The Plaza Rancho Bernardo Has Quietly Refilled Its Restaurant Row, One Old Address at a Time
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
Three doors stand side by side on Bernardo Center Drive: 16761, 16765 and 16773. Last October, each was empty, about to change hands or had just closed. That month the San Diego Union-Tribune's Pomerado News business roundup reported that the Starbucks at 16773 had closed in late September as part of a company-wide restructuring. It also reported that a wine company was taking over the former Barrel Room at 16765 and that a Korean tofu restaurant was coming to the former Urge American Gastropub space at 16761.
One year later, two of those spaces are open and the third has a target date. The tenants have something in common. Each one is a San Diego operator, and two of them came from within a few miles of The Plaza. One started in a Poway backyard. The other is moving four minutes down the road.
| Address on Bernardo Center Drive | Previous tenant | New tenant | Status as of mid-October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16765 | The Barrel Room | Barrel Riot | Open, lunch daily |
| 16761, Suite M1 | Urge American Gastropub | Dubu | Open |
| 16773 | Starbucks | Elmisa Café | Targeting mid-November 2026 |
The center's own directory now lists Barrel Riot and Dubu in its restaurant section and marks Elmisa Café as "Coming Soon." They share that section with Iron Wok, Naturally Desi Café, PKI Sushi, Roberto's Taco Shop and The Golf Bar.
Barrel Riot did not come to The Plaza as an established restaurant group. According to the Union-Tribune, CEO and owner Dan Lipsky is a former software engineer who started out brewing beer at his Poway home. He began making barrel-aged wines with a local winery and released his first set of five wines in 2019. Tasting rooms were shut down in early 2020, so he sold at farmers markets and built an open-air speakeasy behind his house. The Plaza space is the brand's first permanent home.
The same article described a plan in two phases. The first was happy hour through evening, with lunch to follow as a second phase. The second phase has arrived. Barrel Riot's food menu now lists lunch daily from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., with sandwiches, burgers, salads and flatbreads, and a weekday happy hour from 2 to 5 p.m. The business's own about page says it opened in 2026.
The drinks go beyond the house bottles. Alongside the barrel-aged wine flights, the drink menu lists more than 25 rotating guest and traditional wines and eight rotating taps of local craft beer. That makes it an easier choice for a mixed group where some people want the bourbon-barrel wine and others want a pale ale.
The events calendar shows trivia from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22, and Music Bingo from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 25. Music Bingo also ran on the 11th, so the Sunday afternoon slot looks like a regular one.
The second handoff took longer than announced. When the Union-Tribune first reported it, Dubu was owned by San Diego Tofu Co. and planned to specialize in soondubu, a soft tofu stew, along with other Korean dishes. Co-owner Sean Kim gave a tentative opening of late January. The local food blog mmm-yoso noted in a July 25, 2026 post that the Rancho Bernardo location was already open.
In its roundup of new San Diego restaurants, updated Oct. 1, 2026, Eater San Diego includes Dubu Tofu at 16761 Bernardo Center Drive, Suite M1, and credits it to the team behind Sot BBQ. That puts the Rancho Bernardo restaurant on a countywide list of places worth a drive. It is a short trip for anyone who lives nearby.
The former Starbucks space at 16773 has sat empty since late September 2025. Its next tenant is a café already based in Rancho Bernardo. As What Now San Diego reported on Oct. 6, Elmisa Cafe plans to move from 11611 Rancho Bernardo Road to 16773 Bernardo Center Drive, targeting mid-November 2026. Owner Eddy Jabbour said the goal is to open before December.
Eddy and Roula Jabbour founded Elmisa in 2020 as a family-owned café and named it after their three daughters, Elise, Mia and Sasha. The menu covers sandwiches, salads, bowls and drinks, with Boar's Head meats and cheeses and house-made sauces.
What Now reported that the move comes down to parking. "Parking has always been the biggest challenge for us. We have built such a great business, and we've definitely outgrown it," Jabbour told the outlet. The café's current complex has 41 parking spots and no street parking nearby. The Plaza space offers more parking, a slightly larger footprint and a better patio. Jabbour said the menu will stay mostly the same.
A business that outgrows a 41-space lot looks for a bigger center close to its customers, and The Plaza is four minutes from Elmisa's current door. Barrel Riot went the same way, from a backyard speakeasy and farmers market stalls to its first permanent tasting room. Both owners were growing businesses they had built nearby, and The Plaza had the room.
Until the move happens, Elmisa's own website still lists 11611 Rancho Bernardo Road, so that is the address to use for now.
Nearby, Rancho Bernardo Town Center has also been adding restaurants, and its lineup tells a different story. Boardwalk Development, the center's asset manager, divided one building between two tenants. Paris Baguette Bakery Café would take about two-thirds of it, close to 3,500 square feet, and a new Bushfire Kitchen the remaining 1,800 or so. In the Union-Tribune, co-owner Ron Bamberger noted that Bushfire already had locations in Del Mar, Carlsbad and Orange County.
Bushfire Kitchen is now open at 11962 Bernardo Plaza Drive, Suite 110. It is a fast-casual restaurant with a scratch-made menu and a patio. Paris Baguette's address is Suite 130 in the same building. What Now first projected an opening in the fourth quarter of 2024. Last October the Union-Tribune reported that the bakery was making progress but had no tentative date, and the developer's own page now says only that it is anticipated to open in 2026.
Both centers are adding places to eat. The Town Center's new building went to a multi-location bakery brand and a restaurant with sites up and down the coast. All three new tenants at The Plaza are San Diego operators, two of them based within a few miles.
Most of what is on the local calendar this fall happens at a handful of addresses on these two roads:
If the Elmisa move stays on schedule, by the Dec. 5 craft fair all three empty storefronts on that stretch of Bernardo Center Drive will be serving customers again, a little over a year after the last one closed.
I keep an eye on which storefronts are changing hands across Rancho Bernardo because small changes like these shape what daily life feels like here. If you'd like to talk about what's changing near your part of the neighborhood, Chad Basinger is glad to help. Let's Connect.
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