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By Collin Breaux | Twitter: @collin_breaux
Featured photo: Courtesy of Heather Paris-Ybarra, A Single Shot Photography
For a long time, the former Starbucks property at the corner of Ortega Highway and Camino Capistrano in downtown San Juan Capistrano has gone unoccupied after the coffee chain closed that shop—leaving many in the community wondering what would become of the space.
An answer has now emerged. Local restaurateur Russ Bendel and his business partners are planning to open a new restaurant called Bloom at that location, by the end of the year.
Bendel lives in San Juan Capistrano and currently owns Vine Restaurant & Bar in San Clemente and Ironwood in Laguna Hills, among other restaurants in Orange County.
“What we’re doing right now is our design phase. Our vision for Bloom is to put in some Bi-Fold windows around the whole perimeter of the building, so that way it has that open-air feel when the weather’s appropriate,” Bendel said. “It’s going to be similar to our other restaurants. It’s going to be a chef-driven, wine country-inspired concept.”
Bloom will be across the street from Mission San Juan Capistrano, and next door to FKN Bread. The downtown area is gradually becoming a foodie hub, as a number of well-received restaurants have recently opened in the corridor, including Heritage Barbecue and Ramen Shack.
Executive Chef and Partner Jared Cook will join Bendel on his new venture, and he already works with Bendel at Vine. Cook will put together a “pretty different menu” for Bloom— “stuff he’s never done at any of the other restaurants before,” Bendel said.
“He wants to really focus on learning more about San Juan Capistrano, what the demographic here would enjoy, making (it) a neighborhood place,” Bendel said. “We’ll be doing dinner every day of the week, and weekend brunch as well.”
Bendel expects Bloom to have 85 to 90 seats for dining, as well as an open kitchen through which patrons can watch their meals being prepared. The new restaurant will also have a “great wine list, great cocktail program, craft beer,” he said.
“I’ve been looking around in San Juan for probably about a year and a half, maybe longer, for the right opportunity,” Bendel said. “I found a few things that I thought were going to work, but it just didn’t end up panning out. This became available when Starbucks closed down during the pandemic.”
San Juan Capistrano is an up-and-coming town with a good balance of both longtime and new restaurants, he said.
“There’s a lot of new development going on,” Bendel said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of exciting things happening, from what I’ve heard, for a long time to come.”
As for where the name Bloom came from, Bendel points out it fits in with the names of his other restaurants.
“We wanted to stick with the plant/tree/flower (theme) as a consistent brand of all the restaurants. When we were going through hundreds of different name opportunities, we were looking at the history of San Juan and trying to incorporate something about San Juan into the name,” Bendel said. “When we were reading, there was a quote about the blooming of all the flowers on all the hillside and the natives using the mustard flowers as a trail to get back to the historic Mission. When I read the word ‘bloom,’ it just kind of popped.”
Collin Breaux
Collin Breaux covers San Juan Capistrano and other South Orange County news as the City Editor for The Capistrano Dispatch. Before moving to California, he covered Hurricane Michael, politics and education in Panama City, Florida. He can be reached by email at cbreaux@picketfencemedia.com
