San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

Welcome back to the Happy Half Hour! This week we're with Emmanuel Favela and Tony Haro, founders of Hellote in Chula Vista. Hellote is a new outdoor eatery that specializes in elote, Mexican street corn, served in both traditional and nontraditional ways. Emmanuel and Tony opened Hellote last fall, and they both have backgrounds in architecture (but zero restaurant experience), yet Hellote has be...

Happy Pride Week! Our special guest is Roanna Canete, owner of The Gluten Free Baking Company in North Park. Roanna founded the company in 2015 when her son was diagnosed with a gluten allergy and she started baking for him—that led to formally studying cooking and baking, and starting the business. The storefront opened on 30th Street in the spring of 2020 and offers donuts, brownies, bagels, and...

Welcome back! This week we chat with Tara Monsod, who recently took over as executive chef at Animae, the high-design Asian fusion restaurant owned by Brian Malarkey and Chris Puffer. Tara has also worked at Herringbone, Burlap, and at the acclaimed Mozza Pizzeria, and this is her first executive chef position. She recently changed Animae's menu, and several of the new dishes reflect her Filipino...

David, Marie and Troy are still at our sponsor, Home Brew Mart. Rumor has it David brought a cot and this is where he lives now. Understandable. The Linda Vista store is where the city's first bootstrap scientists got all the ingredients, materials, recipes, rumors, and know-how to start the craft beer revolution in San Diego. It's also home to Ballast Point—makers of one Sculpin IPA, one of the m...

Welcome back to the Happy Half Hour! We're recording in person at Home Brew Mart by Ballast Point in Linda Vista, our sponsor for this week's episode. Ballast Point is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and Home Brew Mart is where the company began. We're with Colby Chandler, Ballast Point's former vice president and speciality brewer. He's the creator of the award-winning Sculpin IPA and...

Welcome back to the Happy Half Hour! This week's special guest is Barry Robbins, founder of Milton's Delicatessen Restaurant in Del Mar. The New York–style deli is famous for its Reuben, matzo ball soup, homemade desserts, and breads; and it's celebrating its 27th anniversary this year. You've most likely seen Milton's multigrain bread and line of crackers in retailers like Costco: This national b...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This week we have two special guests, Jamie and Marie Brawn, owners of Homestead Solana Beach. The business—which served locally-sourced gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan food—was inspired by the duo's own home cooking for their sons who both have food allergies. But like many, the pandemic forced them to switch gears; and the idea was born to turn Homestead from...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This week's special guest is Beth Demmon, a freelance writer and journalist who specializes in craft beer. Beth started writing about craft beer in 2015 and has been an advocate for diversity in the industry: She founded the Diverse Beer Writers Initiative and is a member of the North American Guild of Beer Writers. Recently, she published an article on Vine Pair a...

This week's special guest is Dannika Underhill, a bartender at Kindred in South Park. Dannika has been in the restaurant industry for over 15 years. She's a graduate of Seattle Culinary Academy, and she's worked in both the front and back of house, behind the bar, and as a restaurant operations manager. Two weeks ago, we had Dario Gallo, owner of Civico 1845, on the show, and he talked about how t...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This week's special guest is Gustavo Tonella of Doggos Gus in Imperial Beach. Gustavo started his catering company in 2010, serving up Sonoran-style bacon-wrapped hot dogs in brioche buns. Then in 2019, he opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant right across from the IB pier, and introduced micheladas and White Claws topped with chamoy to his menu. Gustavo grew up eat...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! Today's special guest is Dario Gallo, owner of Civico 1845 in Little Italy and Civico by the Park in Bankers Hill. Dario was born and raised in Cosenza, Italy, and after graduating with an economics and business administration degree, he moved to the US with his brother, Pietro. They opened their first restaurant, Civico 1845, in 2015, and in 2020 they opened Civic...

Today we have a very special guest, chef Eric Greenspan. Eric has over 20 years of experience in the culinary world, having worked with chefs such as Alain Ducasse and Rocco DiSpirito, and apprenticing at the three-Michelin-star El Bulli in Spain. He was executive chef at several successful restaurants in LA, including Patina, The Foundry, and Maré, and is a noted cookbook author and regular judge...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! Today's special guest is Sabrina Medora, food writer and founder of Un-Plated, a national multimedia platform that celebrates the little-known stories and unsung heroes of the restaurant industry. Her work has appeared in Wine Enthusiast,The Kitchn, and Food & Wine, andshe has produced events with the James Beard Foundation. Sabrina was born in Canada, has lived in...

