Awards

Tara Monsod, the executive chef at the upscale Asian fusion restaurant Animae in downtown San Diego, has become the first San Diego chef in 34 years to be named a final nominee for a 2024 James Beard Award in the category of Best Chef: California.

The Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club, which reopened in July 2023, has been inducted into Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation for recognizing, celebrating, and promoting the finest historic hotels in the United States. The $31 million renovation and redesign was the first proper restoration of the property and designed by CH Projects and Brooklyn-based Post Company, including seven new food and beverage outlets, a signature pool originally designed by Johnny Weissmuller and a recently opened jazz club and music venue which has hosted iconic performers to immortalized movie scenes, including the serenade in “Top Gun”.

Esquire, a popular men’s lifestyle magazine, named The Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club its 2024 New Hotel of the Year. The Lafayette leads Esquire’s top 41 new hotels in North America and Europe, surpassing Rosewood Resort on Hawaii’s Big Island and Rome’s opulent Bulgari hotel.

USA Today Blueprint named San Diego the sixth most dog-friendly vacation destination in the U.S. The report analyzed six data points, such as the number of dog-friendly accommodations, restaurants and bars, as well as dog-friendly beaches and trails.