Hillcrest Taco Shop Will Be San Diego’s First For-Charity Eatery

Due next month in Hillcrest is a three-parter from the Cohn Restaurant Group that includes another outpost of its popular BO-beau kitchen to replace 100 Wines and an all new adjacent eatery, the quick-service Libertad | Tacos a la Brasa, with the group’s designer Phillip Beltran, a well-traveled chef and restaurateur, signed on as its managing partner. Hidden behind Libertad will be caché, a speakeasy modeled after a vintage French cocktail den.

When the trio of concepts opens in late April, Libertad will follow a non-traditional though admirable business model. The gourmet taqueria, which will also feature a late-night walk-up window, will serve a menu of tacos on housemade tortillas, folded over quesadilla style with cheese and featured proteins — pork belly to octopus and skirt steak — that have been cooked cover coals in the open kitchen’s custom wood fired grill. It will also be San Diego’s first for-charity restaurant.

Recognized for their local community work and philanthropic efforts, Cohn Restaurant Group founders David and Lesley Cohn have more than three decades of industry experience and over 24 restaurants under their care. David Cohn tells Eater that he was inspired by the world’s first non-profit pub, The Oregon Public House in Portland, to create the model for Libertad, which will pay its staff but donate one hundred percent of its profits to a locally-based charity that will change monthly.