The spicy chicken katsu at Ichiban Sando

Madeline Yang

The second-largest city in San Diego County was long considered drive-by territory on the way to and from Tijuana, though always good for a water park visit. Now, longtime locals who grew up through the food revolution are opening creative spots, and Baja cuisine has become San Diego’s lingua franca.

Bayfront improvements (a $250 million redevelopment project just got greenlit), a thriving beer scene, legal weed, and a strong sense of local pride have kicked this predominantly Mexican-American suburban border city into high gear.

The action concentrates on Third Avenue, home to beloved spots like Grindhouse (Cuban sandwiches, cold brews, craft beer) and the area’s biggest block party, Amps & Ales—which brings bands like B-Side Players and brass and cumbia musicians, plus samples of beers and wines from San Diego and Baja.

Main Street is lined with tacos and Mexican-style seafood trucks like Mariscos Y Birria El Prieto, serving both hankerings in one truck. Even far-out suburb Eastlake is turning up with decent places to eat, like Chef Budda Blasian Soul Food, which might just serve the best chicken strip in the San Diego metro. Here are five things to eat in Chula Vista right now:

Adobada at Mr. Adobada

Tacos el Gordo is still king in Chula Vista, but the lines can be punishing. Enter Mr. Adobada, a truck around the corner with a spinning trompo of—wait for it—adobada and grilled taco meats. While the namesake steals the show, the asada is worth a try, too.

Sando at Ichiban Sando

Nashville hot chicken sandwich fatigue is real. Ichiban’s spicy chicken katsu sando is a welcome twist that stacks a panko-crusted breast slathered with a house chili sauce, slaw, and jalapeños between thick, house-baked Japanese milk toast. There’s also pretty good milk tea boba to sip on.

Fish Tacos at TJ Oyster Bar

Chula Vista is stacked when it comes to mariscos options, but TJ Oyster Bar’s Baja-style fish tacos taste especially divinated: perfectly battered, perfectly fried, and perfectly paired with a michelada. Tack on a side of the tuna fries and venture into the unreal.

Chilaquiles at Talavera Azul

The Curiel family recipe for chilaquiles keeps locals coming back to this Third Avenue institution. Crispy tortillas get tossed in your choice of two sauces: chipotle, red, green, poblano cream, mole, or divorciados. Protein add-ons include shredded chicken, machaca, avocado, chorizo, chicken breast, or arrachera (skirt steak).

Pho-Men at Izakaya Naruto

Find a very South Bay meeting of Asian and Mexican flavors at this strip mall Japanese kitchen. The “Chula Vista Pho-Men” is a mashup of chicken broth, cha-shu chicken, and rice noodles, all with a nice cross-border accent coming from cilantro, jalapeno, and lime.

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Plascencia is the real deal. He grew up on both sides of the border. His family, under Grupo Plascencia, has been a leader in Tijuana’s culinary scene for decades. Plascencia made his own name with his Chula Vista restaurant, Romesco, then opened his temple to modern Mexican cooking, Mision 19, in Tijuana, followed by the rustic Finca Altozano in Baja’s wine region, Valle de Guadalupe.

For all his repute—including features in the New York Times and The New Yorker hailing him as the chosen son of Baja cuisine—San Diegans have had to drive near the border to try his food. And now they don’t.

Bracero is a 4,800, two-level showpiece on Kettner Blvd. in Little Italy. Little Italy is the undisputed heart of San Diego’s culinary scene right now, and for the foreseeable future.

San Diego’s long had a fitful relationship with gourmet Mexican food. Blame $3 defrosted rolled taco culture. But over the last few years, some of Baja’s most accomplished chefs have brought their riffs on seafood, chiles, charcoal and spice across to San Diego. The hottest thing in San Diego’s food culture right now is Mexico.

So the timing couldn’t be more perfect for Bracero. Expect small plates, large plates. Dishes inspired by Plascencia’s other restaurants. Dishes inspired by San Diego and Baja. They’ll be making their own masa in house—a key for a truly housemade Mexican experience. A crudo bar will serve shellfish from Carlsbad and wild seafood from Baja. The tequila program will be massive. Wines will come from California and Valle de Guadalupe. Craft cocktails will have a Mexican kick, and craft beers will be from both sides of the border.

