Surf Rider Pizza Co. in Downtown La Mesa, is a California surf and beach-inspired pizza eatery. This location is the latest addition to a family of pizzerias under the same name. The first pizzeria made its debut in the neighborhood of Ocean Beach. This location is the first inland Surf Rider bringing the beach to East County. This ground-up construction project replaced a car sales and repair lot becoming the newest infill development project in La Mesa’s downtown commercial village district in over 25 years. The project contains two kitchens, one for pizza and the other for pastry production.
The restaurant contains the interior dining, pizza, and pastry ordering area, and a full bar. The building was designed and purposely set back from the main street side to provide 2 pet friendly outdoor patios. One patio contains a ‘beach-shack’ style bar that pays tribute to Joe Himmelberg, a longtime La Mesa resident and small business entrepreneur and the other is a friendly-for-all patio with a children’s play area, both providing the largest outdoor dining areas in the La Mesa Downtown Village.
Client: The Patio Group
Contractor: Richard & Richard Construction
Fabricator: Helvey Design Studio
Food Service: Orness Design Group, Inc.
Photographer: Ian Patzke Photography