Popular SLO County restaurant is moving to make way for apartments. Here’s where
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The Spoon Trade will relocate in early 2026 due to redevelopment of Beach Front Plaza.
- The restaurant will merge with Grover Beach Sourdough into a smaller hybrid setup.
- Coastal Community Builders aims to replace the plaza with a mixed-use apartment complex.
A popular San Luis Obispo County restaurant has to move to make room for a new redevelopment project in the core of a beach city.
The Spoon Trade, 236 West Grand Ave. in Grover Beach, is well known for American farm-to-table fare including fried chicken or bone-in pork chops, appearing on Food Network star Guy Fieri’s show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” in September 2024.
Jacob Town, co-owner and chef of The Spoon Trade, said he’s been proud to be at the forefront of Grover Beach’s expanding culinary scene.
Now, a decade in, the eatery is in the midst of a reinvention.
“It’s going to be a good transition,” he said. “Our biggest challenge right now in this space is filling it up. Ten years of that is enough.”
Why is SLO County restaurant moving?
At the beginning of 2025, Town learned that Beach Front Plaza had new owners: a development company looking to transform the strip mall into a mixed-use building.
Coastal Community Builders bought the shopping center that houses The Spoon Trade, Bee House Thai Cuisine, Let’s Knit and Signature Nails and Spa in December.
The businesses in Beach Front Plaza now have until March 2026 to move, the company said.
The sale was a shock at first, Town said, but ultimately presented an exciting opportunity to transform The Spoon Trade into a smaller, more focused operation.
“What we kind of get to do is go back in time 10 years and ask ourselves, ‘What would we do differently?’ ” Town told The Tribune.
Over the past decade in business, The Spoon Trade has succeeded in serving fare that’s garnered the attention of Food Network celebrities and locals alike.
However, Town said, the eatery was walloped by dining restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and still struggles to fill its 85-seat space on a daily basis.
Looking toward the future, Town said he’s not interested in expanding The Spoon Trade or creating franchise opportunities.
Instead, he and his wife, co-owner Brooke Town, are devoted to creating a tight-knit community spot that serves meals made with high-quality local ingredients.
Where is The Spoon Trade relocating in Grover Beach?
The Spoon Trade expects to move out of its Beach Front Plaza space by the end of December or mid-January at the latest, Town said.
The restaurant won’t be moving far.
Jacob Town said The Spoon Trade will be combined with the Towns’ bakery business, Grover Beach Sourdough, right across the street at 236 West Grand Ave.
Eatery to merge with Grover Beach Sourdough bakery
The new hybrid concept will be “The Spoon Trade featuring Grover Beach Sourdough,” Town said.
The bakery will shift to a neighboring storefront, currently home to KJB Screen Printing and Embroidery. The print shop will move to the former Trinity Cyclery space at 1343 West Grand Ave., Town said.
Grover Beach Sourdough will offer counter service for fresh breads and baked goods at its new space at 244 West Grand Ave., while The Spoon Trade will soon take over the bakery’s current space.
Renovations will transform the bakery site into a dining room with sit-down service, including eight tables and about 30 to 40 seats, according to Town.
“The restaurant’s always been missing something, as far as I was concerned. .... There’s something missing that might keep the people from piling in, and the bakery’s always felt kind of unfinished,” Town said. “I think what they’ve both been missing are each other — that idea of this homemade American food with all fresh baked goods.”
Coastal Community Builders “strongly endeavored” the Towns to move The Spoon Trade to its new mixed-use development, Encore at 401 West Grand Ave., the development firm’s CEO, Cam Boyd, told The Tribune.
However, Town said it made more financial sense to consolidate business operations.
He said rent at a commercial space in Encore would be nearly $10,000 a month, about $4,000 more than The Spoon Trade is currently paying at Beach Front Plaza.
Town is in the process of selling off tables, chairs and cookware as The Spoon Trade prepares to pack up.
Some of the business’ original furniture and signage will be repurposed at its new location, including its $22,000 neon sign, Town said, but the revised restaurant will be more pared-down than the version at its current site.
What’s on the menu at reinvented Grover Beach restaurant?
The new Spoon Trade will be reduced in size and menu, Town said, with less seating, a smaller kitchen and more oven-baked items.
“We will probably not be serving fried chicken anymore, and that’s kind of what put us on the map, to be honest,” Town said.
The bakery will still sell six types of sourdough bread, including baguettes, bagels, pretzels and coffee cakes.
The table service portion of the restaurant will have local favorites including chicken and dumplings and meatloaf and mushrooms.
“It’s going to be more of a European-style cafe and bakery serving American food,” Town explained. “Everything (is) house-made. Everything’s from scratch, just a very European ideology, but serving our classic homemade food.”
The combined bakery and restaurant will be open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily to start.
Further down the road, The Spoon Trade may try out special dinner services such as a fried-chicken Friday deal or six-course tasting menus, Town brainstormed.
Apartment complex planned at Beach Front Plaza site
Coastal Community Builders plans to redevelop Beach Front Plaza into a four-story apartment complex featuring 5,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space below 40 residential condominiums.
“We anticipate sweeping ocean views from many of the residential condominiums as well as the rooftop deck — similar to what we have experienced on our other developments” including Encore and Palladium, Boyd said.
The mixed-use project would stay under Grover Beach’s 55-foot general building height limit, according to Boyd.
As of Tuesday, Sept. 16, the development permit application was under plan review by city staff for compliance with Grover Beach standards along with any possible environmental repercussions.
Once the review is complete, the project will need approval from the city’s planning commission, Boyd told The Tribune.
Coastal Community Builders anticipates construction will take about two years, with plans to break ground in spring 2026.
Jeff Chambers, CEO of the South County Chambers of Commerce, said the redevelopment project will bring long-term benefits to many Grover Beach businesses by adding new housing, commercial storefronts and pedestrian-friendly features.
“The project will drive increased foot traffic and create new opportunities for both existing and future businesses,” he said.
What’s happening to Thai restaurant, yarn store?
Coastal Community Builders said it offered some Beach Front Plaza businesses access to available commerical spaces in its other developments on West Grand Avenue.
The South County Chambers of Commerce believes that tenants at Beach Front Plaza have been treated fairly. Business owners received flexible transition times and new opportunities to relocate, Chambers told The Tribune.
According to Boyd, Bee House Thai Cuisine recently signed a lease to relocate to a restaurant space at Palladium.
The Thai restaurant will move to 402 West Grand Ave. once renovation work is finished around March 2026, he said.
Other Beach Front Plaza businesses decided to shut down instead of move locations.
Let’s Knit permanently closed due to the plaza’s change in ownership, The Tribune reported in March.
Let’s Knit owner Julia Powers said she didn’t want to continue paying rent, adding that relocating her yarn store would rack up too many expenses.
“It’s sad for me to see this being torn down, but I understand progress and what they’re doing,” Powers told the Tribune at the time. “I’m at the point where I could retire and be fine with it, but I was thinking I could sell the business, and now I can’t.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Popular SLO County restaurant is moving to make way for apartments. Here’s where."
