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Hive Minded Sweet rewards make their way from a home garden to the restaurant menu BY BRANDON HERNÁNDEZ the exterior of a large metal container at the edge of the front yard and began building a colony. While most would have called for an exterminator, the Cevascos instead reached out to an apiarist to help them set up a proper hive and maintain it. Working with those professionals, Christophe later extracted fresh honey from the hive, and was so impressed with its quality that he had another hive put in. at was followed by two more, two more after that, and so on. Today, the Cevascos' property is home to 32 hives packed with an estimated half-million busy bees. Nearly all of them are female, as the small portion of males serve the sole purpose of impregnating the queen. Once that mission has been accomplished, the males are cast out to carry out a nomadic existence away from the colony. Back at the hives, the female bees spend their days collecting pollen, which is then converted into what Christophe calls "liquid gold." A restaurant with the name Beeside Balcony leads many to believe the popular Del Mar spot is named for its owners' love for the venue's namesake insect. Technically that's true, but that affection was harbored by the previous owners of the second story space where Christophe and Guen Cevasco installed their popular Mediterranean concept in 2020. But the married couple did have an interest in bees — enough to keep the name — and even considered installing a clear, plexiglass beehive at the restaurant. In the end, they figured that may frighten a certain percentage of their clientele, so that was that, until one fateful day when some of those industrious insects dropped in on the Cevascos, literally. About a week after the restaurant opened, a swarm of bees descended on the Cevascos' residence in Vista. Over the next few days, those social creatures made themselves comfortable along Indulge dining PHOTO BY BOB STEFANKO ranchandcoast.com 64 AUGUST 2025 RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE Christophe Cevasco (left) tending to his bees at home in Vista