Urban Solace, a North Park dining staple for a dozen years, closed in 2019 and has been vacant ever since. That will all change early next year, when a Los Angeles restaurant group will open its first San Diego location there, with a focus on Mediterranean-style cuisine.
The Bacari group, which has eight Los Angeles restaurants from Beverly Hills to Culver City, had been scouting locations for some time to bring its ninth Bacari to San Diego County, but when co-owner Robert Kronfli happened to walk by the distinctive New Orleans-style building on 30th Street, he was smitten. Unfortunately, the space wasn’t being marketed for rent at the time.
In October, however, the property changed hands, and the new owner, Arsalun Tafazoli — a prominent San Diego restaurateur himself — was looking for a tenant.
“I called (Kronfli) once escrow closed, and said, your dream has come true but you’ve got to lease it,” recalled broker Nate Benedetto, who worked on the property sale and lease with fellow broker Paul Ahearn, both of Next Wave Commercial. “He, like a lot of people, had his eye on the building but didn’t know how to get in touch with the guy who owned it before.”
While the two-story space needs considerable work, given how long it has sat dormant, Kronfli isn’t concerned. The restaurant group he co-owns with his brother and chef Lior Hillel hasn’t settled on a firm budget yet, but he said he expects the investment will be in the millions of dollars.
“It needs a lot of love and a full remodel, that’s for sure, but it’s a sound building, just really run-down and sitting vacant for a while, but this isn’t anything we have dealt with before,” Kronfli said. “We’re used to what it takes to convert a space into a Bacari.”
Although no two Bacari restaurants are identical, the overarching theme of the venues’ decor is rustic, Old World European-inspired, Kronfli said. The concept behind the Los Angeles Bacari restaurants, which got their start in 2008, was inspired by the wine bars in Venice.
But the San Diego Bacari, as is the case with other locations, will have its own local feel. Given the North Park building’s distinctive architectural look, reminiscent of New Orleans, the plan is to incorporate some of that design into the restaurant interior, Kronfli said.
“I’m going to be traveling to New Orleans soon to get some inspiration,” he said. “I’ll just wander around and take pictures of tile work, railings, bathrooms. I like to buy all antique fixtures and furniture and very rustic materials, reclaimed tiles. We’ll give it some New Orleans flavor but within the Bacari universe.”
The hope, he said, is to open the new two-story restaurant sometime in the first quarter of next year. The menu will largely mirror the food offerings at the other restaurants, featuring such specialties as glazed pork belly, mac and cheese that includes a five-cheese fondue, lamb hummus and an assortment of pizzas.
It’s expected that Bacari will be open for dinner daily, with brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.
It’s likely that the former Urban Solace space could have sat empty indefinitely, were it not for Tafazoli’s efforts to acquire the real estate — when it wasn’t even on the market. His company, CH Projects, has its offices in North Park, as well as a number of restaurants. And Tafazoli has long had an affection for the central city neighborhood that has increasingly become a dining destination, despite ups and downs along the way.
“I was born and raised here, and North Park for me has always been special. I used to go to Urban Solace and the (long-closed) Linkery,” he said. “It’s a neighborhood I care about, and it bothered me that that building sat dormant. Why is this great space being left to be vandalized, neglected? And I wanted to see someone give life to it.”
He made a call to Benedetto, with the hope of finding a way to purchase the property, and ultimately, a deal was consummated. The purchase was part of a two-property acquisition, which also included the building next door that houses True North Tavern. Together, the two properties sold for $5.6 million, according to the county recorder’s office.
When Urban Solace closed in 2019, along with its sister restaurant, Solace & the Moonlight Lounge, in Encinitas, owner and chef Matt Gordon said at the time that keeping the two eateries open had been an uphill battle for some time and that it was “just time to move on.”
He was transparent about the forces that contributed to the closures, saying then that sales no longer were keeping pace with rising costs, and dining tastes seemed to have changed in North Park, where customers were less inclined to indulge in multi-course meals.
In the years since the closure, the space was lightly marketed, said Benedetto, and on those occasions it was available for lease, it was hard to reach the owner or his representative, he said. While some North Park restaurants and bars have come and gone over the years, Benedetto believes the urban neighborhood is enjoying something of a resurgence, with a number of hip, innovative new eateries and bars opening in recent months.
“If I were an operator, there’s no place I’d rather do business than on 30th near University in North Park,” Benedetto said. “I think people are still traveling from all over the county to shop and eat here. North Park is having a moment now.”
The Bacari group expects to expand its brand further in San Diego County and remains interested in Carlsbad, Encinitas, Leucadia and Little Italy, Kronfli said. It’s also scouting locations in Orange County, including Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa and old Orange. Within the next one to two years, he said, the company would like to have up to five more Southern California locations.
