In the blocks surrounding Oracle Park, it’s easy to find casual spots for pizza, tacos, or greasy burgers, to be enjoyed while a bank of TVs blares the game. But the newest restaurant in South Beach, a short five-minute walk from the stadium’s Willie Mays Gate at Third and King, brings a touch of femininity to the neighborhood.
Carlos Altamirano — the chef behind Sanguchon Eatery in the Mission and Mochica in Potrero Hill, among others — will debut Casa Sofia on Thursday. Beneath towering ceilings, diners can sink into turquoise, scallop-shaped booths beside floor-to-ceiling windows or perch on blush-pink stools at a stone-topped bar that appears to glow from within. Designed by Jon de la Cruz, Casa Sofia aims to capture the vivacity of the Latin American fonda, with a tiled floor featuring a geometric block pattern in terracotta, Pacific blues, and mossy greens, and a sun-drenched patio set off by giant garage doors.
Altamirano and his wife and business partner, Shu Dai, named their ninth restaurant after their 10-year-old daughter, who helped shape its look — choosing tropical pastel wallpaper for the back dining room and an earthy, sun-faded palette for a mural painted above the bar in her honor. “She says she wants to be a clothing designer,” the proud father says of Sofia. “She does sketches at home.”
At nearly 6,000 square feet, this is the couple’s largest undertaking in the city, and they’ve purchased the property, which sat empty following the pandemic-era closure of The Brixton. While most of Altamirano’s restaurants could be described as neighborhood standbys, he envisions Casa Sofia as a destination for baseball fans on their way to and from the park and diners in search of a special meal…