Many of Ingrid Croce’s loyal customers — and all of her 75 employees — came with her when she made a momentous move to Bankers Hill to open her new restaurant and music venue, Croce’s Park West.
The mid-January debut followed the New Year’s Eve closing of the iconic Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar, which was a Gaslamp Quarter institution for nearly three decades.
“Lots of our regulars have known where to find us,” Croce said, speaking from the co-owner’s new restaurant at 2760 Fifth Ave., near Balboa Park. “It’s a good mix of the people who lived nearby when we were in the Gaslamp and the ones who came to see us when they were in town visiting.”
Croce’s transition comes as San Diego’s restaurant and bar scene is seeing significant churn, including several new arrivals in the downtown and uptown neighborhoods.
A big changeover is also in the works for another Gaslamp mainstay, Jimmy Love’s, whose operators in mid-January closed the popular restaurant and nightspot so that it could undergo “an extensive conceptual and design renovation,” with the newly branded venue to debut in the spring.
“It’s the bars, the lounges, the club area; everything’s going to be changed,” said Jimmy DiMatteo, who opened Jimmy Love’s at 672 Fifth Ave. in 1995 with his wife, Kathy. “We’ve been here for close to 20 years, and it was just time for some changes.”
While details are yet to be announced, DiMatteo said the transformation is being overseen by a partnership that recently acquired a 49 percent stake in the business. The partnership includes David Schiffman, Mark Huber and Scott Sanders, operators of popular downtown establishments such as Whiskey Girl and Bootlegger; chef Richard Sweeney, a former “Top Chef” contestant; and designer Michael Soriano, whose local projects include The Pearl Hotel.
$1 Million-plus Renovation
The original Croce’s is among the businesses credited with helping transform the Gaslamp from a seedy and rundown neighborhood into a lively haven for good food and live music. It opened in 1985, about 12 years after it was first envisioned by Ingrid Croce and her then-husband Jim Croce during a San Diego visit shortly before the singer’s death in a plane crash.
Ingrid Croce and her current husband, Jimmy Rock, originally envisioned Croce’s Park West as a neighborhood satellite for the Gaslamp venue, rather than a successor to it. However, operators last year were unable to come to lease renewal terms with the landlord at 802 Fifth Ave., citing differences over issues including noise emanating from neighboring establishments.
Croce estimated that operators invested “well over $1 million” in a renovation of the Bankers Hill site, which at 4,000 square feet is about 700 square feet larger than the Gaslamp space. The new location enabled Croce’s to be configured into several separate spaces, including a cabana-like patio and a lounge area with comfortable furniture overlooking the bar area.
“The musicians like the new place because there’s less of that situation where people are walking in front of them while they’re playing,” Croce said.
Operators are looking into hosting meetings and group events at the venue, and Croce said it fills an important niche in the neighborhood by offering a relatively quiet place for food and live music, within walking distance for residents. She estimates about half her customers so far reside in the immediate neighborhood, well above the 10 percent of her former Gaslamp clientele.
Retail Vacancy Lowest Since 2010
Downtown neighborhoods in particular continue to see significant churn in the current climate, as visitors spend more to dine out in a recovering economy. Much of the local spending is taking place in San Diego-based restaurants whose operators are increasing their numbers of locations.
Among new Gaslamp Quarter arrivals is the New York-based restaurant and bar chain Coyote Ugly Saloon, set to open its first Southern California location in early February. It replaces Frauds & Swindlers in the historic Keating Hotel building on Fifth Avenue.
Brokers at Cassidy Turley said talks are in progress with potential tenants to fill the adjacent space in the Keating building vacated by Croce’s.
In its recent year-end report, brokerage firm CBRE Group Inc. noted that the restaurant industry is playing a significant role in the local region’s net retail space absorption, which topped 480,000 square feet in 2013.
“Quality restaurant space in desired markets is scarce, yet the supply of hungry San Diegans only seems to be increasing,” CBRE researchers said.
San Diego County’s retail vacancy rate was 6.9 percent at the end of the fourth quarter. That’s down from 7.1 percent in the prior quarter and the lowest rate seen since late 2010. Downtown ended 2013 with a vacancy rate well below the countywide figure, at 4.6 percent.
While year-end figures were not yet available for specific downtown neighborhoods, Cushman & Wakefield Inc. reported that the Gaslamp Quarter’s retail vacancy stood at 3.4 percent at mid- 2013. Only Little Italy’s was lower, at 2.3 percent.