Where to Eat This Valentine’s Day in San Diego

Well, damn. Vulture and Dreamboat are calling it a day.

Partners Kory Stetina and CH Projects have announced what feels like a too-soon curtain call for their plant-based odyssey in University Heights. Dreamboat, arguably the best name of a restaurant in decades, is the tiny, white, ’50s-style diner up front, and through a hallway and a velvet curtain is Vulture—a moody, stately continental restaurant with gothic-O’Keeffe wallpaper and giant plaster busts of indeterminate renaissance heroes.

The team is inviting guests in to fête the last three weeks of service, and the restaurants will shutter February 8.

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“Right now, what matters most is taking care of our people and closing this chapter with integrity,” Stetina says. “These final weeks are important to us, and we want the final chapter of Vulture and Dreamboat to feel really celebratory. We are intensely proud of what was built here and deeply grateful to the teams and community who brought these spaces to life, especially our extraordinary crew.”

Vulture was Stetina and CH’s biggest plant-based swing yet. The ambition was driven at least partially by the success of their previous two collaborations: Kindred (SDM’s “Best Vegetarian” many years running) and the alien cantina Mothership (named one of Esquire’s “Best Bars in America”).

It was the first high-end, fully plant-based restaurant in the city. Both were nominated for an Orchid design award by the San Diego Architectural Foundation, and Vulture was nominated by VegNews as the best new vegan restaurant in the country (Dreamboat got the nomination for the best vegan diner). Vulture’s potato pave was incredible; so were the martinis and the French onion soup. It had the group’s trademark magic and felt like a Cowboy Star or Albie’s Beef Inn for the cellulose crowd. 

By most restaurant operators’ metrics, the crowds both spots were drawing would have been considered a major success. But most operators don’t build restaurants like Stetina and CH do; they obsess over design, turning blank buildings into art projects. That costs quite a bit more, demanding more martinis and tableside Ceasar salads be sold.

“We had very strong support and real momentum,” Stetina says. “High opening and operating costs, combined with the economic realities of today, ultimately made it unsustainable.”

The dream also took too long to manifest: They took ownership of the building (and its accompanying bills) before the pandemic. In the long stretch from there to opening last spring (five years), the industry shifted in massive structural ways. Food costs are up. Labor costs are up. Mortgage costs are up. Drinking is down (the bar has historically floated most ambitious restaurants—and a less boozy generation and Ozempic are really sinking bar tabs).

Even plant-based food, which has been rising for decades and still is (it’s currently worth around $8 billion in the US and projected to be $19 to $30 billion by 2030) has ceded a bit of the moment to the animal-protein mania and “eat like a predator” diet-sabre rattling.

“The project took years to bring to life, and during that time the climate of our industry changed underneath our feet,” Stetina says. “Decisions that felt ambitious but workable when we committed to them ultimately revealed themselves to be far more leveraged and risky than we had counted on.”

Stetina’s one of the more respected, likable operators who gives a damn about his people. With each project, he’s emphasized the party of plant-based culture and avoided the polemic of it. It’s not a small loss for him. This one hurts—for him and his team. But he has the healthy and incredibly hard perspective needed when a big dream doesn’t quite get there.

“I called friends of mine who own multiple restaurants and they said, ‘Welcome to the club–the first one hurts.’ But this is part of it,” he says. “Kindred will be celebrating its 10th year throughout 2026, and we have a lot planned there for the year ahead. Some of what we loved most about the Vulture and Dreamboat magic will also likely carry forward into Kindred in ways that feel thoughtful and true to its spirit.”

He urges everyone to come in for the last few weeks of Vulture and Dreamboat, party it up, and use any gift cards (needless to say, they can’t be redeemed after close).

What started with a humble pie shop in University Heights has come a long way. Over the past nine years, San Diego’s Sweet & Savory Collective—parent company to Stella Jean’s and Pop Pie Co.—have built a small empire in San Diego and Orange County, focusing on almost universally adored treats: ice cream and tiny lil’ pies. (I mean, who doesn’t love pie?!)

