San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

San Diego Magazine
  • 4.8 (169)
  • 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. 2d ago

    Switchfoot Takes Us to Their Poke Spot

    It's Switchfoot Bro-Am week. The epic, annual, San Diego-est thing—one of the best free beach parties in the country that does good for kids who need a community to rally around them. Doesn't just raise money, but makes the kids part of it. For this episode of Happy Half Hour, we asked Switchfoot lead singer Jon Foreman and drummer Chad Butler to take us to one of their favorite local spots—and they manifested poke bowls at Fish 101. Bro-Am is more rare and awe-striking than most people realize. A quick story. Before the Grammys, before they sold 10 million-plus records, the north county rock band took their first international tour to Australia in 2005. If you know anything about Switchfoot, the following story makes sense.  On the flight home, one of their first instincts was, essentially, "OK this might be the biggest thing we ever do. San Diego showed up for us and kinda gave this to us. So what are we gonna do for the city?" They decided to stage a huge free concert at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, where they grew up surfing. They used the spectacle as a way to raise money for unhoused, at-risk, underserved kids across San Diego County. They had no idea about city permits. They were in way over their heads. But they pulled it off. Twenty-two years later, Bro-Am has raised about $3 million for various organizations that help kids in various ways. Tens of thousands of people show up every year. Famous friends have joined in—Jason Mraz, Lauren Daigle, OK Go, John Rzeznik of Goo Goo Dolls, and members of the Foo Fighters. But again, it's about the kids. In 2024, Switchfoot brought Rady Children's patient Avila on stage and served as her backing band to sing her own song, "Live It Well." The Eastlake Top Choir got onstage to sing "Love Alone Is Worth the Fight." Special stuff. The morning of the festival is a group surf and surf contest with the Challenged Athletes Foundation. There are vendors and exhibits and crowds and four bands: this year it's Switchfoot, Sun Room, Telephone Friends, and local band Kimiku (winner of the annual "Battle for the Bro-Am" friendly competition). As for Fish 101, it's packed because it nails the local soul. Opened as a little Leucadia spot along Highway 101 by two friends and partners—restaurateur Ray Lowe and chef/surfer/spearfisherman John Park—it essentially distilled the laidback foreverness of North County surf culture into a casual fish shop that did it right—fish from local boats, treated simply and treated well. Now they've opened a second shop in Cardiff. While filming the show, the legendary skate photographer J. Grant Brittain stopped in for a bite. The artist who designed Bubble Gum Surf Wax's logo popped in. Pro surfers Jacob "Zeke" Szekely and Finn McGill casually crushed food on the patio, skaters Cordano Russell and Nyjah Huston showed up. None of this was planned (except for the show). Just kind of a usual afternoon at Fish 101. Over poke and a killer grilled filet sandwich (lemon aioli + toasted Sadie Rose brioche), Foreman and Butler talk about the feel-good magic of Bro-Am, the similar quasi-mystical release of live rock shows and surfing. We also name our favorite fish tacos in the city—from Barrio Logan to Oceanside and Hollywood Park. The festival's fundraising night is tonight, June 11 (if you can't make it, you can donate at broam.org—the first $75,000 will be matched and doubled). Then the big free festival is June 13, all day starting with the group surfs at 7 a.m. This year, BroAm is raising money for six kid-focused nonprofits in San Diego: Rady Children's Health — Pediatric care, research, education, and advocacy. Feeding San Diego — Hunger relief through food rescue and nutritious meals. A Step Beyond — Dance, education, academic support, and family services for underserved youth. Challenged Athletes Foundation — Adaptive athletic opportunities for people with physical disabilities. Monarch School — Education and support for students impacted by homelessness. Save The Music Foundation — Music education access for students, schools, and communities.   Follow Switchfoot HERE. Discover more at San Diego Magazine.

    1h 9m

  2. Jun 4

    How Luigi Agostini Built One of San Diego's Favorite Pizza Shops

    The chef and owner of Luigi's shares his journey from opening a small bar above Lake Como to lines forming around the block in Golden Hill for his pies. At 23, Luigi Agostini left his hometown of Varese, Italy for America, finding his way to San Francisco in search of adventure and new beginnings. Living with 17 other strangers, he soon began working in restaurant kitchens across the city and eventually found his niche in making pizza. From Los Angeles to Hawaii, and eventually San Diego, he honed his craft before opening his first pizzeria in Poway in 2002. It was an instant hit. Six years later, when Guy Fieri walked in to record Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, lines began to form around the block to try Luigis' pizzas. Today, the shop continues to be one of the city's favorite places for a pie. In the episode, Agostini shares the lore surrounding his Crime Scene pizza made with meatballs, ricotta, and sauce on top. We also chat about Venim Locus, the Japanese-Mediterranean wine bar he opened next door to his Ocean Beach pizzeria through the back of an old tattoo shop, where a former Nobu chef de cuisine who showed up during Covid makes his own bread, butter, and pickles, and a mix-and-match charcuterie program.  The episode ends with a San Diego pizza fantasy draft including Tribute Pizza, TNT, Long Island Mike's, Amalfi Cucina Italiana, Milo's, Pizza Kaiju, Wayfarer Bakery, Catania in La Jolla, and Love Letters Pizza on El Cajon Boulevard.

