If you love trying out a new restaurant or simply enjoy fresh and creative cuisine, you’re in luck – locally owned Treo3 has just opened up in Rancho Santa Fe’s Del Rayo Village.
After a few delays, the restaurant opened on November 28th in the midst of holidays. It is owned by entrepreneur Budy Kubursi and wife Cynthia Kubursi. Kubursi has already invested in several restaurants around the world, but was especially excited for an opportunity to do so in his own community of Rancho Santa Fe.
“We want to become a part of the community,” said Kubursi. He and his wife have only been in Rancho Santa Fe for about a year.
Treo3 focuses on three areas: the restaurant itself, the bar and lounge, and a prepared foods section, set to launch mid-month. “We definitely think that the prepared foods will be a bonus for us and we’re looking forward to getting that going,” Kubursi said. It will allow visitors to grab a high-quality meal to enjoy at home.
The team includes Executive Chef Nicholas Garcia and Chef de Cuisine Justin Snyder. Snyder started working in fine dining at La Jolla’s George’s at the Cove before attending the Ecole Nationale de Superieure de la Patisserie in France.
Chef de Cuisine Justin Snyder
℅ http://www.treo3.com
The rest of his resume is just as impressive, having worked for “Top Chef” winner Michael Voltaggio’s restaurant Ink in Hollywood, as well as for André’s restaurant in Singapore, named one of the top 50 restaurants in the world this year.
Garcia studied at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and has worked at restaurants in La Jolla and Alpine. He and Snyder have been friends since meeting in the kitchen. “I’m very comfort food and classic, he’s more modern and different, so it works well; we complement each other,” Garcia said.
The result? Real American cuisine…with a twist. “We want it to be a dining experience in which people leave here having learned something,” Snyder said.
The Treo3 mac and cheese features bacon, scallion, cheddar Mornay sauce and truffle essence. The unconventional surf and turf spotlights a blackened pork belly and crispy octopus.
Dessert features interesting combinations, including a lavender créme brulee and “smores” with smoked ice cream, 66% chocolate ice cream, marshmallow ash, graham cracker tuile, chocolate soil, and bruleed meringue. Snyder also makes his own ice cream on site, resulting in unique flavors such as Cherry Coke, Butterfinger banana, prickly pear and guava.
“We give the chefs a lot of flexibility to be creative and to come up with new ideas, to develop themselves, the concept and the ambiance,” Kubursi said. The chefs plan to mix up the menu frequently by considering the seasonality of food.
The modern cuisine is set in a modern ambiance, where the Kubursis have transformed a relatively small space into a restaurant complete with a dining area, bar and lounge, and a back area to be reserved for the prepared foods, wine dinners and tastings, and a possible oyster bar.
Treo3 is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday.