200-Seat Food Hall Setting Up Shop in Sorrento Valley

Sorrento Valley is the next part of the city to get its own food hall, which joins other food halls in the works for Little Italy and Carlsbad. Called Park Commons, the 10,000-square-foot project is the brainchild of Whisknladle Hospitality (Whisknladle, Catania). In December, owner Arturo Kassel sold his Prepkitchen restaurants to focus on the development of this food hall as well as Gravity Heights, a new brewery restaurant scheduled to open this fall that will be built just a half-mile away.

The group’s longtime executive chef/partner Ryan Johnston will run Park Commons’ counter service-styled food stalls: Slow Poke (poke), Best Dressed (soups and salads), El Parque (Mexican), All Spice (Middle Eastern), Dr. J’s (sandwiches), and Fricken Burgers (fried chicken sandwiches and burgers). Part of a multi-campus office park, the food hall will also have a full liquor license to cater to the happy hour crowd when it opens this summer. Designed by Bluemotif Architecture (Catania, the Crack Shack), the indoor/outdoor space will have seating for 200; it will also feature special event spaces.

Bluemotif Architecture