Walk east on Garnet from the boardwalk on any given evening and you will pass 832 Garnet Avenue, a building whose restaurant tenants have changed over roughly the past decade. If you have lived in Pacific Beach for more than a few years, you already know this address by feel even if you don't know the number. It's the one where the signage has changed repeatedly. Moondoggies. Then Backyard Kitchen & Tap. A brief run as Union Kitchen & Tap. A planned expansion by American Junkie that got announced and then quietly fell apart before it opened at all.
Now it's becoming Coco Fuego, a Caribbean-inspired restaurant and bar from Grind & Prosper Hospitality, the group behind Miss B's Coconut Club and Coco Maya. That alone isn't news worth a resident's attention. Restaurants have come and gone at 832 Garnet before. One nearby development offers context for the changes at 832 Garnet: Cherryfish opened three blocks away on Felspar Street.
Changes at 832 Garnet
For much of the past decade, Garnet Avenue's restaurant mix has leaned toward bar concepts and tourist traffic.
Over roughly ten years, 832 Garnet has seen several restaurant concepts come and go, along with a planned American Junkie expansion that did not open. That history provides context for Coco Fuego's planned arrival.
A Restaurant Nearby
In November of 2025, chef Marcus Twilegar opened Cherryfish at 966 Felspar Street, in a space that had sat through its own string of reinventions, first as the long-running Isabel's Cantina, then briefly as Swagyu. Twilegar built the concept around Japanese technique applied to local seafood, charcoal-grilled fish alongside sushi and small plates, in a 2,800-square-foot dining room with a 1,000-square-foot patio and a private room that seats up to twelve.
Cherryfish is a reservations restaurant, with sake and wine alongside the food. Since opening, it has drawn diners for evening seatings. Its presence adds a dinner-focused option to Pacific Beach alongside the bar concepts on Garnet.
What's Actually Moved On Garnet This Year
The four entries below list restaurant openings or plans on Garnet for 2026. Together, they show a range of concepts in the area.
| Address | Concept | Status | What it replaced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 956 Garnet Ave | Taconora, Sonoran-style taqueria | Opened March 7, 2026 | Smash and Stack Burger |
| 1459 Garnet Ave | Pizza Cassette, scratch-made Neapolitan-style pizza | Now open, confirmed April 2026 | Hoboken Pizza |
| 1560 Garnet Ave | Mr. Charlie's, plant-based fast food | Opened early 2026 | Brazilian Bowls |
| 832 Garnet Ave | Coco Fuego, Caribbean-inspired restaurant and bar | Targeting a summer 2026 opening | Backyard Kitchen & Tap |
Pizza Cassette is the most instructive of the four, because it comes with numbers attached. Before opening on Garnet, founder Jimmy Terwilliger ran the concept for three years as a permanent pop-up at The Gärten in Bay Park. By his own account, that pop-up generated roughly $1.5 million in food sales in 2025 alone, moving 1,200 to 1,800 pizzas in a typical week and as many as 2,000 during peak months like August. Those figures describe the Bay Park pop-up. Pizza Cassette is now open at a permanent location on Garnet.
Taconora tells a similar story from a different angle. Co-founder Renata Vázquez, whose family also operates taquerías in Sonora, Mexico, chose Pacific Beach as the brand's first entry point into the U.S. market entirely, not a test location, the flagship. The costra taco, grilled prime steak served on crispy cheese instead of tortilla, has become the item regulars mention first.
Mr. Charlie's and the Changing Dining Mix
Mr. Charlie's is a Los Angeles-based vegan fast-food chain, launched in 2022 and built around a cheeky red-and-yellow parody of McDonald's branding. It chose 1560 Garnet Avenue for one of its first San Diego County locations, with a second planned for Hillcrest.
None of this means Pacific Beach is becoming something else. The Grass Skirt is still a tiki bar. Slowly Restaurant and Lounge and Pacific Beach AleHouse are still exactly what they've always been. What's changed is that the strip's dinner map got meaningfully bigger this year without any of its existing character disappearing to make room.
The Calendar If You Want To See It For Yourself
Discover Pacific Beach, the business improvement district that organizes the neighborhood's official calendar, already ran its progressive dinner event, Savor PB, back in May, walking participants along the coast to sample PB restaurants in one outing. That kind of programming used to be a stretch for a strip known mostly for bars. This year it wasn't.
Circle September 16 for the "HeArt of PB" event, a tasting evening along Garnet Avenue and the surrounding blocks that puts several of the new tenants above in front of the same crowd in one night. Then circle October 3 for Pacific Beachfest, the free boardwalk festival that draws up to 50,000 visitors in a typical year. This year's edition adds a first-time Pacific Beach Half Marathon alongside the neighborhood's long-running 5K, plus the return of the Best of the Beach Fish Taco Contest, where local restaurants serve samples for public judging. If parking already feels unwinnable on a normal Beachfest Saturday, budget extra time this year.
The Actual Takeaway
832 Garnet Avenue has seen restaurant concepts come and go over roughly the past decade. Nearby Cherryfish opened on Felspar Street in 2025, and the four entries above describe restaurant openings or plans on Garnet in 2026. Together, they offer a snapshot of Pacific Beach's changing dining mix.
Whether Coco Fuego succeeds at 832 Garnet remains to be seen. It is the next concept planned for an address with a history of restaurant changes.
If you're weighing what these shifts mean for a specific block, a specific listing, or a move you've been thinking about in Pacific Beach or anywhere else in San Diego County, John Rubino has spent 30-plus years reading exactly this kind of neighborhood signal. Get your free home valuation and consultation whenever you're ready to talk it through.
