Second Nature bar and restaurant on Cass Street in North Pacific Beach set up shop in late December, replacing the popular and cozy Turquoise Coffee Café and Wine Bar. Second Nature opened its doors with a significantly renovated space that creates an earthy and open restaurant and bar experience. The restaurant has two garage-style glass doors that slide open during business hours and open the restaurant to the surrounding streets and San Diego sunshine. This structural design makes the restaurant inviting, and creates a breezy and naturally sun-lit interior during the daytime. The restaurant features wooden interior tables with a variety of different shapes and succulent plants. The beige bricks, light gray cement, and dark brown linings featured on the restaurant walls further emphasize the earthy interior design. A green leaf wall leading to the bathrooms extenuates this flare. There is also booth seating facing the large windows on both sides that offer unobstructed views of Cass Street. The indoor dining area has three flat-screen televisions and a full bar with plenty of seating. The bar features a vast selection of local craft beers, wines, cold brew coffees, and GT’s kombucha on tap. The bar also has a full espresso/coffee selection, which parallels the one offered by Turquoise Café. The outdoor seating portion of the restaurant has a variety of different tables and seating along a wooden booth on the far end. The garage doors allow outdoor bar seating that connects to the main indoor bar. There is also a retractable roof that offers indirect lighting during the evenings and cover for inclement weather. Outdoor seating features flat-screen televisions and is adjacent to the trendy Volare Aerial Yoga studio, which often provides patrons with a glimpse of their graceful training sessions.
Second Nature offers sunrise, brunch, and sunset menus. Each of these menus predominately features vegetarian-inspired dishes that seek to promote a health-conscious beachside dinning experience. For example, the restaurant offers a yogi avocado smash toast for breakfast that includes spicy pickled carrots, pea greens, and cumin-toasted pepitas. The restaurant also offers five different acai bowl dishes. For lunch, a plant-based burger made from beyond meat with roasted garlic aioli, and vine-ripened tomatoes will tempt diners. Also, the menu features a vegan Yard Bird sandwich with gardein “chicken” breast, crispy cornmeal breading and an avocado slaw. To satisfy meat eaters, the restaurant has begun to offer an organic grass-fed burger with American cheese and Dijon aioli.
The dinner menu has a variety of vegan starters including the roasted heirloom carrots, artichoke cakes, and orange cauliflower. There is also a variety of vegan bowls such as the coconut Thai curry quinoa bowl with carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, and green curry sauce as well as the ancient grain bowl with roasted sweet potato, cucumber, fried chickpeas, and red onions. In addition, there are a variety of tasty flatbreads and scrumptious main entrees. Some of the most popular main dishes include the wild-caught salmon quinoa plate and Japanese eggplant parmesan with panko crusted eggplant, sundried tomatoes, and zucchini noodles. To satisfy meat eaters, the dinner menu offers a grilled chimichurri grass fed skirt steak with roasted vegetables, potatoes, and onion crisps.
The restaurant has happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, which features $5 taps and starters as well as $2 off wines.