But at the same time, co-founder Steven Torres has quietly been honing its coffee program, working with local partners like Provecho Coffee Company in San Diego and Necessity Coffee in Encinitas to source and roast beans. 

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After years of observation and practice, they’re ready to fully take it on. Little While, the company’s first dedicated coffee and pastry shop, will open in the former Hawthorn Coffee space later this year (3019 Adams Ave., next to Et Voila! French Bistro). Torres estimates Little While will open mid-October. 

“At its heart, it’s inspired by the idea that life is made up of many ‘little whiles,’ fleeting moments that spark connection, joy, and reflection,” he explains. Its aim is to be a place to slow down, get comfortable, and enjoy the present. Shared treats help, especially treats created by the all-star team they’ve assembled. 

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Aly Lyng (Communion, Paradis, George’s at the Cove) will spearhead the baking program alongside Justin Gaspar (Hommage Bakehouse) with a mix of globally-inspired pastries alongside traditional favorites. Torres promises the pastry case will “stop you in your tracks,” utilizing ingredients like guava jam, chile crisp, banana ketchup, Chinese sausage, and more. Chef and co-founder Gan Suebsarakham will oversee the menu, with Madyson Hodge of Sweet & Savory Collective as culinary operations manager.

Torres and Nayton Rosales are co-leading the coffee and roasting side of things, and he hopes to launch their own roastery soon. They’ll have a full espresso bar with pourovers, seasonal drinks, and some more global touches like kadak chai, matcha, and traditional Thai tea. 

They want to honor ingredients in their purest forms—for instance, they’ve sourced their matcha from the same purveyor as long as they’ve been in business (nearly 10 years). Their approach will be less outrageous foamy matcha sugar bombs—not that there’s anything wrong with that, he stresses. Little While’s will simply be more of a spotlight on the technique and history behind each product.

For the vibe, expect more chill and less bright color than Stella Jean’s technicolor pink. “This is going to be more cozy, warm wood, that kind of energy,” says Torres, pointing to Little While’s architecture firm (Tecscape) and design (Solstice Interiors).

The restaurant will open early, probably 6:30 or 7 a.m. daily, closing around 4 p.m. on weekdays with later hours on weekends. “Little While… [is] the kind of café we’ve always looked for in other cities,” he says. “We’re excited—and a little nervous—to bring it to life at home in San Diego.”

Little While opens mid-October at 3019 Adams Avenue.

San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

CTZN Brings Tastes of Spain to Solana Beach

Willy Wu Jye and Karine Beers—the sibling duo behind standout French cafe, La Clochette—recently opened its latest venture in Solana Beach. CTZN (pronounced “citizen”) is a “celebration of life, a celebration of the Basque culture, California creativity, and the universal joy of coming together around food and drink,” says Wu Jye, fusing their interest in Basque cuisine with California coastal dining. 

The pintxo-style menu features plenty of wood-fired items and sharable plates, like classic Spanish paella, lots of seafood, and of course, Basque cheesecake, and the indoor/outdoor restaurant is already soft open (with a grand opening planned for September 3). Wu Jye says they chose the name as an homage to a restaurant they frequented as kids in Madagascar, also named Citizen. “That memory became the seed for the name,” he explains. “CTZN is both a tribute to such a rich culinary and cultural heritage and a humble gift to the beautiful community of Solana Beach.”

