Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Slowey.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Shoots is a Maui-Baja style fusion offering high-end fast casual cuisine. The name “Shoots” is derived from native Hawaiian slang meaning “good” or “okay,” symbolizing acknowledgment and approval. The concept embodies the lifestyle of surf, skate, friends, good beer, and food.
Co-owner Cheyne Magnusson and I were out surfing at Buccaneer Beach in Oceanside back in 2017. We hadn’t known each other, but started talking in between waves about what I do—I told him about a design build company I started CLTVT and about some of the food and beverage concepts we had worked with and built. He mentioned how he was a “closeted” poke chef and big poke nerd, wanting to bring authentic poke styles that he used to get back in Maui (where he was raised and grew up). He was working with a bunch of different recipes that he came across in Hawaii and through travels in the South Pacific. Cheyne thought it would be cool to open a small, local poke shop that focused on authentic, high quality poke and serve recipes that he learned from old school Hawaiians—he had been catching the fish through spear fishing (which was a hobby of his) and making fresh poke at home for his family and friends for years. We started to do some post-surf meetups and brain-storming, and after a few the Shoots concept was born.
In 2017, we created the concept and brand and brought it to life, doing pop-ups at local breweries like Black Plague and Burgeon—we would sell out in a couple of hours. At that point, we knew we were onto something and started looking for a brick and mortar. However, in 2018, Cheyne got a deal he couldn’t pass up building the wave pool concept in Waco Texas—so we put the Shoots concept “on ice” and looked for an opportunity in the future. When Cheyne moved back to Southern California in 2020 to start another wave pool concept in Palm Springs, we started talking about Shoots 2.0.
Bottlecraft, in the Tremont Collective, was looking for a food vendor to put at this location. This was during Covid so not many people were too eager to build a new location for their restaurants. CLTVT was doing the design and build out for Tremont Collective, so after trying to find a food concept to fill the opening, I reached out to Cheyne about doing Shoots 2.0 here—try and test out the concept here. We got Executive Chef, Davin Waite, owner of local seafood spot, Wrench & Rodent, on board and this helped kick Shoots up a notch. We loved the idea of having Cheyne’s original Ahi Tuna Hawaiian style poke bowl as the backbone of the concept, but wanted to create a fast casual brand that had other Hawaiian/Japanese inspired items. Davin has always brought a punk rock culinary approach and we wanted him to go nuts with this in the kitchen—think items like our fish wings, whole fried fish, etc. He also helped us bring in the commitment to sustainable and total utilization cooking techniques—using local fish caught out of Oceanside Harbor. All of these which Shoots strives to do everyday. Using cuts or parts of the fish that most restaurants would throw out, we use to create unique menu items like our Fish Wings, Fishwich, Tuna Crunchwrap, and Bloodline Yakitori.
Beer was never an afterthought with the concept. We had always wanted to integrate beer as a pairing with our food. That’s when we worked with some friends over at Alesmith. We brought Chef Davin to the brewery, met with the brewers and gave his culinary input to the flavor profiles that would compliment the Shoots menu—creating something that would pair well with raw seafood, like Cheyne’s OG. We were super stoked to work with Ryan and Anthony at Alesmith to create our Shoots Japanese Lager.
Our plan was always to have a beer/wine bar with the Shoots kitchen. Once we got the menu items and kitchen concept dialed, we were looking for our first full-concept location—that’s how our spot at The Cottages in Carlsbad Village came about.
In this space at The Cottages and at Tremont Collective, we strived to bring events to the community. Partnering with many of our Team Riders or brands live Rivvia, Crime, Dark Seas, Pack Rat Record, Sun Diego and Stab, we will bring surf premieres, live music, Djs, and just overall some fun events for the community to come and hangout. We get to share our passion for surf & skate and combine it with our passion for food and beer. It’s the perfect addition of fun to our brand that we continue to work towards on a monthly basis—bringing First Fridays, First Thursday, and other random events in collaboration with other local companies to keep things happening within the community.
