Polite Provisions’ Erick Castro stops by

In today’s episode of the Happy Half Hour, Troy, Erin, and Archana are discussing Mutual Friend Ice Cream, the hip new ice cream shop from the team behind Dark Horse Coffee Roasters,Surf Rider Pizza Co. coming to La Mesa, and a new hand roll concept coming to Liberty Station from Land & Water Co.’s chef Rob Ruiz. Plus, we have two Thanksgiving-centric events for you: Brian Malarkey’s demo and family-style dinner on November 7 at Farmer & the Seahorse and a November 14 ChefsGiving at Provisional Kitchen, Café & Mercantile at the Pendry hotel featuring JoJo Ruiz (Lionfish), Anthony Wells (Juniper & Ivy), and more, with Troy hosting the event and $25 of each ticket benefitting the San Diego Food Bank. Today’s guest is Erick Castro, partner and bartender at Polite Provisions and Raised By Wolves, not to mention podcaster and documentary filmmaker with his platform Bartender At Large. He’s talking about opening Polite when Normal Heights wasn’t so cool, the one problem with that rotating platform at Raised By Wolves, and yes, he answered why they opened in a mall. Our hot topic is about a food writer turned restaurateur who wants to apologize for all the critiques she’s thrown at restaurant owners. She’s sorry; she now realizes just how hard the industry really is. In Two People/$50 we’re recommending K Sandwiches, Simsim, and Fernside.