30, every Tuesday.

We’re not talking two buck chuck or plonk; this is from the real wine list, made specially available for those extra fun people who want to clink glasses on a Tuesday.

We also talk food news. Baja came up big in the reveal of Michelin’s first guide to Mexico. The French tire company gave one star to Animalon (Javier Plascencia and Oscar Torres), Damiana (Esteban Lluis), and Conchas de Piedra (Drew Deckman and Hugo D’Acosta). Many other Baja California restaurants were recommended or named bib gourmands. Taste of Little Italy will be returning on June 18 and 19 with more than 40 restaurants participating. And OB’s Gianni Buomono Vintners is moving away from its long-held Newport Ave. spot. It’ll be opening soon near Sports Arena.