The chef-owners behind two of San Diego’s most hotly anticipated new restaurants of 2025 have finalized plans to open their next locations in the fall.
Chef Accursio Lota and his wife and business partner, Corinne Goria, who own 6-year-old Cori Trattoria in North Park, will open their second restaurant, Dora, in early fall near the La Jolla Playhouse campus at UC San Diego.
And chef Travis Swikard, who owns the nearly 4-year-old Michelin Bib Gourmand-honored restaurant Callie in East Village, confirmed last week that he’ll open Fleurette, a Southern French restaurant near Westfield UTC, this coming autumn.
Here are some updates on the new restaurants.
Dora
Named after Lota’s grandmother, Dora will serve elevated coastal Southern Italian cuisine in a location that will celebrate and serve the nearby three-theater La Jolla Playhouse complex.
Besides serving a seafood-forward a la carte menu, the 100-seat restaurant will also offer a pre-theater dining program with dishes inspired by the different plays being presented at the Playhouse. The restaurant will prepare in-house its own breads, pasta and gelato.
Born and raised in Sicily and winner of the 2017 Barilla World Pasta Championship and numerous awards from the Gambero Rosso organization, Lota said the menu will reflect both his Italian roots and his life in Southern California today.
Cori Trattoria duo to open signature restaurant in UCSD’s new theater district
“This restaurant reflects our life here — it’s deeply personal, inspired by where we come from and where we are now. We can’t wait to welcome guests into a space that’s both expressive and rooted in a true sense of place,” Lota said.
The restaurant is being designed by Bells + Whistles, led by Jason St. John and Barbara Rourke, whose other local projects have included Jeune et Jolie, Animae, and Starlite. The 3,800-square-foot Mediterranean-style restaurant will include an open kitchen, oval-shaped central bar, velvet banquettes, a 16-seat private dining room and floor-to-ceiling windows. Outdoor dining will also be offered on a 1,200-square-foot patio.
“Dora is about more than food. It’s about creating a space that honors tradition, encourages connection, and celebrates the cultural richness of our neighborhood,” said Goria, a published author, professor and human rights attorney, who with her husband and their two children moved from North Park to La Jolla in 2022. “At Cori, we found so much joy in building something within the community we called home. Now, we’re thrilled to do the same in La Jolla.”
Dora is at 9165 Scholars Drive South, Room SK1A15, on the ground floor of UCSD’s new Theatre District Living and Learning Neighborhood. For updates, visit instagram.com/doraristorante.
Fleurette
Last week, Travis Swikard announced on his personal Instagram page that hiring is now under way for his second restaurant, Fleurette. Also, earlier this month, he and his wife, Mia Swikard, spent a week dining and shopping their way through Paris, gathering inspiration for the new restaurant, which Swikard will be opening with Cohn Restaurant Group co-founder David Cohn.
A San Diego native, Swikard started his cooking career in 2002 as a cook for Cohn Restaurant Group. After culinary school, he spent 10 years working for famed French restaurateur Daniel Boulud in New York City. Swikard rose from the position of chef de partie at Café Boulud in 2008 to culinary director for three of Boulud’s New York restaurants in 2016. But when Swikard finally felt ready to open his own restaurant in 2019, he wanted to do it in his hometown of San Diego. (The pandemic delayed Callie’s opening until 2021).
Swikard said Fleurette was inspired by a Swikard family vacation last summer to Cassis, a small community on ’s Mediterranean Riviera where the geography and climate are very similar to San Diego.
Swikard said Côte d’Azur food is lighter and cleaner than the heavy, sauce-laden dishes of Northern . For example, a roasted fish dish in Northern would be served with a beurre blanc sauce, but fish on the French-Italian Riviera would arrive at the table in a vierge sauce, made with white balsamic vinegar, shallots, olive oil, tomato concassé and fines herbes.
Callie chef-owner Travis Swikard looking ahead to 2025 for next restaurant project
The roughly 140-seat restaurant will be situated in a new building in a business park owned by Ernest Rady’s American Assets Trust, off La Jolla Village Drive.
The restaurant is being designed by the L.A. architecture firm Studio UNLTD, which designed Callie. The modern building will have 24-foot-tall glass walls with 6,000 square feet of interior space and a 1,500-square-foot patio, along with a 12- to 14-seat bar and a private dining room. KRBS, a Vermont architect that specializes in building restaurants and bars, will create a French-style kitchen with a real French island stove. As at Callie, the new restaurant will have free parking onsite, plus a valet option.
Fleurette is at 4747 Executive Drive in San Diego. For updates, visit instagram.com/travisswikard.
