Today I’m joined by Owen Curry of Cushman & Wakefield—and y’all, this is the real estate episode I’ve been waiting to record. If you’re an owner-operator with a big vision (restaurant, café, wellness studio, boutique concept) and you’re trying to land the right space—especially in a coastal market—this conversation will save you so much time, money, and stress.

Owen breaks down what’s actually happening in North County coastal commercial real estate (Carlsbad through Del Mar), why “vacancy” isn’t always what it looks like, and what you need to understand before you fall in love with a space. We talk budgets, lease runway, rentable vs. usable square footage, how zoning + parking requirements can make or break a concept (especially wellness), and what makes a Letter of Intent attractive without getting you pushed to the back of the line. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by LoopNet listings, landlord language, or the sheer sticker shock of beach-town pricing—this one is for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

1. Why coastal communities like Encinitas, Leucadia, Cardiff, Solana Beach stay high-demand (and high price per square foot)
2. How “vacant” buildings can be misleading (and why signs can be strategic)
3. The first questions to answer before you tour spaces: budget, runway, and true market rent
4. Why under-market rent can be risky if you don’t have a long-term lease horizon
5. How smaller footprints can be a strategic advantage (overhead + TI math)
6. The zoning + parking issues that quietly derail wellness concepts (and why cities can treat your use differently if you add things like saunas/cold plunge)
7. What to look for to “win” a space: configuration, speed to occupancy, and financial readiness
8. Lease terms operators overlook: rentable vs. usable + load factors (often 10–20%)
9. TI realities: cold shell vs. existing buildout, and when landlords offer free rent in lieu of TI
10. LOI strategy: how to negotiate without burning goodwill (and how it changes when there’s competition)
11. Why you should get a contractor walk-through before submitting an LOI
12. Green flags + red flags on tours (local landlord access, building systems, pride of ownership)
13. A surprisingly helpful tip for LoopNet: who to call first (hint: the associate)

Key Takeaways for Conscious Owner-Operators

1. Location is a design decision—but it’s also a systems decision. Don’t pay “foot traffic rent” if your model is membership-based or appointment-driven.
2. Do not skip zoning + parking due diligence. Especially if your concept blends categories (retail + events + wellness).
3. Fall in love after the numbers work. The shiny object space can come with hidden timeline and permitting costs.

In this solo episode, holistic interior designer and Tiger Veil founder Rachel Larraine Crawford breaks down the holistic hospitality trends that actually matter for 2026.

Instead of chasing another photo moment, Rachel invites owner operators to think about their space as a living system that impacts guest experience, staff wellbeing, and the bottom line.

She walks through emerging bio based materials, regenerative sustainability practices, and wellness focused design moves that you can bring into your restaurant, bar, cafe, hotel, or spa, even if you are working with an existing footprint.

If you want guests to linger longer, leave better reviews, and feel genuinely cared for in your space, this episode will give you practical ideas and questions to bring to your next refresh.

In this episode Rachel covers

1. Why guests are more sensitive than ever to sound, light, and stress and what that means for hospitality spaces
2. How holistic design gives owner operators real leverage without a complete renovation
3. Emerging bio based materials such as mycelium panels, hemp plasters, and cork and how they can transform corridors, bars, and guest rooms
4. Quiet technology inside natural finishes that help regulate temperature, reduce maintenance, and improve acoustics
5. The shift away from bright white interiors into tactile, wood drenched, earth toned spaces that feel like a hug
6. How circular design and planning for disassembly can protect your future self when you rebrand or update your concept
7. Low carbon material choices that still feel luxurious and aligned with your brand story
8. Ways to build sustainability into daily operations such as water rituals, daylight first seating plans, and planted shading
9. The idea of acoustic wellness and silent architecture as business tools that affect dwell time and staff burnout
10. How circadian friendly lighting scenes can support guest comfort from breakfast through last call
11. Biophilic strategies that turn your space into a small ecosystem rather than a plant in the corner
12. Neuro inclusive and sensory aware choices that welcome different nervous systems into your space

