California Dining: New Eateries in LA, SD and SF

* The Aries Rooftop Restaurant and Lounge will open Nov. 11 on the top floor of the 11-story Hotel La Jolla on San Diego’s north side. The project is spearheaded by veteran restaurateur Alessandro Minutella and co-managing partner Giancarlo Guttilla, who together also run Zama and AKA in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. Aries’ interiors were designed by Cassandra Builer of Huntress Decor and draw inspiration from the glamour of European seaside destinations such as Saint-Tropez and Cannes, project backers said in a news release. The space has operated under several names over hotel’s 50-plus year history; it was most recently Sea & Sky, a seafood restaurant that opened in 2024. The hotel is a member of Hilton’s Curio Collection.

* Work is underway on ElevenOneEleven, a new mixed-use development in Culver City (about 10 miles northwest of downtown LA) that will include about 2000 square feet of street-level space for restaurant and retail, reports the Los Angeles Times. Specifics on how many such tenants there will be has not yet been determined. The development is slated for completion in 2028 and will be anchored by 344 residences, including 52 affordable ones. The project’s 3.5-acre site was formerly occupied by a U.S. Post Office, a Coco’s restaurant and a Valvoline auto repair shop, the newspaper noted.

* CoCo Ichibanya (Ichinomaya, Japan) is opening its first Bay Area restaurant, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The eatery, a unit of what the newspaper described as Japan’s biggest curry chain with 1500 restaurants total (most in its home country) will open a restaurant in Cupertino in mid-December. The business has about a dozen sites in the U.S., mainly in Southern California and Texas.