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Enlightened Hospitality Group LLC was trying to figure out a name for its new Gaslamp Quarter restaurant in 2010, when celebrity chef and co-owner Brian Malarkey remarked that his busy schedule had kept him away from one of his favorite local haunts: the Del Mar racetrack.
"Brian realized an entire season had gone by and he hadn't been to the track," recalled co-owner and Enlightened CEO James Brennan. "And he says, 'I didn't even get to break in my seersucker suit this year.' "
The variant Searsucker became the name of the co-owners' first upscale eatery, and the popular restaurant was joined last year by Burlap in Carmel Valley. This year, the
company debuted Gingham in La Mesa and Gabardine in Point Loma.
In early May, Brennan said, the company's next restaurant will debut in La Jolla under the name Herringbone, serving seafood "with a Mediterranean twist" and Italian influences. And by October,. Enlightened plans to open its first location outside of San Diego County - a second Searsucker planned for Scottsdale, Ariz., serving a classic American style menu.
Brennan, a veteran of several past local nightclubs and still majority owner of downtown's Stingaree, said Enlightened is now focused primarily on what will eventually be a national rollout of a restaurant concept touting a "fabric of social dining."
Ambitious Plans
The company plans to debut approximately three restaurants a year through 2017, by...