Kinda hard to overstate how huge this one is. The biggest restaurant opening of the year in La Jolla. Even your uncle who is perfectly content with unlimited breadsticks is gonna hear about this place.
It’s Fleurette, the new French restaurant from multiple-time SDM “Chef of the Year” chef Travis Swikard. Opens December 9.
Swikard’s a local success story. Born and raised in San Diego, he went across the world and country being trained by a handful of the French greats—Marco Pierre White, Gavin Kaysen, and the kitchen-father figure, Daniel Boulud. He was Boulud’s right-hand man for a decade in New York. Then Swikard came home and opened Callie in East Village. Callie was a hockey-stick moment for the city’s restaurant culture—SDM’s “Restaurant of the Year” a few times.
While Callie is Mediterranean, North African, Middle Eastern—at Fleurette, he’s digging deep into the French classics and “sauce work” that form the core of his training. But in the cuisine d’soleil style—a lighter, brighter, sensibility that fits the way San Diego eats. French food with fewer naps.
It’ll be an ode to the magic of Provence and the raw ingredients of local farms and ranches and waters—like a bouillabaisse with spiny lobster and rockfish. Or a riff on coq au vin but with bacon-wrapped sturgeon.
Callie’s Aleppo chicken has become one of the star dishes of the city. “But Fleurette’s is better,” says Swikard. A heritage golden chicken with black truffle and vin jaune.
In the kitchen, he’s got a custom French-made Athanor, the only one like it in San Diego—a very serious chef toy, the dream machine, bells whistles, flux capacitors, and the exact same setup Boulud has in New York. It’s a massive, massive kitchen. “I want a place where the next generation of cooks can learn sauce work,” he says.
Guests will eat in a lovely glass box or on an enclosed patio meant to evoke the rues of Paris. There are two massive wine rooms. The floor-to-ceiling windows of the main dining room will let the soleil in.
There won’t be much gluten, or dairy, either. Herbs and citrus will come from its own garden built by Swikard’s dad, Larry.
Smells like deeply browned bones and James Beards in here.
Welcome to San Diego, Fleurette.
Video by @Jeremy Sazon, SDM’s in-house filmmaker
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
📍 Explore the Best of San Diego → https://www.sandiegomagazine.com
📲 Follow us for the latest on San Diego food, culture, and events!
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/sandiegomagazine/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/sandiegomag/
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@sandiegomag
X (Twitter) → https://x.com/sandiegomag
Threads → https://www.threads.net/@sandiegomag
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/san-diego-magazine/
Subscribe for more San Diego content! → https://www.youtube.com/@sandiegomagazinevideos
#SanDiego #SanDiegoMagazine #CaliforniaTravel #SanDiegoFood