Plus, a fiery dinner series, a new taproom in North County, and more food and drink news
Communal Coffee owner and founder Jen Byard knows you can’t force a community to come together. But she tends to do it organically.
Byard launched Communal in 2015 in North Park. Since then, it’s become one of the county’s most popular craft coffee hubs, with locations in Oceanside, South Park, and that funny stretch of 30th Street that’s sort of North Park, but almost South Park. Come July, she’ll open the fifth Communal in Kaya, a mixed-use building in Bankers Hill designed by Jeff Svitak.
Svitak is also the architect behind The Louisiana building in North Park, next to the first Communal location. He’s been a Communal regular since it first opened its doors, and Byard says they’ve been trying to work together for nearly a decade. Her patience—and strategically slow growth strategy—finally paid off.
“I don’t like to grow just for the sake of growing … [I am] very intentional where we go and who we go in with,” Byard explains. “I do wait for opportunities to come with people that I have relationships with or that I really respect—like Jeff.”
Byard and Svitak are already talking about future collaborative expansion plans, but first things first: The Bankers Hill location at Kaya will offer the same coffee, food, flowers, and retail as the larger locations in North Park and Oceanside, but with a bit of a twist when it comes to the seating. Kaya’s lobby sports a vintage Brazilian motif, with a spacious feel and around 60 to 70 seats for both tenants and Communal guests. There’s also a 20-seat outdoor patio directly adjacent to Olive Street Park. That natural integration with the neighborhood is exactly what Byard was looking for. There’s a built-in customer base with the building’s residents, but it’s also “a very diverse neighborhood—younger people, older people,” she says. “And the parking is better than my other locations!”
Eventually, Byard hopes to add wine and beer, plus some later hours. In the meantime, she’s ready to brew up a fresh neighborhood gathering space.
Communal Coffee soft opens at 2710 Third Avenue in Bankers Hill on July 15, 2025. Hours will be 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
Seems like every restaurant is going wood-fired now. When The Grill at The Lodge at Torrey Pines remodeled years ago, it was ahead of the game, installing one of the most impressive outdoor live-fire setups in the city. And The Lodge’s culinary team shows it off with the annual “Playing With Fire” dinner series, bringing in guest chefs to cook with Lodge executive chef Kelli Crosson and chef de cuisine Ryan Dzierzawski. This year, the guest-chef roster includes 24 Suns and Rincon Brewery (June 9); Georges at the Cove, Nine-Ten, and Burgeon Beer Company (July 14); Kingfisher and Coronado Brewing (August 11); and 31ThirtyOne/Deckman’s Restaurant Group with Latitude 33 Brewing (September 8). This lineup is sizzling.
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Beth Demmon is an award-winning writer and podcaster whose work regularly appears in national outlets and San Diego Magazine. Her first book, The Beer Lover's Guide to Cider, is now available. Find out more on bethdemmon.com.
