Popular Taste restaurant is moving to new, bigger location in SLO
A popular San Luis Obispo eatery is planning a move down the street to a space that’s double the size of its current location.
Taste Craft Eatery — which offers a selection of sliders, salads, macaroni and cheese, Brussels sprouts, and more — currently is renovating its new spot at 2550 Broad St., the former location of Mattress Outlet.
Mattress Outlet moved out at the end of September, but its store at 504 E. Grand Ave. in Arroyo Grande remains open.
Taste first opened in SLO in 2013 at its current location at 2900 Broad St., three blocks away from its new spot.
The existing Taste eatery has 2,000 square feet of indoor space, patio seating attached to the building, and outdoor dining in the parking lot, which it opened after the pandemic hit.
Taste owner Gretchen LeMiere, who co-owns the business with her husband Scott, said their new commercial space will have 4,000 square feet of indoor space and roughly 1,000 square feet for outdoor dining in the front.
Taste will keep its same menu after the move, LeMiere said.
“It’s nice to have that additional outdoor seating, and we kind of outgrew our current location a long time ago,” LeMiere said. “But we’ve always made it work. We love the current building, but long term we wonder if people will want to continue to sit in the parking lot and we doubted that was our best option.”
Opening in new location
LeMiere said the building improvements at the new site they’re leasing from Quaglino Properties will accommodate Taste’s kitchen and dining needs, and they’re working essentially from scratch to construct the setup.
For the new outdoor dining area, they’ll install a barrier or wall of some sort to section off the tables from road noise on Broad Street.
“We are hoping that we will be up and running in late May or early June,” LeMiere said. “JW Design & Construction is doing the construction and they’ve been moving quickly, which is great. We have another round of permits to get through, so we’ll see how quickly that gets through the city.”
LeMiere said that Taste plans to keep its current location for catering use as well as special event dining such as rehearsal dinners and graduation parties.
“Not only will our catering team be able to work in there, we’ll have some more office space and storage space and kitchen capabilities,” LeMiere said. “But we’re also going to be able to do private events in there.”
Taste will remain open throughout the transition except for “maybe or day or two” and they shift the team over, LeMiere said.
For catering, Taste now uses a facility near Staples to cook and prepare meals for delivery, which they may re-purpose for baking, LeMiere said.
“We’re trying to see if it makes sense to keep that facility and toying with ideas for turning it into something else we would use it for,” LeMiere said. “But we could give it up as well.”
Taste opened a Paso Robles location in May 2020 and will continue to operate that restaurant.
Restaurant staff
The SLO business may expand its staffing based on demand but otherwise will keep its crew, some of whom have worked with the family for years, LeMiere said.
“One of our employees, Ricardo, started as a dishwasher seven years ago and now he’s our chef, and he’s incredible,” LeMiere said. “Another, Luis, started as a busser and accidentally told us he could cook, and now he’s our chef in Paso Robles. Our general manager, Macy, was a waitress for us back in the day and moved away to San Diego. When we were opening in Paso, we called her and she decided to move back to SLO County.”
Another employee was known to the family since she was 8 years old. And the LeMieres’ son also returned from college to be a part of the business.
“It’s a family and extended family business for sure,” LeMiere said.
LeMiere added that it was important to keep the restaurant in the neighborhood, where some residents come at off hours just to beat the rush of peak times.
The owners hope the new location will allow some of those customers to come during traditional dining hours with new accommodations.
“We looked at other locations, but we wanted to stay here because of our regulars and because we like being a neighborhood eatery,” LeMiere said.
The hours at the new SLO location will remain the same, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
%20Cropped.jpg)