Chef-owner Travis Swikard, whose Michelin Bib Gourmand-rated East Village restaurant Callie regularly tops diners’ and critics’ “best-of” lists, is ready to open the books for his long-planned second project, Fleurette.
Reservations open today for the 120-seat Southern French/Côte d’Azur-inspired restaurant, and the doors will officially open Dec. 10 at 4727 Executive Drive, Suite 100, in the UTC area of San Diego.
In September, the luxury lifestyle magazine Robb Report listed Fleurette among the “13 Most Exciting Restaurant Openings in America This Fall.” (In 2022, the same magazine named Callie one of its 10 Best New Restaurants in America.)
Swikard said the magazine’s latest accolade was a “pretty incredible” honor and it has helped build diner “intrigue” about the restaurant. Along those lines, Swikard has intentionally kept details about Fleurette under lock and key. There are no provided interior artist renderings, no venue or food photographs, no menus, an intentionally blank website and a highly cryptic social media campaign. But on Nov. 8, Swikard invited the Union-Tribune in for a sneak peek.
Fleurette is owned by Swikard, his wife Mia Swikard, who is their restaurant company’s new marketing director, and Callie investor David Cohn of Cohn Restaurant Group. He praised them both, along with Ann Sim, the company’s director of operations, for helping take Fleurette from seed to fruition.
“This is not a singular vision. A lot of the creativity comes from my vision, but I can’t bring everything,” Swikard said. “For my wife, David and Ann, this has been a huge team effort to get this to the finish line.”
Swikard said he’s especially grateful to Cohn, who gave Swikard his first restaurant job in San Diego back in 2002, followed his career during his years in New York and was an initial investor in Callie.
“He’s a guy in the background who has helped me be the chef I can be and, as a business owner, he’s OK with being the silent guy in the back. But he’s a huge part of this,” Swikard said.
The concept for Fleurette, which is French for “little flower,” was inspired by a 2023 Swikard family vacation to Cassis, a small community on France’s Mediterranean Riviera, where the geography and climate are similar to San Diego. Unlike the heavy, sauce-laden fare in northern France, Côte d’Azur food is lighter and cleaner, with a focus on lighter sauces, fresh-from-the-garden vegetables, soups, seafood and more.
As he did with Mediterranean cuisine at Callie, the 41-year-old Swikard will serve classic French fare from his perspective as a native San Diegan. Besides featuring local ingredients, Fleurette’s menus will be written in English, rather than French, to make the dining experience more approachable to local diners.
“Whatever the cuisine, it’s really about highlighting San Diego at its very best. I will never try to create a New York restaurant in San Diego. That’s what we set out to do with Callie and now we will graduate to the next step,” Swikard said. “I think always and forever my inspiration for building a new restaurant is having another avenue to express delicious food and great hospitality.”
The exterior of Travis Swikard’s new Fleurette restaurant in the UTC area of San Diego. It opens Dec. 10. (Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Fleurette will open in a modern, stand-alone building with 24-foot-tall glass walls, 6,000 square feet of interior space, a 1,500-square-foot back patio suitable for large gatherings, a glassed-in front patio dining area, a private dining room and red and white wine rooms that can hold a combined 3,000 bottles.
The footprint of Fleurette is substantial, with possibly the largest kitchen of any restaurant in San Diego. Swikard built out the space with the intention of hosting weddings, corporate events and other large gatherings for 150 people or more. The restaurant was designed by the L.A. architecture firm Studio UNLTD, which designed Callie. The wedge-shaped restaurant, which can be seen from La Jolla Village Drive, is in a business park owned by Ernest Rady’s American Assets Trust.
“American Assets has created a beautiful, destination space,” Swikard said. “It’s so unique and located in the hub of San Diego. I see University City and that whole area growing so much. Everything comes together there. And it’s in the foothills of Carmel Valley, which is a booming location in need of something special.”
Swikard’s pride and joy at Fleurette is his huge open kitchen with a French-made custom Athanor stove. It’s the same stove brand his mentor, Daniel Boulud, has in the kitchen at his Michelin-starred Restaurant Daniel in New York.
“Once you walk into the dining room and see the chefs cooking in unison at the beautiful French suite, you feel like you’re in the countryside of France,” Swikard said.
