El Punto is planned for the approximately 8,800-square-foot indoor-outdoor property at 2885 Perry Road, Suite 102, directly across from Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens Liberty Station. City Tacos founder Gerry Torres is targeting an October 2026 opening for the family- and pet-friendly Mexican restaurant, which is being designed around the slogan “Eat, Drink & Gather.”
According to Torres, El Punto will offer an affordable, vibrant atmosphere where families, friends and their pets can gather over approachable Mexican food and drinks. A complete menu has not yet been announced, but the concept is expected to be more casual and accessible than several of the ambitious restaurants previously attached to the address.
That may be a prudent strategy. Few restaurant spaces in San Diego have generated as much hype or cycled through as many grand plans as this enormous Liberty Station property.
The location originally debuted in summer 2018 as El Jardín, an upscale modern Mexican restaurant developed by Breakfast Republic founder Johan Engman’s Rise & Shine Restaurant Group and celebrity chef Claudette Zepeda. Before it had even found its footing, the restaurant was propelled by an almost inescapable public-relations campaign that produced national coverage, a glowing New York Times review, and a James Beard Award semifinalist nod for Zepeda.
Yet no amount of press, accolades or carefully manufactured buzz could make the massive restaurant sustainable. After only a little more than a year, El Jardín abruptly closed for what was described as a month-long overhaul. It reopened in 2019 as El Jardín Cantina, a more conventional and approachable Mexican-American restaurant that moved forward without Zepeda. The rebranding was an implicit acknowledgement that the original chef-driven concept had not connected with enough diners to support an 8,800-square-foot operation. El Jardín Cantina did not last much longer.
The failure added another short chapter to Zepeda’s increasingly transient restaurant résumé. Her culinary talent and television profile have consistently generated attention, but the restaurants associated most prominently with her name have rarely enjoyed equally enduring tenures. Following El Jardín, she became the founding chef of VAGA at the Alila Marea Beach Resort in Encinitas before parting ways with the restaurant in 2024. She then helped launch Leu Leu in Leucadia in February 2025, only to dramatically announce her departure eight months later.
After El Jardín’s collapse, Encinitas-based Death by Tequila announced plans in late 2020 to take over the Liberty Station space for its third San Diego location. The Baja-inspired restaurant was then controlled by Empress Capital Investments, a hospitality group that at various points operated or managed concepts including Wokou Ramen & Yakitori, California Native, Hen House, Crafted Culture, Leap Coffee and Resident Brewing. Death by Tequila was expected to begin installing inside the property and open during the first quarter of 2021. It never happened.
Rather than reviving the space, Death by Tequila eventually disappeared altogether. Its related restaurants closed one after another as Empress Capital’s once-expansive hospitality portfolio steadily unraveled. Resident Brewing, the group’s apparent final surviving operation, announced its closure in January 2025, marking what appeared to be the effective end of Empress Capital Investments.
A later Mexican-themed concept, GoGo Amigo, eventually operated from the Liberty Station property but also failed to establish lasting traction.
The address then appeared poised for its most ambitious revival yet when Lola 55 announced plans for a full-service restaurant in the space. The acclaimed modern taco brand intended to transform the property into a major flagship with expanded culinary offerings, a substantial bar program and a redesign by Mexico City-based JSa Architects. The Liberty Station restaurant was supposed to represent Lola 55’s evolution from its original East Village taco shop into a larger, more sophisticated hospitality company. Instead, Lola 55’s expansion plans contracted.
Its Carlsbad restaurant closed in 2025 after operating for less than two years. L55 Tacos & More, the company’s streamlined fast-casual offshoot at Westfield UTC, closed after approximately 15 months. Founder Frank Vizcarra subsequently confirmed that Lola 55 and the Liberty Station landlord had agreed to pause the 8,800-square-foot project because of challenging local restaurant conditions. With the Liberty Station expansion abandoned indefinitely, Lola 55 has largely retreated to its original East Village location, leaving behind another unrealized vision for the Perry Road property.
El Punto will therefore enter a space where Mexican restaurants have repeatedly been burdened by a combination of enormous size, high expectations and concepts that may have been more ambitious than the location could reliably support. Its position directly across from Stone Brewing should theoretically provide substantial visibility and pedestrian activity, but that proximity has not been enough to guarantee success for previous tenants.
Torres may be better positioned than some of his predecessors because his City Tacos brand has spent more than a decade building an established San Diego customer base. Since opening the original City Tacos in North Park in 2014, the company has expanded throughout the region, with locations in Pacific Beach, Encinitas, La Mesa, Sorrento Valley and near Petco Park.
