Ian Ward and Danny Romero launched their hospitality group Service Animals in 2024 to create immersive dining experiences that reflect the pair’s high-end training at places like Addison, Southern California’s only three-Michelin-starred restaurant. At Ponyboy, the group’s first project, they’ll focus on recreating classic midcentury recipes and cocktail culture with a few twists. 

Along with Ward and Romero, Ponyboy’s opening team includes Service Animals wine expert Kyle South, who is also the lead sommelier of Addison; menu development by Dante Romero, Danny’s brother and partner in their pop-up Two Ducks, as well as executive chef of The Lion’s Share; executive chef Josh Reynolds (Wormwood, Stone Brewing World Bistro, MRKT Space); hospitality expert Patrick Virata (Addison); and pastry chef Yara Lamers (CH Projects).

If you’ve ever flipped through your grandparent’s well-worn copies of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle or Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, Ponyboy’s menu may feel familiar. Expect reimagined classics steeped in nostalgia, such as pineapple upside-down cake made with brown butter cake, rum roasted pineapple, cilantro coconut sherbet, and Jamaica sauce. Fondue for two. Aspics. Deviled eggs.

There will be a Juicy Lucy burger with a New School American cheese-stuffed Wagyu patty smothered in Alabama white sauce and Okie onions on a sesame-potato brioche bun and served with fries and a side of more Alabama white sauce. (Will Cheez Whiz, the signature invention of 1953, make an appearance? Time will tell.) 

Starting on Wednesday, August 14, Ponyboy will introduce a new section of the menu titled “T.V. Dinners,” which will—you guessed it—feature nightly specials riffing the meal style that generally contains a protein, starch, vegetable, and dessert. Wednesday will be fried chicken nights with seasonally rotating sides, and Ward says future T.V. dinners will all feel playful but recognizable.

With David Tye (formerly of Kingfisher and The Lion’s Share), Chris Blas (The Lion’s Share, Polite Provisions), and Meagan Crumpley (Ironside, Sycamore Den) behind the bar, the cocktail-heavy menu features old-fashioned classics (and probably an Old Fashioned, or at least their spin on it). Look for banana daiquiris, Bahama Mamas, Monte Carlos, and non-alcoholic options like New York egg creams and summer lemonade.

Casetta Group redesigned the hotel in 2020, preserving the retro midcentury aesthetic while updating some worn-out features. The Ponyboy space got a complete refresh from Brooklyn-based design team One Union Studio, with soft lighting and hues of sage green, dusty rose, and cream for a calm vibe that feels both inspired era and modern. Kitschy touches, like plates shaped like clam shells and checkerboard-patterned throw pillows, abound. The lounge area seats 11 guests for drinks only, while the bar can hold 13 and dining space up to 56 between the lounge, dining room, and poolside.

Once open, hours will be Wednesday through Sunday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. for the kitchen, with the bar staying open until 11 p.m. A daily “Golden Hour” happy hour at the bar/lounge will run from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. with a special $1 menu and drink specials. Wednesdays are Dive-In Movie Night, with drink and dinner specials to pair with the selected feature. (For instance, Breakfast at Tiffany’s will go with a Manhattan clam chowder special with pastrami on rye and New York cheesecake, while an Addams Family marathon may offer escargot Bourgogne.) Parking is limited, but valet is available for $15. Party on, Ponyboy. 

Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].

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To make it so, the Lakehouse tapped Jarrod Moiles, former executive chef of renowned high-end, food-obsessed resort Rancho Valencia.

“The idea was to have a chef-driven restaurant on the golf course versus just having the generic grill golfer’s restaurant,” says Moiles, who’s both exec chef and director of F&B at the San Marcos resort. To build the menu, he took inspiration from his childhood in the Massachusetts countryside, where farm-to-table was just the way things were done, not a marketing cliché.

Grilled salmon picatta, beet and goat cheese salad, birria tacos, loaded potato skins—a lot of dishes on Moiles’ first menu are a tribute to San Diego and SoCal farms and ranches like third-generation, family-run Brandt Beef. For kicks, he also does cheddar cheese-dusted onion rings, an ode to a culinary icon of the cellophane bag movement: Funions.

