Whoever said retail is being replaced with e-commerce is sadly mistaken. We’ve pared down eight San Diego retailers that set up shops this year, all worth the drive and time to step inside—and more to look forward to at one particular property in 2019.
Shop Good in North Park
What started as a clean beauty website in 2015, has now been brought to life by Leah Kirpalani at Shop Good in North Park. The boutique, with a treatment room in the back, specializes in holistic wellness through eco-friendly cosmetics, skincare services, and more. Not a Central San Diegan? Fear not. Shop Good is opening a second location in Carmel Valley at the highly-anticipated retail complex, One Paseo in 2019.
3030 North Park Way, North Park
jennifer siegwart
Nixon in Encinitas
Just like clockwork, Nixon returned where it all began to open its first retail space at its headquarters in Encinitas. The shop, tucked behind its warehouse on South Coast Highway 101, also features a custom watch bar, readymade timepieces, travel bags, backpacks, and clothing, plus limited-edition tickers made from celebrities’ apparel.
701 South Coast Highway 101, Encinitas
Arhaus at Westfield UTC
Westfield UTC’s revamp delivered several retailers we’re thankful for, but when it comes to upscale home decor, Arhaus takes the cake. The 21,000-square-foot globally inspired furniture emporium has an inventory that’s a cross between Anthropologie and Restoration Hardware—with a conscious hook, using reclaimed, recycled, and sustainably sourced materials, from Mexican copper to Italian leather and wood carvings from India.
4545 La Jolla Village Drive, Westfield UTC
Van De Vort at Liberty Station
When Andrea Van De Vort hung the neon sign for her eponymous label in Moniker General, it was just the start of her expansion. The shop-in-shop, as she so calls the Liberty Station outpost and second location, stocks all of her bohemian mainstays like lightweight jumpsuits, flowy bottoms, and dresses. But don’t call downtown Van De Vort’s new “home.” The North County-bred brand, too, is opening a third location at Carmel Valley’s One Paseo.
2860 Sims Road, Point Loma
Simón Limón in Barrio Logan
The name translates to “okie dokie” in Spanish—just like our response to every giftable we pick up and put in our basket at Simón Limón in Barrio Logan. The tiny shop (180-square-feet!) is owned by jewelry-maker Alexandra Perez Demma and exclusively stocks goods handmade by independent makers in San Diego and Tijuana. As Perez Demma so puts it, “We’re all just artists trying to make it.”
2185 Logan Avenue, Barrio Logan
Eden in University Heights and Point Loma
North Park Nursery branched out with the opening of two new houseplant boutiques by the name of Eden in University Heights and Point Loma. Both boast a potting station and fashionable foliage like fiddle leaf figs, snake plants, and calatheas, as well as jewelry, embroidered bags, macramé, and decorative pots and planters.
4636 Park Boulevard, University Heights; 1335 Rosecrans Street, Point Loma
Leo Hamel Boutique & Consignment Shop in Mission Hills
Offering new and like-new designer bags, shoes, and more, fine jeweler Leo Hamel opened a consignment concept in Mission Hills that invites shoppers to sell their designer goods and buy them, too. Just two doors down from the company’s existing space in Old Town, luxury brands include Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Jimmy Choo, YSL, and Christian Louboutin.
1851 San Diego Avenue, Mission Hills
Pigment at Liberty Station
San Diego’s most beloved lifestyle boutique isn’t (only) in North Park anymore. At Pigment’s second store in Liberty Station, there’s an expanded apparel selection, including children’s, and new brands like Marrow Fine Jewelry, plus craft-it-yourself areas like a custom T-shirt bar and an outdoor planting station on a wraparound deck, and more—and more to come in the new year with a third location at, you guessed it, One Paseo.
2885 Perry Road, Liberty Station