La Jolla Shores Is Staying Open After Dark This Winter

In the fall of 2025, the team behind George's at the Cove had a lease decision to make at 2259 Avenida de la Playa. "We had to make a decision either way about another 10 years," chef and partner Trey Foshee told the San Diego Union-Tribune when he and George Hauer announced that Sandpiper Wood Fired Grill & Oysters would close in early November. They decided not to renew. Foshee also pointed to pressures facing restaurants across the industry: rising labor, food and insurance costs, less tourism and lighter spending.

Almost a year later, the space has a new tenant, and this one opens at 5 p.m. The businesses that have arrived in the Shores since August divide the day between them, with a café that closes at 2 p.m., a dinner-only Japanese restaurant, and, eleven floors up on La Jolla Shores Drive, a rooftop planning DJ nights. Two of those three are built around the hours after sunset.

One address, three ideas about the Shores

The space at 2259 Avenida de la Playa shows how operators have tried to make the block pay over the past decade.

1. 2015, Galaxy Taco. Hauer and Foshee opened a gourmet taqueria.
2. 2021, Sandpiper. By their account, high labor and ingredient costs had made the taco model unworkable. After surveying the community, they switched to an oyster program with Santa Maria-style wood-grilled seafood and an international wine and Champagne list.
3. 2026, Shio La Jolla. Owners Eugene Kim and Peter Kim, who also run Takaramono, held a grand opening on Oct. 24, according to lajolla.ca.

Each version moved further toward a sit-down dinner. The current one is the most committed to it.

Dinner starts at five on Avenida de la Playa

Shio means "salt" in Japanese. The Union-Tribune's November business roundup lists sushi rolls, nigiri, sashimi and noodle dishes, plus a few specialties. One is the hon toro tadaki: five pieces of seared bluefin tuna belly with truffle ponzu, truffle salt, crispy onions and kizami wasabi. The Tasting Shio menu is a 12-piece chef's selection at $200, with a two-person minimum.

It's a bigger operation than the owners' other restaurant. Lajolla.ca describes Shio as a larger, more extensive Japanese concept than Takaramono, with a full kitchen and bar and creative takes on traditional flavors.

Shio serves dinner only, from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The address that once sold gourmet tacos now offers a $200 tasting menu and keeps no daytime hours at all.

The morning shift, across the street

The other new storefront on the block keeps the opposite hours. Casa Del Lobo opened at 2246 Avenida de la Playa on Aug. 18. It serves specialty coffee, matcha and locally made pastries, and sells large handcrafted ceramics made in Mexico, including planters and fountains, with custom pieces available. The café is open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the ceramics from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

La Jolla couple Saul Moreno and Christine Silver named it after their dog, Buck. Silver told the Union-Tribune they wanted a Shores space that "feels warm, design-forward, and a little unexpected."

Between them, the two newest storefronts on Avenida de la Playa cover about 15 hours of a Saturday. Casa Del Lobo closes at 2 p.m. and Shio opens three hours later.

Eleven floors above La Jolla Shores Drive

The largest bet is up the hill. Aries is replacing Sea & Sky on the 11th floor of Hotel La Jolla at 7955 La Jolla Shores Drive. San Diego Magazine reported its opening date as Wednesday, Nov. 11. The restaurateurs are Alessandro Minutella and co-managing partner Giancarlo Guttilla. Chef James Montejano is designing the culinary program, and chef Luis Aguirre will be the onsite chef handling the Pan-Pacific menu.

"La Jolla has never had a shortage of beautiful places to dine. What it's been missing is a little electricity," Minutella said in a release quoted by San Diego Magazine. The plan is daily lunch and dinner, weekend brunch, and weekend evenings with live music and DJs. Aries will also run the hotel's food and beverage program and offer a private dining room for up to 80.

The main room seats about 140. Cassandra Builer of Huntress Decor redesigned it with diagonal cream, brown and taupe tile and rose booth seating, drawing on Saint-Tropez and Cannes. The ocean view is unchanged, and the magazine suggests arriving at golden hour.

Here is how the new hours line up:

Getting home after 7 p.m.

More reasons to be in the Shores at night run into two practical limits, and both affect evenings.

The first is Torrey Pines Road, the usual route between the Village and the Shores. The City's project fact sheet covers the north side of the road between Prospect Place and Coast Walk. The work includes about 420 feet of new bridge rail with end blocks and crash cushions, new sidewalk, curb and gutter, utility relocation, repaving and restriping, on a $3.04 million budget. The permanent rail replaces the temporary K-rail that has stood there since 2018.

The schedule overlaps with dinner. Per the La Jolla Shores Association, lane closures are set for 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., Sunday through Thursday, through March 2027. Daytime impacts to the turn lane, sidewalks and bike lanes are possible at times. The Union-Tribune reported that a westbound lane would be closed during some of the work, that the northbound bike lane would close for the project, and that pedestrians would be routed to a protected path on the south side when the sidewalk is closed. A weeknight reservation at Shio falls entirely inside that closure window.

The second limit is parking. The City's Kellogg Park page lists park hours of 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. and says the lot gates close at 10 p.m. Shio closes at that same hour on Fridays and Saturdays. If you're staying for a late dinner at the beach end of Avenida de la Playa, plan to park somewhere other than the Kellogg Park lot.

Holiday tables in the Shores

The new dinner hours arrive just as the holidays fill the calendar, and a few long-standing Shores venues have posted their dates.

• The Shores Restaurant at La Jolla Shores Hotel has buffets on Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, and Christmas Day, Dec. 25, according to the hotel's events page.
• La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club lists Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dining, plus a Winter Wonderland in the Walnut Lounge Dec. 1–31, Candy Cane Lane and light displays Nov. 27–Dec. 31, and fireside s'mores on December Friday and Saturday nights. The Club notes that holiday events and dining are for members and hotel guests.
• Birch Aquarium runs its Sunset Scripps Pier Walk on select Saturdays and Sundays through December 2026, per its events calendar.

A beach neighborhood with good dinner options and a rooftop that plans DJ nights is a somewhat different place to own a home than it was a year ago. If you own in La Jolla Shores and want to know how changes like these figure into what your property is worth, Kathleen Gelcich offers a private home valuation built on the details of your street.