The restaurant got a full remodel and remake and still sits at the heart of the Lake San Marcos. Moiles says they recreated it with locals in mind. “We realized we need to focus on who’s coming and living here, and who’s moving into San Marcos right now,” he says. In other words: Keep the quality high and the tendency to resort-gouge away from the prices.

Golfers seeking classic culprits will still find burgers, beer-battered fish and chips, and the mandatory club sandwich. The lettuce will just be a whole lot greener. Aiolis will have chefy-ness. Bread will matter.

They also added more space for folks to gather, including a bright, modern lounge with dark wood accents. A full renovation of the dining room, bar, and patio is set to take place in the future, but with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Kermit-colored driving range, it’s not hell on the eyes.

After all, there are few things more satisfying than watching people exercise while spending quality time with quality beer and upgraded spuds.

Brickmans reopened April 1. The restaurant is located at 1750 San Pablo Drive, San Marcos, inside The Links at Lakehouse.

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Chef JoJo Ruiz has become one of the city’s most celebrated names in sustainable seafood, and his long-awaited new handroll concept in Encinitas is finally open. Temaki Bar is a Clique Hospitality thing, the same group who brought local concepts like Lionfish and Serea.

Walk through Temaki’s front doors, you’ll find an original hand-painted mural by artist Todd DiCiurcio, who also partnered with Rob Machado for custom-designed surfboards-as-art for the space. “It’s a really cool design, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it in San Diego—let alone anywhere—because we’re so close to the beach,” says Ruiz. “It’s a Southern California vibe for sure.”

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Arlene Ibarra

Temaki is a sushi bar-only experience—38 seats in the petite 1,500-square-foot-space (formerly Eve Encinitas). The point is to be up-close with the highly curated sustainable fish in the case, to be handed your food direct from the chefs seconds after it’s made.

“When you sit there and you have a really warm, crunchy nori roll, and you put the rice on still warm, and you put the fresh fish on it, the texture is wonderful,” says Clique founder, Andy Masi.

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Arlene Ibarra

Each roll is served one at a time instead of table-drop buffet style, encouraging guests to focus and appreciate the charms of each. Ruiz says a couple of his favorite items are the spicy tuna crispy rice and the yellowtail sashimi. Masi is a fan of Dre’s Pop N’Rock handroll which mixes bang bang shrimp, mango and Pop Rocks (yep, those Pop Rocks). All told, there are 12 handrolls on the menu, along with a variety of sashimi and starters like beef tataki and tuna poke bowl.

“It’s giving a high-quality product at a local price and a local vibe. It’s super casual. Hand rolls are $4-5. You can get in and out of here for lunch for $15,” says Masi. “We wanted to take a super high-end concept and make it very casual and very approachable.”

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Arlene Ibarra

“I think we’re excited to do something different. There’s not really anything like this in San Diego at all, whatsoever. The nori is going to be nice and crunchy, you have this nice warm rice we’ve worked hard to create—and make sure it’s this perfect thing—and you have this nice cold fish inside of it. It’s going to be fun,” says Ruiz.

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Arlene Ibarra

Have breaking-news, exciting scoops, or great stories about San Diego’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].

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Bird Rock is an early rising town. By 9 a.m., hordes of tow-headed surfers still dripping from their morning sesh, athleisure-clad moms pushing impossibly expensive strollers, and, of course, the inevitable tourists have claimed their place in line at either Bird Rock Coffee Roasters or Wayfarer Bread & Pastry (or if you’re me, both).

But the serene hamlet is poised for a jolt to its culinary nightlife, albeit one that opens at 3 p.m. Helmed by local couple Eric and Zoe Kleinbub, Paradisaea, whose moniker comes from the bird genus for birds-of-paradise (not to be confused with the plant genus Paradisaeidae) describes itself as “an authentic celebration of the good life in San Diego.”

“Our heart and soul is in it. Every last thing from the doorknobs to everything going out food-wise to the service has been really, really vetted and scrutinized,” says Eric, pointing to the four years it’s taken the pair to open their passion project.

