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 lobster roll was the headlining dish that floored a city. But the real story was the relationships that McLeod formed with local fishermen who were pulling their boats into the nearby Tuna Harbor. There was no back door to Ironside, so the fishermen would lug their catch through the main dining room.

Fast forward… McLeod split with CH Projects, went on to help concept and launch a bunch of big-name things in Vegas (like Proper Eats, the food court in the Aria hotel). And now he's back. Not as a figurehead, but in the kitchen.

It's his restaurant. His new dream. His new rebuild (a wood fired kitchen is coming). He comes into Happy Half Hour to talk with Troy about the dream and what Little Italy was like in those early days. Follow Jason HERE.

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. Follow One of Us HERE.

Discover more at San Diego Magazine.

#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 nationalism, refrigerated rail cars, the invention of the meat slicer, and L.A.'s French dip origin story. Johnson makes the case that the piled-high roast beef sandwich is top-notch, cross-generational gustatory engineering. Follow Big Jim HERE.

Discover more at San Diego Magazine.