Awesome Encinitas Shopping Center Pixel Art

I was dropping my kid off at her school and happened to notice a wonderful piece of art in the most unlikely of places, a typical Encinitas strip shopping center.  These types of little, hidden secrets are a joy to discover.  This particular one is on the window of the Suyaki Teppanyaki/Sushi restaurant in the LA Fitness/Ricos Taco Shop shopping center.  Created from Post-It Notes, Suyaki has put up this art to garner suggestions for new menu items, but also to allow those that see it to put up their personal wishes.  It's a great way to do community engagement, and also to provide a little beautification and a few smiles in an unexpected place.  Scenes like this are what make Encinitas so great.

The Chargers Super Bowl wish was particularly sad as it's evidence that sometimes, wishes don't come true...

Encinitas Ranch Town Center Mystery

Our crack team of reporters discussed the ongoing mystery of what's going on at the Encinitas Ranch Town Center in the old Party City location.  We sent out our photographer to check out the scene.  We've also got a message into the leasing company hoping to divine some details on what's going on.

As you can see, this is not just your run of the mill interior construction.  This is a total demolition of the front facade signaling major construction about to be undertaken.  In most cases, a retail center like Encinitas Ranch Town Center would maintain a consistent facade, with construction for a new tenant being primarily interior only.  This is the first example of a total redo that I've seen in this center.  So what does this signal?  My hope is a new sit-down dining establishment, which New Encinitas has a glaring shortage of.  This shortage is especially true after the disappointing opening of the La Costa Town Square center which features nothing but quick service restaurants that were already available on the ECR corridor. 

We here at Encinitas Report will keep following this developing story.

Sheriff Enforcement Priorities and Gear Grinding Garden State Bagels

As most residents know, Encinitas chooses to contract with the San Diego Sheriff's Department to provide law enforcement services.  Within that contract, specific manning is specified, meaning that the number of personnel serving Encinitas is limited.  When they are dealing with one issue, they are unable to then deal with other issues due to limited officers on call at any one time.  Obviously, Encinitas isn't a criminal hotbed, but sometimes it's hilarious to see what local law enforcement considers essential duties.

Here's Officer Smokey staying hidden and lying in wait for red light and cell phone violations.  While I was at the street corner, he busted someone for talking on their phone while stopped.  The hilarious part is that this is just outside of the shopping center that houses Garden State Bagels, who of course has a long history of gear grinding the Sheriffs for using their center for traffic enforcement.  I guess this is the Sheriffs gear grinding him back. 

Meanwhile, neighborhoods in New Encinitas have been told there is not enough manning to provide any kind of speed enforcement in neighborhoods where kids are playing, nor do they seem willing and able to stop periodic strings of vehicle break-ins (like the recent one noted on NextDoor on Orchard Wood Dr. in the Bridgewater neighborhood).  Priorities, though, AMIRITE?!?!

SUPER MEGA POST: Encinitas Business Comings and Goings

As the holiday season gets to Encinitas, residents are about to be presented with a bunch of new businesses opening up.  As reported here, Hooked on Sushi's construction is still ongoing, and an opening looks to be a few months off still.  Using our expert investigative journalism skills (I went for a run this weekend), we've uncovered a number of other changes to the Encinitas business landscape.

Ogata Update
 

As we reported a few weeks ago, long time downtown Encinitas sushi joint, Ogata, shuttered and sold off it's remaining inventory.  It didn't take long for a new restaurant to swipe the Ogata prime location.  With such a quick turnaround in tenants, I'd guess that Ogata simply didn't want to renew their lease, rather than them being forced financially to close.  Anyways, in it's place, filling a crucial area of dining need [sarcasm], a new Mexican restaurant, Vallarta Express, is moving in.  In the desert of taco shops here in Encinitas, I'm just glad we will finally have an option for affordable, quick service Mexican food [dripping with sarcasm].

Yoga Clothing Wars: Prana

In a clear declaration of war on Lululemon, Carlsbad headquartered Prana is planting a flag in downtown Encinitas, next door to the above Ogata/Vallarta Express location, which was formerly the Cork and Keg Liquor store.  In this neverending battle for the hearts, minds and pants of local wealthy housewives, Prana will be selling their brand of yoga and outdoors clothing.  It will be interesting to see at the Cardiff Kook 5/10K whether Prana will have made a dent in the omniscience of Lululemon with our active residents. 

Hammer's Pizza

Discovered this morning, filling another CRITICAL area of Encinitas food need [SO MUCH SARCASM], Hammer's Pizza, offering hand tossed and stone oven baked pizza is moving into a small strip center on El Camino Real (the Timekeepers shopping center next to Cotixan).  They have a Yelp entry up already with a bunch of generic pictures, so time will tell what their menu and interior will look like.  Judging from the square footage, I'd be betting on a take out/delivery type business.  Thank goodness for Encinitas residents, our long battle of trying to find a pizza or taco shop are finally over.  Seriously, could we just get someone to open a Peruvian chicken place around here?!

