New restaurants are coming into Downtown San Luis Obispo faster than they are leaving.
Stephanie Colagrossi and her husband moved from the Bay Area to San Luis Obispo County five years ago but say they found a lack of diversity in the local food scene.
“It was really lacking as far as variety of foods that we had available to us, especially coming from a bigger city," Colagrossi said.
But now, they’re seeing an increase in diverse options to eat.
“We've definitely started to see a lot of really interesting places pop up recently, a lot of different cultures that are coming in," she added.
With a Korean BBQ joint opening up on Broad Street and a new Chinese restaurant, Shake Shake Fresh Noodle in the SLO Creamery Marketplace, more restaurants are coming into the area.
“You can see an opportunity for the area, for new places, for new type of cuisine,” Mama’s Meatballs and Mistura owner Nicola Allegretta explained.
For Allegretta, he’s found restaurant success in the past 10 to 18 years between both businesses, but for many new restaurants, it’s a revolving door with 10 restaurants closing between 2024 and 2025.
Bill Carpenter, who helps lease space for businesses in the Creamery Marketplace, explained over the phone that increased labor, food and facility costs are big factors in why many restaurants close after a short time, citing just rent alone costing between $6,000to $10,000 a month before any of the other costs.
“But if they can pass the first year to a year and a half, they will be doing good," Allegretta said.
According to the City of San Luis Obispo, Even though last year saw 10 restaurants in the city close for a variety of reasons, which include failed businesses and also owners looking to move on or retire, in that same span, 21 opened with eight slated to open in the near future.
“People here in San Luis Obispo, they know about food," Allegretta said. "They're traveling and have quite a knowledge."
According to the data from the city's Economic Development and Tourism team, the city sports a 3% retail vacancy rate, which is 1.08% lower than the national average and is the best it has been since 2015.
Below are the restaurants that opened last year and the ones slated to open in the future:
Restaurants opened in San Luis Obispo in 2024-2025:
Downtown
- Feral Kitchen & Lounge
- CJ’s BBQ
- Coya Peruvian
- Kiko Restaurant & Pisco Bar
- Lure Fish House
- Efren’s Downtown
- Ebony Ethiopian Cuisine
- Bob Cantu’s Pizza and Sports Bar
MoJo
- Hungry Mother
- Kaffein Coffee Co
Lower Broad
- Seven Sisters Coffee
Foothill
- Press Quesadilla Grill
- Quesadilla Gorilla (moved)
SLO Public Market
- Twenty South
San Luis Ranch Farms & Marketplace
- Baby Bear Biscuits
- Palo Mesa Pizza
- Shekamoo Grill
- Vintage Cheese Co
- Sushi Table
- Negranti Creamery
- Pardon My French- San Luis Ranch Marketplace
Restaurants Coming Soon:
- Wren Foods [wrenfoods.com]
- Korean BBQ at 1127 Broad
- Pure Green [puregreenfranchise.com]
- Something Savory at 848 Monterey
- Breda SLO [breda-slo.com] at 1021 Higuera
- Café & Bar at 951 Monterey
- Zacatecas # 1 [zacatecas1.com]
- Teaspoon Boba [teaspoonlife.com]
