San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

San Diego Magazine
  • 4.8 (170)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

The weekly guide to San Diego's food + drink scene, hosted by award-winning food writer and Food Network host Troy Johnson and San Diego Magazine's culture brain, Jackie Bryant. Field notes and perspectives on restaurants, bars, and chefs—including dishes and drinks you gotta try, restaurant openings and closings, events worth your time, and laugh-cry interviews with chefs, restaurant owners, farmers, brewers, and makers who make San Diego's food + drink scene hum.

  1. 5d ago

    The Cookbook They Wish They'd Had

    If you think a cookbook about pregnancy sounds like a collection of sad smoothies and recipes involving seven different kinds of seeds, Eric Wolfinger and Torie Borrelli Hall have some news for you. Their new book, Eating for Life: A Holistic Cookbook for Pregnancy and a Thriving Family, has carbonara, lasagna, steak, chocolate mousse, and plenty of other delicious food to keep you both satisfied and nourished.  This week on Happy Half Hour, Eric—a James Beard Award-winning food photographer and San Diego native—and Torie, a local holistic nutritionist, join host Troy Johnson to talk about the book, how it came together, and why feeding a family well doesn't have to mean making food boring. The partnership started years ago, when Torie suggested Eric change what he was eating for breakfast after noticing his blood sugar was all over the place. He says the tweak didn't exactly "change his life," but it did change his energy and temperament enough that, as he puts it, everyone in his orbit thanked her. From there, the two longtime collaborators started building a cookbook around the nutrients Torie wanted people to get from real food: protein, egg yolks, fish, shellfish, organ meats, collagen, and plenty of other ingredients that don't always make it into modern family cooking. After years of recipe development, photography, testing, and one very optimistic Kickstarter, they landed on 120 recipes, each photographed and tested by home cooks. And while the book is designed with pregnancy and postpartum nutrition in mind, the philosophy is considerably broader: cook food that tastes good, get enough protein and nutrients, and make meals that work for actual families with actual schedules. The conversation gets into everything from getting kids to try unfamiliar foods (apparently eight to 15 exposures can make a difference) to the role dads can play in cooking during pregnancy, plus Troy's ongoing battle with his children over the existence of dino nuggets. In other words, Eating for Life is less about eating "perfectly" and more about making good food a part of everyday life. This summary was provided to you by AI. To hear from the humans, listen to Happy Half Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

  2. Sep 3

    Brunch, Benedicts, and a Little Tequila

    Brunch is a meal that exists because we decided breakfast needed a later start time and a liquor license. This week on Happy Half Hour, hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant are in Oceanside at Toasted Gastrobrunch with chef Alfie Szeprethy and Preston Caffrey of Bebemos Tequila. They talk about the strange and winding history of brunch, from its British origins to its inevitable American evolution into a social event involving eggs, enormous plates of food, and drinking before noon. On the menu: lobster toast with Maine lobster, avocado, bacon, corn, and truffle; pumpkin pancakes; chilaquiles; a smoked turkey Monte Cristo French toast; and a short rib Benedict that ultimately takes the crown. The Benedict, Alfie argues, is basically the perfect food architecture: a vehicle, a meat, an egg, and a sauce. Add some crispy potatoes and a tequila cocktail, and you've pretty much solved brunch. This summary was provided to you by AI. To hear from the humans, listen to Happy Half Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

  3. Aug 13

    The Family Behind Some of San Diego's Best Sushi

    If you've been to a big San Diego food event and there's a whole tuna getting broken down in front of a crowd, there's a good chance Jeff Roberto is somewhere nearby. Roberto has been making sushi in San Diego for 38 years, back when there were only seven sushi restaurants in the county. Now, through Sushi on a Roll, he and his nephew Austin have become one of the city's go-to teams for high-end traditional sushi catering—and tuna breakdowns big enough to stop a party in its tracks. On this week's Happy Half Hour, Jeff and Austin join Troy and Jackie to talk about the evolution of sushi in San Diego, from the arrival of the California roll and the rise of oversized American sushi to the city's growing appreciation for traditional cuts and whole-fish preparation. They also bring along some seriously unusual bites from their winning Omakase Open entry, including tuna spinal-cord "bone marrow" topped with smoked yuzu ponzu, rare kama toro, and an old-school pressed sushi that traces back to one of sushi's earliest forms. The conversation is part sushi history lesson, part tuna master class, and part family handoff. Roberto talks about cutting hundreds of pounds of tuna for massive events, while Austin explains how learning alongside his uncle has shaped his approach to traditional sushi, and why the competition dish was designed around Roberto's strengths.  This summary was provided to you by AI. To hear from the humans, listen to Happy Half Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

