Hospitality Group Behind Hillcrest’s Common Stock Opening Restaurants in North Park and Bankers Hill

In the four years since opening their first restaurant, Common Stock, in Hillcrest, owners Anderson Clark and Brian Douglass have gotten to know San Diego while honing their style of nostalgic, comfort cuisine with a dose of Southern influence conveyed through the Fifth Avenue establishment’s best-selling dishes like Nashville hot chicken, warm Brussels sprouts Caesar, and pimento cheese dip. This year, via their group Common Stock Hospitality, the partners are prepping to transport their brand of casual dining to two more local neighborhoods.

Clark and Douglass, who met while working for the prolific Hillstone Restaurant Group, also run a consulting business; in 2020, they took over operations of Farmer & the Seahorse in Torrey Pines, bringing on culinary director Sam Deckman. The chef, whose father Drew owns the acclaimed Deckman’s en el Mogor in the Valle de Guadalupe, grew up between Georgia, Germany, and Mexico and has worked at Gary Danko in San Francisco, Mexico City’s Maximo Bistrot, and Ironside in Little Italy.

Kelly Wood

Deckman, along with the group’s team of chefs, will be creating the menus for the two new restaurants; the first, set to open this spring, is slotting into the longtime home of Bankers Hill Bar + Restaurant, which pulled up stakes during the pandemic after 10 years in the space. Building on the existing design by Paul Basile, Common Stock has enlisted Tecture (Kettner Exchange, Nolita Hall) to redo the bar and install custom updates to the yet-unnamed, 80-seat restaurant. Aiming to cater to locals, it will offer dinner and brunch service, featuring an oyster and raw bar along with some Southern classics and American bistro fare.

The group is concurrently remodeling a craftsman-style home in North Park (3376 30th Street) into a cozy, 1,200-square-foot restaurant and cocktail bar centered around an open kitchen and custom-built hearth that will fuel Deckman’s wood-fired menu. Designed by Tecture, it’ll include a chef’s table and fireplace as well as a spacious garden lounge out front.

Tecture