Scoop: Stone's Escondido bistro gets a new name
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Greg Koch and Steve Wagner toast new beginnings at Stone. Photo: Courtesy of Greg Koch
We now know the name of the new restaurant taking over the iconic Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido, so drumroll please.
- It's...Quarry Escondido! And owner Greg Koch told Axios Monday he's aiming to open before the holidays.
Why it matters: Stone's 12,500-square-foot bistro and acres of gardens have been legendary since opening in 2006, and many feared the location would be closed for good after Stone's sale to Firestone Walker last spring.
- Then came the surprise announcement last week that Koch and cofounder Steve Wagner were taking it back to keep the location open under a new name.
Driving the news: Koch has been running a poll on Instagram about what to name the new place, and he announced the winner Tuesday.
- It beat out other user-submitted names like Beery McBeerface and Stoney McStoneface, plus Koch's personal favorite, The Escondidian.
The intrigue: Koch and Wagner kept ownership of Stone Escondido's real estate throughout the sales of the brewery, first to Sapporo and then Firestone, he told Axios.
- So after the Firestone sale announcement, and the news that Escondido's location wasn't part of the sale, he and Wagner started making plans.
"That place will always be a very big part of me," he told Axios.
- He remembers hosting Lars Ulrich from Metallica and Wil Wheaton (from "Star Trek: The Next Generation") and his wife, Anne. And he knows Stone has been the site of marriages, proposals and so many other important events for locals.
- "But, really, my favorite thing is to be off to the edge and just listen to the talking and the laughter and clinking of glasses and dishes," he said.
Claire's thought bubble: I have my own Stone Escondido story.
- When my husband and I were early dating, we went on a road trip to Big Sur. As we were driving back home Sunday evening, my husband asked whether I'd ever been to Stone, and I said no.
- "Should we go?" he asked.
- "Sure," I said, thinking it was a very good sign that he wanted to extend our trip with a dinner at Stone and not get rid of me as soon as possible.
Flashback: It was a big risk to open Stone in far-flung Escondido back in 2006, Koch said.
- "The three closest restaurants to us at the time were Applebee's, Chili's and an Olive Garden," he said. "It was a very adventurous thing to open such a large restaurant with the elevated type of menu that we opened with, focusing on local and organic."
- Part of the concern was whether people could even find the place.
- "MapQuest wouldn't even get you there correctly," he said. "That's a stamp in time right there, just even mentioning the word MapQuest."
People did find it, of course, despite the fact that there's no actual name out front — just the iconic gargoyle face.
- And Stone grew into an institution, becoming one of the fastest-growing breweries in the country, being named the "All Time Top Brewery on Planet Earth" by Beer Advocate in 2009 and then selling to Sapporo for $165 million in 2022.
What's next: Stone will serve its last dinner on Nov. 13, close briefly and then reopen as Quarry. The new restaurant will stick to what made Stone successful, Koch said.
- "It will offer up new experiences and new dishes on the menu, going back to its earlier days of an entree-focused menu," he said. "But people shouldn't expect anything very dramatic."
- And, yes, it will serve Stone beer.