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Photo Credit: Douglas Friedman

It’s not just the food and ambiance they hope to take to the highest levels. It’s the people as well. Culinary Director Mark Welker comes with stints at culinary powerhouses like Eleven Madison Park and The NoMad, along with Chef de Cuisine Gabriel Bonis, whose local pedigree includes Nine-Ten, 1500 Ocean, Rancho Valencia, and Cowboy Star.

Despite the heavy French influence of typical high-end cuisines, the pair promises Paradisaea won’t be “a stuffy restaurant with tweezer food,” according to Zoe. It’ll be their take on “California modern,” which they say encompasses influence from Mexico, Europe and beyond, without the fuss of fine dining.

Early dishes include plenty of local ingredients, including tagliatelle with uni, Dungeness crab, sun gold tomatoes, Meyer lemon and saffron; roasted chicken stuffed with lemon-Dijon butter and served alongside buttermilk dressed local greens and salsa verde; and even an “elevated” nacho platter with Wagyu carne asada. “Nobody’s ever taken a nacho platter so seriously,” laughs Eric.

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Douglas Friedman

Paradisaea’s cocktail program stands to be equally aspirational, with Kindred alum Dannika Underhill taking the reins as Beverage Director. Expect tiki influence, bright colors, and zero-proof cocktails for the booze-free drinker.

The main dining room seats 57 guests on ceramic tables designed by local artist Josh Herman, plus bar seating and an outdoor patio. The Kleinbubs will also helm Dodo Bird Donuts, offering coffee and light breakfast fare, as well as home-and-beauty store Tropical Punch in the adjacent space.

If you don’t live in Bird Rock, it’s kind of a pain to get there. But the Kleinbubs hope, geography notwithstanding, the food will entice you to come again, and again, and again.

“We just want people to fall in love with it,” says Eric.

Paradisaea opens on September 25 in the newly restored “Piano Building” at 5680 La Jolla Blvd. Hours of operation are 3 p.m. until close Wednesday through Sunday.

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Douglas Friedman

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Douglas Friedman

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Photo Credit: James Tran

The dark side of an alien planet now exists in South Park. You can drink a Mind Killer in it. And you can stare at stalagmites and shooting stars, namedrop L. Ron Hubbard, just utterly detach from reality.

Open the door at the corner of Juniper and 30th Street. The back of that door is covered in a hyper-blue rock formation, both prehistoric and interplanetary, like Land of the Lost on shrooms. I don’t care if it’s light or dark outside or if you have the vision of a bird of prey. You will go momentarily blind. It is so incredibly dark in here. But a few moments later (after you’ve navigated the slight twist of the cave entrance), your eyes will recover, you’ll start to comprehend that you are in the crash-landed restaurant and space lounge, Mothership. One half is what remains of the ship (the bar is the ship’s console). The other half is the barren intergalactic wasteland of your Thursday night out. Alien plant life is snaking and encroaching the hull, pools of psychedelic light occupy crannies. Tiki cocktails are served. Vegan food is native language.

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Credit: James Tran

The wild tropical-escapism idea started in 2016 at vegan restaurant, Kindred—a retro-futuristic tiki cocktail pop-up night called “Permanent Vacation.” The night grew and grew and—pandemic pause—grew. Now it has its logical forever home. The fever dream was brought to life by noted designer Ignacio “Notch” Gonzalez, whose company Top Notch Kustoms crafted the famous tiki bar other-worlds in San Francisco (Smuggler’s Cove, Whitechapel) and Seattle (Inside Passage).

“Rather than just be a space bar with random nerdy space things thrown around, we had to start with the story,” says owner Kory Stetina. “We wanted to do this truly immersive experience, so we needed to understand what its story was before we built it. So a ship has crash landed into a light volcano and part of the ship has been broken off into the rocks and plants…”

We could go on. There restaurant comes with its own sci-fi novela that Dune author Frank Herbert could appreciate. But some things—especially this thing—are best left to be experienced.