Questions to ask about your space

1. How do guests feel in the first thirty seconds from door to host stand
2. What does your restaurant or hotel sound like at peak time
3. Where could one small micro retreat exist for guests or staff
4. Which surfaces do guests touch all day and what story do those materials tell

Simple action steps for owner operators

1. Take a sound walk during peak service and identify three zones that need acoustic...

In the final episode of our Aura Gardens series, I’m joined again by co-owner R.J. Fernandez as we zoom all the way into what Aura feels like from the moment you walk in. We’re talking playlist, glassware, filtered water, lighting, greenery, textures, and the tiny design decisions that create that “vibrant but deeply cozy” energy guests keep describing. R.J. shares how hospitality is the true product (food + beverage are simply the vehicle), why every detail has to answer the question “Will this make the customer feel something?”, and how Aura is intentionally designed to hold community—across demographics, moods, and moments.

We also look ahead: events that spark real connection, the early success of Friendsgiving + the Chef’s Table vibe, the vision for a full calendar by 2027, and the growing concept of Aura After Dark—private evening events that transform the space once the brunch rush ends. And if you love the behind-the-scenes build energy? R.J. shares his growth philosophy of developing managing partners through ownership, plus a dreamy future bakery + café concept that could become the commissary engine for future Aura locations.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How “guest experience” is built through micro-choices (water, glassware, plating, lighting, texture, sound)
• Why hospitality and emotional resonance come before menu strategy
• How to design a space that feels both energetic and cozy (not one or the other)
• Event formats that gently push connection—without making it awkward (even for introverts)
• A scalable growth model rooted in mentorship + managing partners (not just “more locations”)
• The early blueprint for Aura After Dark + a potential bakery storefront/commissary model

Key Takeaways (the stuff you’ll want to steal for your own concept)

• Ask one guiding question for every decision: “Will this make the guest feel something?”
• Create value in the “small” things: complimentary crisp filtered water, the right rocks glass, consistent warmth from staff.
• Design for multiple emotions: a space can be clean + bright and grounded + comforting if the layers are intentional.
• Community doesn’t happen by accident: events need built-in prompts and structure to make connection easy.
• If you want to scale the energy, build leaders: ownership + mentorship creates aligned operators who protect the vibe.

Follow Aura Gardens in Instagram

Connect with Rachel Larraine Crawford

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Instagram

Interior Design Services

If you’re building a restaurant, café, retreat space, or any hospitality concept where you want people to feel seen, nourished, and connected, share this episode with a friend (or your business partner 👀). And if you post about it, tag me so I can cheer you on.

Until next time—keep designing spaces with intentional flow, well-being, and conscious business at the center.

Hospitality Design Talks — Aura Garden Series (Part 3) with co-owner R.J. Fernandes

In part three of the Aura Garden series, Rachel sits down with R.J. Fernandez for the hard chapter: when the “planned rebirth” of the family restaurant doesn’t happen, the building sells (December 2023), and R.J. has to grieve what he poured his life into. From there, we follow the pivot—through unemployment, a more grounded season of decision-making, and into an unlikely little 1,800 sq ft former taco spot in a strip center that’s quietly becoming a health-and-wellness hub in North County San Diego.

This episode is a real-time look at what conscious business actually requires: letting go, reading the environment, designing for what’s true now, and building a concept that matches the life you’re living—energy, flow, well-being and all.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• When the rebrand plan collapses: the Salt & Smoke vision, the heartbreak of the sale, and the emotional aftermath of “another door closed.”
• The in-between season: unemployment, urgency, and the pressure to make a decision without the safety net of the old restaurant.
• The location that wasn’t “the dream”… until it was: why a strip center felt like a compromise—and how the surrounding fitness + wellness neighbors changed the whole story.
• Concept clarity through constraints: why smaller + quick service suddenly made sense (speed + quality, grab-and-go, beer/wine only, no late-night bar life).
• Partnership alignment: how R.J. and Andrew stayed malleable instead of locked into one rigid vision—and why that matters in hospitality.
• The “signs” that sealed the deal: the Jefferson exit connection and the license plate moment that felt like the universe winking.
• Naming Aura Gardens: “aura” as the people-energy of hospitality, “garden” as the metaphor—whole foods for a whole life, and the long game of nurturing team, guests, and community.
• Food philosophy, openly discussed: whole-food prep, local sourcing where possible, and R.J.’s nuanced take on “organic” vs actual quality.

