Concept Two Seven Eight Comes to Hillcrest

A fresh new eatery has moved into the 5th Avenue space that housed The Tractor Room for a decade before it shuttered this past summer, transforming the dark, den-like dining room into a bright and modern New American restaurant called Concept Two Seven Eight.

Executive chef and managing partner Jessica Fisher, a native of Vista, returns to the San Diego area after nine years away, spending part of that time working as a pastry chef in San Francisco and New York. The restaurant’s chef de cuisine, Rachel Snyder, also hails from Vista and attended The Culinary Institute of America while bar manager Billy Potvin is a former colleague of Fisher’s from New York with 15 years of cocktail creating experience.

The eatery will initially only be open for dinner, but will start brunch service shortly after launching. Fisher says that its menu, based on shared plates, will be seasonally-driven and locally-sourced; starters include fried chicken skin with chipotle aioli and charred shishito pepper and ricotta toast while main range from cacio e pepe pasta to slow-cooked chicken legs and thighs with seasonal succotash. Potvin’s rotating drink menu will span eight classic and eight signature drinks, from margaritas and mules to The Holy Fool with Milagro silver tequila, cactus-passionfruit and ghost pepper salt and That Lavender Blonde with Ford's gin, lemon-thyme lavender honey and prosecco.

Concept Two Seven Eight plans to officially open to the public on Monday, January 2 but will be softly open with drinks and a limited menu this Friday and Saturday.