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Credit: James Tran

But we will say that there are easter eggs hidden about (play around with the electronics panel between the bathrooms). Local plant designer Britton Neubacher of Tend Living designed “new species” of plants that seem to be infecting the ship a la the black tentacles in Stranger Things. There is art from Tom Neely, who created the comics Humans and Henry and Glenn Forever. The imaginative fiction of the place got so out of hand that Mothership even has its own OST (original soundtrack), eight-and-a-half hours of luminous space rock from musician Justin Pinkerton, the first part of which has been pressed onto vinyl.

“Justin is a childhood friend, going back to 1983 in Encinitas,” Stetina says. “I once gave him an old synthesizer because it was getting absolutely no use in my place. Didn’t know years later he’d use it to create the Mothership soundtrack.”

That’s the thing about Mothership. While naysayers will nay and say, it’s a collection of friends and makers working toward a far-out idea. “I do think it’s so outrageous that design elites could look at it as being over the top,” admits Stetina. “But that’s kind of the point. Especially right now, I think we all need a little escapism. It’s fun and makes you smile and captures that childlike wonder. And these were a bunch of single maker people who connected through music and art and Kindred and tiki. It’s a lot of independent weirdos giving all they could give.”

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Credit: James Tran

On the serious side—cocktails and food are serious. Kindred chef Dylan Craver has created the menu, which intentionally brings all flavors in the universe together—like a potato latke with a Korean twist, or an okonomiyaki. Beverage director David Kinsey and bar manager Juan Castañeda have gone above and beyond to create 17 original tiki cocktails.

“Despite the outrageousness, many of the drinks have inspiration rooted in classic midcentury tiki,” says Stetina. “We spun them into weird terrain and chose garnishes like dried sage, which is our equivalent of the mint garnish. We’ve made gardenias as a nut butter-based mixture that’s in the Pearl Diver cocktail, and made it with a cultured and churned cashew butter. We created three different house orgeats, three grenadines.”

Mothership opens Aug. 2 (reminder: “soft openings” are supposed to be a bit of a cluster, so be kind). Sometime within the next week you’ll be able to make reservations for 90-minute experiences. As for Stetina, on the eve of “friends and family” test runs, he says, “Sure, right now I’m ragged and broke. But for better or worse, being able to witness something like this come to life, to give it its best shot, go all in, jump off the cliff, completely leveraged—it’s all worth it.”

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Credit: James Tran

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First Look: Part Time Lover – Interior

Photo Credit: Riley Dring

Part Time Lover is now open in North Park. Elevator pitch might be: a hi-fi listening bar and record store with cocktails from some of the best drinks minds in town. But, like all things Consortium Holdings, it’s less a bar or a record shop than it is an alternate world. And it keeps an iconic spot rooted in local culture. 

When Bar Pink closed in this space in 2020, a decent chunk of North Park’s soul went with it. Co-owned by Dang Nguyen and John Reis (lead singer of Rocket from the Crypt), Pink was a shadowy, cavernous dive that music lovers flocked to for atomic-strength pours, red vinyl booths, and $2 Tecates. Locals worry when a place like this is lost. We worry the memories of that room will fall into the hands of people who don’t know the history, or who can’t be bothered with silly things like “roots” or neighborly wants and desires. 

But sometimes things work out. In this case, they work out. 

For Part Time Lover, CH founder Arsalun Tafazoli brought along Nguyen as manager and Folk Arts Rare Records as vinyl curator. It’s a hell of a team. 

“Bar Pink was an institution, and a big advocate for local music,” says Tafazoli. “We wanted to do something that paid homage to the legacy it established. But we can’t do live music. That’s not a world we know. Plus, you already have great places like Soda Bar and The Casbah and we don’t want to compete with them. We wanted to contribute something different but meaningful.”

Thus, the hi-fi listening bar concept. 

“I went into a Neil Young wormhole about digital music—how the iPod killed music,” he says. “It’s a bummer that most music gets consumed digitally. It’s about efficiency and storage. Hearing music on an originally produced record, analog and not digitally, on a high-fi sound system—it’s really powerful. It’s almost sound as a space. You can feel it, feel the musicians. I just started getting into records, but I have friends who are collectors. I love that sort of geeekdom… an irrational level of attention to something that seems trivial to people. Part Time Lover is about being able to hear music in the right kind of environment.”