Key Takeaways

• Grief and business decisions can coexist. You can be devastated and still build what’s next—slowly, intentionally.
• Constraints create the concept. Size, neighborhood, licensing, and lifestyle can be your best creative brief.
• Design starts with the feeling. Before finishes and furniture: What do you want people to feel when they walk in? That’s your aura.
• Your concept has to match your life. If you’re building a conscious business, the operations (hours, service style, menu, offerings) must support your well-being—not just your ambition.
• “Garden” is a business model. What you nurture—ingredients, team culture, guest experience—becomes what your brand produces over time.

Reflection Prompt (for owners, retreat hosts, and conscious entrepreneurs)

Take two minutes and write down:

1. What do I want people to feel in my space?
2. What does my business need to look like to support my life right now?
3. That feeling is your version of an aura—and it’s the truest starting point for design.

What’s Next

In the final episode of this series, we talk about what Aura Gardens actually feels like now that the doors are open—design details, playlist, events, and where R.J. and Andrew see the brand growing next.

Connect with Rachel Larraine Crawford

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Instagram

Interior Design Services

In part two of the Aura Gardens series, Rachel continues her conversation with co owner RJ Fernandez and picks up right where the story left off.

If part one was about legacy, family, and the deep roots of a third generation steakhouse, this chapter is about what happens when that legacy starts to feel out of step with the times.

RJ opens up about the slow slide into stagnation at the Murrieta restaurant, the pressure to keep prices low while costs climbed, and what it felt like to watch newer, flashier concepts pull focus while they were still trying to do everything old school and word of mouth.

Then the world shuts down. Covid arrives. And for the first time in decades, the restaurant goes quiet.

In this episode, you will hear about

• The moment RJ realized the family steakhouse was getting left behind by changing guest expectations and social media culture
• How rising food costs made it harder and harder to remain the go to affordable steakhouse in town
• Why the next generation of guests wanted more than a good steak things like experience, spectacle, and Instagram friendly moments
• RJ’s early attempts at his own concept including the Windmill Food Hall project and a quick service concept called Salt and Smoke in Oceanside
• How timing, leases, and a global pandemic turned those dreams into expensive almosts that later revealed themselves as blessings
• What it felt like to lay off an entire team with the hope of bringing them back when indoor dining returned
• The strange relief and spaciousness that arrived when the restaurant paused and why RJ’s mom describes that period as the happiest she had felt in a long time
• RJ’s realization that he had built his entire identity around the restaurant and had almost no life outside of work
• The resentment, grief, and honesty that surfaced as he watched friends live fuller lives while he stayed married to the business
• The two paths his mom ultimately offered
• RJ buys and re-imagines the restaurant, or she sells everything and closes the chapter
• How trying to innovate the legacy brand began to strain his relationship with his mom and long time staff
• The lessons RJ learned from experiments that did not work and how those failures shaped the leader he is now

This episode is for you if

• You are an owner or operator who feels the old model is not working but you are scared to let go
• You are sitting in the messy middle trying to honor a legacy while knowing something has to change
• You have a family business and feel the tension between generations, vision, and timing
• You are considering rebranding, relocating, or closing a concept and wondering what that would mean for your identity
• You need to hear someone be honest about burnout, duty, and the cost of staying in a business past the point of alignment

Next up in the Aura Gardens series

In part three, we move into the rebirth. RJ and Rachel talk about the heartbreak of losing the Murrieta restaurant, the doors that closed, and how that cleared space for a new vision in Carlsbad with his cousin Andrew.

Make sure you are subscribed so you do not miss the next episode and if you know a hospitality owner who is wrestling with change right now, share this conversation with them.

Follow Aura Gardens in Instagram

Connect with Rachel Larraine

Website

Instagram

Interior Design Services

Want more...

In this first episode of the Aura Gardens series, Rachel sits down with co owner RJ Fernandez to trace the roots of his hospitality story all the way back to a family steakhouse in Chino and Temecula.