Light Bulbs Unlimited

I remember making fun of Light Bulbs Unlimited as a kid when it first opened, scoffing at opening a store that only sold light bulbs.  As it turns out, they sold all kinds of lighting fixtures, and here we are, 20 years later, and they are still open.  Or were open, I should say.  It looks like this week is their final push to sell off the rest of their inventory and shut down.  This morning, inventory was being displayed on the sidewalk for quick sales.  If you're in immediate need of lighting fixtures, I'd head over today and offer up a nice lowball offer. 

Grace-ful Living

No photo for this one, but Grace-ful Living, a furniture store next door to Best Buy in the Encinitas Ranch Town Center is apparently closing.  Marketing the going out of business sale as a "Retirement Sale", all remaining inventory looks like it is being liquidated.  Grace-ful Living has only been open for a little over a year, and had a glowing profile in the Del Mar Times/Encinitas Advocat.  Unfortunately, it looks like their time has run out and the relatively large square footage of this location will once again come on the market.  Let's all pray we can get some type of Craftsman Tavern type place to swipe this location and up the dining scene in this landmark shopping center.

Encinitas Ranch Town Center Mystery!

No photo for this one either, but the former Party City location in the Encinitas Ranch Town Center is undergoing some type of demolition and front facade construction to totally remake that portion of the Einstein Brothers/Wahoo's strip.  Party City was a relatively large square footage location and has the footprint to make a great restaurant with outdoor dining.  Let's hope this is what's coming in, because other than that, I can't see the logic in performing the level of demolition and construction their doing right now for a new retail store.

That's all from the Encinitas Report for now.  Have a happy holidays!

Mo Muir: Apparently Above The Law

While elections are exciting and all, there is usually a wind down period after Election Day where the bevy of campaign signs get taken down and our streets stop looking like the worst.  In fact, taking down signs is just part of complying with local law.  Apparently this law doesn't apply to all candidates though:

Note that it's now well over a month since Election Day.  Also note that this location, the former Mattress Discounters, is a mere 200 yards or so from the Sheriff's station.  If citations aren't being issued, they should be.  I've got nothing against Muir, but leaving signs up (posted on private property also) is patently disrespecting the community she claims to serve.

Sushi Report: Ogata Performs Seppuku; Hooked On Sushi Moves Into Town

 

In the world of food, there are a few things Encinitas has plenty of: taco shops, pizza joints and sushi restaurants.  Even when we lose a sushi place, another one just pops up and takes it's place; not that too many sushi places is a bad thing.  Long time downtown sushi restaurant Ogata has called it quits.  They were selling all of their surplus beer, inventory, and fixtures this weekend in what they called a "thank you sale".  No word on what will take this piece of prime real estate.

At the same time, New Encinitas is getting another sushi restaurant to compete with Kaito, Blue Fin, Mr. Sushi, Suyaki and Sushi House.  Taking the place of Stone Flats in the Vons/Chipotle/Pep Boys shopping center, Hooked On Sushi has a sign up and a liquor license notice in the window, although interior work looks to have not progressed very far.  Hooked on Sushi looks to be the second location of this restaurant, with the first location across El Camino from Plaza Camino Real.  Their menu looks to have quite a few sushi options, but also a pretty extensive non-sushi Japanese menu.  At the very least, we can look forward to increased competition leading to more and better coupons in the coupon circulars showing up in our mailboxes.

How Many Houses Can You Squeeze Into 1.53 Acres?

How many houses can developers fit on 1.53 acres of land?  It's not the setup for a joke, it's a real question that we now know the answer to.  On the site of what used to be Del Mar Fabricating, Citymark has been able to jam ELEVEN single family homes on 1.53 acres in their Primrose Lane development.  Check it out!

Of course, I don't recall hearing any of the anti-density folks complaining about this project, most likely because it is tucked away in a corner of New Encinitas.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Located on directly on Olivenhain Road, it's obviously got road noise issues.  Even with the noise, it's shocking in this real estate market that one of these houses is still unsold.  It's even going for a reasonable $717K for 5 BR's. 

This new development is especially great for the Willowcreek neighborhood below Primrose Lane who now has to create walls of bamboo to try and reserve some privacy.

We can look forward to more of this type of in-fill development with the housing talks going on.  SHOCKINGLY, New Encinitas is once again being forced to carry the largest burden of new housing in the city's "here are three sucky options and there is no none of the above" selection process.