From casual eateries to fine dining, several restaurants opened this summer in San Luis Obispo.
As students settle back into San Luis Obispo for fall classes, here are four eateries welcoming the Cal Poly community.
- Park 1039
After closing in 2022, wine bar and restaurant Park 1039 reopened on Chorro Street this July with a new owner, Ryan Edell.
Edell said he wanted to maintain Park 1039’s reputation of quality and consistency while introducing a new concept.
“We wanted to lean more into the restaurant concept,” he said. “So we hired an excellent chef, and it’s him and his son that work in the back.”
While the restaurant previously focused on larger, traditional dishes, Edell’s vision fuses Spanish, Iberian and Mediterranean-inspired small plates, or tapas, paired with wine. The menu also features Head Chef Bradley Spence’s signature paellas, wine flights and charcuterie boards.
“It’s a great place to come to experience new things, delicious wine and delicious food,” Edell said.
Park 1039 serves wines from both local producers and international regions, including Italy and France. The selection also includes wines from Edell’s Claremont-based winery Grafted Cellars.
“We’re an urban winery, so we source all of our grapes from vineyards around California,” Edell said about Grafted Cellars.
The wines are all naturally fermented, according to Edell. He said that none of his winemaking uses commercially-grown yeasts, fining agents or filtering.
“We try to let the grape shine and be as minimally invasive as possible,” he said.
Happy hour is 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. The restaurant is open Wednesday and Thursday 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., Friday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday noon to 9 p.m.
- High St. Headquarters
The original High Street Market and Deli location has operated in a corner shop on High Street for 99 years. In July, owner Doobie Coates opened the business’s third location, combining the sandwich shop with a bar run by Green Bottle Liquor Co.
“We’ve been feeding this town since 1927, back when High Street was a dirt road to the railroad station, and the standard hasn’t moved,” Coates wrote in an email to Mustang News.
Located at 3427 Roberto Court, High St. Headquarters offers more dining space for customers and additional workspace for employees. Coates wrote that the indoor and outdoor restaurant caters to a nighttime crowd, with dinner and dessert options and a taco special during football games.
“HQ is the spot when you’ve got a group, a game on or a parent visiting who wants to sit at a table,” he wrote.
Although High St. is known for its signature sandwiches, the Headquarters menu features burgers, house-cut fries, bar appetizers and homemade desserts, including strawberry pies and banana cake.
“We’re just stoked on all the community support,” he wrote. “We’ve hired a ton of high schoolers and college students, and we love it when families come in to support us and their kids who work so hard here.”
Students can show their Cal Poly, Cuesta or high school ID to get any sandwich for $9.50. Customers who bike to the restaurant can receive $1 off their sandwich and $2 off their drink.
The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Monday, with the bar open until 9 p.m.
- Frankie’s Garden Street Caffè
Frankie’s, an Italian cafe serving sandwiches, coffee and wine, opened at the corner of Garden Street and Marsh Street in downtown San Luis Obispo.
Owners Nicole and Artin Safari have run La Locanda, an Italian restaurant next door, for five years. They opened Frankie’s in July to bring a casual cafe to San Luis Obispo, providing a space for community in the daytime with good food and hospitality.
“You can grab a coffee between classes, meet friends for lunch, sit outside and hang out or pick up a sandwich to take with you,” Nicole Safari wrote in a message to Mustang News. “We really want students to feel like Frankie’s can become one of their regular downtown spots.”
The Safaris named the cafe after their daughter, Francesca, to reflect the personal and playful atmosphere they hoped to create.
The Italian-inspired menu includes coffee, salads, sandwiches, wine, beer and desserts. The shop’s grab-and-go style foods are inspired by the way people eat in Italy, according to Nicole Safari.
“Our schiacciata sandwiches have really become the heart of Frankie’s,” she wrote.
Nicole Safari wrote that she and her husband want Frankie’s to be a local hub for the community.
“We’ve loved seeing people find their favorite sandwich and then come back for it again and again,” she wrote.
Frankie’s is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
- Little Spoon Creamery
Little Spoon Creamery opened in the SLO Public Market after co-owner Kara Barker, who previously made ice cream for The Perfect Scoop, took over the former storefront with her partner, Lee Ibarra.
The idea came from their shared love for ice cream and the eight years Barker has made ice cream locally.
The couple wants customers to not feel rushed but to feel like they have all the time in the world to decide on a flavor, according to Barker.
“And if we don’t have that flavor for them this visit, we will in the future,” Barker said.
Little Spoon carries eight classic flavors, four vegan and four on rotation. Barker makes all the ice cream in-house and is working on upcoming seasonal flavors. She said that they will soon start releasing new flavors once a month. Customers can also watch the ice cream-making process through a window into the production facility.
“You can watch me make the flavor from start to finish, and it will be available in the case for you to enjoy,” she said.
Barker said that she uses one-fifth less sugar than the market average in her ice cream. She also avoids artificial sweeteners and coloring in the ice cream.
“I want my strawberry to taste like a strawberry that you picked from the field,” she said.
It is important to both owners that their products both taste good and are high quality for customers.
“We really want to focus on using the best ingredients,” Ibarra said. “Anything we put in the case is something that we are going to stand by.”
Little Spoon plans to collaborate with other local businesses on future ice cream flavors.
Barker and Ibarra shared that their favorite part of running Little Spoon is being a part of the San Luis Obispo community. They hope to build friendships with their customers and hear their experiences.
“Come back and tell us your story. We want to see those,” Ibarra said.
The ice cream shop is open from 1 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and noon to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday.