Crowning the open kitchen of Callie, in San Diego’s East Village, is a sheet of glowing, rust-colored steel that comes to a point in the center—like the bow of a ship, said chef-owner Travis Swikard. Working each evening service, “I stand right there, and it’s me at the helm of my ship coming home, bringing back everything I have with me.”
There’s some precious cargo onboard.
Culinary school in New England and a stint in London; a decade working under revered French fine dining chef Daniel Boulud in New York; and a lifetime of dogged hard work, attention to detail, and rabbit-hole-diving curiosity have all led to Swikard’s debut restaurant, opened in June 2021. Here, fine-dining finesse meets surfer-dude casual (flip-flops are welcome), and the Mediterranean flavors he fell in love with during his travels meet his hometown’s home-grown abundance.
Swikard had his heart set on a culinary career since childhood. But he credits his mentor, chef Gavin Kaysen, with first showing him its true potential: “an endless opportunity for growth and knowledge for the rest of your life.”
“He was able to get into my head at a young age that you need to build a great, strong foundation—learning your tools, how to sharpen your knife, where the fish comes from,” Swikard said. Build a 1-by-1 foundation, Kaysen told him, and you’ll be set up for a 1-by-1 house. But build one “that’s 10 feet deep [and] wide, and you can build the Empire State Building—the sky’s your limit.”
Those understandings were reinforced during a training trip to Japan, which left him in awe of the depth of technique behind the most deceptively simple dishes. Take the nuanced, multi-step process of preparing hirame, a type of flatfish, from proper butchering to hand-plating: “At the end, it’s a bite of umami like you’ve never had before—and there’s nothing on the fish. But the only way you get there is knowing everything that gets you there; you can’t just buy the fish and cut it open. It really made me fall in love with that process of trying to express the best of that ingredient.”
With that approach, and San Diego’s unmatched bounty, it’s no wonder that every dish at Callie sings.
“There’s no better place in the world to have a restaurant that is ingredient-focused,” Swikard said. For his vegetables, he works with local farmers “120, 180 days out, planting lettuce from seeds” for the next season. Seafood arrives still breathing from local fishermen; he might not know exactly what he’ll get until the morning of, but “I know exactly where it’s coming from, how it was caught, the guy that pulled it out of the water.”
That freshness is apparent in dishes like the squid ink rigatoni, where the sweetest morsels of spiny lobster tail shine even in the boldly flavored fra diavolo sauce. The sauce is made with the lobster shells, and roasted local peppers and leeks.
Vegetables are also pushed to their best: A “beets and roses” dish elevates the humble roots with rose-infused labneh, fresh herbs, pomegranate seeds, and bits of caramelized pistachio—an unexpected medley of textures and flavors that is a pure delight to eat.
The hummus is a standout among a selection of all-excellent dips. Skinned chickpeas are whizzed with tahini, garlic confit, and California olive oil; spiked with a bright zhug sauce made with local serrano peppers and preserved Bearss limes from Swikard’s father’s backyard; and served with pita made with rye berries milled and ground in-house. Ethereally light but deeply savory, it’s the kind of dish you could eat forever—pita or no pita.
Swikard is excited to explore new opportunities here—catalyzing the city’s burgeoning food scene, expanding his skillset and capacity as a restaurateur, and stepping into a mentor role himself, helping his team members build out their foundations, too.
Running a restaurant is “not just [about] being a great chef,” he said. It’s about understanding “the whole picture of hospitality,” a lesson he learned from Boulud. “How do you take this heartbeat of yours that loves people, and wants to share that with people, how do you make that a reality? How do you share your heart with people [and] build a hospitality system where they can really feel the love in the dining room?”
