The listing by Smith Allen Group comes less than a year after The Red Fox abruptly closed in May 2025, a move that stunned longtime patrons and former staff alike. Now, the entire package, including the brand, the restaurant assets, the coveted Type 47 liquor license, and the real estate itself, has been placed on the market for $3.41 million, positioning the restaurant not just as a business transaction but as a rare handoff of San Diego culinary history.
Founded in 1959, The Red Fox Room has long been synonymous with old-school glamour. Red leather booths, nightly live piano music, and a classic supper-club atmosphere helped cement its reputation as a go-to destination for anniversaries, late-night martinis, and generations of special-occasion diners.
Part of that mystique comes from the restaurant’s extraordinary interior. Much of the Tudor-style wood paneling, leaded glass, carved bar, and fireplace originated from a 16th-century inn in Surrey, England, before making its way to California in the early 20th century and ultimately becoming the heart of The Red Fox beneath the historic Lafayette Hotel. Over the years, the space earned a reputation as one of San Diego’s most evocative “time capsule” dining rooms.
After operating for decades under the Demos family, The Red Fox closed during the pandemic in 2020 and later reopened in March 2022 inside a newly constructed, freestanding building just across from its longtime home. That 3,000-square-foot structure, completed around 2022, was designed to faithfully recreate the restaurant’s signature look while housing a modern, near-new commercial kitchen and bar infrastructure.
Despite strong brand recognition and reported gross sales of just over $2.1 million in 2024, the restaurant shuttered again last spring. The sudden closure, which allegedly involved terminating all staff without notice, raised questions about the future of one of the city’s most beloved dining rooms. At the time, ownership suggested a possible reopening, though no timeline ultimately materialized.
The current offering frames the moment as an opportunity rather than an ending. According to marketing materials, the sale includes the Red Fox intellectual property (subject to seller terms), select historic décor and restaurant assets, and the underlying real estate at 2200 El Cajon Boulevard. Brokers describe it as a turnkey platform for an experienced operator, chef-owner, or hospitality group to revive, or thoughtfully reinterpret, a name that already carries deep multigenerational goodwill.
For San Diego’s dining community, the question now is less about whether The Red Fox will return, and more about what form that return might take. Whether revived as the classic piano bar many remember or reimagined for a new era, the next chapter of The Red Fox Room appears poised to be written by someone willing to inherit both its romance and its responsibility.
Originally published on February 9, 2026.