Looks like Good Time Design just put Southpaw up for sale. It’s time for the developers around Petco’s “Park at the Park” (outside the left field wall) to realize that’s not an easy area for restaurateurs. A lot more activation of the park would be a boon for local business. The next tenant in Southpaw’s space needs to blow out that wall facing J Street and make it an indoor-outdoor thing like Bub’s or Basic down the street.
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North Park is getting Milkbar—a donut, fried chicken and milk bar joint at the corner of Lincoln and 30th Streets.
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If you say you hate piano bars, you lie. Every time you find yourself with your fun-loving, gin-loving aunt at the dueling piano bar you end up having a blast. Then you discovered Rick Lyon with his amazing hair and computer-aided piano tunes at the Imperial House. Well, Hillcrest is about to get a piano bar. Not a dueling piano bar. Not a Bon Jovi-and-mom-jeans piano bar. A better piano bar, if the owners of The Dirty Bird Lounge pull of their vision. It’ll go into the former spot of Commonwealth at 1263 University Ave.
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Looks like chef Chris Idso, longtime chef-partner of Pacifica Del Mar, will be moving with his family to Hawaii. That’s the end of an era for the Del Mar seafood restaurant that’s managed to stick it out for 25 years amid the new-new-new-hot-new-hip-new restaurant scene. No timetable yet for Idso’s departure; he’s currently on the lookout for his replacement. Idso’s been the soul of the restaurant, so those are no small shoes to fill. Interested chefs should call the restaurant.
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While in Tijuana at great third-wave coffee shop Caffe Sospeso (who are launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund a North Park location), I ran into the owner of beloved Aqui Es Texcoco—the famed lamb barbacoa specialists with places in Tijuana and San Diego. He said he’s looking into making a food truck for the enterprise. Food trucks have really cut into his business on both sides of the border. Rather than complain, he’s acting.
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Solana Beach’s Culture Brewing is expanding into a new spot in Ocean Beach next to the new Cohn restaurant, O.B. Warehouse. It’ll have about 20 taps and hopefully open doors in November.
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A restaurant industry insider recently pointed out that he’s absolutely, 100% certain that one of the more prominent restaurants in San Diego is lying on their menu about the free range/organic thing. We hear rumblings about this all the time. I’d really rather not launch an investigative report into restaurant fraud. And 95% of the restaurateurs in San Diego are good people who don’t lie to get extra bucks out of you. But it does, sadly, happen.
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Cohn Restaurant Group announced their next big project—a $10 million, 24,000 square-foot food-party-wedding-everything-bonanza space where the old Reuben E. Lee paddle boat was once docked (880 Harbor Island Dr.). The space will be anchored by a 322-capacity restaurant focused on Mexican food (Baja mania continues), plus a deck that’ll fit 1,000 people. Jesus that’s big. They’ve partnered with Sunroad Enterprises for the new food-drink city. The project will be set right next to C Level/Island Prime, already one of the nicest view restaurants in San Diego. “There’s a tremendous desire by San Diegans and those who visit the city to be on the water—not near the water, or with a view of the water—but directly on the water,” says David Cohn. Set to open summer 2015—which means, after the city delays them multiple times, we’ll see it sometime by the fall.
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Local designer Paul Basile won an Orchid—the city’s top interior design award—for his work on Polite Provisions and Soda & Swine. Basile and Consortium Holdings make pretty things.
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An email from a friend: “What happened? Craft, artisanal, reclaimed wood, Edison bulbs, garage doors, industrial yada yada yada. When are you going to write a story about how incredibly ****ing cliché San Diego has become?” I emailed him back some Xanax.
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A text from a gay rancher friend: “When are you going to do a story about the gay mafia taking over San Diego’s farming and ranching scene?”
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The Cottage Food Act, passed in January 2013, basically allows you to make certain approved foods (baked goods, candies, dried foods, etc.) at home and sell them at, say, a local restaurant or store. So Mieko Sunbury, a Qualcomm employee and craft beer devotee, is going to make gourmet beer nuts worthy of the local craft beer culture. It’s called North Park Nuttery. “I’m going to make spiced nuts that incorporate beer into the recipe,” she says. “One’s going to be a very hoppy flavor nut and another savory-sweeet, stout-based nut. My target audience is going to be beer tasting rooms. They just recently passed a bill that’ll allow tasting rooms to serve snacks. Living in North Park and being in the beer scene, I’ve noticed there’s a lack of something like that. People are bringing in food trucks, but what about a nice healthy snack? Keeps you from getting too drunk.” She doesn’t have any clients yet, but good ideas find homes.
The new waterfront project from the Cohn Restaurant Group.
