Pear Plum is Bringing Specialty Coffee and a Serious Wine Bar to Downtown San Diego

Downtown San Diego is getting exactly the kind of neighborhood spot it deserves. Pear Plum is an all-day café, specialty coffee shop, and wine bar opening steps from the New Children’s Museum, the San Diego Children’s Park, and the waterfront, right on the trolley line.

Owners St. Elmo and Christina Crawford have built this around a simple idea: a place where families feel genuinely at home, the coffee is worth getting excited about, and the wine program can hold its own anywhere in the world.

A Wine Program Worth Talking About

St. Elmo Crawford is a member of the esteemed Court of Master Sommeliers, and the bottle list he and Christina are bringing to Pear Plum reflects a lifetime of serious collecting. We’re talking Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Rioja, Barolo, German Rieslings, Napa Valley, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Oregon’s Willamette Valley – along with rare vintages from the ’60s and ’70s.

Pours from their personal 10,000-plus bottle collection start at $10 a glass, which is the kind of thing that makes wine lovers do a double take.

The Crawfords are also pouring their own house wines, Cuvée Gia and Cuvée Aliesa – created in partnership with Violin Wines in Oregon’s Eola-Amity Hills and named for their daughters.

Tastings will feature some of the world’s most celebrated producers, including Kistler, DuMOL, Domaine William Fèvre, Laurent-Perrier, Taittinger, Léoville Barton, La Rioja Alta, Muga, Château d’Yquem, and Querciabella. Local sommelier events round out a program that goes well beyond what you’d expect from a neighborhood café.

Coffee, Food, and the People Behind Them

The specialty coffee program is the kind that serious coffee drinkers get excited about and newcomers fall in love with – carefully curated and built to complement the rest of what Pear Plum does.

The food menu comes from Lesa and Violette of The Handmade Chef Meal Prep Co., who bring 38 combined years across some of San Diego’s most respected cafés. The menu is designed to work alongside the wine program while keeping the whole family fed.

Built for the Neighborhood

Christina put it best: “I wanted somewhere I could take my daughters to play, let the dogs run, hear great music in the background, and sit down with a really beautiful glass of wine, or a perfect coffee, while I actually caught my breath.”

That’s the whole vision – a place for families, dog walkers, weekend wanderers, and downtown residents who want somewhere to truly settle in. Whether you’re wrapping up a waterfront walk, heading to a Padres game, or just letting the kids run in the fountain while you decompress, Pear Plum is that place.

The name was inspired by a favorite childhood book – and it happens to capture the tasting notes in some of the Crawfords’ most beloved wines. That kind of layered thinking runs through everything here.

See you there!

A serious wine program, great coffee, and a space built for the community right at the heart of downtown – Pear Plum is one to watch.

📆 Opening January 2027
📍 101 Island Ave, San Diego
ℹ️ Follow along on Instagram for updates

See you there, San Diego!