Consortium Holdings Hospitality Group is rebranding Coronado's La Avenida Inn to become The Baby Grand Crown City Hotel, which will house a new Greek-Mediterranean restaurant and reservation-only oyster & champagne bar.
In May 2022, news broke that Consortium Holdings founder Arsalun Tafazoli entered into a longterm lease for Coronado's 29 guest room La Avenida Inn, which was first built in 1957. Located off Orange Avenue in the heart of San Diego's picturesque Coronado, La Avenida Inn sits a block from the beach and historic Hotel del Coronado. In addition to housing the hotel, the adjacent La Avenida Plaza is home to numerous restaurants and retail shops including Stake Chophouse, Cotier, and the incoming, Cheesecake Factory-owned Blanco Tacos + Tequila Mexican restaurant.
Like they did with San Diego's historic The Lafayette Hotel, Consortium Holdings is in the process of a complete overhaul of the La Avenida Inn property and will be rebranding the property to be called The Baby Grand Crown City. The name pays homage to the history of grandiose European "Grand" hotels, albeit in a more intimate, i.e. "baby" setting. Tafazoli envisioned a more compact iteration of the grandeur and charm of these historic hotels and decided to run with that idea, hoping to create a similarly enduring impact on Coronado.
CH is currently in the process of putting its design-forward touches on the decades-old hotel, renovating rooms, including adding more for a total of 31, upgrading the pool, adding patio and lobby bars and building a brand new, 4,372 square-foot onsite bar & restaurant tentatively dubbed Nighthawk, which will replace La Avenida's parking lot. The property's incoming restaurant will be a Greek/Mediterranean-inspired brasserie with a menu by Consortium's Director of Culinary Operations Perfecte Rocher. Expect an abundantly-landscaped, mostly-outdoor bar and eatery with lush, tropical jungle decor and a full bar with an elevated cocktail list. There will also be a reservation-exclusive oyster and champagne lounge outfitted in mirror tiling with sea shell light fixtures.
The main dining area of Nighthawk will include outdoor seated dining with built-in banquette seating underneath an ivy-covered steel trellis structure painted black. With an ambiance described as "refined decay, the exterior will include large format organic cut flagstone and the seats will be covered in a printed cotton fabric.
A new walnut wood with a calacatta marble café bar will sit adjacent to the lobby area of the hotel and a patio bar will be installed behind the trellis-covered dining area overlooking the pool. A large rock waterfall consisting of various stone and rock formations will be installed along the north wall of the hotel's exterior. The updated pool area will include new chaise lounges, scalloped edge umbrellas with contrasting piping, and four new ornate lampposts.
In addition to the upcoming Coronado bar & restaurant, Consortium Holdings is putting its finishing touches on Leila, a 5,000+ square-foot Middle Eastern-style bar & restaurant expected to open this June in San Diego's North Park. Leila will offer a Middle Eastern, Lebanese and Persian-inspired fusion menu and design with an open kitchen, full bar and a running stream flowing around the ample space.
Besides La Avenida Inn and Leila, Consortium Holdings, also known as CH Projects, has several additional projects in the works right now. The company in the process of restyling the 14-year-old Starlite restaurant on northern India Street in San Diego's highway-adjacent Middletown neighborhood. The restaurant is anticipated to become an old-school steakhouse-style bar & restaurant with a menu centered around dry-aged meat and a continued focus on craft cocktails.
Consortium is also adding a spa concept inspired by Russian, Roman and Turkish bathhouses to the The Lafayette Hotel, as well as a fine-dining, French-inspired restaurant named Le Horse Continental Room. CH founder Arsalun Tafazoli also owns the shopping plaza at 3401 Adams Avenue in Normal Heights, which sits across the street from Blind Lady AleHouse and approximately a half mile from CH's Polite Provisions. It is believe he is building a commercial kitchen and bakery in the unit.
The Baby Grand Crown City Hotel is expected to unveil as early as this fall, with the restaurant opening by year's end, at 1315 Orange Avenue in San Diego's island city of Coronado. For more information, follow The Baby Grand on Instagram.