Beth’s Bites

• Local author and San Diego Magazine contributor Mara Altman has dived into the world of body hair and nuclear boob reactors—now, she’s ready to talk to toddlers about what’s food (and what’s not). Her newest book, That’s Not Food!, comes out on October 13 and is available for pre-order now. (It’s not too early to start thinking of the perfect food-related gift idea for the new parents in your life!)
• It’s safe to say that Tara Monsod is on one hell of a run in the San Diego culinary scene. She’s been kicking ass as the executive chef at Animae since 2020, now pulling double duty at Le Coq in La Jolla, she’s been up for Best Chef in California at the James Beard Awards (twice), and now, she’s infusing more Filipino touches to Le Coq, which originally launched as a Parisian-esque steakhouse. It’s an idea that feels right. Her new menu will showcase Asian-inspired ingredients and dishes, like bluefin tuna katsu with porcini, yu choy, capers, brown butter and soy bordelaise; clams and pork belly with Tokyo negi, green garlic, Pernod and yuzu kosho; and rosé snapper with spring peas and calamansi beurre blanc. 
• It’s time to go bananas! Yes, the Savannah Bananas are coming to Petco Park, and if you’re one of the lucky lottery winners heading to the games on September 5 and 6, you’re in for a guaranteed wack-a-doodle time. But nearby restaurants and bars are getting into the Banana Ball fun, offering drink specials to honor the ridiculous game in all its glory. Lionfish Modern Coastal Cuisine will have “The Peelin’ Good” with bourbon, Aperol, banana, lemon, and demerara; Havana 1920 will offer a “Havana Banana,” a twist on a banana daiquiri; and El Chingon will serve banana margaritas (to name just a few). Keep an eye out for more banana-related shenanigans, as I’m guessing there will be plenty. 

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Una Más isn’t even open yet, and already the Baja-Southern California fusion concept has lived several lives. First, the University Heights space was slated to become a German biergarten (it didn’t.) Then, Collin Corrigan hoped he could open it as a cross-border brewpub earlier this spring (he couldn’t). But at long last, Una Más will open on Friday, August 1.

Corrigan founded Ensenada’s Cervecería Transpeninsular in 2016, and was a former partner in El Cruce+241 in Chula Vista before Brewjeria Company took over the concept. To get Una Más over the finish line, he enlisted some high-profile names in the local food and drink scene. He tapped Danny Romero (one of the new owners of The Lion’s Share) and Ian Ward (Ponyboy, Addison) of Service Animals to consult on menu development with executive chef Real Coronado. Coronado has worked in restaurants in Tijuana (Casa de Coronados, Savage) and San Diego, including with Romero at his pop-ups Tortoise, Two Ducks, as well as Wormwood and Ponyboy. 

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Along with Geoff Hill (co-founder of Baja Bound Insurance) and creative consultants Jeff Lozano and Danny Goycoolea (OverPour Media), Una Más’s team is a hodgepodge of top-tier San Diego and Baja California talent. That’s precisely what’s going to make it stand out, says Lozano. 

“These particular players, at this particular time, in this particular neighborhood, with this particular idea, are really what sets it apart from any other spot in North Park,” he says. 

Una Más’ menu features Ensenada-style cuisine, specifically emphasizing a lot of fresh seafood. Romero wanted to take it one step further. “[Service Animals] had been simmering on a concept that was a play off of Taco Bell—like an elevated Taco Bell,” Lozano explains. They took familiar favorites, like Taco Bell’s signature nachos, and kicked them up a notch using premium ingredients and preparation techniques. Other items include an escabeche pickle dip, coconut and tomatillo aguachile, and various vegan/vegetarian and gluten-free items. 

Despite the playful twist, Corrigan emphasizes the menu will be a serious representation of the best of Baja. “It’s still very, very much Ensenada-style food, with a couple dishes that have a fun spin,” he promises. There are also 20 taps featuring San Diego craft beers and Baja breweries, plus NA beers, ciders, kombucha, agua frescas, and wines from Valle de Guadalupe. A coffee counter will be open daily starting at 7 a.m. as well. Once open, Una Más will offer lunch and dinner service, and will launch a brunch program on Saturdays and Sundays a few weeks after opening. 

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 “The full intention of this business is to provide a family-friendly, community-driven, hyper-local establishment where people can gather, enjoy food and libation sustainably, and have your family and your pets there and enjoy what we know down south of Mexico and what we all know in San Diego,” says Corrigan. 

Una Más opens at 2611 Adams Avenue on Friday, August 1. Hours will be Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The coffee counter will open starting at 7 a.m. every day. 

