Downtown’s New InterContinental Hotel Names Culinary Team

As the InterContinental San Diego preps to open this September, the bayfront hotel is announcing the chef duo that will lead its culinary venues; both are longtime veterans of the local dining scene with decades of experience between them and have each earned an ardent following throughout their careers.

Chef Paul McCabe, who brings 30 years of training in Californian, Mediterranean, Southwestern, and Pacific Rim cuisines, was once named a “rising star of American cuisine” by the James Beard Foundation. His high-profile gigs include L’Auberge Del Mar’s KITCHEN 1540, La Valencia Hotel, Royal Palms Resort and Spa in Arizona, and most recently, Hotel Circle’s Town and Country Resort and Convention Center. McCabe is helping to develop the hotel’s yet-unnamed signature restaurant and bar, which will be located adjacent to the lobby on the hotel’s third floor, as well as overseeing the hotel’s entire food and beverage operations including banquet service for 95,000-square-feet of event space.

With more than a decade in standout San Diego kitchens, chef Amy DiBiase will be running the show at InterContinental’s signature restaurant as well as its fourth floor outdoor pool bar. Expect to see some of the chef’s signature dishes pop up on the menu, which diners who have followed her career, from the now-shuttered Laurel and Roseville to The Shores Restaurant, Baleen-turned-Tidal at Paradise Point Resort & Spa, and the Grand Restaurant Group, will recognize. DiBiase, who’s known her California take on Italian and French cuisine, will also manage all in-room dining for the hotel.

The InterContinental hotel will include five dining venues. In addition to the aforementioned signature restaurant and pool bar, there will also be a casual cafe and the California debut of Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse. And a well-known local hospitality group is developing a cocktail bar for the 19th floor rooftop, which will launch in early 2019.