This Couple Is Fixing Your Taco Problem
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
Release Date: 06/26/2025
Why San Diego’s Neighborhood Bars Still Matter
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
Broadcasting from The Shanty in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Happy Half Hour looks at the week’s biggest restaurant news, including the and the shuttering of Cucina Enoteca—plus an examination of why unpretentious neighborhood bars continue to anchor San Diego communities. Host Troy Johnson also checks in on what’s opening, welcomes back founder Preston Caffrey for a Golden Hour conversation about building a drinks brand in a tough market, and wraps with Shanty co-owner Mike Tornado on the staying power of a truly local bar.
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One of Little Italy’s Top Chefs Returns
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
One of Little Italy’s top chefs is back. Hard to overestimate how much Ironside Fish & Oyster changed the game when it opened in Little Italy in 2014. It was the dream concept for Jason McLeod, a chef who’d earned two Michelin stars in Chicago (for Ria). Little Italy was the unloading dock of San Diego’s legendary fishing fleets, had that rich seafood history but no epic seafood joint. McLeod and CH Projects took over the old Farkas furniture store and turned it into a sort of ghost ship ocean liner (the suitcases along the wall are an ode to those roots) and oyster bar. The...
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San Diego’s First Women’s Sports Bar Lands in North Park
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
Patricia Sebold, Kalani Millsaps, and Kerry Pierce join Happy Half Hour to discuss their new concept: a women’s-focused sports bar opening in North Park. We find out how the project came together and why San Diego is ready for it now. From Title IX to the Wave’s record-setting crowds, they talk about the rise of women’s sports, the frustration of watching games on phones in bars that won’t put them on TVs, and how packed pop-ups proved there was real demand for a permanent space. One of Us is slated to open this March, just in time for March Madness and the NWSL season....
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San Diego's Roast Beef Awakening
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
#415 On the latest Happy Half Hour, host Troy Johnson traces a proper Sunday roast into its evolution as a distinctly American handheld obsession. Following the breadcrumbs leads straight to Big Jim’s Roast Beef in Pacific Beach, which is owned by today's guest, James Jones. He's a North Shore Boston transplant who brought the “super beef” to our fair shores. His version has a griddled onion roll, rare- to mid-rare beef, and the cult-favorite James River barbecue sauce shipped in from back East. We also get a rapid-fire history lesson featuring British roast-beef...
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Cesarina & Elvira's Niccolò Angius on Pasta's Staying Power
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
On this episode of Happy Half Hour, co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant sit down with Niccolò Angius, the Italian-born chef-owner behind Cesarina and Elvira, to explore why pasta holds such an enduring grip on our hearts, memories, and nervous systems. Raised in his parents’ Roman trattoria in Trastevere, Angius traces his journey from Rome to San Diego, where he and his wife Cesarina Mezzoni launched a farmers’ market pop-up in 2015 focused on handmade vegan pastas and all-natural sauces. That project evolved into Cesarina in 2019—now a perennial San Diego Mag Best...
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Lucien Lands in La Jolla With a 13-Course, Big League Tasting Menu
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
#413 On Happy Half Hour, host Troy Johnson talks with chef Elijah Arizmendi about leaving home at 15, training in Vegas and New York, and opening Lucien — an ingredient-obsessed, 30-seat destination built around San Diego produce, house ferments, and meticulous coursing. On this week’s Happy Half Hour, host Troy Johnson sits down with chef Elijah Arizmendi, the 30-year-old behind Lucien, La Jolla’s new 12- to 13-course tasting-menu destination that’s already getting “best in the city, maybe the country” texts from chefs like Travis Swikard (Callie, Fleurette). Arizmendi traces...
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Megastar Guy Fieri on Building an Empire & What’s Next
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
#412 This week, Happy Half Hour host Troy Johnson talks with Food Network megastar Guy Fieri about how a one-off Flavortown joke grew into a national food brand, from pop-up kitchens to a fast-growing sauce line and a major new partnership rolling its offerings into 6,500 Circle K stores. The two also revisit Fieri’s early Food Network days, the demo tape that launched his career and the evolution of shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Guy’s Grocery Games, where Johnson frequently appears as a judge. Fieri also reflects on the work of the Guy Fieri Foundation, which now...
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Checking in With San Diego’s Oldest Bar, Where Tequila Is Cheaper Than Therapy
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
#411 Bebemos cofounder Preston Caffrey and Waterfront Bar & Grill’s Dennis Glover talk cocktails, what makes a good regular’s bar, and running a local legacy This week on Happy Half Hour, the crew posts up at the iconic Waterfront Bar & Grill, open since 1933 and still run by the same family. Co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant are joined by Bebemos Tequila cofounder Preston Caffrey and Waterfront GM Dennis Glover for a drink-fueled dive into one of San Diego’s most beloved institutions. They talk through the bar’s nearly century-old history, why Bebemos’ $15 pour...
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Inside Le Coq’s Revival with Brian Malarkey and Chris Puffer
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
#410 We sit down with San Diego’s longtime restaurant power duo to unpack their two-decade partnership and their latest La Jolla project. On this episode of Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson catches up with chef Brian Malarkey and restaurateur Chris Puffer to explore the story behind their newest venture inside the iconic former Herringbone space, now reborn as Le Coq. The trio rewinds through the early days at Ocean Air, the explosive rise of Seersucker, and the city-shaping impact of Herb & Wood—while reflecting on the hard work, near-misses, and creative friction that have defined one...
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Andrew Zimmern Wants Us to Rethink the Way We Eat Fish
San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour
#409 Andrew Zimmern, a four-time James Beard Award–winning TV host best known for Bizarre Foods and for using food as a lens into culture joins Happy Half Hour co-hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant this week. A longtime champion of global food culture, Zimmern shares his new book, The Blue Food Cookbook: Delicious Seafood Recipes for a Sustainable Future and discusses why Americans misunderstand seafood and what San Diego can teach the rest of the country about primarily eating from the water. Zimmern’s new book is a guide to buying and cooking seafood in ways that are smarter for the...
info_outline#388 On this episode of Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson sits down with Ron and Isabel Oliver, the duo behind Somos Maíz. Isabel grew up in Michoacán learning how to make masa the traditional way. Ron spent 20 years as chef de cuisine at the Marine Room. Now they’re sourcing heirloom corn from farmers in Mexico and turning it into fresh masa that’s showing up on plates at Valle, Tohono, and beyond. They chat about how most tortilla makers get it wrong, why blue corn usually isn’t blue corn, and what makes real masa so hard to get right. To follow Somos Maiz click HERE.
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