The owners of one of San Diego’s most popular Italian restaurants, Cori Trattoria Pastificio in North Park, have announced plans for a second restaurant next summer in UC San Diego’s new Theatre District Living and Learning Neighborhood.
Situated at the southwest corner of the La Jolla university campus, the 8.5-acre Theatre District includes the recently opened 2,000-bed undergraduate housing towers, which are a short walk from the La Jolla Playhouse, which was established on the campus in 1983.
Cori Trattoria owners Accursio Lota, a Sicily-born chef, and his wife Corinne Goria, an author, attorney and college professor, say they’re thrilled at the prospect of opening the district’s signature restaurant, which will be located on the ground floor of the residential tower.
Dora Ristorante will be a 120-seat restaurant/bar with 2,600 square feet of indoor space and 1,400 square feet of outdoor patio space. Its interior, which will include an open kitchen, will be designed by the L.A. architectural firm Bells + Whistles.
In its relationship with La Jolla Playhouse, Dora Ristorante will offer an optional abridged pre-fixe dinner menu that can be served before theater performances and its full bar will be open for post-show cocktails. Dora’s regular dinner menu will be closer to the casual price range rather than fine dining.
Lota said the restaurant will have its own unique menu from that of Cori. It will feature coastal Southern Italian dishes that incorporate seasonal Southern California ingredients. An example would be locally caught tuna carpaccio with Sicilian olive oil. The menu will also feature house-made pasta, bread and gelato.
Goria described the opportunity to run the district’s main restaurant as a “serendipitous collaboration” for her and Lota because it will celebrate both of their strengths — his cooking skills and her interest in the creative arts and theater.
“I have an MFA in creative writing and the idea of getting to work with the Playhouse on deg thematic menus was exciting for me,” she said.
The couple’s company, Lotaria Restaurant Group, was one of a handful of small, locally based restaurant groups that were invited to audition for the contract. Lota said he cooked several meals for Playhouse officials during that tryout period.
One element of his background that he believed worked in his favor was his experience cooking at the Four Seasons Hotel in Milan, Italy, where he collaborated on pre-show menus for ticketholders headed to the nearby La Scala opera house.
“We look at this opportunity like we’re in Milan,” he said. “We have the beautiful La Jolla Shores, UTC and Torrey Pines. It’s a very prestigious location. This will be a place you love and you won’t want to leave the neighborhood.”
Lota grew up in the small village of Menfi, Sicily, and after culinary school moved to California in his early 20s. Five years ago, he and Goria opened Cori, which means heart in Italian and is also an abbreviation of Goria’s first name. The couple live in North Park with their two sons, Alessandro and Lorenzo.
In 2017, while serving as executive chef for Solare Ristorante at Liberty Station, Lota beat out 19 other international chefs to win the Barilla World Pasta Competition in Parma. In the years since, he has also won multiple honors from Gambero Rosso, which ranks the world’s top Italian restaurants.
