The Brigantine Family of Restaurants

The mission of The Brigantine Restaurant Corporation is...

To achieve the highest level of guest satisfaction and trust
by providing value and quality in our food, beverage and service;
To offer energetic, friendly and professional service
in order to provide our guests with positive, memorable experiences;
To search continually for new ways to improve our total operation
to ensure growth and profitability.

The Brigantine Family of Restaurants, since its inception in 1969, has built a reputation based on an unwavering commitment to guest satisfaction. With nearly one-thousand team members serving 1.2 million meals each year, our investment in our staff and in our communities around us has earned us the respect and loyalty of our personnel, of local business leaders, and of those in charitable circles as well.

And so it begins... The first Brigantine Restaurant was opened by husband and wife team, Mike and Barbara Morton, on Shelter Island in 1969. With a loan against her house to finance her son's venture, it's been rumored that fear of losing Mike's mother's house was the only thing that kept them in business during those early lean times.

The name of the restaurant was derived in a very democratic way - they drew names from a hat. "The Brigantine" won. The first menu consisted of nine menu items, including a "Late-Night Entrèe", and the dreaded "Beef Stew". On display in the home office are two original menus - both on round wooden plank. The early version with all nine menu items, and the revised one where "Beef Stew" has quite literally been "86'd" from the menu (a steak knife was the likely tool of choice).

Fortunately, The Brigantine overcame the odds, and in the summer of 1973, Mike and Barbara opened their second Brigantine location in Coronado, followed thereafter by restaurants in Del Mar and Escondido. Before all was said and done, there would be Brigantine Seafood Restaurants in seven locations throughout the county, including La Mesa, Poway, and Old Town.

Miguel's Cocina - In 1982, the Brigantine team decided to take advantage of some of the organization's in-house culinary talent and opened Miguel's Cocina in the village of Coronado, directly behind the now-popular Brigantine. The restaurant was an instant success and a second Miguel's was added in the original Brigantine location just two years later. The Shelter Island Brigantine had moved down and across the street to its present location above the marina. In 2004, the Brigantine Family of Restaurants opened a third Miguel's Cocina in the EastLake Village Marketplace. It's a little trendier looking, with a take-out station and rotisserie oven.

Azul La Jolla - In the late 1990’s, Mike and Barbara hired a top chef from the Ihilani Hotel in Hawaii, and set out to find the perfect location to open a fine-dining restaurant concept. In May 1999, Azul La Jolla was realized – distinctive California Cuisine located on fashionable Prospect Street, with incomparable views of La Jolla Cove and the Pacific shoreline. Consistently recognized for best view and cuisine, Azul La Jolla has certainly lived up to the Morton's dream.

Zócalo Grill - And finally, to “Z” – Zócalo Grill (whose name is derived from the central gathering place in the heart of many Latin American villages) was born out of a Brigantine remodel gone wild. The project, which began as a restroom expansion, banquet room addition, and Oyster Bar removal, took a creative turn mid-stream. A wood-fired oven was added, display kitchen revealed, new design and décor, creative Nuevo Latino menu and entirely new dining concept conceived. In fact, the newest concept in the Brigantine Family has been so well received that expansion plans are already on the drawing board with the second
Zócalo Grill scheduled to open in late-summer 2006.

Signature Dish - From the nine original Brigantine menu items, and then eight, the restaurants’ menus have certainly evolved over the years. When Mike Morton and Nick Vitalich of Chesapeake Fish Co. were tossing back a few cool ones one afternoon, little did they know that their mutually-coined term, “Catch of the Day”, would ultimately appear on seafood restaurant menus around the globe. Now a commonly-used phrase referring to freshly-caught fish, it was the fresh Pacific Swordfish that put Brigantine on the map.

And fresh it was! When USA Today published a piece in the early 80’s entitled, “Restaurants on the Road”, the Brigantine received national attention for serving “The Best Swordfish in the World”. It’s been a signature dish ever since.

House Wine Anyone? - Have you ever stopped to wonder which vineyard’s label is hiding beneath that house-labeled wine on your table? Or when the last time the restaurant’s proprietor paused and taste-tested the current vintage? Maybe when you asked what the house wine was, it didn’t have an affiliation with the establishment at all…

Well, it’s been said that when it comes to wine, The Brigantine Family of Restaurants goes “the extra mile”. Yes, in fact, they actually go about 500 extra miles, traveling each spring without fail to the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County. Every year since 1987, a small contingent of hand-selected employees and managers travels from San Diego to Sonoma to participate in the custom blending of The Brigantine’s house Chardonnay and Merlot. Working with their own personal wine-maker, the process not only ensures quality and consistency, but also a pride of ownership. The Brigantine produces 2100 cases of Chardonnay and 500 cases of Merlot annually. It’s definitely worth the effort!