Sneak Peek: A First Look Inside Amaya La Jolla

Grid View

• 1205 Prospect St.
• Indoor/outdoor veranda
• Main dining room
• Entryway
• Bar/lounge
• Wine Room

Designer Warren Sheets gave Eater a tour through the highly-anticipated, 10,000 square foot Amaya La Jolla, a close relation to Amaya at The Grand Del Mar; the new Prospect Street restaurant is slated to open March 18.

Sheets, who was also behind the interiors at the North County resort, has decked out the seaside La Jolla restaurant in a similar palette to The Grand Del Mar, but says that this time around he took his inspiration from the architecture of Italy's Amalfi coast. The space is dizzying in its detail and opulence, there's hand-carved stonework, marble of every color and variety, and ornate custom designs from floor to ceiling. Two main dining rooms, dotted with iron and crystal chandeliers, are soon to have their walls lined in fine art (the space used to house an art gallery). All told, there will be seating for 100+, counting an indoor/outdoor veranda at the front of the restaurant.

In addition, there's a large private dining room and a smaller wine room and cellar (holding 300 labels), with seating for 12.

The kitchen is impressively large and enviable, and the chef in charge here will be Camron Woods, who moves to La Jolla after spending the last five years as the executive chef of Amaya in Del Mar. He'll bring some of that restaurant's signature plates of Mediterranean-influenced American cuisine down the coast with him, but will infuse the menu with new dishes that reflect his Southern upbringing.

In the back of the space is a 66-seat bar area called Amaya Lounge; it'll be outfitted with large screen T.V.'s, have its own dedicated bar menu (crispy calamari, smoked chicken quesadilla, tempura spicy tuna roll) and offer eight beers on tap. Playing on a side stage will be live entertainment, nightly.
· Amaya La Jolla [Official Site]
· All Plywood Reports on Eater [~ESD~]