There will be tiraditos, ceviches, sashimi, roasted meats, the smell of corn, peppers and sopes and high-end French saucing techniques. It will be a mishmash of border and culinary cultures.

San Diego has never been more ready to see what real, top-end Mexican cooking is all about.

But enough of that. Please enjoy our first look inside Bracero Cocina de Raiz, with design done by talented locals, Bells & Whistles.

Bracero opens today.

Bracero Cocina de Raiz, 1490 Kettner Blvd, Little Italy, 619.756.7864.

FIRST LOOK: Bracero

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Years from now, San Diego food lovers will talk about this week.

That’s because two restaurants from two of the area’s top chefs—Galaxy Taco by Trey Foshee (George’s at the Cove), and Bracero by Javier Plascencia (Mision 19, Romesco)—are about to help San Diego’s Mexican food scene take a giant leap forward.

Up first is Galaxy Taco. Foshee has long been one of the most respected chefs in the country. In 1998, a year after Food & Wine magazine named him “One of America’s Ten Best New Chefs,” Foshee joined owner George Hauer as chef of George’s at the Cove in La Jolla. It’s been one of the city’s iconic restaurants ever since. It only took them 16 years to spin off another concept—a 4,200 square-foot taco joint with craft tequila and mezcal cocktails, house-ground masa and wood-smoked specialties from Foshee and chef de cuisine Christine Rivera.

“For years, George wanted to keep all partners focused on George’s,” explains Foshee. “It was the right decision. We first started talking about Galaxy two years ago. The original idea was to do something super simple and fun and not very expensive. We were just going to do tacos and good music and good drinks. That got turned all upside down. The space dictated what we were going to do.”

The space is half of the old La Jolla Shores Market (2259 Avenida de la Playa) in the Kellogg Building. They also annexed two adjacent cottages (one a former kayak rental shop) with room for 160 guests (about 80 inside, 80 on patio seating). It’s an area where, right next to one of San Diego’s most bustling beaches, neither locals nor visitors could get a good taco and a margarita—until now.

Foshee designed the menu along with Rivera, who’s been at George’s for four years. They’ll base as much food as possible off their wood-burning grill (a staple of Baja cuisine). Also key to the food: grinding their own masa from scratch. Foshee and Rivera have been working for a couple years on the recipe and technique; Foshee built on his past experience working with chef John Rivera Sedlar and consulted with chef Carlos Salgado (of Tacos Maria in O.C.). To do it right, Foshee sent Rivera to work with chef Daniela Soto-Innes of famed NYC restaurant, Cosme. They had a $10,000 molino (masa grinder) custom-made for Galaxy, and will use heirloom, non-GMO corn from Masienda in Mexico.

Foshee also helped design the space with Mark Steele (of M.W. Steele), enlisting his neighbor Ross McDowell to paint a skeleton mural and surf icon Brian Szymanski (owner of Ding King and a paddleboard champion) to build weatherproof patio tables out of surfboard materials. The end result? Well, we’ve got the first photos in the known universe below. As for why one of the country’s top chefs would open a taco shop (albeit a pretty fancy one)?

“All those conversations we’ve had about what is San Diego food,” says Foshee, a longtime surfer. “Well, fish tacos and Mexican food and margaritas are part of that and I love that. You get off the beach, you go have some ceviche and a good margarita. It’s the little things done well. We’re not reinventing the wheel. People aren’t going to come in here and say ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that before.’ Hopefully they’re going to come in here and say, ‘Wow, that’s fu**ing delicious.'”

Galaxy Taco opens to the public Monday, July 13.

FIRST LOOK: Galaxy Taco

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One of the most famous white men cooking Mexican food (the James Beard Award winner hosts the long-running PBS series, Mexico: One Plate At a Time), Bayless’ project Red O is set to take over the space from Donovan’s in La Jolla (4340 La Jolla Village Dr., across from Westfield UTC mall). Donovan’s will be serving food until the new year, at which point they’ll relocate to 1270 Prospect Street (currently home to Azul Steakhouse).

Red O reportedly has big, big plans. Whereas Donovan’s was an exclusively indoor restaurant, the Irvine Company wants to create Red O as a sprawling environment that serves as an amenity for employees in the business park. Full plans aren’t set in stone, but we’re expecting a sort of craft beer and Mexican food oasis (sounds a bit like Karl Strauss’s digs in Sorrento Valley). In February they’ll start by razing the old Donovan’s building and erecting a whole new 8,300 square-foot restaurant structure that’ll include 2,000 square-feet of patio dining.

