![\"SAN](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-Bacari-Opening-0210-006.jpg\")
The familiar exterior of the former Urban Solace restaurant remains. (Howard Lipin \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
While restoration of the building interior presented some challenges simply because it had sat empty for so long, the Bacari owners were undaunted, Kronfli said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we did our due diligence before we did this,\u201d said Kronfli, who owns the Bacari restaurants with his brother Danny and executive chef Lior Hillel. \u201cIf something is vacant for a while, there will be issues, but not enough for us to walk away. We had to redo a lot of the electrical and plumbing fixtures. The building was in pretty bad shape so we had to bring it up to 2026 standards. We spent two or three months just doing that kind of stuff. The floor plan is the same, but every inch you can see was refinished with new material and a new design.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe uniqueness fit very well for our band, and we took that risk because we really liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investment to reinvent the space was close to $2.5 million, Kronfli said.<\/p>\n
![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-Bacari-Opening-0210-001.jpg\")
Robert Kronfli, left, Lior Hillel, executive chef, center, and Danny Kronfli, right, are the owners of Bacari, which is the first San Diego location for the Los Angeles-based chain. (Howard Lipin \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The concept behind the Los Angeles Bacari restaurants, which began in 2008, was inspired by the wine bars in Venice. The San Diego restaurant, which draws from Old World, European-inspired design for its decor, features two full bars, including one in the upstairs space, which was never accessible to dining patrons. The second-story dining space will also feature a small wrap-around balcony area overlooking 30th Street.<\/p>\n
Konfli said that in executing the design, Bacari tries to use reclaimed materials wherever it can, whether it\u2019s the terracotta floors or marble used for the bar countertops. The walls are finished with hand-done plaster, and there are accents of Mexican wall tiles and rustic stonework. The color palette draws from a lot of earthy and rustic tones, said Konfli, adding that he tried to avoid brighter, primary colors.<\/p>\n
Outside, a plant-filled covered patio serves as both the restaurant\u2019s entrance and a seating area. In all, the restaurant seats roughly 200 people.<\/p>\n
The menu includes Bacari staples like glazed pork belly, five-cheese mac and cheese, lamb hummus, and a selection of pizzas. A popular menu item, said Kronfli, are the Moroccan \u201ccigars\u201d filled with lamb, chicken, roasted nut and garlic honey glaze, and pickled onion.<\/p>\n
Among the Bacari signature drinks are house-made sangrias and cocktails like the Bacarita, a combination of tequila, watermelon, jalapeno, basil and lime.<\/p>\n
Even as Bacari is making its debut in the city of San Diego, the ownership team is already preparing to begin work on its second San Diego County location, in Carlsbad Village. That restaurant should open later this year. And still another Bacari may be in the county\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still actively looking around San Diego County, in Encinitas,\u201d Kronfli said. \u201cBut I do want to make the point that we are family-owned, very community-driven people. Still in our own mind, we look at ourselves as a mom and pop \u2014 there are actual humans behind the business who care about it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long vacant North Park building known best for its iconic New Orleans-style look \u2014 and its former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,421,181,412,74,76,75,420,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-171669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-food-and-drink","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-restaurants","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego-news","15":"tag-things-to-do","16":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}