Next time you find yourself munching on so-claimed local fare while out to eat, you might want to do some sleuthing on the side.

Troy Johnson’s a big name on San Diego’s foodie scene. He’s the guy to follow for honest and eloquent reviews of the best restaurants in town and in-the-know takes on the city’s culinary trends. His Instagram is also incredibly cruel to browse while on the elliptical, I’ve found.

Having connections to restaurateurs put him in a precarious position with his latest story for San Diego Magazine, though. For the last two years, Johnson’s been wrestling with that to do with some troubling information. Turns out, a number of restauranteurs have been claiming to serve local produce, fresh from the farm, without ever having reached out to the farmers themselves. It’s a case of fraud with multiple injured parties: hard-working farmers and conscientious diners alike.

Johnson didn’t want to paint the whole restaurant scene as corrupt, though. Most restaurateurs are honest folks who aren’t doing this, he said, but there’s a significant minority who are.

Johnson joined us on the podcast this week to talk about his investigation, which has riled him up into a bit of a watchdog role.

Also on the show: Airbnb is going to start adding the city-imposed TOT and Tourism Marketing District tax (it’s a tax) to the tab; Comic-Con is here to stay (through 2018) and how hoteliers threatened that future; why Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez is our Hero of the Week (and why attorney David Lizerbram was a close second) and the Convention Center Corp. is the Goat.

Finally, a big thank-you to those of you who reviewed the show on iTunes in the last few days; you got a special shoutout on this week’s show. Wanna hear your name in dulcet tones? Here’s how to leave us a review (which helps us get sponsors as we try to keep growing the podcast):

On your iPhone, open the Podcasts app, search “Voice of San Diego,” click on the show’s page (the one with our logo), click on the Reviews tab and write a review. If you want to do it on your computer instead, you’ll have to open up the iTunes program, search “Voice of San Diego” in the iTunes store, look for the show page with our logo, click Ratings and Reviews and write one there. We really appreciate it.

Listen to the podcast here, on Stitcher or on iTunes.

[fold-audio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/vosd/voice_of_san_diego_07-05-15_0_1435843787.mp3″]

Catherine Green

Catherine Green was formerly the deputy editor at Voice of San Diego. She handled daily operations while helping to plan new long-term projects.

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