The best seller at the newest lunch counter in the Rancho Santa Fe Village is pineapple Dole Whip, and it sells out every couple of days. The San Diego Union-Tribune described it as "just like Disneyland." The soft serve comes out of what used to be an underused conference room in the corner of owner Chris Miller's bank building on El Tordo.
That room says a lot about how the Village is changing this year. Most of the new everyday options in the Covenant's commercial core come from people who already had a foothold there. One owner already held the building. One already ran the restaurant next door. One family has run the same corner for nearly a decade. Meanwhile, the newest building in the Village, the one people expected to fill a daily need, is becoming something else.
A conference room, six agencies and a year of permits
Rancho Sandwich and Creamery sits at 6110 El Tordo, on the corner of El Tordo and La Granada, under the clock tower. It soft-opened in late June. Miller said more than 100 people were coming through each day, with no marketing beyond a sign out front and a bunch of balloons.
Miller is a Rancho Santa Fe resident who owns the El Tordo building and runs a private investment firm. He had no restaurant experience. He told the Union-Tribune that owning the building helped a great deal, because getting permits from six county and state agencies took a year. Those requirements included a new plumbing system. Friends and family helped with the build-out, using materials left over from building the family's own house.
Those permits explain why counter-service spots have been rare in the Village. A tenant paying rent for a year before serving a single sandwich faces a very different calculation than an owner turning an empty room into a shop.
The room itself was designed to feel, in Miller's words, "fresh but traditional." It has a tile floor and murals by Carmel Valley's Hanna's Murals, including one that reads "Ice cream fixes everything." The sandwiches use Boar's Head meats and local O'Brien's bread. The menu was developed with Alexis Mendez and Art Preciado, who owns Sandwich Bags Deli in Santee. The early top seller is the East County Native: turkey, provolone, bacon and avocado on a French roll. Breakfast includes avocado toast, breakfast burritos, muffins and bagels.
Miller planned for a busier fall once school started, since the shop is within walking distance of R. Roger Rowe School. The June report listed hours as Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A second room on Paseo Delicias
On Paseo Delicias, the newest opening came from someone who already had a restaurant there. Jennifer Fields took over the former Rancho Santa Fe Bistro and reopened it as Paseo, taking ownership on Nov. 1, 2025, according to the Union-Tribune's coverage of the handover. Paseo's own site now describes the restaurant as modern California cuisine with a dedicated sushi and omakase bar.
Less than a year later, Fields opened a second, more casual place next door. Paseo Pizza and Gelato, at 6024 Paseo Delicias, Unit D, held its grand opening Sept. 25 and 26. Friday was an evening of pizza and drinks. Saturday was a kids' carnival with face painting and a balloon artist. The menu has build-your-own pies and 18 signature pizzas. The namesake Paseo pie comes with Grande mozzarella, imported burrata, crispy prosciutto, arugula and a balsamic glaze. The gelato flavors rotate, and the restaurant makes its own craft beer.
Paseo Pizza is open seven days a week from noon to 9 p.m., according to the Union-Tribune's opening report. With Rancho Sandwich closing at 4 p.m., the two new spots now cover the Village from breakfast through a family dinner, at prices well below a white-tablecloth meal.
The Lilian Rice corner takes a break
The corner of Paseo Delicias and La Granada is the Village's oldest dinner address, and it has had several lives. The Lilian Rice building at 6106 Paseo Delicias went up in the 1920s as the home of the Millar family, one of Rancho Santa Fe's earliest families. Later it housed Delicias for 24 years and, briefly, Ponsaty's. Local resident Sandra DiCicco-Bonar of the Grand Restaurant Group opened Nick & G's there in 2017.
As it approaches its 10th anniversary, Nick & G's planned to close in mid-October for a full renovation and reopen in November, the Union-Tribune reported Sept. 29. That was an announcement, not a confirmed schedule. The restaurant pointed diners to nickandgs.com and its Instagram for reopening updates.
The plans are a real departure for a building this old. Chef and partner Alex Carballo worked on the design with Rachael Lorraine Harris and Michael Soriano. They describe a brighter, Amalfi Coast-inspired room in shades of yellow, orange and blue, with an olive tree growing in the center of the dining room. Diners will see through a new wine cellar into a lighter bar and lounge, and they will be able to see into the kitchen. Outside, the patio gets a wave-shaped shade canopy, and the back courtyard becomes a garden with water features. The menu gets smaller and shifts toward coastal Italian-American dishes: handmade pasta, seafood and local produce, with some longtime favorites kept.