The restaurant’s yellow front doors, painted in the traditional French ochre color, were imported from Europe. The entryway has wall paneling inspired by the cabins of the yachts that ply the Riviera. And the large light-and-art installation hanging from the 108-seat dining room ceiling conjures sailboats.
In a nod to the design and traditions of French restaurants, there are French copper pans and lamps hanging in the kitchen, and a classic French brass duck press on the counter. On the back patio, Swikard’s father, landscape architect Larry Swikard, is planting a Provençal garden with herbs for the kitchen and fruit trees.
Travis Swikard, a Michelin recognized chef, stands by his Athanor stove from France in the kitchen of his new restaurant Fleurette on Thursday, Nov. 7 in the UTC area of San Diego. (Sandy Huffaker for The San Diego Union-Tribune)
While Swikard has yet to unveil his menu, he said it will draw from everything he learned from Boulud in the 11 years he worked under the French master chef in New York, rising from a chef to partie position in 2008 to culinary director of Boulud’s New York restaurants in 2019.
Fleurette’s menu will also draw inspiration from Boulud’s own mentors in France, Georges Blanc, who championed cooking with fresh seasonal ingredients, and Roger Vergé, known for his “cuisine of the sun” style of Provençal cooking.
“I’m just relentless about impeccable ingredients,” Swikard said. “Also, I’m relentless about telling a story with each dish. It’s more than just delicious food. There’s a ‘why’ behind it.”
Local, seasonal vegetables will be the heart of Fleurette’s menu.
Similar to the vegetable crudité and avocado labneh appetizer at Callie, Fleurette will offer an Aix-en-Provence-inspired grand aïoli, which is essentially poached vegetables with aioli.
“It could be seen as simple, but it’s the most detail-oriented, most-focused dish we have. One of those things I love is how to show off beautiful vegetable work.”
Swikard said he also has “an awesome chicken dish” up his sleeve for Fleurette that he hopes will match the popularity of the Aleppo chicken entrée that’s a perennial best-seller at Callie.
Another dish he’s creating that blends French traditions with San Diego ingredients is a brouillade d’ouefs, which will feature duck eggs from a farm in Ramona prepared in a soft scramble with French black truffles and locally sourced uni.
The menu will offer both a la carte ordering and a tasting-menu option, that Swikard said will be more progressive in style than the tasting menu Callie, with smaller bites graduating to larger portions and not everything shared family-style.
Swikard said Fleurette’s vibe will be a little less boisterous than Callie and more of a fine dining experience, but the food will still be built around “celebrating conversation, togetherness and community.”
Travis and Mia Swikard are the co-owners of Callie and Fleurette. (Eric Wolfinger)
Initially, only dinner will be served, from 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays (with the bar open until 11 p.m.), with lunch service arriving in the first or second quarter of 2026.
Fleurette will open with a staff of about 75 to 80. Some of the restaurant’s leadership are moving over from Callie and some are new to the company.
Fleurette’s Chef de Cuisine Roman Garcia is the former chef at Amaya, a French brasserie at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar resort. Swikard said Garcia came highly recommended by fifth-generation French restaurateur Xavier Salomon.
“Roman is a good mentor and leader, and he’s also relentless about food,” Swikard said.
Steve Dreifuss will serve as general manager at Fleurette. Tracy Latimer, the wine director and sommelier at Callie, will move over to Fleurette. Schuyler Munroe will replace Latimer at Callie. James Roe, the bartender at Callie, will oversee the bar program at Fleurette, which will include French Italian Riviera-inspired cocktails.
“My goal is to create a strong foundation with my staff that’s influential to the San Diego dining scene, whether it’s great cooking or helping new chefs get on their feet. I’m building a legacy and this is a huge part of it,” Swikard said.
Fleurette
Opening: Dec. 10
Hours: 5-10 p.m. (bar stays open until 11 p.m.) Tuesdays-Sundays
Where: 4727 Executive Drive, Suite 100, San Diego
Parking: Three hours of free parking with validation. Optional $10 valet service available.
Reservations: opentable.com/r/fleurette-san-diego
Online: .fleurettesd.com, instagram.com/fleurettesd
Dining and Cooking