After a little over a year in business, Mission + Garnet food hall has abruptly shuttered nearly all of its onsite eateries in San Diego's Pacific Beach.
In February 2023, the founder of SoCal-born burger & beer chain Slater's 50/50 unveiled Mission + Garnet, a multi-concept restaurant collective sited in the building that last housed Denny's diner for more than 50 years in San Diego's Pacific Beach. Now, following last month's closure of sister concepts Spitfire Tacos and Head Lettuce in San Diego's UTC area, Mission + Garnet has closed almost all of its onsite eateries without notice, the food hall's website is no longer published, and several of the onsite vendors are now listed on Google as permanently closed.
In February 2023, the founder of SoCal-born burger & beer chain Slater's 50/50 unveiled Mission + Garnet, a multi-concept restaurant collective sited in the building that last housed Denny's diner for more than 50 years in San Diego's Pacific Beach. Now, following last month's closure of sister concepts Spitfire Tacos and Head Lettuce in San Diego's UTC area, Mission + Garnet has closed almost all of its onsite eateries without notice, the food hall's website is no longer published, and several of the onsite vendors are now listed on Google as permanently closed.
After starting and selling a successful hot dog stand business before the 2008 recession hit, San Diego State University alum Scott Slater launched his first Slater's 50/50 in Anaheim in 2009 and gained an immediate following for a menu of bacon-infused burgers and an early devotion to the craft beer industry. The company grew to numerous locations in California with restaurants in Anaheim Hills, Huntington Beach, Rancho Cucamonga, Pasadena, San Marcos and San Diego's Liberty Station.
In late 2016, Slater sold all six Slater’s 50/50 restaurants to Elite Restaurant Group with hopes of a future national expansion. Then in 2019, Slater turned his attention back to opening up comforting restaurant concepts and launched two fast-casual eateries side-by-side in the University City area of La Jolla - burrito-focused Spitfire Tacos and build-your-own salad & bowls eatery Head Lettuce. In 2021, Slater opened the central cocktail bar called Understory in partnership with Le Parfait Paris at Del Mar's restaurant collective The Sky Deck.
In July 2021, Slater signed a lease on the 4,000 square-foot building located on the corner of Garnet Avenue and Mission Boulevard in Pacific Beach that housed a location of Denny's from 1966 until it closed following an alleged arson in October 2018. Named Mission + Garnet, the concept housed six separate eateries, including versions of Spitfire Tacos, Head Lettuce, and Earlybird Breakfast Burritos, as well as new concepts like Scotty Dogs hot dog stand and Beefy Steve's burgers.
There is no word on the reason for the sudden closure of most of the Mission + Garnet business at 800 Garnet Avenue in San Diego's Pacific Beach. We reached out to Scott Slater for comment and he stated that he will continue to operate Earlybird Breakfast Burritos and hopes to reactivate the building by this summer with a new lineup of eateries.
