SAN DIEGO – A long-time Shelter Island restaurant that closed in May 2023, Fiddler’s Green, is being resurrected with a new name, a new look and a menu designed by a Michelin-awarded chef.
Renamed The Boatyard, the new restaurant is the brainchild of Chaluim and January Muir, owners of Sail San Diego, a Point Loma boat chartering service.
Founder
The Boatyard
Additional partners in the venture are Whitney Eckis, a marketing executive, and entrepreneur Spencer Moran.
Their culinary director is Jason McLeod, who earned two Michelin Stars at Ria Restaurant in the Elysian Hotel in Chicago.
Chaluim Muir said they plan to spend $3 million renovating the former Fiddler’s Green at 2760 Shelter Island Drive and are recruiting additional investors with a goal of opening in mid-2025.
Born in the U.K., but raised on Point Loma, Muir has fond memories of Fiddler’s Green.
“I had my first beer in Fidler’s Green after a Wednesday night regatta,” Muir said.
After Fiddler’s Green closed, Muir decided to take over the space when he saw what several men in suits climbing the stairs to the old Fiddler’s Green, apparently interested in leasing it.
Sail San Diego offices are on the ground floor of the two-story restaurant building, with the former Fidler’s Green taking up the second floor.
Muir said that he wanted to make sure that whatever replaced Fiddler’s Green was true to its local vibe and feared that someone would come in and turn it into a posh place that ignored its roots in the community.
The Boatyard name of the new restaurant comes from Muir’s goal of bringing the fishing and boating communities together.
Typically, they don’t mix, except at a boatyard where they dock, Muir said.
Details on the design of Boatyard are still being worked out by Muir’s design partner, Paul Basile, founder of Basile Studio, which lists such San Diego restaurant projects as Born & Raised, Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop, Raised by Wolves and Ironside Fish & Oyster.
Elevated but Unpretentious
“We’re going to keep the structural bones of this property. It’s an iconic building. It wouldn’t be doing Shelter Island justice if we took the place down,” Muir said, adding that the finished product will be “an elevated yet unpretentious place, because that’s what Point Loma is.”
Opened in 1994, the nautical-themed Fiddler’s Green had become a hangout for locals and an attraction for tourists, with more than 300 boat models lining its interior walls.
Founder
The Boatyard
Some of those models, along with other touches of Fiddler’s Green, will be incorporated into the new restaurant, along with maritime charts and maps, Eckis said.
Muir said that the interior will have “a lot of wood, a lot of brass.”
Preliminary plans call for a bar that starts on an outdoor patio for casual dining, then extends inside to a more formal dining area for people looking for a night out.
“We’re going to create quite the atmosphere, one that embraces locals, the boating community, as well as the tourism industry,” Muir said.
The Boatyard will also have a speakeasy decked out to look like the captain’s cabin of an old sailing ship, Eckis said, adding that, “It’s going to have that old fashioned feel, but not to kitschy,”
The speakeasy will have a separate entrance.
“It will be something you kind of have to look for, like in the old Prohibition days,” Eckis said.
Muir said he sees The Boatyard as a long-term investment.
“We are in this for the next 30 years-plus,” Muir said. “This is not, ‘Hey, let’s be the next hot spot on the block.’ We want to be the staple for generations to come.”
The Boatyard
FOUNDED: 2024
FOUNDERS: Chaluim and January Muir, Whitney Eckis, Spencer Moran and Jason McLeod
HEADQUARTERS: Shelter Island, San Diego
BUSINESS: Restaurant
EMPLOYEES: 40
WEBSITE: www.theboatyardsandiego.com
CONTACT: 858-366-3351
NOTABLE: Jason McLeod is a two-star Michelin awarded Chef with many successful projects in San Diego. Chaluim & January Muir are the owners of Sail San Diego, voted by TripAdvisor as the number one of 637 tours and attractions in San Diego.
[Editor’s note: The original version of this article contained an information box for an unrelated business. This version corrects the original.]
