Another North Park Transition

Hawthorn’s Restaurant gives way to the new (but historic) West Coast Tavern

David Cohen

By Manny Cruz

Restaurateur David Cohen has a keen sense of history, particularly when it comes to the building that houses the business he has been running since 2007. A few months ago, Cohen closed his Hawthorn’s restaurant, located adjacent to the Birch North Park Theatre, made several major improvements, and reopened it last month under a new name — the West Coast Tavern. The name was taken from the original name of the building in 1929, when it was called the Fox West Coast Theatre.
The change is Cohen’s way of paying tribute to the historic and community significance of the location. “I’ve been listening closely to my customers and North Park neighbors over the past two years,” he says. “The result of their feedback is West Coast Tavern.”
In December, Cohen and a group of local industry veterans he brought in to help oversee the restaurant, will add another historic touch. The 1929 blade marquee of the Fox West Coast Theatre will be prominently displayed inside the establishment.
Cohen and his new team added a bar in the front room, changed the format of the main dining room and added two large, circular booths for large parties. The restaurant will offer shared plates, a common food-sharing practice wherein foods are presented to two or more individuals on a single bowl or plate and are shared among the group, “hand-crafted cocktails,” an extensive bourbon selection and live entertainment such as jazz, acoustic acts and lounge DJs. Cohen says menu prices will range between $5 and $11. Hours of operation will be from noon to 2 a.m. daily with food service available until midnight.
As part of the dining experience, eight digital plasma screens were installed that will feature local artists’ work, historic images from the past 80 years and live video of shows that are going on in the adjacent theater.
Cohen called on the Verant Group to help run the place. Its founders and principals — Mark Cirillo, Joe Vaught and Eric Lingenfelder — specialize in developing and managing bars and restaurants, including True North Tavern in North Park and Offshore Tavern in Bay Park and Sandbar and Tavern at the Beach in Pacific Beach.
Matt Gordon of GW Restaurant Group, Inc., the founding partner and chef of Urban Solace, created West Coast Tavern’s small plate menu and manages the restaurant’s kitchen operations. Heading up the kitchen on a day-to-day basis is Chef Chris Antes, former executive chef at Crop Bistro and Bar in Cleveland.
Before Cohen purchased Hawthorn’s, the restaurant was run by Rose Witt, widow of the restaurant’s original owner, David Witt, who died in 2006. David Witt opened Hawthorn’s in the North Park Theatre building after moving it from Fifth Avenue in Bankers Hill, where it had been called Fifth and Hawthorn. Rose Witt said she decided to sell the restaurant because she could not keep up the pace of running the business while also working as a preschool director at St. Didacus Parish School. z