San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

Dockside Night Market Returns For One Night Only

In novels, the concept of a Night Market swirls around mystery, intrigue, and a bit of danger. It’s a place where magical folks come to buy, sell, and trade all manner of enchanted items. San Diego doesn’t have one of those (that I, a non-magical person, am aware of, at least), but what we do have is much more delicious. On Thursday, August 7 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Dockside Night Market returns to Tuna Harbor Pier for a one-night culinary gathering centered around our abundance of locally caught seafood. Expect cocktails, live music, and of course, plenty of fresh seafood prepared by local chefs from restaurants like Bica, Campfire, Ponyboy, Herb & Sea, Mabel’s Gone Fishing, Ironside, and more. Leave the kiddies at home for this 21+ event (it’s past their bedtime anyway). 

Beth’s Bites

Long as I can remember, Solana Beach has been better known for the mild waves at Fletcher Cove and a few blocks of high-end design shopping on Cedros Ave. But despite the glacial pace of change, the beachside enclave is gearing up to add lots of goodies to the local dining roster.

Over the past few years a few openings have brought attention (Rare Society, Rustic Root), with some more anticipated on the way (like Mia’s coming later this year). And, on June 20, some serious power will unveil Lana—in the marquee spot along Pacific Coast Highway that once housed the California Pizza Kitchen. 

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The Lana trio is wine guy Mark Wheadon, operator Travis LeGrand, and chef David McIntyre. Wheadon is a level 2 sommelier who’s worked for Robert Redford and Ruth’s Chris; LeGrand has been a manager at Marine Room, Herringbone, and Urban Kitchen Group (Cucina Urbana, et al); and McIntyre, who’s back stateside after 20 years working abroad for Wolfgang Puck, spent the last 14 overseeing Cut Steakhouse in London. He’s opened restaurants all over the world (Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, New York, Los Angeles, Bahrain). 

He and Wheadon worked together previously to open Crescent Heights Kitchen & Lounge in downtown San Diego in 2008, so Lana feels like a bit of a homecoming. “It’s nice to come back to help old friends and be a part of the team and help launch a restaurant,” says McIntyre.

Lana’s concept is simple: seasonal, West Coast bounty with ridiculously high-quality service—occupying that very San Diego space between laid back and big night out. 

“The design impetus came from vintage California, being casual and comfortable but elegant,” explains Wheadon. But don’t expect the typical teal and turquoise tropes. They brought on designer Megan Power at Workind Studio (formerly of Basile Studio, she designed Le Coq and 31ThirtyOne). It’s a 2,500-square-foot, indoor-outdoor space that fits 187, including 20 at the keyhole-shaped bar, and 45 or so outside. 

The menu from McIntyre and chef de cuisine Matt Martinez (Cowboy Star, Avant) strongly emphasizes seasonal produce, local ingredients, and top-notch seafood. 

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“My concept of cooking is to put five or six ingredients on the plate and let them shine,” McIntyre says. Depending on the season, the chefs will serve locally caught spot prawns, or simple classics like roasted chicken, a few different cuts of steak (he does have the chops for it, after all), and rotating flatbreads. The beverage program, helmed by The Lion’s Share alum Brandon Curry, leans heavily on California wines from small producers from Napa, Sonoma, and the Central Coast, as well as a few from around the world. 

Curry’s cocktails will be a direct line from the kitchen to the bar to both minimize waste and spark creativity. Like a gimlet, but with cucumber and pink peppercorns; or an Old Fashioned made with vanilla bitters and toasted sesame oil. 

Wheadon hopes to bring a little bit of nighttime energy to that stretch of the 101, which boasts a number of early morning coffee shops, but not a ton of dinner options (yet). During the construction process, he says people constantly poked their heads in with excitement.

“Once a day, [people] would be like, ‘Oh my gosh, Solana Beach needs this so badly,’” he laughs. “This whole area is just starting to blossom.”

Lana opens June 20 at 437 South Highway 101. Operating hours are Wednesdays through Sundays for dinner, plus brunch Saturdays and Sundays.  

Being here is to be highly stimulated and stim-deprived at the same time.

