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TownHall Public House is back in Vista

Roger and Aaron Browning at TownHall Public House
Owners Roger and Aaron Browning at TownHall Public House
(Charlie Neuman/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
By Pam Kragen
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For Vista restaurateurs Roger and Aaron Browning, the third time may be the charm for the property they own at 230 S. Santa Fe Ave. in Vista.

The Brownings purchased a shuttered former bank branch at the location and in 2015 turned it into a Vista branch of their successful Oceanside sit-down restaurant, The Flying Pig. But the mid-priced, sit-down dining concept didn’t work with Vista residents. So in August of last year, they re-branded it as TownHall Public House, a more affordable, comfort food-focused eatery with expanded beer taps.

Unfortunately TownHall never took off with Vistans, either, so the Brownings closed it in January of this year and put the building up for sale. When a planned sale fell through in March as the pandemic took hold, they decided to reopen TownHall on May 18 for takeout-service only. When shutdown orders lifted last month, they added sit-down dinner service.

Aaron Browning said business has been steady as they reintroduce the concept to local customers, but she’s hopeful.

RestaurantsEat | Drink
Pam Kragen

Pam Kragen is the arts and entertainment editor, as well as the chief theater, dining and opera critic, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She joined the Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. And in 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in New London, Conn.

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