Rancho Santa Fe's first school held its first graduation in 1924, for a class of one student. Last November, Jennifer Fields opened a restaurant in that building. She kept the brick and the exposed wood beams, took out the old wine racks and cabinetry, and put more than $800,000 into the inside of the building that is now Paseo, as reported by the Rancho Santa Fe Review in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Her project fits a larger pattern. Over the past year, almost every significant change in the village has gone into a landmark building from the 1920s, or into a new building designed to match them. A schoolhouse, a founding family's home, the land company's original offices and a drugstore's new Lilian Rice-style building account for most of what's new on Paseo Delicias and El Tordo. These buildings shape how each new business looks, and they also explain why so much of it is arriving at once.
The village, building by building
| Building | What it was | What's there now or next |
|---|---|---|
| 6024 Paseo Delicias | Rancho Santa Fe's first school, later The Pantry and Rancho Santa Fe Bistro | Paseo; Paseo Pizza and Gelato and Make Me Up RSF share the address |
| Corner of Paseo Delicias and La Granada | 1920s Millar family home, then Delicias and Ponsaty's | Nick & G's, mid-redesign for its 10th anniversary |
| Francisco Building, 6015 Paseo Delicias | 1923 Santa Fe Land Improvement Company offices, then Ashley's Market | Intimate Living Interiors design studio and shop |
| Corner of El Tordo and La Granada | Vacant corner lot | New Lilian Rice-style home of Rancho Santa Fe Pharmacy |
| Clock tower building, El Tordo at La Granada | Bank building with an underused conference room | Rancho Sandwich and Creamery |
One schoolhouse address, three openings
Fields is a local resident and was one of The Bistro's most loyal regulars. Its owner of 12 years, Mozy Jahanguiri, asked whether she would take over when he retired. She took ownership on Nov. 1, 2025, and opened the patio first, with new banquettes and landscaping by Roxy Najafian of Rancho Santa Fe's Plantology, who worked the historic pots on site into the design. The interior came later. A plaque outside marks the building's local landmark status.
The menu includes a Paseo Chopped Salad modeled on the La Scala chopped salad from Beverly Hills, plus pastas, seafood, steak, the Paseo burger, baked brie and lamb lollipops, and a kids' menu with mini pizzas and sliders. More details are at paseorsf.com.
Ten months later, Fields opened a second concept at the same address. Paseo Pizza and Gelato is in Unit D at 6024 Paseo Delicias. It held its grand opening Sept. 25 and 26 and is open seven days a week from noon to 9 p.m. The menu has 18 signature pies plus build-your-own options. The namesake Paseo comes with Grande mozzarella, imported burrata, crispy prosciutto and arugula. The gelato flavors rotate, and the shop brews its own craft beer, according to the Union-Tribune's opening report.
Make Me Up RSF, a makeup services and retail shop owned by Delorine Jackson, Gina Resch and Shirley Slee, opened in Suite I at the same address, with a grand opening on Aug. 27. That makes three new businesses in one year at a single village address.
The Millar house gets a new interior
Across Paseo Delicias, at the corner of La Granada, is a Lilian Rice building first built in the 1920s as the home of the Millar family, one of Rancho Santa Fe's earliest families. It was Delicias restaurant for 24 years, then briefly Ponsaty's. Local resident Sandra DiCicco-Bonar of the Grand Restaurant Group opened Nick & G's there in 2017 and named it after her children, Nicolas and Gianina.
For its 10th anniversary, the restaurant was scheduled to close in mid-October for a full renovation and reopen in November with a California-Italian menu of handmade pastas, pizzas and seasonal shared plates. Chef and partner Alex Carballo, whose San Diego career includes Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens and the opening of The Crosby Club, is leading the work with COO Gianina Pickens. The plans call for a large olive tree at the center of the dining room, all-new custom banquettes, and a new wine cellar that guests will be able to see through to a lighter bar and lounge.
Carballo explained to the Rancho Santa Fe Review in the Union-Tribune how the room relates to the setting outside:
"You should feel like you're taken away someplace else. In Rancho Santa Fe you already get that amongst the trees and beautiful Spanish architecture… to enter the restaurant you will see and feel the difference, feel the warmth and nature."
The planned look takes its cue from the Amalfi Coast, with yellows, oranges and blues and nature-inspired patterns. Check nickandgs.com for the reopening date before you plan a November dinner.
