Callie named one of 10 most beautiful new restaurants in the U.S.

A view of the surf’s up bar and dining room at Callie restaurant in East Village.

Jan. 14, 2022 12:15 PM PT

Callie Restaurant, which native San Diego chef Travis Swikard opened last June in the East Village, was named by The Robb Report as one of the 10 most beautiful restaurants that opened in the U.S. in 2021.

Compiled by the luxury media outlet’s restaurant writer Jeremy Repanich, the list celebrated the architecture of 10 new restaurants in the country from New York to Seattle and from Miami to West Hollywood.

Repanich wrote that San Diego’s downtown and East Village communities are a “mixed bag” of ballpark restaurants and noisy tourist-filled bars. Michelin-recognized Callie, by comparison, stands out in the region for its thoughtful and unique design by Los Angeles-based architecture firm Studio Unltd that matched Swikard’s culinary vision of “Mediterranean with a Southern California soul.

“There are splashes of yellow, rich natural woods and a stunning set of beams above the bar that mimic a cresting wave. And a beautiful, large terrazzo table adds a stunning anchor to the private dining room,” he wrote.

Also featured on the top 10 list are Soulmate in West Hollywood; Tomo near Seattle; The Continental in Nashville; March in Houston; Carbone in Miami; Saga in New York City; Bar Blondeau in Brooklyn; Le Bon Nosh in Atlanta; and Harvey House in Madison, Wis.

Pam Kragen writes about restaurants for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Email her at pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com.

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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 Waterf, Conn.