As San Diego Lineup reported, four Encinitas residents wanted a hometown brewery. Nobody had filed for one, so they filed the permits themselves. On March 8, 2026, the Planning Commission unanimously approved Encinitas Brewing Company for the former Islands Restaurant space at Encinitas Ranch Town Center, and co-owner Brian McBride told the commission the shopping center is "a bit quiet, but it works great for what we're trying to do." That is the tone of the whole year here. Nobody recruited these people. They just live here and got tired of driving somewhere else for a pint.
That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should, because it changes what actually shows up on your street. Coast Highway 101 is currently full of new kitchens, and this particular week, the week of August 20 through 25, is the first time the calendar and the kitchen openings have lined up tightly enough to notice.
What's actually open right now, and what's still cooking
Some of this is already on your table. Some of it is still drywall and permit paperwork. Worth knowing the difference before you plan a night around it.
| Spot | Where | Status as of mid-August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Rosemarie's Buns & Brews | 608 S Coast Hwy 101 | Open since late 2025 |
| Chick & Hawk | 145 Leucadia Blvd | Open since late 2025 |
| Pastaria Vivi | Encinitas Village Shopping Center | Open since April 11 |
| Coffee Dose (new location) | 687 2nd Street | Open, doubled footprint |
| The Brant | 806 Coast Hwy 101 | Aimed for a late July to early August opening |
| Blank Slate | 101 N Coast Hwy 101 | Aimed for a spring 2026 opening |
| Encinitas Brewing Company | 1588 Leucadia Blvd | Under construction, targeting September |
Rosemarie's is the one with the longest résumé. Owner Nick Balsamo started with a food truck parked outside Harland Brewing, built brick-and-mortar spots in Mission Beach and Ocean Beach, and then picked Encinitas for his permanent flagship. San Diego Magazine named Rosemarie's the best burger in San Diego in 2024, built around Wagyu sliders with onion confit and Kewpie mayo. He had two other cities to choose from for the flagship. He chose this one.
Coffee Dose did something similar in miniature. Instead of opening a second location somewhere new, owner Jon Runion moved the existing shop into a bigger space on 2nd Street, roughly doubling the footprint to about 1,100 square feet, and added a full kitchen. That kitchen means small plates and tapas now, plus beer and wine later in the day. A coffee shop that used to close by early afternoon is now built to hold a table past sunset.
Chick & Hawk, the fried chicken concept from skateboarder Tony Hawk and chef Andrew Bachelier, opened at 145 Leucadia Boulevard with a patio designed to look like a skate park. Whatever your take on celebrity-attached restaurants, this one has become something closer to a scheduled stop: it draws a steady crowd of parents doing weekend errands on the north side of town, less a novelty than a routine.
Pastaria Vivi, from chefs Brandon Jennings and William Treff, opened April 11 in the Encinitas Village Shopping Center. It is not just a pasta counter. The 1,740 square foot space combines a specialty Italian and California-focused retail shop with daily handmade pasta and sauce, casual à la carte dining, and a monthly pasta subscription box, which is apparently the first of its kind in the area. A subscription model only pencils out in a town with enough repeat local demand to fund it. That's a bet on regulars, not tourists.
Two more had opening targets earlier this year. The Brant, a coastal bar and grill expanding from its original Huntington Beach location, targeted a late July to early August opening at 806 Coast Highway 101 in the former Beachside Bar and Grill space, with brothers Travis and Drew Brummett building out 6,500 square feet of dining plus a 1,500 square foot rooftop bar. Blank Slate, from husband-and-wife team Aron and Pam Schwartz, aimed for a spring 2026 opening in the old Chiko space at 101 North Coast Highway 101, with a 12-seat chef's counter, seating for 50 indoors and 75 on the patio, and a plan to run community dinners under $30 on nights without private events. The Schwartzes spent years building Ranch 45, a butcher and bottle shop in Solana Beach, before going mobile and eventually landing here.
Encinitas Brewing Company is the furthest out. Construction runs roughly five months from groundbreaking, which points to a September opening, though the timeline is still described as fluid. When it lands, it will be the city's first brewery, distillery, and restaurant under one roof, with beer, spirits, and small-batch production happening on site rather than trucked in.
The six days that actually matter
None of that would read as a single story if it weren't for what else is happening on the calendar this exact week.
- Thursday, August 20, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Encinitas Cruise Nights runs the third Thursday of every summer month, and this month's edition lines South Coast Highway 101 from D Street to K Street with hot rods, Woodies, and foreign cars. It's free to show a car and free to walk through, and several restaurants along the route extend their hours for it.
- Monday, August 24, 3 to 5 p.m. The Moonlight Beach summer concert series returns for one of its final dates of the season, free and open to the public, right on the sand at 400 B Street.
- Tuesday, August 25, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Taste of Encinitas takes over downtown along South Coast Highway 101, with tickets priced at $60 covering samples from dozens of restaurants and access to even more Sip Stops for local beer and wine, plus live music at several venues along the route. Organizers are calling this year's the biggest yet.
Stack those three against each other and you get something that hasn't really existed in Encinitas before: a six-day window where you can walk the same three or four blocks on three separate nights and get a genuinely different reason each time. Cruise Night draws the classic car crowd and the people who just like watching a Woodie roll by. Moonlight Beach draws the blanket-and-beach-chair crowd for free live music with their toes in the sand. Taste of Encinitas draws the people who want to sample what all these new kitchens are actually doing, in one walkable evening, without committing to a single reservation.
That last part is worth sitting with. A year ago, a food event like Taste of Encinitas would have leaned on the same handful of longtime restaurants it always has. This year it overlaps with an actual wave of new operators, several of whom picked this specific stretch of highway over other coastal towns they could have chosen. The event didn't get bigger by accident. The town underneath it changed first.
A few practical notes if you're planning around it
Parking during Cruise Night is tightest on F, G, and H streets, where spots are permit-only for car club participants and non-permit vehicles get towed. Arrive early if you want a spot on the main strip, or plan to walk in from the residential side streets. Taste of Encinitas tickets have sold out every year so far, so if the idea of sampling dozens of kitchens in one evening appeals to you, don't wait until the week of to look for tickets.
None of this requires a plan beyond picking a night. That's sort of the point. Encinitas has spent the last year filling in its own gaps, one lease at a time, and this particular week is where you can actually see it.
If you're the kind of person who likes knowing what's changing in this town before it shows up on a "best of" list somewhere, Renée Burnette puts out a monthly newsletter with notes like this one on the towns she covers. Let's Connect if you'd like it in your inbox.
