After a successful run in East Village, Chef Travis Swikard is working on a new yet-to-be-named French Bistro in La Jolla, located at 4747 Executive Dr.
After a decade-long stint in New York City, where he studied under French Master Chef Daniel Boulud, Swikard opened a Mediterranean-inspired, California-driven restaurant in the East Village called Callie. The restaurant eventually received a highly-coveted Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition. The high-profile chef has now signed a lease to take over a 6,000-square-foot, free-standing space in La Jolla Commons office park in La Jolla.
Swikard tells What Now San Diego that the new yet-to-be-named restaurant will be a Provençal French Brasserie designed by Los Angeles-based Studio UNLTD, opening sometime in 2025. Customers can expect 24-foot-tall windows, an onsite garden, and a menu of classic-meets-modern French cuisine. Swikard says the French-Italian Riviera inspires the new restaurant and will feature food he describes as “Cuisine du soleil,” or cuisine of the sun.
Back in 2018, when Swikard first moved back to San Diego from New York, he partnered with his former employer, San Diego’s Cohn Restaurant Group, to open Callie in a 6,500-square-foot space that previously housed Bottega Americano. There’s no word as to whether or not David & Lesley Cohn will be “silent partners,” but more details are expected to be released at a later date.