Today's special guest is chef Travis Swikard, whom we last had on the show in March 2020. Travis is a San Diego native who spent ten years working with acclaimed French chef Daniel Boulud in New York City, and moved back to San Diego to open Callie, his first solo restaurant. The pandemic delayed his original plan to open Callie last summer. We checked in with Travis to see how the long-awaited re...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! We have a special treat for our listeners this week: Joining us on the show is Wil Myers! The San Diego Padres are the most exciting team to watch in Major League Baseball right now, and they just made history last week with their first no-hitter. Wil has been a familiar face in the Petco Park outfield since he joined the team in 2013. On April 10, 2017, he hit for...

Today's special guest is Keith Rolle, founder and winemaker of Gianni Buonomo Vintners in Ocean Beach. A little over a week ago, Gianni Buonomo won several awards at the 2021 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Keith moved to OB in 1997 and was running another business before switching gears at age 47. He went back to school to study viticulture and enology, starting his journey into the wor...

Today's special guest is Kaci Goff, chef and owner of contemporary Malaysian pop-up restaurant Wolf and Woman. While serving Malaysian Tamil cuisine like penang laksa noodles and garam masala lamb shank, Kaci is also planning on launching a commissary kitchen in Vista at the end of April. This weekend, she's selling dessert boxes that can be preordered, and on April 21, Wolf and Woman is hosting a...

This week's special guest is Emily Green, owner of Sisters Pizza in Hillcrest. Since 2019, Sisters Pizza has been serving up New York– and New Jersey–style pizza whole and by the slice, along with other Italian dishes from family recipes. Emily opened the business in loving memory of her older sister, Kate, and she regularly gives back to the community by raising money for a different charity ever...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This week's special guest is Megan Stone, media coordinator at Societe Brewing Company in Clairemont, who was recently named the first-ever Woman of the Year by the Craft Beer Marketing Awards. Megan, whose pronouns are both she/her and they/them, is a member of the San Diego Brewers Guild Inclusion Committee and social media influencer with over 34,000 followers w...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This episode was sponsored by Ballast Point, and two special guests from the brewing company joined us this week: Aaron Justus, director of R&D and specialty brewing, and Jeff Lozano, specialty brewer and manager. This year, the company is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a pioneer in the craft beer industry, and Aaron and Jeff debuted and tasted Ballast Point's...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This week's special guest is Avonte Hartsfield, owner of Rollin' Roots food truck in Kearny Mesa. Rollin' Roots has been serving comfort foods, like loaded fries and sandwiches with deep-fried "shrimp" and Buffalo "chicken" that are entirely vegan, since it opened last fall. Avonte is passionate about breaking the stigma that vegan food has to be expensive, and he...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This week, Tommy "The Fishmonger" Gomes, a local expert on all things seafood and spokesperson for San Diego's fishing industry, made his third appearance on the podcast. Since his last visit, Tommy's become the star of his own national TV show, The Fishmonger, an eight-episode docuseries premiering March 1 at 4 p.m. on the Outdoor Channel. Tommy is from a Portugue...

This week we chatted with chef Richard Blais, whom you may recognize as both a contestant and a judge on Top Chef, and as a judge on Guy's Grocery Games and MasterChef. Richard came by to talk about his newest restaurant, Ember & Rye, a steak house opening soon at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad. Richard got his start working at The French Laundry, Chez Panisse, and El Bulli, then opened...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! In celebration of the lunar new year on February 12 and the Year of the Ox, we chatted with Tony Guan, executive chef at Fortunate Son, the newest restaurant from CH Projects in Normal Heights. Fortunate Son replaced Soda & Swine last fall, and serves Tony's spin on classic American Chinese dishes like General's Tso's chicken and sweet and sour pork. Tony was born...

Welcome back to Happy Half Hour! This week we chat with Ernie Becerra, founder of San Diego Taco Company and ¡Salud! Tacos in Barrio Logan. Ernie is a fifth-generation San Diegan, and he worked as a banker before pursuing his passion and eventually opening a restaurant. ¡Salud! is one of 13 essential taco shops listed in this month's cover story in San Diego Magazine, called "A Love Letter to Taco...