In addition to a state-of-the-art sound system built by Chicago-based Uncanned Music, PTL sports an east-meets-west design inspired by ​​the Prairie School aesthetic, which influenced Frank Lloyd Wright and was rooted in kissaten (small cafés in Tokyo where DJs would spin vinyl). It’ll be coffee-and-cocktails up front (focusing on Japanese highballs), record store in the back—a mullet of local culture. Most drinks will be cold and carbonated, like the In Kaiju, a neon green concoction made with Japanese vermouth, aquavit, lemon, and sparkling water, served in a frozen highball glass. 

Record collectors are welcome to come spin their favorites. Much like he did at Starlite, Mays will tap touring musicians to take the wheel on certain nights. “This is about realizing the potential in the simple act of sharing amazing music, rooted in our philosophy of patient listening, discovery, open-mindedness, and free-spirited creativity,” says Brendan Boyle, owner of Folk Arts, which is also one of the oldest record stores in America.

Still, everyone involved maintains that the emphasis is affordability and accessibility. So not to worry, North Park purists and dive bar enthusiasts. You’re in capable hands.

“When we did Craft & Commerce, no one gave a shit about Little Italy,” says Tafazoli. “With development it gets to a point where landlords charge a premium. It raises a barrier of entry. And that’s where you get to the point where only the Landry’s of the world can afford it. You get the corporatization of restaurants in a community.” 

And after setting firm roots in Little Italy (Craft & Commerce, Underbelly, Ironside, Born & Raised, Morning Glory), it looks like North Park is the next frontier for Consortium. Already with Underbelly on the south side and Polite Provisions on the north end, Part Time Lover will be joined by their new vision for the Lafayette Hotel sometime next year. 

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, we incorrectly reported that Tim Mays of the Casbah was involved in the project. 

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First Look – Birdseye – main

The newest roof with a view of the “big wet” has arrived. Accessed through a secret alleyway and arriving at a panoramic view of La Jolla Cove and Shores is Birdseye—a combo bar, restaurant, and lounge atop the newly remodeled, 26-room boutique hotel, The Cormorant. Named after the striking black seabirds that were among the earliest species in the area, it’s a project from San Diego-based Oceanic Enterprises, which operates a few other local spots (1906 Lodge in Coronado, Mikami Rotating Sushi Lounge, legendary dive Star Bar, etc.) 

Cormorant and Birdseye are perched on the downsloping corner spot where Prospect Street spills into the park above the cove (next to La Valencia), it was home to the La Jolla Inn since the 1940s. On the ground floor is still Prospect Market, which was the only market in the village in the 40s and is now the spot to get wine, gourmet to-go, quality picnic needs. The $3 million renovation of the entire property took three years to complete. 

“We initially hadn’t planned an extensive renovation,” says owner-developer Manoj Chawla. “We changed the plan once we started construction and knew this was our only opportunity to do it the right way.” The goal was to keep the nostalgia of the space that had been there for the last 80 years but modernize the design elements with art deco, bold lighting fixtures, geometric wall art and wallpaper, and a couple pop-art murals from local artist, Vango. 

Birdseye seats up to 50 people for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Chef Luciano Scagliarini was most recently the executive chef at Edgewater in Seaport Village. “The dishes are inspired by my mother, who was a chef in Argentina,” Scagliarini explains. “Plus, everywhere I’ve traveled and worked throughout my life, including Baja.” A few standouts he points to are the shrimp fra diavolo with garlic, red chile and white wine sauce, and a Milanesa sandwich with breaded chicken breast, provolone, aioli, and chimichurri. 

Classic cocktails at the bar will get a twist, like the “Spa Day” (mint-cucumber vodka, lime juice, cucumber, and mint) and the “Diving Bird” (coconut cream, pandam, rum, and tropical juices.

1110 Prospect St., La Jolla 

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First Look – Moe’s

This room should be filled with expensive smoke. Should be filled with men who love watches, talking about horse races. A maitre d’ should be floating around, flirting, taking twenties from aspiring dandies for the red vinyl booths with a view of the fireplace. I feel the presence or premonition of illicit gambling here. But mostly, I feel ribeyes and I feel bourbon.

