A First-Look at New San Diego Restaurant Callie’s California-Mediterranean Menu | Eater San Diego

"A homecoming for native San Diegan Travis Swikard, Callie is a California‑Mediterranean restaurant in East Village that aims to be a welcoming, relaxed neighborhood hangout and a destination for the stadium district; it opens Friday, June 4 and offers ample free parking. Swikard — who moved back to San Diego after a decade working with Daniel Boulud and in Michelin‑starred kitchens — spent months sourcing local resources (from Temecula olive oil to spices from El Cajon markets and preserved limes from his backyard) to build a menu that travels through Greece, Spain, Italy, Morocco, and the Middle East while applying fine‑dining technique to local ingredients. Dishes are designed to be shared (each table gets a communal tray of flatware), and foundational plates include blistered pita bread made in an 800‑degree oven with house‑milled kamut flour served with hummus topped with an herby, spicy zhoug and an Israeli‑style baba ghanoush brightened by roasted poblano; a kaiseki‑inspired Bigeye tuna with tomato water gelée seasoned with Fresno chile vinegar; charred Mediterranean octopus with a fennel salad of locally grown greens and garlicky skordalia; Burrata agnolini from a dedicated pasta station where pasta is hand‑made with the same Italian flour as Modena’s famed Osteria Francescana and finished with Temecula olive oil, lemon, summer squash, black pepper, and marjoram; Aleppo chicken sourced from a Pomona farm, marinated overnight and cooked over charcoal, glazed with coriander honey and served with sumac pickles; and a Meyer lemon dessert pairing lemon curd with honey‑whipped labneh, rose meringue, and candy floss made from sesame halva. Swikard says Callie is built for the San Diego community rather than national critics, and James Beard winner Gavin Kaysen has praised him as primed to help elevate the city’s dining scene." - Candice Woo