New owner is making SLO County seafood restaurant more family friendly. See how

When Paso Terra in Paso Robles closed in March last year, former owners Andre and Cristina Averseng put the restaurant up for sale for $285,000.

All the buyers for the restaurant fell through — until longtime manager Jennifer Loewen Nicolds decided to take the leap and purchase the seafood restaurant.

“I said it would kind of be perfect,” Nicolds, who had at that point managed the restaurant for five years, told The Tribune. “I could bring back all the employees, and then change it a little bit, make it my own, but also preserve some of the past of the Paso Terra Seafood. So that’s what I did.”

With a slight name change — going from Paso Terra Seafood to Paso Terra Bistro — Nicolds also tweaked the menu to encompass more food options beyond seafood dishes and made the restaurant more family-friendly with lower prices.

“My goal with the menu and the name change was to keep ‘Paso Terra,’ but add the ‘Bistro,’ so that people go, ‘OK maybe it’s a different menu, maybe I can afford it, or maybe I can take my family there,’” Nicolds said.

The bistro’s dishes range from burgers, empanadas, grilled salmon, crab cakes, a New York steak, chicken taco salad and a chipotle meatloaf. Seafood fan favorites from the original menu remain, like the shrimp linguini and seafood paella. Prices go from $12 to $45, with five chefs working in the restaurant’s kitchen to serve five different cuisine types for the expansive menu.

The drink menu is “ever-changing,” Nicolds said, with local wines as well as imported French and Italian wines. Wine-based cocktails like a Hugo Spritz and soju-based cocktails also accompany the restaurant’s dishes.

What’s next for Paso Robles restaurant with new owner?

Nicolds reopened the doors to Paso Terra at 1032 Pine St. on July 13, 2025, with happy hours every day from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

The happy hour was yet another conscious change to the restaurant to make it more family friendly.

“I spent a lot of years on a budget myself as a mom with three kids, and then I had five kids because I raised my two nephews, so for us to go out to eat, it’s a whole paycheck sometimes,” Nicolds said. “I spent my time finding those happy hour places that had good discounts on food, so I really wanted to offer happy hour.”

Nicolds also has goals to host a fundraiser every month at Paso Terra Bistro. In March, she hosted 200 people trying to raise money to pay the medical bills for a local resident battling brain cancer.

“If we’re going to be here in this community having a business, we want to look for different ways to give back as well,” she said.

Paso Terra Bistro will also soon open up outdoor seating in its patio, which fits 70, Nicolds said.

She described her restaurant as a “little restaurant doing big things,” with private parties, catering and starting some cooking classes next week.

“I know there’s huge restaurants around me,” she said. “I compare us to, we’re David, and they’re Goliath, and not that they’re bad, but I have to compete or offer something that maybe they don’t offer.”

For more information

Paso Terra Bistro at 1032 Pine St. in Paso Robles is open on Wednesday to Saturday from 4:30 to 9 p.m., with plans to open for lunch soon.

For more information about the restaurant, visit its website at pasoterrabistro.com.