The Francisco Building comes back after four years
The Francisco Building at 6015 Paseo Delicias was designed by Lilian Rice and built in 1923 as part of Rancho Santa Fe's first civic block. It first held the offices of the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company. Robert Francisco bought it in 1938, and it later housed Ashley's Market. It then sat vacant for more than four years. Its last tenant was an office, and a 2022 plan for a cafe and gourmet market never opened, according to the Union-Tribune.
Solana Beach-based Intimate Living Interiors is the new tenant. The firm was founded by Kari Arendsen in 2005 and is now co-led by Tory Peterson. It received the space as an empty shell and added arched doorways and dark wood ceiling beams, with the stated goal of keeping the building's Spanish architectural heritage while showing off its own design style. The plan is about 80% design studio and 20% retail, with furniture, lighting, art, antiques, textiles and the firm's own candles, home scents and lotions. The firm targeted a September opening, and its original studio stays at 143 S. Cedros Avenue in Solana Beach.
The design firm added Spanish-style details to fit the building, much as Paseo kept its beams and Carballo pointed to the trees and Spanish architecture outside Nick & G's.
On El Tordo, a new building made to look old
Even the village's one brand-new building follows the same rule. Rancho Santa Fe Pharmacy, the village drugstore and spirits shop, is moving from one corner of El Tordo to another, into a larger Lilian Rice-style white building with a shaded arcade, decorative tile and 12 rooftop parking spaces. The new site is the formerly vacant corner of El Tordo and La Granada, next to Third Bloom.
The building has taken a long time. The Rancho Santa Fe Association first approved it in 2017. It received an extension four years later after county delays made worse by the pandemic, and construction did not start until August 2025. At the end of June 2026 it was still under construction.
Across the street, under the clock tower, Rancho Sandwich and Creamery shows the same slow pace at a smaller scale. Owner Chris Miller grew up in Fallbrook and painted corral fences in Rancho Santa Fe as a teenager. He owns the building and turned an underused conference room into the shop. Getting permits from six county and state agencies took a year and required a new plumbing system, as he told the Rancho Santa Fe Review. His design goal was "We wanted it to feel like Rancho… fresh but traditional." The shop has a tile floor and murals by Carmel Valley's Hanna's Murals, including one that reads "Ice cream fixes everything."
Several sandwiches are named for Miller's five daughters. The top seller in its first weeks was the East County Native: OvenGold turkey, provolone, bacon and avocado on a French roll. The shop opened with no marketing beyond a sign and some balloons, and was soon serving more than 100 people a day. It also covers grab-and-go breakfast, with avocado toast, breakfast burritos, muffins and bagels.
Why it all seems to arrive at once
A landmark building limits how fast anything can change inside it. The pharmacy took eight years to go from approval to construction. The sandwich shop spent a year on permits in a building its owner already had. The Francisco Building sat empty for more than four years after one plan for it fell through. When several long projects finish around the same time, the village gets a cluster like this one: a schoolhouse address with three new tenants, a Millar house mid-redesign, a reoccupied Francisco Building and a new pharmacy going up on El Tordo, all within about a year.
Each of these businesses also chose to match its building. Fields kept the beams, Arendsen added arches, Carballo described his new room in relation to the trees and Spanish architecture outside, and Miller wanted his shop to feel "like Rancho."
In the village before Thanksgiving
- Inn After Dark, Thursday, Oct. 29, 6 p.m. An adults-only Halloween night at The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe with themed spaces, live music and a costume contest, according to the Union-Tribune.
- Helen Woodward Animal Center's Howl-O-Ween Harvest Family Festival, Saturday, Oct. 31, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The last date of the season at the Woodward Humane Education Campus.
- Horizon Church Harvest Festival, Saturday, Oct. 31, 5 to 9 p.m. A free festival at 6365 El Apajo with games, carnival rides and food trucks, listed in the Union-Tribune's events roundup.
- Nick & G's reopening, November. This is the projected date, so confirm with the restaurant first.
- Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club Holiday Brunch and Speaker Series, Thursday, Nov. 19, 10 a.m. Arborist Wes Marshburn speaks at the Secret Garden, 17025 Avenida de Acacias. Details are on the Garden Club's event page.
Rancho Santa Fe's 1920s architecture sets the terms for every business that opens in the village, and it affects how a home here should be presented too. The Twinning Team stages and photographs Rancho Santa Fe homes to show off their original character, such as beams, arches and tile. If you own a home with that kind of character, or hope to buy one, sign up to receive exclusive listings from our team.
