Home & Away Encinitas — a modern sports bar — opened its doors to the public on May 11 following three months of construction.
The bar is located on the corner of D Street and Highway 101, and filled the empty space within the historic Austin building with an open-floor concept, featuring bright-colored wood, blue hues and plenty of large windows.
The beachside drinkery will stay open despite its ongoing renovation efforts, creating a separate concept upstairs called “Aloha Cowboy.” The refurbished lounge, expected to be complete in June, will be a more intimate setting featuring a high-end spirits bar with a focus on whiskey.
Gareth Moore, Home & Away’s operations manager, said the reason the bar exists in Encinitas was largely due to good fortune.
“We want it to be a friendly neighborhood bar,” Moore said. “We got lucky, it was offered to us. We’ve had a good relationship with the guys from D Street [Bar & Grill] for a long time. They offered us the opportunity to take it over.”
Before managing Home & Away, Moore worked night clubs and later graduated to popular San Diego drinking establishments, such as Seven Grand Whiskey Bar, El Dorado Cocktail Lounge and Born & Raised, to name a few.
Moore said that with a focus on fresh products and craft versions of traditional bar food, Home & Away is “better than most” sports bars in the area.
The restaurant menu features a variety of options, including a vegan option called the “The Imperfect Salad,” which incorporates aesthetically imperfect produce — perfectly edible — that would otherwise be discarded.
For those 21 and over, the bar offers 10 individual cocktails and three “pitchers of booze.”
One of the options for sharing is Mr. Toast’s Wild Ride which combines dark rum, orange creole shrubb, lemon, passion fruit, cinnamon syrup and bubbles.
Moore is grateful for “Encinitas giving us the opportunity to be here” and said that ownership doesn’t plan to change the historic exterior of the building outside of brightening the whites of the walls.
“We are not trying to ruin a historic space,” Moore said.
Moore said he is aware of the history of the building and that the new sports bar has been “in contact” with the storied La Paloma Theatre.
The Austin building is currently home to four businesses which include Coast Chiropractic Center, Moonlight Music, La Paloma Theatre and Home & Away.
Photo Caption: Home & Away opened on May 11, 2019 in downtown Encinitas after it took over D Street Bar & Grill.
