Village restaurateur George Hauer met with La Jolla Shores residents recently to announce his intent to convert part of the former Shores Market space at 2259 Avenida de la Playa into a Mexican restaurant.
\nBut the expansion is contingent on Hauer\u2019s obtaining a liquor license, which could take several months.
\nHauer, owner of the upscale, three-story George\u2019s at the Cove in La Jolla Village, is one of three new restaurants eyeing expansion into La Jolla Shores\u2019 commercial strip along Avenida de la Playa.
\nThe expanding number of restaurants in the oceanside La Jolla neighborhood \u2014 which already includes a French and an Italian restaurant, as well as numerous delis, a pizza place and a sandwich shop \u2014 has led to speculation that the area is morphing into an international restaurant row.
\nShores merchant Terry Kraszewski, owner of Ocean Girl boutique and a member of La Jolla Shores Merchants Association, said Brick & Bell Caf\u00e9, with an existing restaurant at 928 Silverado St., has signed a lease for a new restaurant site on Avenida de la Playa. She said one of the owners of the Islands chain is also building a new restaurant\u00a0\u2014 not a part of the Islands chain \u2014 in the Shores commercial strip.
\n“That\u2019s three new restaurants that are going into the easternmost block of Avenida de La Playa,” said Kraszewski, who sat in on the Hauer meeting with locals who were told the prospective new Mexican restaurant there has been tentatively named Galaxy. One guest suggested “Jorge\u2019s” might be a better moniker for the new eatery.
\nTim Lucas, chair of the La Jolla Shores Association (LJSA), the community advisory group making recommendations to the city on neighborhood issues, also attended the meeting with Hauer. Lucas said a Mexican-themed restaurant with more causal beach attire is\u00a0“an interesting concept,” noting most of the 30 people who attended “seemed to be in favor of it.”
\nNotable exceptions were some neighbors who live near the old Shores market site.
\nBarbara Miller, who lives one block from the site owned by the Kellogg family, said she has concerns about a restaurant there.
\n“While we welcome businesses coming into the Shores that improve the quality of life, we have serious concerns regarding the noise levels coming from the refrigeration system on top of the roof, along with the fan noise at the back of the building,” Miller said. “Adding to this are our concerns regarding the early- morning loading and unloading of restaurant supplies and food to the back of the restaurant, as well as the outdoor dining and music that is planned to include evening hours by the new tenants.”
\nMiller said her major concern, however, was with the “outdated refrigeration system and poor maintenance of the Kellogg building. We are counting on the new tenants, who fortunately were solicitous of feedback from local residents, to work closely with the Beach and Tennis Club to address these noise issues so that we can all peacefully coexist with one another.”
\nBill Kellogg of the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club who owns the old Market Building, which has been vacant a couple years, was effusive about the prospect of Hauer moving in.
\n“George is a great operator and we\u2019re very pleased about this development,” Kellogg said, adding it was difficult to find another independent market to move into that retail space as “big operators, large chains are just dominating, they have been able to keep (profit) margins very low, which has made it nearly impossible for small operators to compete. We\u2019d love to have another market in that space, but I just don\u2019t think it can happen.”
\nKellogg said Hauer expects to take about two-thirds of the space available on the ground level. He added the building\u2019s upstairs level, which is inhabited by about eight different offices, won\u2019t be affected. Kellogg said there\u2019s about 9,000 square feet of leasable space available on both building levels.
\nLucas agreed the market will ultimately determine what type of new businesses will go in on Avenida de la Playa.
\n“In this economy, retail shops are doing well, but there\u2019s not enough foot-traffic in the Shores to support typical little beach touristy shops that do well in other communities,” he said. “So restaurants are moving in.”
\nGeorge\u2019s at the Cove chef Trey Foshee said it was too early in the process to comment further on plans for Galaxy.
\nHauer could not be reached for comment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Village restaurateur George Hauer met with La Jolla Shores residents recently to announce his intent to convert part of the former Shores Market space at 2259 Avenida de la Playa into a Mexican restaurant. But the expansion is contingent on Hauer\u2019s obtaining a liquor license, which could take several months. Hauer, owner of the upscale, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":264893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Shores looks to be next destination for local restaurateur","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}