A skinny shadow restaurant tucked behind a stark-white tiny diner, scarce visible signage save for a concrete engraving on the sidewalk along Park Boulevard and an amber-lit sign in the back of Dreamboat. Fully cut off from its University Heights neighborhood, it’s got no windows and is both dark and color-flamboyant (an amber skylight harkens to photography dark rooms and The Godfather Don Corleone’s office at night), with some lightly Alex Grey/Yayoi Kusama-ish fungal wallpaper, giant plaster busts of presumably epic dead people, brass, checkerboard tiles, a chandelier with fancy ghosts in it, a giant plant lording in the heart of the place, an incredibly obsessive martini, sporadic flambée fires torching cherries tableside, and real or imagined memories of utopianistic 1960s Americans going out on the town in grand fashion.

It’s Vulture, the newest restaurant art project (I want to say restaurant but that feels lamer than Vulture looks) from the creatives behind Kindred, Mothership, and Dreamboat (the recently opened, aforementioned tiny diner—which every time I mention I can’t stop singing to the tune of “Tiny Dancer”).

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“Five years,” says co-conspirator Kory Stetina, sighing with terror and relief about how long Vulture has been in the works. “Every little detail has been fussed over. We’re not religious, but my wife says this project has angel wings. I always had an itch to do a little more on the elevated side of things. But I don’t really force it. I let opportunities reveal themselves.”

To reduce its charms to stereotypical sentences: It feels like a hidden Great Gatsbian restaurant made entirely of plant food. It’s being hailed as “continental,” which is how our grandparents expressed fairly approachable, familiar entrées (steaks, potatoes, vegetable sides) that had been fancified with then-new things like French sauces and dramatic tableside preparations and finishes. 

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“I wasn’t around in that era,” Stetina says. “But my grandparents would celebrate at these kinds of places, the ‘fancy’ places of the time, right when American chefs were starting to dip their feet into European culinary tradition—French, Italian, Spanish. A lot of the food that was served would be pretty approachable.”

As for that martini. The perfect martini sounds so easy and never has been. Vulture’s is a blend of three different gins and four vermouths tested at dozens of temps and served at the one that tasted best. Its dilution rates are calibrated with biotech zeal. The bar team serves a regular version, a teensy cocktail version, and “The Works:” a larger, moon-cold portion served on an ancestral tray stacked with pickled treats, plus its own potato pavé topped with horseradish crème fraîche and truffle caviar. Cocktail poobah Lucas Ryden (Kindred, Realm of the 52 Remedies) has 38 cocktails joyriding the nostalgia: highballs, manhattans, Rob Roys, French 75s, Vieux Carres, gimlets, daisies, knickerbockers, you get it. And six zero-proof versions of the same (plus a Shirley Temple)

To eat (see full menu), it’s things like the Diane. A giant lion’s mane mushroom is grown by El Cajon’s Mindful Mushrooms specifically for Vulture’s specs, then grilled over wood fire by exec chef Pancho Castellón (who cooked at San Francisco’s Michelin-starred steakhouse Niku) and served in Diane-style creamy mushroom sauce. For the Oscar, Vulture is the first restaurant on the West Coast to have Beyond Steak Filet, which the kitchen seasons and tweaks, then serves with hearts of palm, plant bearnaise, and asparagus. There will be Parker House rolls with cultured “butter;” kelp caviar with French onion dip and kettle chips; date and black garlic pâté; beet tartare; “Rockefeller” minus the oyster, plus the artichoke, sunchoke, and spinach dip. The Caesar will be tossed tableside in “Grandpa Joe’s” dressing.

“There was a tradition in my family of gathering and making Caesar salads on Sunday nights,” Stetina says. “Grandpa Joe made it, then my dad made it. When I became the black sheep that turned vegan, I had to figure out how to make it taste the same… nutritional yeast, capers. I always added capers to the top, but chef ground it into a paste like an anchovy, then created a house parmesan out of garbanzo flour. We make it in blocks and shred it over the salad tableside.”

For dessert, chef Amy Noonan will douse cherries in booze and set them on ceremonial fire throughout the dining room for jubilees. There will be cheesecake.

And there will be relief for Stetina. He and his wife bought this building five years ago, leveraged everything they had, barely held on through the pandemic, and obsessively pulled it off. “We opened Mothership thinking that Vulture might never happen,” he says.

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And then Esquire named Mothership one of the top 50 bars in the country. Vulture seems poised for similar realms.

Vulture soft opens next week.