This is Moe’s, San Diego’s new steakhouse. Two years in the making. It’s going into the spot on Mission Boulevard where, for decades—the dark years, before San Diego woke up and realized food was a thing, and there were even good chefs you could hire to make the food better—a local family reigned as just about the only good restaurant in Mission Beach. This is the former home of Saska’s.

There’s a black and white photo of Joe Saska holding court, an homage. Changing the name wasn’t a flip or rash decision. Many hands were wrung. But at the end of the day, says owner Eric Leitstein—in a trucker cap and flannel shirt, eyes red from the long slog of getting a restaurant ready to open—“I’m not a Saska.”

So Leitstein named this new chapter after his own family. Specifically, his granddad.

“He used to take me to the Italian steakhouses in New York where I grew up,” he explains. Grandpa Moe was the reason Eric got into the restaurant and bar business. His hospitality group, OMG, now operates or helps operate a few places (Union Kitchen + Tap, PB Ale House, Backyard, Waterbar, Fish Shop, Moe’s). OMG are his kids’ initials. His family is all over this city, including next door. If you slide open the darkened glass windows near the bar at Moe’s, you can look out and see what will become the sister concept six feet away—a healthy smoothies and bowls place that’ll be called Molly’s. Molly was grandma.

Near the host stand, there’s also a black-and-white of Moe and Molly.

Moe’s was designed by local fabricators, Tecture (Kettner Exchange, Nolita Hall). They added some elements (elegant wood slats, overhead bar lights that change colors for some soft mood disco), but kept those classic red vinyl booths from Saska’s. Skeleton keys hang by the bar to represent the booze lockers along the wall, where regulars can store their prized bottles.

In the kitchen is Jay Scollan, formerly the exec at Laguna Beach classic, Las Brisas. He’s doing a beef tartare with quail egg, crispy calamari blackened with squid ink, a housemade ricotta agnolotti with kabocha squash puree, walnuts, sage, brown butter. The thud on the table is the 40-ounce prime bistecca alla Fiorentina (it’s $155, but the monster feeds at least four regular humans). They’ll serve USDA Prime bone-in ribeyes and New York strips, a filet mignon, a Wagyu Zabuton (aka the marbling-endowed Denver cut), with maitre d’ butter, salsa verde, brandy peppercorn, port wine jus, bearnaise, all the sauces. For sides you got creamed spinach with gruyere, mushrooms in rosemary and vincotto (wine reduction), truffle lobster mac and cheese, roasted garlic potato puree, etc. At the bar, Daniel Vargas (ex Juniper & Ivy) will do cocktails classic and new. GM Brent Noll is a certified sommelier who worked at Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach, the Mina Group, and then won a Wine Spectator award for his wine list at Whisknladle. He’ll be curating the wine list.

Moe’s soft-opens this Friday. Soft opens are designed for operators to work out the kinks. So should you go, be patient, be cool.

Moe’s, 3768 Mission Blvd., Mission Beach

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First Look Swan Bar – main

Ask Abel Kaase about some of the most eye-catching elements of his new concept, Swan Bar, and he’ll tell you that most of them were just “happy accidents.” The back bar, for example, was originally meant to be a classic mirrored wall until Kaase was told he’d have to rip out a lot of existing framework to install it. He scrapped that plan and replaced it with large sheets of aluminum foil, LED strips, and an ivory-colored acrylic cover that creates a cool, textured installation piece to anchor the space.

“A lot of this process was just going with the flow and having fun, and realizing that the end result was way cooler than what I originally planned for,” says Kaase.

A good chunk of those original plans made their way into the final product regardless. Kaase’s idea for a “vintage steakhouse without the steak” had been ruminating in his head even before he decided to close the book on Beerfish, the location’s former seafood joint, last year. 

“I was itching for a refresh, but wasn’t quite sure what that looked like,” he says. “I remembered how much I loved being a part of the craft cocktail scene back with Sessions Public, and it just hit me that I wanted to do cocktails again.”