Irvine Company’s Michael Lyster says the company has a long-standing relationship with Red O due to the other restaurant location at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

Bayless is most famous for his Chicago restaurants Frontera Grill, Topolobampo and Xoco, which pay chefy homage to his favorite food culture. Red O is a very modern, design-forward Mexican concept in partnership with L.A. restaurateurs Mike Dobson and Rick Teasta (who also own Ma’Kai Lounge in Santa Monica). San Diego will be its fourth SoCal location (the original was launched on Melrose in 2010), opening mid-2016.

Red O’s signature dishes at other locations include pork belly sopes, ceviche Fronterizo, goat cheese tamales, achiote-suckling pig, and goat cheese cheesecake with caramel corn and Mexican root beer sauce. The existing locations also boast over 100 tequilas, specialty cocktails and all sorts of craft beer.

More details to emerge soon all over San Diego media.

INCOMING: Red O

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One of the most famous white men cooking Mexican food (the James Beard Award winner hosts the long-running PBS series, Mexico: One Plate At a Time), Bayless’ project Red O is set to take over the space from Donovan’s in La Jolla (4340 La Jolla Village Dr., across from Westfield UTC mall). Donovan’s will be serving food until the new year, at which point they’ll relocate to 1270 Prospect Street (currently home to Azul Steakhouse).

Red O reportedly has big, big plans. Whereas Donovan’s was an exclusively indoor restaurant, the Irvine Company wants to create Red O as a sprawling environment that serves as an amenity for employees in the business park. Full plans aren’t set in stone, but we’re expecting a sort of craft beer and Mexican food oasis (sounds a bit like Karl Strauss’s digs in Sorrento Valley). In February they’ll start by razing the old Donovan’s building and erecting a whole new 8,300 square-foot restaurant structure that’ll include 2,000 square-feet of patio dining.

Irvine Company’s Michael Lyster says the company has a long-standing relationship with Red O due to the other restaurant location at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

Bayless is most famous for his Chicago restaurants Frontera Grill, Topolobampo and Xoco, which pay chefy homage to his favorite food culture. Red O is a very modern, design-forward Mexican concept in partnership with L.A. restaurateurs Mike Dobson and Rick Teasta (who also own Ma’Kai Lounge in Santa Monica). San Diego will be its fourth SoCal location (the original was launched on Melrose in 2010), opening mid-2016.

Red O’s signature dishes at other locations include pork belly sopes, ceviche Fronterizo, goat cheese tamales, achiote-suckling pig, and goat cheese cheesecake with caramel corn and Mexican root beer sauce. The existing locations also boast over 100 tequilas, specialty cocktails and all sorts of craft beer.

More details to emerge soon all over San Diego media.

INCOMING: Red O

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If the cuisine ADD scares you, don’t let it. Friscia is one of the more respected chefs in San Diego.

Don Chido is going into 527 5th Ave. in the Gaslamp (formerly Fred’s Mexican Café). He’ll have a Santa Maria grill (barbecue culture heads go nuts for these things, and they’re rare in restaurants) that he’ll use with coastal live oak to make some Santa Maria-style barbecue. Expect wood-fired and smoked Mexican specialties like tacos al pastor with fire-roasted pineapple, and the mother of all dishes: Don Chido Especiale—a wood-fired rib eye with ancho chili garlic butter, chipotle lime wild Mexican shrimp, charred house-made chorizo, frijoles refritos, avocado, chile relleno, house-made corn tortillas and charred globe onions garnished with red guajillo sauce.

Davis Ink Ltd. handled the design of the 4,000 square-foot space (max occ. 120). The image of a cowgirl frolicking in her own libido nods to the old west via Betty Page. One wall is made of Mexican blankets. The center bar is equipped with a tacqueria stand that’ll make hot, fresh tortillas. There are custom-designed maraca wall sconces. The color palate is a playful kind of paint-can roulette.

They’re shooting for a June 30 open (that’s always a crapshoot). When they do, it’ll be 11am to close.

Enough with the un-pretty words. Please enjoy the first pretty photos in the known universe of Don Chido.

