Fig Tree Caf\u00e9 has taken root in Liberty Station, and its eclectic mix of architecture and California cuisine is flourishing in Point Loma.
\n“We call it rustic industrial,” said restaurant co-owner Johan Engman of the ambiance of the third eatery in the local chain, which he established along with business partner Alberto Morreale in Pacific Beach in 2008.
\nSitting underneath homemade artwork at the entrance of his Liberty Station restaurant at 2400 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 103, Engman notes, “We did pretty much all of it ourselves.”
\nPointing to a framed piece made from two disassembled wine barrels, metal strips from which were used to create overhead chandeliers, Engman said,\u00a0 “We were trying to be a little creative,” which is obvious looking around.
\nChalkboards lining the interior of Liberty Station Fig Tree bear some of Engman\u2019s favorite sayings like, “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”
\n“I love it here,” said Engman of his retail space in a courtyard of the former Naval base, seating 40 people inside and 60 outside on the patio.
\nEngman said the former base\u2019s ongoing redevelopment is creating a “big buzz,” attracting business for him. It doesn\u2019t hurt that there\u2019s lots of office space nearby, furnishing a nearly inexhaustible supply of hungry Fig Tree patrons.
\n“People don\u2019t realize there\u2019s close to 400,000 square feet of office space in Liberty Station,” Engman said.
\nEngman is as grassroots as the name of his restaurant implies. He said he\u2019s been in the restaurant biz all his life, working since his teens as a waiter and busser.
\n“I opened my first restaurant when I was 27 on a shoestring budget using plastic chairs and tables,” Engman said, noting his idea was to capitalize on breakfast and using creative d\u00e9cor and an equally inventive menu.
\n“We didn\u2019t want to do the greasy spoon thing,” he said. “We wanted to do more high-quality food.”
\nEngman said Fig Tree uses local food sources, like a family ranch in Ramona that supplies the restaurant\u2019s eggs.
\n“You can really taste the difference,” he said, adding he\u2019s benefited “tenfold” from using local food sources.
\nFig Tree is open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. for breakfast, and for dinner from 4 to 10 p.m.
\nMore than just the menu at the eatery changes for dinner.
\n“We like to think in the evening that we become more of a wine bar\/sit-down restaurant,” Engman said. “We have a good amount of eclectic, affordable wines coming from Spain and Argentina or elsewhere in South America.”
\nFig Tree\u2019s dinner menu is moderately priced.
\n“There\u2019s nothing over $20,” said Engman, noting the key to both his breakfast and dinner menus is adding that little extra culinary “twist.”
\n“We have a breakfast item we call sushi with saut\u00e9ed eggs and rice with man candy \u2014 thick-cut bacon marinated and baked in brown sugar,” he said. “We\u2019ve got a meat loaf hash.”
\nEngman said Fig Tree also has a wide assortment of about 30 gluten-free items, including French toast, on the menu.
\n“It\u2019s important to be innovative and try to stay ahead of the trends,” he said. “Instead of stagnating, you always need to be reinventing yourself.”
\nThe restaurant\u2019s name came about in a surprising way.
\n“Our original location in Pacific Beach was surrounded by ficus trees, but I didn\u2019t feel Ficus Tree Caf\u00e9 had a good ring to it,” said Engman. “So I planted five or six fig trees and called it the Fig Tree Caf\u00e9.”
\nThe restaurant features daily specials. One recent weekday, the specials were New Zealand rack of lamb, pan-seared yellowtail and fresh fettuccini tossed with salmon and a cherry tomato cream sauce. Sunday brunch is the biggest meal, with lots of patrons coming in after services at The Rock Church.
\nFor more information, visit www.figtreeeatery.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fig Tree Caf\u00e9 has taken root in Liberty Station, and its eclectic mix of architecture and California cuisine is flourishing in Point Loma. “We call it rustic industrial,” said restaurant co-owner Johan Engman of the ambiance of the third eatery in the local chain, which he established along with business partner Alberto Morreale in Pacific […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":272422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Fig Tree Caf\u00e9\u2019s fresh cuisine spreads delicious fare to Liberty Station","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272421","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=272421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}