Del Mar Village's Dining Walk Is Stretching South as the Plaza Turns Over

Since 1989, the corner of Camino Del Mar and 15th Street has held the village's best-known dining room. Pacifica Del Mar opened that year as one of the first businesses in the newly built Del Mar Plaza. It plans to serve its last meals in December, and the Plaza has not yet publicly named who comes next. Meanwhile, the village's most anticipated opening of the year has been two blocks south at 1404 Camino Del Mar, and a new shop is settling in at 12th Street. This fall the Plaza is between eras, and much of the village's new activity sits along the stretch of Camino Del Mar below it.

The Plaza's Upper Floors Are Between Chapters

Pacifica's departure was the Plaza's choice. Management confirmed it decided not to renew the restaurant's lease, and property manager Tamara Failla said the Plaza had "chosen to move forward with a new restaurant operator whose concept aligns with our goals for the future of Del Mar Plaza." Pacifica first announced the closing on May 15. Its statement called the restaurant "a gathering place, a tradition, and a part of the fabric of Del Mar and North County for nearly four decades." Some dishes from opening day are still on the menu, including the sugar-spiced salmon. Several staff members have worked there for more than 30 years.

The Plaza has not publicly named the next operator. In May, the local food site SanDiegoVille reported that Water Grill, the seafood brand owned by Costa Mesa-based King's Seafood Company, was slated to take over the space. That same report noted Water Grill had not announced official plans. It also predicted the remodel would push any Del Mar opening to 2027 at the earliest. Until the Plaza or Water Grill confirms it, the name remains a reported tenant.

The rest of the Plaza is changing hands as well:

• Pacifica Breeze Café, Pacifica's casual sibling for breakfast and coffee, closed in late April.
• La La Land Café signed a lease for that space, the mezzanine terrace at the Plaza's southwest corner. It will be the brand's first San Diego location: 1,168 square feet indoors, with extra seating and room for a line on the terrace deck. The Plaza's owner, Brixton Capital, says construction and opening dates have not been set.
• Desserts by Clément opened in late June in Suite 304, the former Paris en Rose space. The Plaza's June 29 post listed daily hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Urban Girl, which spent 15 years in the Plaza, turned that store into Beachcity in May. Beachcity is the owners' newer concept, a modern take on the classic surf shop.

Each of these is a reasonable business decision. Taken together, they mean the Plaza's café terrace is dark for now, its signature dining room has a fixed end date, and neither has a confirmed opening on the other side.

Fourteenth Street Got Its Corner Back

Bully's closed in 2017 after 48 years on the village strip. Its white-brick building was demolished, and a new restaurant was built from the ground up on the site, a long construction process. The Union-Tribune reported the opening of Honor Bar Del Mar on September 6, nearly 10 years after Bully's closed.

Honor Bar comes from Hillstone Restaurant Group, which also runs Houston's, Gulfstream in Newport Beach and Rutherford Grill in Napa. Del Mar joins Honor Bar locations in Beverly Hills, Dallas, Montecito and Palm Beach. The new red-brick building has a sunken patio off Camino Del Mar, shaded by a row of bright yellow umbrellas that match a vintage-style pole sign at the street. Inside, brick walls, paneled wood, booths and heavy ceiling beams make a new building feel like an old one.

The menu is short. Starters include deviled eggs and chicken meatballs, and the hand-rolled sushi includes a Thai tuna roll and a crunchy avocado roll with macadamia nuts. The house's "Osaka style" pressed sushi is a block of sashimi tuna, avocado and rice stacked in layers. Larger plates include the Honor Burger with cheddar and coleslaw, a French dip au jus, cedar plank roasted salmon and a USDA prime flat iron steak. The bar's cocktails include a grapefruit Aperol spritz and the Hillstone negroni with a hint of lime. The Kickstart, Honor Bar's version of a Bloody Mary, is poured on weekends only.

Before You Walk Over

Honor Bar runs differently from most of its village neighbors, and these details are useful to know before you go:

• Hours: open daily, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Seating: no reservations, but you can call ahead to get on the wait list. The restaurant prefers parties of four or fewer.
• Payment: cashless.
• Dress code: enforced. A sign on the front window reads "Dress for the occasion." The rules prohibit sportswear and gym clothes, backwards hats, flip-flops and "excessively revealing clothing." The full guidelines are on the Honor Bar Del Mar page.
• Parking: below the restaurant, entered from the alley off 13th Street.

The dress code matters most in a beach town. Anyone coming up from the sand after an afternoon at the beach will need to change before stopping in.

Twelfth Street Is Becoming the New End of the Promenade

Two blocks farther south, Annie and Chris Glenn reopened Urban Girl on the corner of Camino Del Mar and 12th Street this spring. They chose the freshly remodeled building now called The Torrey at 12th. The Del Mar Village Association hosted a ribbon cutting there on August 20. It was the first ribbon cutting in the couple's 33 years of opening shops in San Diego.

"I feel like we're anchoring the street," Annie Glenn told the Union-Tribune, describing Beachcity on 15th Street and Urban Girl on 12th. The paper reported that locals have said they're glad the shop is there, stretching out the Camino Del Mar promenade. The shop at 1210 Camino Del Mar sells tabletop and decor pieces, women's, kids' and baby items, Jellycat plush toys, jewelry and apparel with local Del Mar pride.

Urban Girl took two of the three retail spaces on the building's main frontage. The white board-and-batten building also houses Brown Advisory, The Tox Spot and Del Mar Tailor. Lilli Bakery, which has a café in La Jolla, is set to open next door. No opening date has been published for the bakery. Once it opens, 12th Street will have a morning coffee-and-pastry stop of its own at a time when the Plaza's café terrace sits empty.

The Glenns' own move follows the same path. Their Del Mar business began in the Plaza in 2011 and now runs from 15th Street to 12th Street, with Beachcity in the Plaza and Urban Girl at The Torrey at 12th.

Pacifica's Last Racing Season

Over its 37 years, Pacifica has drawn racetrack crowds, weeknight regulars and special occasions, from birthdays and anniversaries to wedding receptions. This fall's calendar gives it one more racing season before December. Here are the dates as currently published:

1. November 6–29: the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's 13-day Bing Crosby fall meet. First post is generally 12:30 p.m., with an 11 a.m. program on Thanksgiving Day.
2. December 2026: Pacifica Del Mar's planned closing month. No exact final service date has been announced.
3. Dates not yet set: La La Land Café's opening on the Plaza mezzanine and Lilli Bakery's opening at The Torrey at 12th.
4. 2027 at the earliest: the earliest opening SanDiegoVille's unconfirmed report projects for whoever takes over the Pacifica space.

Pacifica Del Mar is at 1555 Camino Del Mar, in the second-floor space it has held since the Plaza opened in 1989.

A turnover like this on Camino Del Mar affects what a village address offers day to day, and it can change how a home a few blocks off the strip is described when it's time to sell. If you're thinking about how 12th through 15th Streets are changing, Polly Rogers & Associates can share what we're seeing up close. Request a Complimentary Market Consultation.