RJ was literally raised in a restaurant doing homework in booths, falling asleep on stacks of bread in the kitchen, and watching guests become extended family. Along the way, his family walked through profound loss and still chose to keep the doors open and the community fed.

This is not just a restaurant story. It is a story about how hospitality holds people through birthdays, funerals, first dates, and every messy in between.

In this episode, you will hear about

• How RJ’s grandparents and parents built a beloved community steakhouse that became a true neighborhood gathering place
• The origin of Tony's Spunky Steer and how it evolved into RJ Sizzle and Steer in Temecula and Murrieta
• What it was like for RJ’s mom to suddenly be a young widow and single mother while running a busy restaurant
• How staff, regulars, and family rallied around RJ and his mom after his father’s death and other family tragedies
• RJ’s childhood memories of living inside the restaurant world from homework in booths to bussing tables with an apron down to his toes
• The way guests and team members became chosen family across generations
• Why RJ sees hospitality as something far deeper than food and beverage
• How restaurants hold life’s biggest moments from celebrations and proposals to grief filled gatherings after a loss
• RJ’s reflections on service as a way of caring for people and how he discovered his own gift for connection and story
• The influence of his mom’s leadership style and her commitment to caring for staff as her why for staying in the business
• How culinary school gave RJ a new lens on the kitchen while confirming that his truest passion is people and experience

This episode is for you if

• You are an owner operator who wants your restaurant to feel like a true community hub
• You are re thinking what hospitality really means for your concept and your team
• You are a designer or creative who wants to understand the emotional layers inside a legacy restaurant brand
• You are craving a reminder that the spaces you build and run can genuinely change how people move through life events

Next up in the Aura Gardens series

In part two, RJ shares how this legacy collided with burnout, the chaos of the global shutdown, and the choice to step into a new vision with his cousin Andrew that eventually became Aura Gardens.

Follow the show and tap subscribe so you do not miss the next chapter of this story.

Follow Aura Gardens in Instagram

Connect with Rachel Larraine

Website

Instagram

Interior Design Services

Want more guidance from me? Sign up to appear on the Holistic Hospitality Design Podcast for a design audit. You can book your design audit here.

In this episode of Hospitality Design Talks, designer and host Rachel Larraine Crawford breaks down why hiring an interior designer isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a core business strategy for hospitality owners. From saving time and avoiding costly mistakes, to translating your brand into a sensory guest experience, Rachel shares the top reasons bringing a designer onto your team can directly impact your revenue, reviews, and repeat guests.

She also pulls back the curtain on one of her recent projects, Aura Gardens, where she designed the brand and the space from the inside out, down to custom watercolor wallpaper and bespoke table colors, all aligned with the guest experience and the owner’s vision.

If you’ve been wondering whether working with a designer is “worth it,” this is your sign.

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This week, I’m taking you behind the veil of a real-time project: a 3,000-sq-ft, family-run Brazilian steakhouse in San Diego’s Gaslamp. After smoke and water damage from last year’s fire, the owners asked us to refresh on a very tight budget—without losing legacy. We’re building a nature-forward concept inspired by butterfly wings, jungle softness, and river ripples to attract a younger, social-sharing guest while honoring the founder’s story. You’ll hear how we’re sequencing high-impact moves (starting with “crystal cave” restrooms), reusing what we can (table bases, lighting locations), and designing zones with intentional lighting, textures, and screens to create mystery and flow. If you want to see the visuals, hop on the Behind the Veil newsletter.

What you’ll learn

• How to build a concept from a single heritage artifact (and make it feel intentional, not theme-y).
• Budget-savvy upgrades: large-format tile, prefab counters, selective lacquer, and zone-specific sconces.
• How to handle immovable elements at the entrance (hello, salad/hot bar) with screening and lighting.
• Restroom strategies that elevate guest experience and inclusivity (family-friendly layouts).
• Practical ways to use lighting and soft dividers to create flow, intimacy, and discoverability.

Links

• Join the newsletter: Behind the Veil Secrets, musings, and design magic await in your inbox.
• Work with Rachel: Design inquiries + consultations rachel@tigerveil.com
• Instagram: @tigerveil