Lime in the Coconut opens in Chula Vista

Food and cocktails at new Lime in the Coconut in Chula Vista.

Dec. 5, 2022 2:40 PM PT

Lime in the Coconut and the X speakeasy opened in downtown Chula Vista late last month The restaurant is a tropical-themed tiki bar offering dishes inspired by the cuisines of Hawaii, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and the Caribbean.

Executive chef Jeremy Galapon’s menu includes noodle dishes, bowls, sandwiches, salads, entrees and snacks. The cocktail menu, developed by Snake Oil Cocktail Co., specializes in rum-based drinks. X, as in X Marks the Spot, is a tiki speakeasy on the same property but accessed through a different door. It has its own cocktail menu with drinks designed by Snake Oil, including the drink Fourth Time’s a Charm, which was the 2021 Tiki Oasis convention-winning cocktail created by Snake Oil mixologist Irving Gonzalez.

Owned by Kevin Rhodes and Christianne Penunuri, who also own Groundswell Brewing just a few doors away, Lime in the Coconut is at 248 Third Ave., Chula Vista. It’s open Wednesdays through Saturdays for dinner, with lunch service on weekends and live entertainment on Sundays. Visit limexcoconut.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.