Lord’s Tavern is a Barista’s Dream

How the Dame Owners Decorated Their New Restaurant, Lord’s Tavern in San Diego

This post was co-written with my friend and fellow editor, Andrew Goggin, who has a restaurant and bar design business. You can find us at our website, Design By Andrew.

Last fall, I was in San Diego, for a work event, and had the opportunity to visit some new restaurants with my friend, Adam. Among them was Lord’s Tavern.

Lord’s is a restaurant and bar situated along the shore of Mission Bay in the Gaslamp Quarter. They opened their doors in early spring of this year. The menu is a riff on traditional pub fare—a good one—with a few twists of their own. They serve food that ranges from a few items a day to their full restaurant menu every day, with an emphasis on breakfast and lunch.

Lord’s Tavern is a little different than most bars and restaurants with that name. It is much more elegant. I can’t even begin to describe their dining room: it is a little more formal than most of San Diego’s more casual dining options, from The Beachcomber to Zuni Cafe. Even Lord’s Tavern’s name is different. It has nothing to do with the Lord and Taylor flagship, but a more upscale, upper class name—Lord’s and Tavern. I am not entirely sure what that has to do with the name of the establishment, but it’s definitely a fun detail.

And Lord’s Tavern is definitely cool. It has what I’ve come to think of as a barista’s dream: a custom-built, heated, stainless-steel, vertical, custom-curated, three-story bar made by hand and seating over 100 patrons (with more seats downstairs). It’s located in a former Victorian mansion, a former warehouse that has been completely renovated into the bar area.

There are plenty of custom built, upscale bars in San Diego, especially around the Gaslamp Quarter. Lord’s Tavern, however, is an exception. Lord�

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