    1h 19m

  3. May 28

    From Tia's Pozole to Top Chef—Claudette Zepeda Books It

    The border is a huge part of why San Diego's food culture took off. The kitchen exchange of chefs and ideas and burning wood and seafood acid parties across San Ysidro built a Mexican-American style that's unlike anywhere else in the US.  That bordertown verve is the topic of conversation for the dinner party this week on Happy Half Hour. Hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant welcome back Claudette Zepeda—Imperial Beach–raised, border-crossing kid, plus Top Chef and Iron Chef Mexico alum—to talk through the stories in her debut cookbook Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States, out June 2.  They discuss how cartel violence around 2008 accidentally transformed San Diego's food scene when Mexican chefs came a few miles north and brought live fire, ash, char, and high-acid cooking into North Park and Little Italy kitchens with them. Claudette shares about manifesting her way into Bracero (the short-lived, highly acclaimed Mexican restaurant that earned a James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant in America), and how getting fired forced her hand into a new way of cooking. In food news, Urban Kitchen Group's new Bankers Hill restaurant debuts in 2027, Lucien earns a Michelin Guide recommendation, Fleurette launches chef Travis Swikard's first-ever tasting menu, Sugarfish opens in Little Italy, and the story of how Candy Land was invented in a Talmadge bungalow by Eleanor Abbott, who died in 1988 with $1.8 million in royalties and never once left her house. Discover more at San Diego Magazine HERE. Follow Claudette HERE.

    1h 13m

  4. May 21

    Why Valentina Is the Most Leucadia Restaurant in Leucadia

    Leucadia's charm is in no small part because someone planted eucalyptus trees for railroad ties, but that wood turned out to be useless. So they just let those peely giants grow and grow, which is why the Leucadia stretch of PCH is now a majestic leafy canopy into what Troy calls "the mood"—not a city, but a state of mind. Spiritually Spanish, no sidewalks, dirt under your toenails, more than its share of people who may or may not use crystals as financial advisors. Leucadia's pretty grand. Plus, the neighborhood used to be called "Merle," which we can all agree is fairly fantastic. This "mood" made it the perfect setting for a Bebemos Golden Hour at Mario Guerra's Spanish tapas spot on North Coast Highway.  Happy Half Hour co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant, along with Bebemos co-founder Preston Caffrey, indulge in a Bebemos Golden Hour and Spanish tapas at Valentina. Valentina GM Todd Henderson and Executive Chef Enrique Ñol walk the HHH crew through the menu: Potato pave done Thomas Keller-style in twelve to eighteen layers and fried into what they cheekily calls patatas bravas; jamón ibérico croquettes that give last night's dinner a second (and better) life… and, tequila; a matrimonio of salt- and vinegar-cured anchovies that pairs well with vermouth… and, tequila; pan con tomate that arrives as a Catalonia versus the rest of Spain political argument (plus tequila); salmorejo with blue crab; mushroom migas with an egg yolk the color of 1980s Tang. The crew also clinked champagne courtesy of Preston's wife, Shiloh, of We Drink Bubbles.  Tune in to find out which dish won the Leucadia fantasy draft, why Valentina's vibe and food are unique, and which of its dishes pairs best with Bebemos, the tequila of San Diego. Discover more at San Diego Magazine. Follow Bebemos HERE. Follow Valentina HERE.

    1h 6m

  5. May 14

    The Wild Tale Behind Relic Bakery's Origin Story

    On this episode of Happy Half Hour, Relic Bakery owners Samantha Bird and Derek Hadden pulled up with a selection of their best fare including Crunchwrap Supreme croissants, paté en croûte, an XO sausage wrapped in laminated dough, and a tahini strawberry cookie. Derek and Samantha share their Midwestern pandemic love story and discuss their culinary training in Copenhagen which includes a bike crash outside of Noma (Chef Rene Redzepi's restaurant) that remains the most expensive night in bakery history. We also learn how the pair ended up in a 600-square-foot San Diego apartment with butter baked into the walls and an $800 electricity bill.  Offering a wholesale delivery service out of their butter-baked apartment (they bribed their neighbors with croissants), they soon graduated to a ghost kitchen. Last fall, they opened a proper café on 15th Street in East Village with a beer and wine license.  Listen to or watch the full episode now learn more about how Relic Bakery became one of San Diego's best.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine. Follow Relic Bakery HERE.

