Eater Inside

The Sky Deck Unveils First Wave of Food and Drink

Get a peek inside Del Mar Highlands Town Center’s two-level culinary hub

by Candice Woo Jun 11, 2021, 9:34am PDT

Photography by Kimberly Motos

Spanning nine restaurants, one central bar, and three tap stations over two levels and 26,700-square-feet, the highly-anticipated Sky Deck project enters its initial opening phase at the Del Mar Highlands Town Center this weekend.

Fresh from launching Semola in La Jolla, Ambrogio15 co-owners Andrea Burrone, Giacomo Pizzigoni, and Luca Salvi are revealing brand new dishes created by a team of collaborators led by chef Silvio Salmoiraghi of Italy’s Michelin-starred Ristorante Acquerello that includes veal carpaccio slow-roasted in Sicilian white wine with tuna mousse and capers and a pizza dubbed Milano City of Gold that’s topped with burrata, saffron bechamel, veal milanese, bone marrow, beef tartare, and 24 karat gold leaf. Burrone says that Salmoiraghi will be frequently updating the menu, and plans to spend time at the restaurant as soon as he’s able to travel to the U.S. In the glassed-in kitchen, Sky Deck executive chef Patrick Money (Cesarina) will be cooking up salads, starters, seasonal risotto, and other classic Ambrogio15 dishes with Semola’s Daniela Martinez contributing desserts like a red wine cherry budino with gin and cucumber gelee, blood orange Campari curd and licorice orange chantilly.

With each restaurant in the Sky Deck featuring dedicated seating, Ambrogio15’s space brings the outdoors inside, evoking the feeling of dining in Milan’s picturesque Piazza Del Duomo. A more intimate section of seats, inspired by the iconic archways of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, will be reserved for five-course chef’s tastings, available with wine pairings from the restaurant’s expanded selection of natural and biodynamic wines. The restaurant will begin with dinner service but will start offering lunch in a few weeks.

Offering the only true craft cocktail experience for miles, Understory is a partnership between Slater’s 50/50 founder Scott Slater and his wife Thai and Guillaume and Ludivine Ryon of Le Parfait Paris. Named for the layer of rain forest between the forest canopy and forest floor and designed by Marco Ulloa, the central cocktail bar’s 85 seats are set beneath a dramatic landscape of 18 illuminated tree sculptures. With botanical-themed drinks from Amer Jabbar that range from the The Mountain Laurel made with gin, vermouth, and grapefruit and wild elderflower liqueur to the The Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco, a mai tai variation served in an elephant mug, the 21-and-up, reservation-only experience will include regular acoustic music performances. And a QR code at every seat links to an app that will allow guests to order food delivery from any of the Sky Deck’s nine restaurants.

Operating since late May on the upper level, the outdoor Brewer’s Deck offers some of the Sky Deck’s only communal seating. With 18-tap bars from Miramar’s Rough Draft Brewing, Oceanside’s Northern Pine, and Chula Vista’s Boochcraft Hard Kombucha, the drink deck also offer delivery via app of select dishes from the on-site restaurants.

Serving Greek street food, Zizikis is also up and running with more tenants scheduled to activate over the next several weeks. The grand opening of the full Sky Deck experience is currently scheduled for mid-July.