There is a new business opening in Coronado, a joint venture of six friends who all live on the island. Tom and Donna Latona, Darrin Engle, Carolyn Fries, Nancy Lenhart and Lynne Johnson have joined forces to bring High Tide Bottle Shop and Kitchen to the east side of the 900 block of Orange Avenue. The six have been friends for a long time and when the business that used to fill the space vacated, the partners saw an opportunity.
Tom has been a bartender in Coronado for twenty years and wants his son, who recently started school here, to graduate from Coronado High School. He wanted to find a business venture that would allow his family to stay on the island for the next decade and then some. At first, Tom didn’t like the idea of the space because he didn’t want to own a liquor store. After mulling it over with his wife, friends and partners, the group decided that the circumstances were right to move forward with their vision.
“I think Coronado deserves great quick service food,” shared Tom. The High Tide Bottle Shop and Kitchen will feature a variety of different items. It is, essentially, a liquor store, but with a full kitchen, the space presents the unique option to serve food as well. The new shop will do just that — and it will also make deliveries.
The goal is to offer food with a Southern California flair featuring organic veggies, when possible, and taking advantage of locally grown, fresh produce. The main menu offerings, at least at first, will include an East Coast, Boston-style pizza and organic salads. The lunch special will feature two slices of pizza and a fountain drink for six dollars. Grilled salmon or chicken will be offered as a protein source for the salads. There will be an emphasis on non-GMO products with healthy, fresh, quality ingredients.
The owners feel strongly about offering a business that not only caters to visitors, but also especially serves the wants and needs of its neighbors who call Coronado home. The shop will be a liquor store, featuring about 70% craft beers that are made in San Diego county (like Ballast Point, Coronado Brewing Company, and Stone Brewery) and carrying some brews from out of state as well as a variety of non-alcoholic drinks. The store will also feature artwork on consignment.
It is important to the owners that people have a chance to see the type of wonderful items that are crafted in Coronado. The first artwork to be featured for sale in the new store is by recent CHS and COSA graduate Natalie Thompson. The logo and the sign that will hang outside the store were both created by folks who live in Coronado.
When you first enter the store, you can peruse the “Locals Corner” which features custom shelving built by Darrin and Tom that will hold items created and manufactured right here in Coronado. There will be a “dried goods” area, which will house grab and go type snack foods with an emphasis on healthier options.
In addition to the bottles of beer, wine and soda found in the new store, there will be two fountain drink options. The partners decided to feature a craft soda made in Santa Ana, California, Batch Craft Soda Company. The emphasis is on quality and the Batch sodas come in flavors like cola and diet cola, but also root beer and black cherry, and each soda (except the diet) is made with sugar cane, not high fructose corn syrup. The second fountain option will be a variety of whipped drinks with eight different flavors.
The liquor display in the shop will be housed on a 19-foot long custom-made by Darrin and Tom display. The emphasis is premium spirits, American made spirits, top shelf spirits, seltzers and tonics. There will also be premium mixers like Famous Vodka. Ballast point distilled spirits will be available as will Bootlegger Vodka. There is a new trend for distilled spirits to be more local, made with a higher quality than big name, mass-produced options.
The center of the store will feature the wine displays. The goal is to carry as many local wines as possible, sprinkled with some products from central and northern parts of the state. The focus is to feature limited production estate wines, hard to find wines. Darrin shared that, “The two flagship wineries are out of Escondido, Fallbrook Estates and Orfila. They have a great portfolio at a reasonable price.”
Tom added that, “our country is going back to being craftsmen and making better products. In the last 70 years everything has gotten better cars, computers, but the quality of food has gone down. In the last 10 years, we have started to see better quality food and that includes things like craft beer and distilled spirits.”
The name for the new store was formulated through a lot of brainstorming. The desire was to have a vintage surf theme because that is what Coronado is to the owners, a small beach town. The partners shared that they probably tossed around about a hundred names and finally landed with High Tide because it was the first name all six of them liked. Of particular importance to the owners is the contribution of the community to the products they carry and the items they offer on the menu. They are completely open to suggestions from the neighborhood and expect the food they create to evolve with the desires of the community.
High Tide Bottle Shop and Kitchen plans to open before Thanksgiving. They are one of the sponsors of the inaugural Rady’s Children’s Hospital Turkey Trot. Normal operating hours will begin at 10 a.m. and anything that the shop sells, the shop will deliver.
Stay tuned to eCoronado.com for pictures of the new shop!
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Kellee Hearther
Staff Writer
eCoronado.com
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