The Dish: Vista-raised chef to compete on ‘Top Chef’ season 18

Sara Hauman, a native of Vista whose early kitchen experiences included cooking stints at local health spas, is one of the 15 chefs chosen to compete this spring on Bravo’s “Top Chef” season 18 in Portland, Ore.

The upcoming season, which premieres April 1, was filmed in a quarantine bubble at a Portland resort last fall. Bravo has not made Hauman available for a phone interview yet, but her website, Instagram account and online articles filled in some details on her background.

Vista-raised chef Sara Hauman, right, with fellow contestants Kiki Louya, left, and Sasha Grumman, center, on the season premiere of Bravo’s “Top Chef” season 18 in Portland, Ore.

(David Moir/Bravo )

According to her website, the 33-year-old Hauman discovered her obsession with food when she moved to Spain to live with her father after graduating from a Vista high school. When she returned to San Diego a year later, she earned a culinary degree from The Art Institute in 2008 while working in local resort kitchens. At 22, she moved to San Francisco, where she worked for chef Brandon Jew at Bar Agricole.

In 2013, she spent seven months staging (interning) at Spain’s Asador Etxebarri restaurant. When she returned to San Francisco as executive chef of Huxley, she was named a James Beard Rising Star Chef semifinalist in 2016 and 2017 and she earned a 3-star review from the San Francisco Chronicle. She went on to work as chef de cuisine at Michelin-starred Octavia in San Francisco, where the Chronicle named her to its 2017 Rising Star Chef list. Since August 2019, she has been executive chef at Soter Vineyards in Carlton, Ore.

Hauman is one of two California chefs competing on “Top Chef” this season; the other is Nelson German, the chef/owner of AlaMar Kitchen in Oakland. Also featured this coming season as regular guest judge is Richard Blais, the Del Mar chef who won “Top Chef: All Stars” in 2011.

For more details, visit bravotv.com/people/sara-hauman.

Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar has opened at the Fashion Valley shopping center.

(Courtesy photo)

Tommy Bahama opens at Fashion Valley

After an eight-month, pandemic-related delay, Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar opened last week in the Fashion Valley shopping center in Mission Valley. The indoor/outdoor restaurant/bar is part of a dual concept 7,200-square-foot space that includes an adjacent Tommy Bahama retail store selling sportswear, swimwear and home decor items.

The walk-up restaurant’s signature items include coconut shrimp, blackened mahi mahi and filet mignon tacos, chicken mango salad and Nashville hot chicken sliders. The full bar offers custom cocktails, rum drinks, martinis, wine, beer and nonalcoholic cocktails. The outdoor bar area is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Customers order at the bar for bar or table service. Store customers can also order a cocktail while they shop. The location is at 7007 Friars Road, Suite 305, San Diego. Visit tommybahama.com/restaurants.

A sampling of dishes from Cerveza Jack’s Gaslamp, which opened Feb. 18 in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego.

(Patrick Samokhvalof)

Cerveza Jack’s opens in Gaslamp

Cerveza Jack’s Gaslamp, a Southern fusion comfort food restaurant owned by the San Diego hospitality company Good Time Design, opened Feb. 18 in the Gaslamp Quarter.

The new restaurant took over the former Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers location at 322 Fifth Ave. It serves dinner on weekdays and lunch and dinner on weekends, with 40 beers on tap. Live music will be offered in the future. This is the Good Time Design’s second Cerveza Jack’s location. The original in Nashville is temporarily closed for rebuilding after a suicide bomber detonated his van on the downtown street outside the restaurant on Christmas Day. Visit cervezajacks.com.

A skeleton drinks from a tap at a Ballast Point tasting room during the San Diego brewery’s Victory at Sea Day celebration in the past. The event returns Feb. 28 as a weeklong celebration.

(Corutesy of Ballast Point)

Ballast Point reimagines ‘Victory at Sea Day’

For the past six years on the Sunday before Christmas, Ballast Point brewery has held a pirate-themed celebration of dark beers in honor of its imperial porter Victory at Sea.

Due to pandemic-related closures, the Victory at Sea Day in December 2020 was postponed. Instead, Ballast Point will be hosting an expanded Victory at Sea Days celebration from Feb. 28 through March 7 at its three San Diego tap rooms. Victory at Sea beer will be on tap along with more than eight other rare dark beer varieties. For details, visit ballastpoint.com.

Biggie’s Burgers opens in Vista

Biggie’s Burgers, a small ‘50s-style burger chain with locations in San Clemente and Pacific Beach, opened its third location last month in Vista.

Founded in 1991 in San Clemente, Biggie’s makes and preps most of its ingredients — patties, fries and onion rings — in-house. The new Vista location is in the Target shopping center at 1711 University Ave., Vista. Visit biggiesburgers.com.

Split Bakehouse opens in La Mesa

Split Bakehouse, the 3-year-old vegan wholesale bakery owned by Vanessa Corrales, opened its first public bakery on Feb. 10 at the Grossmont Center outdoor mall.

Over the past three years, Split has built a large distribution network for its vegan pastries at more than 40 coffee shops and restaurants countywide, including Camp Coffee in Oceanside and Jaunt Coffee in the Miramar area. The bakery specializes in vegan laminated pastries with monthly holiday specials for online pre-orders. It also makes its own vegan butter and eggs. Pablo Mendez is Split’s executive pastry chef.

For now, the Grossmont location of Split is offering to-go sales through a takeout window near the mall’s food court at 5500 Grossmont Center Drive. For details, visit splitbakehouse.com.

Kragen writes about restaurants for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Email her at pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com.