    49 min

  6. May 7

    Pro Surfer Benji Weatherley Credits Cooking With Saving Him

    The Blink-182 muse who grew up feeding Kelly Slater and Rob Machado at his mom's North Shore Hawaii house debuts Breakers Cafe, Bar & Grill Benji Weatherley walked into San Diego Magazine and immediately made everyone in the room feel like they'd known him their whole lives—which, if you grew up surfing in San Diego, you basically did.  The Momentum Generation kid; the guy whose mom essentially ran a free hotel for Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, and Shane Dorian while they were terrorizing Pipeline; the dude Tom DeLonge wrote "Mutt" about while they were roommates in a PB apartment—that guy is now a restaurateur in Encinitas.  Breakers Cafe, Bar & Grill is part Hawaiian comfort food joint, part surf museum, and part live music venue with three stages and a speakeasy called the Hideout that you get into by saying "snob" backwards. But the road to get here was genuinely brutal. Weatherley sold his house in Leucadia to save the original Breakers in Hawaii, but it ended up closing anyway.  When he eventually moved to Encinitas, he began work on his new restaurant, deciding to remodel the space by hand and opening it in July 2025. An eviction notice arrived two weeks after, right when daily sales hit $7,000 and was followed by a battle over his liquor license. After agreeing to teach hula dancing, his liquor license was approved and Breakers Cafe, Bar & Grill became a reality. During the episode he also shares why cooking saved him more than surfing ever did. Tune in to hear the whole tale.

    1h 2m

  7. Apr 30

    The Steakhouse That Replaced Saska's Is Worth the Hunt for Parking

    Happy Half Hour co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant pull up to Moe's by the Beach for a live episode with two guests who, between them, have thrown some of the most legendary parties Mission Beach has ever seen.  Eric Lightstein—who gave San Diego Cane's, the city's scrappiest and most beloved rock club—now runs this steakhouse out of the old Saska's space, and he's grinding his prime steak trimmings into a Brie burger that stops conversation cold. Bebemos co-founder Preston Caffrey also joins us to celebrate its one-year anniversary with a bar crawl that starts at the Waverly and ends somewhere nobody will fully remember. Finally, in food news: Michelin is coming to town June 24, Mastiff is out at the North Park Beer Company, and somebody in La Mesa put up a full Blockbuster sign on April Fool's Day and broke actual journalism. In our carnivore fantasy draft we discuss oxtail at Trust, smoked duck at Kingfisher, lamb barbacoa in Chula Vista, salt and pepper wings at Royal Mandarin, short rib at Market Del Mar.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine. Follow Bebemos HERE.

    1h 22m

  8. Apr 23

    10,000 Pounds of Crawfish & One Big Accordion-Fueled Fever Dream

    Some festivals happen because a city needs them. Others because one guy walked into a bar in Louisiana, saw someone playing accordion with their whole body, and never recovered. And thankfully, the latter is how Gator by the Bay became San Diego's largest Louisiana-themed festival. It returns to Spanish Landing park May 8 through 11. On this week's Happy Half Hour, co-founder Peter Oliver explains how a trip through Lafayette and New Orleans in the late '80s turned into a lifelong obsession with Louisiana music, dance, and culture. Its first version launched in 2001 with eight bands, a gospel tent, and about 2,000 people showing up more or less out of nowhere, Oliver shares. It also lost money. So they did it again. Then again. Somewhere along the way, the true believers stuck, they folded the blues community in, and the city got itself a waterfront party, Louisiana-style. Today, it features more than 100 performances across seven stages, dance lessons, parades, a musical petting zoo, and 10,000 pounds of crawfish trucked in from Louisiana because, "California crawfish just don't cut it." If you've ever been elbow-deep at a proper boil—corn, sausage, steam, spice, mudbugs, and somebody telling you to suck the head—you already know this is not a cuisine that rewards restraint. Also joining the episode is Derek Boykin of Beignet Belly, one of the festival's vendors and proof that fried dough can absolutely become a life path. Boykin—originally from Oakland, CA, but whose family's roots run through Baton Rouge—started tinkering with beignets after deciding he could make a better one himself. Now he and his wife Maria run the business as a pop-up, serving hot, powdered-sugar-covered pillows of joy at Oceanside Sunset Market and events around Southern California. Finally, Panda Fest hits Waterfront Park April 25 and 26, the San Diego Zoo's Food, Wine & Brew returns May 2, and Corbin's Q has officially reemerged as Barlando in Rolando.   Discover more at San Diego Magazine.

    1h 6m
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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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