For most of the last decade, a Del Mar summer ran on the same two-week hinge. The San Diego County Fair closed its gates in early July, the fairgrounds went quiet for a stretch, and then the horses arrived. Regulars rotated through the same three rooms on Camino Del Mar, Jake's, Pacifica, and Il Fornaio. The fair and racing calendars shaped the Village's summer rhythm.
This year brought several new dining options to the Village. Three of the Village's most closely watched addresses changed hands or opened for the first time in the same stretch of months, right as the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club overhauled its own food and beverage program for the season. Operators with existing footprints elsewhere in San Diego opened locations in the Village.
Two Decades of Jake's, Pacifica, and Il Fornaio
The old pattern had a specific texture if you lived here long enough to recognize it. The interesting hospitality news, when it came, came from inside the fairgrounds gates: a new menu at the Turf Club, a refreshed trackside lounge, a headliner for the concert series. Camino Del Mar saw few changes during that period. The clearest evidence sits at 1404 Camino Del Mar, the old Bully's North building. The steakhouse closed there in late 2017, and the address sat dark or under construction for nearly a decade while multiple concepts cycled through and fell apart, including a proposed Gulfstream seafood house from the same restaurant group.
Three Addresses, One Summer
The pattern changed this year. Hillstone Restaurant Group, founded in 1977 and operating more than forty-five restaurants nationally, brought its Honor Bar concept into the old Bully's North space, its first location in San Diego County. Before this, San Diegans who wanted a Hillstone room had to drive to Orange County or Los Angeles. A few doors down at 1247 Camino Del Mar, Coral Del Mar opened quietly, the smallest of the three but the one that reads most specifically as a Del Mar project rather than an import. Meanwhile, Queenstown Hospitality Group, which rebranded from NZ Eats this spring, chose the Village for its next location. This is the same team behind Bare Back Grill in Pacific Beach, Raglan Public House in Ocean Beach, and Dunedin in North Park, three neighborhoods with distinct identities and none of them a horse-racing town.
| Opening | Location | What It Brings |
|---|---|---|
| Honor Bar | 1404 Camino Del Mar (former Bully's North) | Hillstone Restaurant Group's first San Diego County location |
| Coral Del Mar | 1247 Camino Del Mar | A quieter, locally specific addition to the Village strip |
| Queenstown | Village | From the team behind Bare Back Grill, Raglan Public House, and Dunedin |
The three openings arrived during the same stretch of the year as the racing season.
More Dining Options at Del Mar Highlands
At Del Mar Highlands Town Center, Sam Fox's Culinary Dropout opened its first California location, with live music programming. Flower Child anchors the lighter end of the same corridor, with High Marea and Bushfire Kitchen rounding out the cluster. Together, the Camino Del Mar openings and the Del Mar Highlands cluster add dining options in both areas.
Track Hospitality Updates
The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club introduced several hospitality updates for the season. The headline addition is the Handle Bar, a new fourth-floor cocktail lounge on Stretch Run built around a 1930s speakeasy theme, pouring a signature hot honey bourbon cocktail called simply "The Handle." Trackside dining areas, including Stretch Run, Clubhouse, Pacifico Porch, and Veranda, all received refreshed menus, and even the concession stands added gourmet sausages and warm baked cookies. Sunday brunch at the Turf Club now carries the name of Chef Bryn McArthur of Amaya at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar, with grilled lamb lollipops, Jidori chicken-and-waffles finished in rosemary maple glaze, and blueberry lemon cornbread on the menu. The Plaza de Mexico pop-ups are back on Sundays too, the closest thing the track has to a standing street-food routine and one that took years to fully return.
The track's hospitality updates are another part of Del Mar's summer dining news.
What It Means for Your Labor Day Table
The practical payoff shows up on the calendar itself. The Pacific Classic, Del Mar's signature $1,000,000 Grade I race, has run over Labor Day weekend in recent years. In 2026 it moved earlier, to Saturday, August 22, which pulls the single biggest crowd Saturday of the season earlier than its usual Labor Day weekend slot. Fridays changed too: first post moved from 4 p.m. to 2 p.m., which pulls the after-work racing crowd into the Village a full two hours earlier than it used to arrive.
Put those two changes together and the effect on Labor Day weekend is direct. With the peak crowd Saturday now falling in late August instead of early September, and three new dining rooms absorbing demand that used to funnel entirely into Jake's, Pacifica, and Il Fornaio, this looks like the first year in a while where a resident can actually book a Village dinner reservation over the closing weekend of the season, which runs through Monday, September 7.
A few things still worth putting on the calendar before the season closes:
- Saturday, August 22 – Pacific Classic day. Expect the season's heaviest crowd.
- Every Sunday through September 7 – Plaza de Mexico pop-ups at the track, the easiest way to eat trackside without competing with the Friday afternoon rush.
- Monday, September 7 – Season closes on Labor Day, the weekend that should finally have open tables in the Village for the first time in years.
This summer brings new dining options in the Village alongside changes to the track schedule.
For more on what's changing in Del Mar and the surrounding coastal communities, or if a Village-adjacent property ever crosses your radar, the team at Luis Mendoza & Associates keeps a close eye on this stretch of the coast and is always glad to talk through what's next.