In our initial talks of launching Shoots, we always wanted to build this as a “brand”. A brand at the core that one could connect and relate to. One of our co-founders Mike Weeks is a branding artist who has worked with many local skate, surf, and breweries—having him as an integral part of the ownership team was important to us. With this we are constantly creating new branded merchandise, content, and collaboration with our other brand friends and partners. We have seen other brands in the surf and lifestyle industry grow by just starting with t-shirts, but having a whole food, beverage, and events component as the backbone of the brand was our goal. This has really worked well and we have a blast designing and coming up with different clothing and brand designs that all tie into our core branding of who we are, what we do (inside and outside of work) and storytelling of Shoots. That’s the unique thing with Shoots—we have so many things going on with our food, beer, merch, content, team riders, events, etc—we’re coming from all angles, and it a lot of fun to navigate.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Launching any brand entails navigating rough terrain. Opening in late 2021 amidst lingering COVID-19 restrictions, we had to brace ourselves for potential closures. To adapt, we integrated windows into our building design for convenient TO-GO service—a preemptive move to make our establishment pandemic-resilient, aligning with our original vision for the space.
Sourcing the finest quality fish presents its own set of challenges. Committed to using locally caught, sustainably sourced seafood, primarily from Oceanside harbor, we forgo freezers at all our outlets, opting instead to getting fresh fish almost daily. This commitment to freshness poses pricing dilemmas, as reflected in our menu. While our tacos are priced at $5.50, higher than some alternatives, this accounts for the premium cost of fresh, unfrozen fish. We anticipated customer apprehension initially, but as our narrative and sourcing practices became known, appreciation and understanding for our offerings grew.
While building our Carlsbad location in partnership with CLTVT, there were definitely some challenges navigating permitting, licensing, and development. Having the experience with CLTVT for the past 20 years, it helps the process, but still, no matter how many times we have done it, there will always be challenges and set-backs that come up, that we just have to persevere through.
A fun challenge that has come up with our brand is introducing customers to unique seafood offerings. While we have our staples menu of poke and tacos, we have a list of daily changing specials at both locations. Alongside our staple poke and tacos, we offer a rotating selection of daily specials, featuring items like fish wings or whole fried mackerel fish and chips. Despite initial reservations, these offerings have become unexpected bestsellers, testament to our patrons’ adventurous spirit once nudged in the right direction.
We’ve been impressed with Shoots Fish & Beer, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Shoots Fish and Beer is a unique concept—we all live in coastal north county San Diego and just everything is about the ocean. Playing in it, seeing it every day and calming simple life of having our lives revolve around it. It’s such an amazing source of wellness and food and when you can work with hard-working local fishermen, creative and talented local veterans and up and coming chefs to present a concept we all really love and believe into our community, it just doesn’t get much better than that… At that point, it’s not work or a job.. It’s doing what you love with great friends and building a community of support.
Our founder Cheyne Magnusson and many of us involved come from the Action Sports background. Playing in the ocean, skating and focusing our lives on our creative outlets is what fuels us. So we do what we can to support friends who are pro and mature surfers and skaters because we are inspired by their talents, grit and commitment to their sports. It’s a core part of our brand and the support they give back to Shoots is really what connects us deep into this coastal surf and creative culture that we all love.
Our team is super close, we keep it small and tight knit. We are all very creative minds, which is what keeps our brand growing and changing. Whether it is new designs, the ever changing food items from our chefs, the opportunities to collaborate with some of our favorite local brands, or working with our team of surfers. Having this group of people together keeps the ideas flowing and really has made Shoots what it is today.
At the end of the day SHOOTS is a brand, not just a logo to put on tee shirts and merch but a true brand that has been influenced by everyone involved. We all truly believe in what we do and invite all to come and enjoy all the offerings we have and join the Shoots Fam!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I do listen to quiet a few podcasts that help the ideas rolling and help me do best in life. Some of these include: -Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz
-The Untapped New York Podcast
-The James Altucher Show
-Stuff You Should Know
-People I (mostly) Admire
-How I Built this with Guy Raz
-Creative Control
-Akimbo: A Podcast from Seth Godin
Contact Info:
- Website: shootsog.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shootsog/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shootsfishxbeer/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shootsog/featured