The drink menu, led by beverage director Pete Shea, offers six draught cocktails (cosmopolitans, appletinis), and a selection of signature cocktails that put a modern riff on the classics, like a rosemary-infused bourbon old-fashioned. Kaase also dreamed up a craft distillery aspect that’ll be up and running soon after Swan Bar opens.

That was the driving force behind Swan Bar—simple drinks, well made, in a moody and intimate spot inspired by Old World interiors of burgundy and rich textures. And Swan Bar is all of that, with art-deco-inspired wallpaper, shou sugi ban wood panels (a Japanese architectural technique of charring wood until it’s black), shiny black-and-gold marbled flooring in the bathrooms, and a large custom copper fireplace that demands a corner of the bar’s outdoor space. 

But it’s also equally a no-frills kind of neighborhood joint—the food menu, a simple yet strong lineup of burgers, starts at $9. Kaase’s buddies were in the back drilling and sawing and installing the custom booths to get Swan Bar ready for its opening. His father made a number of the wooden tabletops by hand, which Kaase picked up and drove down the coast himself.

“I have a greater appreciation for making things and doing things versus just opening and moving on,” Kaase says. “I really wanted the creative process and collaborative input.”

You can spot that collaborative effort all over Swan Bar. Start with the bartop that Kaase repurposed from Beerfish. He and Shea added seven layers of patina over the galvanized top, just to see where it would end up. “We had already come to grips that it might not work out and we might have to toss it completely, so we figured we might as well give it a try,” he says. “We just kept going and adding more layers to it until all of a sudden it turned into something amazing.”

It’s another happy accident on the road to bringing Kaase’s latest passion project to life.

2933 Adams Avenue, Normal Heights

First Look swan Bar – bar long

First Look Swan Bar – bar closeup

First Look Swan Bar – angled bar

First Look Swan Bar – corner

First Look Swan Bar – booths

First Look – Swan bar booths angled

First Look – Swan Bar seats

First Look Swan Bar – hallway

First Look – Swan Bar taps

First Look Swan Bar – still

First Look Swan Bar – fireplace

The post FIRST LOOK: Swan Bar appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

I’m jolted by a sharp pain in my left butt cheek as I climb into my car. I whine, then pull the culprit from my back pocket: a five-cent green plastic figurine of a skateboarder. Journalistic standards dictate that I disclose it was a gift from the chef. While some restaurants have huge jars of brightly pickled veggies as functional art, Travis Swikard has a giant jar of tiny plastic skate punks. It’s across from the velvet painting of “The Dude,” actor Jeff Bridges’ greatest role, a robed, mythically unshaven man on a slow-motion spiritual quest to reunite with his area rug. 

“I want Tony Hawk to come in here and I’m going to send him home with one of those little skaters,” says the 37-year-old chef, sporting a baseball cap and a T-shirt. These plastic skate rats and The Dude are important. They lighten the mood, temper the hype, suck any misplaced pretense from the air. 

You see, this is the entrance of Callie, one of the most highly anticipated restaurants to arrive in San Diego in a long, long time. Swikard has been working his whole adult life for this. Born and raised in El Cajon, he left to learn under some greats. In England, he worked weekdays at Auberge du Lac in Hertfordshire and weekends at L’Escargot in the West End, then run by the revered and infamously explosive chef Marco Pierre White. In New York, he started at the bottom of the pecking order in the empire of Daniel Boulud, arguably the most famous modern French chef in the world. He spent 3 years—mentored by another former San Diego chef, Gavin Kaysen—rising through the ranks, from chef de partie to tournant to sous chef before being recruited to open Boulud Sud as executive sous. Two years later he was executive chef. Finally, from 2016 to 2018, Swikard served as culinary director for three of Daniel’s 7 NYC locations —as high a post as he could get without actually being Daniel Boulud. 

“This is my Daniel section,” says Swikard, pointing to a collection of Boulud cookbooks on the shelf outside the private dining room, adding humbly, “he called this morning to check in.” Another cookbook is propped open to the page that features Gavin Kaysen. Then there’s a slew of Alice Waters’ cookbooks, the first he ever bought. 

Swikard is neither precious nor cocky nor even keen to talk about his skill set. He’s either a great actor, or he’s damn near egoless. Instead he walks around his restaurant pointing at his wine person, his GM, his bar manager, rattling off their résumés. 