The restaurateur has also recently broadened his portfolio beyond City Tacos. In late 2024, Torres opened Tour De Tapas global fusion restaurant at the former home of Chef Drew Bent's short-lived Papalo Sonoran BBQ in La Mesa village. Then in 2025, Torres opened Fonda del Barrio inside the former Barrio Dogg space on Logan Avenue in Barrio Logan. The full-service restaurant draws inspiration from Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos and serves regional dishes such as enchiladas de cochinita pibil, pollo al chocolate, huevos motuleños and tamales steamed in banana leaves.
El Punto appears intended to occupy a more approachable middle ground: broader and more communal than a traditional taco shop, but less precious and chef-driven than El Jardín or the elaborate Lola 55 flagship once envisioned for the property. Whether that formula can finally break the location’s cycle of hype, reinvention and abandonment remains to be seen.
El Punto is anticipated to open by October 2026 at 2885 Perry Road, Suite 102, in San Diego’s Liberty Station.
After El Jardín’s collapse, Encinitas-based Death by Tequila announced plans in late 2020 to take over the Liberty Station space for its third San Diego location. The Baja-inspired restaurant was then controlled by Empress Capital Investments, a hospitality group that at various points operated or managed concepts including Wokou Ramen & Yakitori, California Native, Hen House, Crafted Culture, Leap Coffee and Resident Brewing. Death by Tequila was expected to begin installing inside the property and open during the first quarter of 2021. It never happened.
Rather than reviving the space, Death by Tequila eventually disappeared altogether. Its related restaurants closed one after another as Empress Capital’s once-expansive hospitality portfolio steadily unraveled. Resident Brewing, the group’s apparent final surviving operation, announced its closure in January 2025, marking what appeared to be the effective end of Empress Capital Investments.
A later Mexican-themed concept, GoGo Amigo, eventually operated from the Liberty Station property but also failed to establish lasting traction.
The address then appeared poised for its most ambitious revival yet when Lola 55 announced plans for a full-service restaurant in the space. The acclaimed modern taco brand intended to transform the property into a major flagship with expanded culinary offerings, a substantial bar program and a redesign by Mexico City-based JSa Architects. The Liberty Station restaurant was supposed to represent Lola 55’s evolution from its original East Village taco shop into a larger, more sophisticated hospitality company. Instead, Lola 55’s expansion plans contracted.
Its Carlsbad restaurant closed in 2025 after operating for less than two years. L55 Tacos & More, the company’s streamlined fast-casual offshoot at Westfield UTC, closed after approximately 15 months. Founder Frank Vizcarra subsequently confirmed that Lola 55 and the Liberty Station landlord had agreed to pause the 8,800-square-foot project because of challenging local restaurant conditions. With the Liberty Station expansion abandoned indefinitely, Lola 55 has largely retreated to its original East Village location, leaving behind another unrealized vision for the Perry Road property.
El Punto will therefore enter a space where Mexican restaurants have repeatedly been burdened by a combination of enormous size, high expectations and concepts that may have been more ambitious than the location could reliably support. Its position directly across from Stone Brewing should theoretically provide substantial visibility and pedestrian activity, but that proximity has not been enough to guarantee success for previous tenants.
Torres may be better positioned than some of his predecessors because his City Tacos brand has spent more than a decade building an established San Diego customer base. Since opening the original City Tacos in North Park in 2014, the company has expanded throughout the region, with locations in Pacific Beach, Encinitas, La Mesa, Sorrento Valley and near Petco Park.
The restaurateur has also recently broadened his portfolio beyond City Tacos. In late 2024, Torres opened Tour De Tapas global fusion restaurant at the former home of Chef Drew Bent's short-lived Papalo Sonoran BBQ in La Mesa village. Then in 2025, Torres opened Fonda del Barrio inside the former Barrio Dogg space on Logan Avenue in Barrio Logan. The full-service restaurant draws inspiration from Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos and serves regional dishes such as enchiladas de cochinita pibil, pollo al chocolate, huevos motuleños and tamales steamed in banana leaves.
El Punto appears intended to occupy a more approachable middle ground: broader and more communal than a traditional taco shop, but less precious and chef-driven than El Jardín or the elaborate Lola 55 flagship once envisioned for the property. Whether that formula can finally break the location’s cycle of hype, reinvention and abandonment remains to be seen.
El Punto is anticipated to open by October 2026 at 2885 Perry Road, Suite 102, in San Diego’s Liberty Station.
Originally published on July 22, 2026. Information first reported by Joey Reams of WhatNow.