Gianina Pickens, the "G" in the name and chief operating officer of Grand Restaurant Group, said the goal was "to honor what our guests have always loved about Nick & G's while creating something fresh for the next chapter." In the same story, Carballo described the whole Village, naming Paseo, Paseo Pizza and Gelato, Rancho Sandwich and Creamery, Mille Fleurs, Lilian's, the café at The Inn, Thyme in the Ranch, Caffe Positano and Rancho Roasters.
"I like the energy when there's more…it gives people a little more variety and a reason to go into Rancho Santa Fe, and we're in the heart of it." Alex Carballo, to the San Diego Union-Tribune
The building that changed plans
The one new building going up in the Village has gone the other way. In 2017, the Rancho Santa Fe Association board approved a building at El Tordo as a new home for Rancho Santa Fe Pharmacy, as the Union-Tribune reported at the time. Even the June 2026 story on Rancho Sandwich described the site across the street as "the new pharmacy under construction."
The San Dieguito Planning Group's July 9, 2026 minutes say otherwise. The group voted 10 to 0, with one abstention, to approve signs for a Charles Schwab office at 6105 El Tordo. The minutes state, "There will not be a new pharmacy in the building as expected; only Charles Schwab." The Rancho Santa Fe Pharmacy & Spirit Shoppe is still listed at its current address, 6056 El Tordo.
So the one building constructed from scratch is becoming a financial office, while the new sandwich counter, pizza place and gelato case all came out of space that locals already owned or operated.
A short walk, by address
All of this fits within a few blocks:
- 6106 Paseo Delicias. Nick & G's, in the Lilian Rice building at La Granada, with a renovation closure planned from mid-October.
- 6110 El Tordo. Rancho Sandwich and Creamery, under the clock tower.
- 6105 El Tordo. The building under construction for a Charles Schwab office, across the street.
- 6056 El Tordo. Rancho Santa Fe Pharmacy & Spirit Shoppe, at its existing address.
- 6024 Paseo Delicias, Unit D. Paseo Pizza and Gelato, beside Paseo.
Where the Village gathers through November
The fall calendar mostly happens a short walk from those addresses, and it often comes back to Lilian Rice.
- Oct. 13, 3 p.m. The Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club plants a California oak for its centennial at North Village Park, by the Lilian Rice statue, in partnership with the RSF Association. A member potluck at the Secret Garden follows around 3:45 p.m.
- Oct. 17, 10:30 a.m. Watercolor class at the RSF Library.
- Oct. 18, 4 p.m. The Village Church, 6225 Paseo Delicias, celebrates its 70th anniversary with a free, open-seating concert featuring its adult and children's choirs, bell choir and contemporary band.
- Oct. 22, 10:30 a.m. Author Elizabeth St. John discusses The Queen's Tears at a Library Guild fundraiser. Tickets are $30, and registration is required.
- Oct. 24, 5 to 8 p.m. The Rancho Santa Fe Historical Society's Fandango Street Party at La Flecha House, 6036 La Flecha, with a taco bar and the Harmony Grove Band. Advance tickets are $35 for members and $45 for nonmembers.
- Oct. 27 and 28, 10:30 a.m. Halloween programs for children at the library.
- Oct. 29, 6 p.m. Inn After Dark at The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, a free, adults-only Halloween event with themed spaces in the lobby, Bing's Bar, the Café and the Vintage Rooms, plus live music and cocktails for purchase.
- Nov. 12, 5:30 p.m. Reception for the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild's Cityscape Scenes exhibit at the library.
- Nov. 19, 10 a.m. The Garden Club's holiday brunch with arborist Wes Marshburn at the Secret Garden, 17025 Avenida de Acacias. Tickets are $25 for members and $40 for guests.
The Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club's clubhouse may also reopen this season. As of a Sept. 3 update, the renovation was on track for a fall opening. The new kitchen was waiting on fire department approvals, and tile work on the expanded patio was underway.
Nick & G's plans to keep its 1920s Lilian Rice building and add an olive tree and a see-through wine cellar inside. If you own a historic or architecturally notable home in the Covenant and want to know what careful updates like that could mean for its value, Modern Homes Team can help. Request a Complimentary Home Valuation.