After Boulud, he could have chosen any city for the first restaurant of his own. But local restaurateur David Cohn went to New York and convinced him to come home. The space above the line of the open kitchen—where Swikard will stand on opening day, set for June 4—is designed like a rusted ship’s bow. A local boy back to harbor. Callie was supposed to open last year. Then the pandemic hit and made him wait what felt like a second lifetime. 

But that year off was invaluable. It allowed him to relearn his home from a chef’s perspective. He met with farmers, fishers, ranchers, foodmakers, shopkeepers, cooks, bartenders, wine people. He and his family settled in Rancho Peñasquitos, which is apparently riddled with wild fennel. He forages them for the fennel pollen, mostly—which he’ll use for tuna atop a Meyer lemon bucatini. In Callie’s kitchen, he opens a giant bag full of fresh-picked grape leaves. “I was in Mid East Market yesterday and the owner was like, ‘Travis! Are you going to be making dolmas? Take some of these leaves from my backyard.’” 

He points to a back door to the kitchen. Callie has its own loading dock for trucks. “We’ll get whole fish delivered from local boats there,” he says, geeking out a bit. Then, pointing to a sink, “we’ll break the fish down here, use the whole thing.” 

At the pasta station, he points to a small mill where his cooks will grind their own grains (they’ll bake their own bread). In the walk-in cooler, we use tasting spoons to try his mango amba puree—a condiment popular in Israeli kitchens—fermented for three weeks, pickly-sweet.

As we walk out back into the main dining room, you can really see what he’s done to the bar. An artist in Oregon took whole wooden beams, wet them, placed them in a vice, and eventually, over weeks, they bent into the shape of a curling wave. At the end of the day, he is an unrepentant San Diego surf kid.

“It’s a wave,” he says, a preteen glimmer in his eye. “Everyone sitting in the bar is getting barreled. I mean, that’s me. It’s who I am. The worst thing that could happen here is that people come in expecting tweezers and microgreens and Michelin stuff. This place is for anyone. All our food is meant to be shared. That bar is for locals who just want to come in without a reservation and have a drink and a bite.” 

He turns around, shows me his t-shirt says “Callie: East Village.” The neighborhood is important to him. “They’re having a sort of night market in East Village tomorrow night,” he says. “I have no time, but I’m going anyway. I put East Village on the shirt because it’s not just San Diego, but also this neighborhood. I believe in it. I’m proud of it. I think this part of town is going to be special.”

So this is Callie, an ode to here, his home. It had every right to be far more precious about itself. But it refused. 

The Details

Callie will open June 4. They start taking reservations on their website today (May 7). The menu is “Cuisine of the Sun”: casual Mediterranean food with the best ingredients Swikard can find. 

Food from Greece, Spain, Morocco, Italy, the Middle East. Whatever tastes good. Think share dips (hummus, baba ganoush, avocado labneh), Aleppo chicken, Tunisian brik, squid-ink linguini, Meyer lemon bucatini, crudos, and cured local seafood. Cocktails like The Olmstead (gin, fresh rhubarb, angelica root, lemon juice, floated with an IPA) and Siren’s Swizzle (Jamaican rum and Guatemalan rum, with amaro, honey, and lime). 

The lounge and main dining room will seat 144. An additional 19 at the bar. Underground parking is free for diners, which is key in East Village. It was designed by Studio Unltd, who also handled Bestia and Bavel in LA. It’s located at the corner of Park Boulevard and Island Avenue downtown.

1195 Island Avenue, calliesd.com

Callie – outside

Callie – lobby

Callie – host stand

Callie – dining room

Callie – dining room 2

Callie – dining room 3

Callie – booth trolley

Callie -booths

Callie – tables and kitchen

Callie – kitchen

Callie – tables and wine cellar

Callie – wine cellar

Callie – table detail

Callie – bar

Callie – bar 2

Callie – private dining

Callie – private dining 2

Callie – spices

Callie – pasta maker

Callie – bathroom

Callie – The Dude

Callie – main

The post FIRST LOOK: Callie appeared first on San Diego Magazine.