Don Chido. Don sexy.

Found Creative Studio (http://foundcreativestudio.com/)

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

If the cuisine ADD scares you, don’t let it. Friscia is one of the more respected chefs in San Diego.

Don Chido is going into 527 5th Ave. in the Gaslamp (formerly Fred’s Mexican Café). He’ll have a Santa Maria grill (barbecue culture heads go nuts for these things, and they’re rare in restaurants) that he’ll use with coastal live oak to make some Santa Maria-style barbecue. Expect wood-fired and smoked Mexican specialties like tacos al pastor with fire-roasted pineapple, and the mother of all dishes: Don Chido Especiale—a wood-fired rib eye with ancho chili garlic butter, chipotle lime wild Mexican shrimp, charred house-made chorizo, frijoles refritos, avocado, chile relleno, house-made corn tortillas and charred globe onions garnished with red guajillo sauce.

Davis Ink Ltd. handled the design of the 4,000 square-foot space (max occ. 120). The image of a cowgirl frolicking in her own libido nods to the old west via Betty Page. One wall is made of Mexican blankets. The center bar is equipped with a tacqueria stand that’ll make hot, fresh tortillas. There are custom-designed maraca wall sconces. The color palate is a playful kind of paint-can roulette.

They’re shooting for a June 30 open (that’s always a crapshoot). When they do, it’ll be 11am to close.

Enough with the un-pretty words. Please enjoy the first pretty photos in the known universe of Don Chido.

Don Chido. Don sexy.

Found Creative Studio (http://foundcreativestudio.com/)

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

Venga Venga

Venga Venga

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Baja Fresh!

The Caesar salad, the margarita, the fish taco—Baja’s cuisine is so iconic, it was recently named a cultural treasure to the state by the World Tourism Organization. And there’s no better time to sample it all than the Baja California Culinary Fest in Tijuana and Valle de Guadalupe October 24-27.

The four-day event kicks off Thursday with an inaugural dinner hosted by Food Network chef Marcela Valladolid. Other events include cooking competitions, celeb chef cooking demos, a culinary expo featuring Tijuana’s best street food and 7-course wine-pairing dinners at restaurants like Mision 19 and La Condesa. For those who have always wanted to know the true story about the creation of the Caesar salad, there’s even a play about its origins on Oct. 26 at the Tijuana Cultural Center and yes, a Caesar salad tasting will follow.

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And that includes its fabulous variety of ceviches. I counted eight at the new store, at a counter that also sports salsas (both roja and verde), guacamole, pickled chiles, and more mundane items like macaroni and potato salads. Try them. The counterman I met was hugely generous to all the waiting customers, happily suggesting tastes and then filling up to overflowing the little tasting cups.

So, go for the beautiful produce, the tender rotisserie butterfly chicken, the aisle filled with bottled hot sauces and Tajin, the tortilleria, and the bakery (love the new whole grain bisquits). But don’t leave without a couple of containers of ceviche and house-made tortilla chips. (And, if you go on Fridays, there are special discounts on the ceviches.)

Here are the three the counterman said are not to be missed—and I agree.

ceviches

Ceviches | Photo by Caron Golden

Shrimp Ceviche (Ceviche de Camaron)

This is your basic shrimp ceviche. You can get mild or spicy. It’s made with shrimp, cilantro, lime juice, garlic, and jalapeño peppers.  $5.99 a pound

Spicy Shrimp Ceviche (Ceviche de Camaron Aquachile)

The ceviche de camaron aquachile is a variation, even of the spicy ceviche de camaron. They aren’t fooling around with the heat, thanks to the habanero chile. It also has red onion, cilantro, lime juice, and garlic. How hot is it? Well, my eyes watered a bit, but I loved it. It’s full-bodied heat that really deserves (requires?) an icy bottle of Tecate beer as an accompaniment. $6.99 a pound

Shrimp and Octopus Ceviche (Ceviche de Camaron y Pulpo)

Can’t decide on guacamole or ceviche? Try this ceviche, whose name make you think it’s just about the shrimp and octopus (both very tender), but is really about the voluptuous chunks of avocado. It’s a mouthful of different bursts of flavor, thanks also to the habanero, cilantro, lime juice, and garlic. $6.99 a pound

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