LONG-AWAITED SKY DECK FOOD HALL READY TO OPEN

Culinary destination was modeled on dining complex in Barcelona

Sky Deck, North County’s latest culinary attraction, is finally nearing completion after a yearlong pandemic-related delay.

On June 11, a handful of the restaurants in the nauticallythemed 26,000-square-foot dining-and-drinking destination will open, with the majority coming online around mid-july.

But on Wednesday afternoon, Sky Deck’s developer and architect offered a walk-through preview of the massive, 1,000seat complex, which is the final piece of a four-year, $120 million expansion of the Del Mar Highlands Town Center, at El Camino Real and Del Mar Heights Road in San Diego.

Sky Deck is located 14 miles south of the Windmill Food Hall, a 12,000-square-foot food hall that opened in September 2019 in the old Pea Soup Andersen’s restaurant building in Carlsbad. The two venues are among a wave of similar projects that have opened around the county in recent years, including the Little Italy Food Hall in Little Italy, the Liberty Public Market in Point Loma and the still-in-theplanning stages Outpost Urban Food Hall in Poway.

But Sky Deck creator Pat Donahue doesn’t like his careercapping project being compared to the region’s other food halls.

He modeled his project after El Nacional, the famously luxurious, 400-seat dining-and-drinking destination in Barcelona, Spain, which he visited on vacation several years ago.

“This isn’t a food hall, and please don’t call it a food court. This is a restaurant collection and a culinary experience,” said Donahue, the former CEO of

PAM KRAGEN U-T Sky Deck developer Pat Donahue of Donahue Schriber looks out over the nearly finished food destination during a preview tour Wednesday at Del Mar Highlands Town Center.