  4. Aug 6

    Inside Glass Box's Award-Winning Omakase

    Glass Box isn't your typical sushi restaurant. Tucked inside the Sky Deck in Del Mar, chef and owner Ethan Yang serves omakase from inside a literal glass box—a transparent kitchen built around the idea that what you see is what you get.  It's a fitting philosophy for a third-generation restaurateur whose food is rooted as much in family as technique. On this week's Happy Half Hour, Yang joins host Troy Johnson to talk about growing up in his family's Rancho Bernardo restaurants, learning to make dumplings and sushi rice alongside his dad and grandmother, and why one bowl of Taiwanese beef noodle soup still anchors everything he cooks. The conversation is equal parts family history and sushi master class. Troy breaks down why the best sushi isn't necessarily the freshest, the surprising journey of bluefin tuna from cat food to luxury ingredient, and why aging fish can actually improve its flavor. Yang shares the techniques behind his omakase, the dishes that have earned Glass Box back-to-back competition wins, and the philosophy that has made the Del Mar restaurant one of San Diego's most underrated sushi destinations. Naturally, the conversation turns into a friendly debate over the sushi rolls that introduced so many Americans to raw fish. Troy and Ethan draft their gateway favorites—from crunchy rolls and California rolls to spicy tuna and eel avocado—proving that even the chef behind one of the city's best omakase counters still has plenty of love for the classics. This summary was provided to you by AI. To hear from the humans, listen to Happy Half Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

  5. Jul 30

    A Steakhouse Worth the Mission Valley Detour

    The Remy occupies a building that's been serving San Diegan's steaks for more than 50 years. Longtime locals remember it as Hungry Hunter. Today, it's been reimagined as a modern American steakhouse—one that still nods to its past while carving out a new identity of its own. This week on Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson, Jackie Bryant, and Bebemos co-founder Preston Caffrey head to a western-grit-meets-contemporary steakhouse for Golden Hour with chef José Ruigomez and Beverage Director Ken Fordan. Over Bebemos cocktails, they talk about the challenge of following a local institution, building a steakhouse for a new generation, and the dishes earning a spot on the menu—from Australian Wagyu and octopus with mint labneh to a burger and fries that's nearly gone by the time the cameras start rolling. Of course, no episode would be complete without a fantasy draft. This time, the crew picks the San Diego restaurants and bars they'd bring back from the dead, sparking a healthy debate over the city's most-missed dining institutions. This summary was provided to you by AI. To hear from the humans, listen to Happy Half Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

  6. Jul 22

    MADE: The Story of 4-Skin

    There's a new very serious skincare brand for men coming out of San Diego called... 4-Skin? Host Troy Johnson interviews founder Arturo Kassel—one of the city's top restaurateurs (Whisknladle, Catania, Gravity Heights) who watched a friend get fool-level sunburnt, made a joke about what it would take to get men to pay attention to basic skincare—and that's how he ended up launching a high-quality sunscreen and moisturizer with product names like "Morning Rub." Funny? Incredibly serious? Yes. Both.

  7. Jul 16

    How One San Diego Bartender Became One of America's Best

    Behind every great cocktail is at least one terrible idea. Sometimes it's a French onion soup martini. Sometimes it's setting a drink on fire inside the Casbah. And every once in a while, it's the kind of experiment that lands you on a list of America's best bartenders. This week on Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson sits down with Dominique Muñoz of Polite Provisions, who was recently named one of the country's top up-and-coming bartenders by Punch. She talks about going from mixing sugary daiquiris at a neighborhood pizza joint to helping lead one of San Diego's most celebrated cocktail bars, where making a drink means understanding history, hospitality, and a little bit of chemistry. Along the way, she shares the stories behind some of her favorite creations, the spectacular failures that taught her the most, and why she's working to make cocktail competitions more welcoming through the mentorship collective she founded, Sirens & Spirits. Plus, Troy breaks down what's happening in the world of spirits—from America's surprising shift away from alcohol to the rise of canned cocktails and soju—before catching up on the latest San Diego food news, including Tribute Pizza's 10th anniversary fundraiser, MAKE Café's new permanent home, and the return of Rei Do Gado. This summary was provided to you by AI. To hear the full conversation between humans, listen to Happy Half Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

  8. Jul 9

    How Ciccia Osteria Became a Barrio Logan Staple

    Sometimes the best restaurant is the one everyone tells you not to open. This week on Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant sit down with chef Mario Cassineri, who left Michelin-starred kitchens behind to make handmade pasta in Barrio Logan. Raised in Milan, he trained under Italy's first three-Michelin-star chef before trading fine dining for a burned-out building everyone else overlooked and building Ciccia Osteria from the ground up. Mario talks about why he chose Barrio Logan, why hospitality matters more than accolades, and the brutal math of running an independent restaurant right now. He also tells the story behind Ciccia's mushroom flan—a dish that sounds like it should be a terrible idea and is instead one of Troy's favorite bites in San Diego. Because Italian cooking is a little cruel that way. The fewer ingredients you use, the fewer places there are to hide. This summary was provided to you by AI. To hear the full conversation (and plenty of Mario's signature unfiltered wisdom), listen to Happy Half Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

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About

The weekly guide to San Diego's food + drink scene, hosted by award-winning food writer and Food Network host Troy Johnson and San Diego Magazine's culture brain, Jackie Bryant. Field notes and perspectives on restaurants, bars, and chefs—including dishes and drinks you gotta try, restaurant openings and closings, events worth your time, and laugh-cry interviews with chefs, restaurant owners, farmers, brewers, and makers who make San Diego's food + drink scene hum.

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