For 12 years, Urban Solace helped revive North Park into an eating and drinking attraction, then brought good, honest food to Encinitas.
Tomorrow night will be their last night of service at both places. It's the end of an era.
[...]
"It has been an uphill battle for quite some time now, and it's just time to move on. We love you all and thank you and San Diego in general for the wonderful 12 years that we were able to live out our dreams. We will be doing our last dinner service, tomorrow night, Wednesday at both locations and would love for you to join us tonight or tomorrow to help us empty the bar and pantry!"
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Solace & the Moonlight Lounge bites the dust
San Diego Magazine:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Too much great competition.
ReplyDeleteWe’ve been blessed with a lot of very good new restaurants.
Most of the new places are fast food franchises. Labor is reduced by shipping in factory-built goods and by limiting the menu to items that can be finished quickly. Also no table service, just order at the counter and pick it up.
ReplyDeleteTheir prices were too high and now most people spend most of their money on housing or rent.
ReplyDeleteOr is that just sad sad you?
DeleteHow do you explain the explosion of hot new restaurants?
Downtown is a foodie paradise. Great job Encinitas!
I’m sure competition will drive an even better new joint in that location.
I can’t wait to try it.
Yeah they said the same thing about Whole Foods! How well did that "competition" work out for Encinitas?
ReplyDeleteI see you are stuck in a deep and depressing negative outlook. I want to help you achieve the joy the rest of us feel at living in paradise.
DeleteHere’s what you need to do:
-Have an al pastor taco from the authentic trompo rotisserie at the Taco Stand. Feel free to have it with a Victoria for the full experience.
-Next, go down to the meditation gardens and watch a sunset while thinking about how lucky we are to live here.
-Then, go to URBN and try the sausage, pepper, and blue cheese coal fired pizza. Ask the boys their advice on a microbrew that goes with it.
-Go for a nice safe bike ride on one of our new protected routes. Feel the wind. Nice.
-Cruise on over to the Crack Shack for Coop De Ville sandwich. I’d have it with the Pilsner at the top of the beer menu, but that’s just me.
-Now you’re feelin’ it. Have a surf session on a glassy morning. Forget about your worries.
-Pop in to ChiKo and try the Cardiff Crack Tritip kabob with a Tony Gwynn Pale Ale. Atta Boy. I see that smile now, Brah.
-Go for a walk on the beach at low tide. Show off that new smile fo yo neighbors!
-Finally, duck in to Moto Deli for a Cubano and a smoky Porter. Ah.
Yeah. Now you’re livin Encinitas. Welcome back.
I don't agree with all your recommendations, but I dig your vibe. Cheers mate.
Delete12:46 PM - Sounds like a heavy-duty alcohol buzz is making you feel really groovy
Delete12:46 is one of the pro-streetscape freaks. Or else he has an evil twin likewise telling people to basically go out and get some fresh air.
DeleteYou know, so you don't notice the city f-ups left and right. Dream on, 12:46. We b noticing.
The best response to sad negative people is to ignore them and be happy. It absolutely ruins their day.
DeleteHat tip to the ETL representative.
3:18, I think your sadness is too profound to solve with good food, sunshine, and positive vibes.
DeleteYou need professional help. Lucky for you, I have a certificate from the Frown Upside-Down.com Institute in the Cayman Islands to be an online therapist.
So relax, lie down, and tell me: Did mommy not love you enough? When was the last time you got laid?
Be honest now. There there. Let it all out.
As great as their ambience and drinks were, the food wasn't that great - limited menu.
ReplyDeleteAnd no matter how little you ordered, was always a bit of sticker shock.
DeleteHey, Happy Boy, what did you ever order from Urban Solace? Anything on the menu?
ReplyDeleteRaw bar upstairs. Pretty good, but I agree it was pricy. Great location though. Looking forward to something new there.
DeleteD St. Bar and Grill bellied up too. I guess it only sold booze on weekends (peak patronage).
ReplyDeleteWhat is a "raw bar"?
ReplyDelete"Raw bar" is a raw shellfish bar (oysters and clams shucked on the half shell). The retail rents in that 'Whole Foods' mixed-use project are obscene. Notice how Whole Foods massive space has been vacant now for two years....developers sold them a bill of goods on traffic, retail real estate agents doing nothing to break up the space and find a solution, investors bleeding returns. Poor Solace, no one can pay that much rent...except Wells Fargo and other multi-national corporations. Back in the good ol' days and in many parts of the country, instead of paying a fixed monthly rent, restaurants pay a percentage rate based on a percentage of their sales, this allows them to survive and the landlord to be rewarded in their success when and if they make it.
ReplyDeleteThat place and D St closed because the market is saturated. If there weren't so many eating/drinking places downtown, all of them would do enough business to prosper. The customer base was spread too thin.
ReplyDeleteThe restaurant/bar business model in our downtown has been allowed to fester to a cancerous degree because, wait for it, the $$$$$$ of influence.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has been here long enough knows we had, past tense, something special that defined our community from others.
Now, not so much, or rather, not at all.
Vibrancy? bs.
Perhaps we have reached a saturation point that, in spite of Planning always being so pliable to accept every proposal that comes before them, just maybe the market will have the final say.
PB north may have finally had enough of this degradation of our downtown ambience.
Weren't the original developers John DeWald (sp?) and trusty sidekick Dody something? Was Stocks in on the deal, too?
ReplyDelete