San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

Troy Johnson, Jackie Bryant

Booking Overview

A weekly local food-and-drink interview show focused on San Diego restaurants, bars, chefs, producers, and culinary culture, with frequent external conversations featuring chefs, restaurant owners, food authors, photographers, and beverage professionals. PR agencies could credibly pitch San Diego culinary operators, cookbook authors, food and beverage makers, hospitality entrepreneurs, and distinctive local experts; booking difficulty is low because the show regularly features accessible regional professionals.

Metrics

Episodes: 300

Frequency: Weekly

Rating: 4.8/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1k-10k

Gender skew: Neutral

Location: USA

Instagram: 326.0k followers

Contact Information

Publicly listed emails

clairej@sdmag.com

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Host

Troy Johnson - Award-winning food writer and Food Network host covering restaurants, chefs, and the broader food-and-drink scene.

Jackie Bryant - Culture-focused editorial voice at San Diego Magazine with a focus on San Diego's local scene.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

low

Typical Credentials:

San Diego-area chefs, restaurant owners, food and beverage producers, farmers, cookbook authors, nutrition professionals, and other established culinary or hospitality practitioners with a distinctive local story or area of expertise.

Required Achievements:

Operating or leading a notable local restaurant, bar, or food business, Creating or contributing to a cookbook, Receiving culinary, food media, or industry recognition, Developing distinctive dishes, beverages, or food-production practices, Building expertise through significant experience in the San Diego food-and-drink scene

Recent Guest Discussions

Greg Frey - Wellness Cooking, Healthy Food, Golden Door's Culinary History, Cookbook Recipes, Vegetable Gardening, And Making Nutritious Food Satisfying.

Torie Borrelli Hall - Pregnancy And Postpartum Nutrition, Family Cooking, Nutrient-dense Ingredients, Recipe Development, And Feeding Children Well.

Eric Wolfinger - Creating Eating For Life, Cookbook Photography, Recipe Development, Family Cooking, And Practical Nutrition.

Preston Caffrey - Tequila, Brunch Cocktails, Beverage Pairings, And The Role Of Spirits In San Diego's Dining Scene.

Alfie Szeprethy - The History And Evolution Of Brunch, Restaurant Dishes, Brunch Menu Development, And The Role Of Cocktails In The Brunch Experience.

Recent Topics

Food, Restaurants, Chefs, Bars, Breweries

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on

San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

SDFC Is Building More Than a Soccer Club

September 24, 2026

What does a soccer team have to do with San Diego's arts scene? Quite a lot, as it turns out. When San Diego FC launched, the club could have spent its marketing budget on billboards, bus wraps, and digital ads. Instead, it went into neighborhoods, found local artists and creatives, and started building the club's identity with them. Through its Playmakers initiative, artists have designed limited-edition merchandise, had their work featured on the stadium's jumbotron, and found themselves in...

Golden Door Has Been Making Wellness Food Taste Good Since '58

September 17, 2026

The wellness world has gotten a lot more complicated since the Golden Door opened its doors in 1958. Today there are powders, potions, trackers, supplements, and approximately 9,000 ways to turn a chia seed into a personality. But the San Marcos retreat, guided by Deborah Szekely's vision, was already taking a whole-body approach—bringing movement, food, and wellness together—long before wellness became an industry. On this week's Happy Half Hour, host Troy Johnson talks with Golden Door exe...

The Cookbook They Wish They'd Had

September 10, 2026

If you think a cookbook about pregnancy sounds like a collection of sad smoothies and recipes involving seven different kinds of seeds, Eric Wolfinger and Torie Borrelli Hall have some news for you. Their new book, Eating for Life: A Holistic Cookbook for Pregnancy and a Thriving Family, has carbonara, lasagna, steak, chocolate mousse, and plenty of other delicious food to keep you both satisfied and nourished. This week on Happy Half Hour, Eric—a James Beard Award-winning food photographer ...

Publicly listed emails

clairej@sdmag.com

Looking for the right person? Join Podseeker to find direct host and producer contacts and manage your podcast outreach.

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