Around 14 million people visit Balboa Park every year, making it the fifth busiest urban park in the entire country—after Central Park, Chicago’s Lincoln Park, the National Mall, and Mission Bay Park (yep, San Diego has two of the top five). It’s also next door to the galactically famous San Diego Zoo, which draws in another five-plus million. So, while the park does have a few quality restaurant options (The Prado, Panama 66, Artifact), why are there not bars and bistros everywhere?
Well, now one of the city’s most beloved teams is opening a new one. The husband-and-wife behind Panama 66 and Blind Lady Ale House have signed on to take over the long-vacant Village Grill space.
Jeff Motch and Clea Hantman opened Panama 66 in the park’s sculpture garden in 2014. He says the lack of dining options has been a boon for their business, but a huge missed opportunity for the park. “We always imagined high volume, but the volume we do is insane,” he says. “We have thought non-stop about things that need to be in that park. You should be able to come and have an all-inclusive day.”
Village Grill closed in 2017. Motch and Hantman immediately applied to take over, but were met with crickets. Life kept going, pandemic happened, time marched on. But the space was never far from Motch’s mind.
“So maybe a year and a half or so ago, we started hitting up the city asking, ‘What’s going on? Who do we need to talk to?’” he says. This time they reached the right people, who formally opened the space for bids last October. Hantman and Motch tweaked their original proposal, added the past seven years of experience to strengthen their case, and resubmitted.
They got it.
Built in 1973, the space needs upgrades. A lot of them. So many, in fact, that Motch won’t even venture to guess when they’ll open their doors. And for sure not ready to confirm specifics like menu, whether there will be a full liquor license or just beer and wine, design ideas, or a name. But the deal is signed. So now the sketching starts.
Motch says as they start working with the city to explore layouts and assess what will work best on that high-traffic corner (1770 Village Place, in the Spanish Village Art Center, by the Moreton Bay fig tree and the carousel), details will reveal themselves.
“We’re not cramming a square concept into a round hole and making it fit no matter what,” he says. He does know there will be plenty of seating for onsite dining, plus to-go options for the prolific picnic culture in the park.
Despite the lengthy timeframe and still arduous road ahead, it’s what they’ve been wanting to do for the park since they first set up shop there.
“It is a big project,” he says, “and we’re ready for that.”
