At Leucadia Liquor, the sign out front is famous for the missing letter in "Liquor." Inside, a framed 2024 Coast News column hangs on the wall. Kamil Mansoor bought the store in 1992. The business had been serving Leucadia for more than six decades when, in mid-October, he announced he was retiring and would close for good at the end of the month. This Thursday, he has only a few days of business left.
The city's timeline is also close to done. The Segment C West and drainage work between Jupiter Street and La Costa Avenue is expected to finish in late fall 2026, according to the City of Encinitas project page updated September 17. The two clocks are ending within weeks of each other. The finished street will open onto a row of storefronts that has already changed, and the businesses that stayed open through the barricades are the ones it will serve first.
The Street and Its Storefronts Ran on Different Schedules
The Streetscape has taken years. The storefront changes came in a few months. Here is the order, from public records and local reporting:
- January 2021. The overall Leucadia Streetscape project broke ground. Its total cost is more than $65 million, according to The Coast News.
- 2022. Segment A2 was finished between Marcheta Street and Basil Street, with new roadway, sidewalks and roadside trees.
- 2023. Between Basil Street and La Costa Avenue, crews added new striping, a bike lane and median changes, plus flashing crosswalks at Diana Street and North Court. In the same year, Peeshee LLC bought the Leucadia Liquor property.
- 2024. Construction started on Segment C, an estimated $32 million phase originally scheduled to finish by summer 2025.
- The extension. After the City Council approved a new storm drain system, the schedule grew by about a year and a half, Director of Engineering Dan Nutter told The Coast News.
- June 21, 2026. The Leucadia Farmers Market reopened at Oak Crest Middle School after leaving Paul Ecke Central.
- Late October 2026. Leucadia Liquor closes, and Vigilucci's in Leucadia has a new owner.
- Late fall 2026. The city's target for finishing Segment C West.
David Boylan writes the Lick the Plate column and has lived in Leucadia for 25 years. In his Coast News farewell to Leucadia Liquor, he lists the Leucadia places he has seen close in that time: Captain Keno's, Chinatown, Little Moore, O'Hurley's, Sub Palace, Fulano's, Calypso, Longboard Grotto, Ducky Waddles and Karina's. Turnover is nothing new on this stretch. This fall it is happening right as the construction ends.
One Owner, Two Familiar Corners
Two of this fall's changes have the same owner behind them. Peeshee LLC, which bought the Leucadia Liquor property, is managed by Saeed Shahri. His Athena Restaurant Group also just bought Vigilucci's in Leucadia, and it already owns The Saloon and Shelter in Encinitas. The Coast News reports that a new concept will replace Vigilucci's. No name or opening date has been announced for it, and no plans have been announced for the Leucadia Liquor site.
So two well-known Leucadia corners are in transition with nothing announced yet for either. The new curbs, crosswalks and median trees will be finished before anyone knows what opens behind those doors.
The Businesses That Stayed Open Through It
The other half of the story is the businesses that never closed. In July, The Coast News reported on Streetscape fatigue along the corridor. It named Leucadia Cyclery, The Leucadian, Leucadia Donut Shoppe, Sip-N-Sea, Surfhouse Hotel and Coffee Coffee among the businesses that kept going while the street was torn up.
Stacy Reddell is executive director of the Leucadia 101 Mainstreet Association. She told the paper that sales fell an average of 25% to 40% over the prior year among the 20 businesses she surveyed. In the same story, The Leucadian co-owner David Shapiro said the roadway and drainage work was needed, but losing street parking had discouraged customers from booking events at the bar.
"Revenue got stagnant as soon as the project started," Shapiro told The Coast News.
Leucadia Donut Shoppe owner Tom Chu told the paper that northbound customers had to drive on to La Costa Avenue to make a U-turn before they could reach him. In February, Leucadia Cyclery owner Jeff Schade hung a six-foot sign over a piece of equipment parked near his shop at Avocado Street, as a joke. Nutter told the paper that work had not routinely stopped for days and put the schedule at about a month behind at that point. In the same story, Mainstreet treasurer Kevin Doyle warned that three to six more months of disruption could put small businesses at risk of closing.
Doyle gave that warning in July. If Segment C finishes in late fall as the city expects, the street will be done near the end of the window he described.
What the Finished Segment Actually Adds
The city's Segment C West FAQ, updated October 7, 2026, lists what residents should see once the Jupiter-to-La Costa stretch is finished:
- Added parking on the west side of North Coast Highway 101
- Two new roundabouts, including one at Jupiter Street
- Storm drain improvements meant to reduce flooding
- A dedicated bike lane through the corridor, with a buffer in some places
- Median trees and irrigation
- Wider sidewalks, more street lighting, and new or improved crosswalks
- A new pedestrian crossing signal at Avocado Street
Several items on that list match the problems owners described in July. West-side parking speaks to Shapiro's point about lost street parking. The Avocado Street signal is at the corner where Schade's sign hung. The drainage work matters to Nikolas Harth, co-owner of Surfhouse Hotel and Coffee Coffee, who told The Coast News that one ground-floor hotel room had taken 8 to 10 inches of floodwater in past storms. According to the city's September update, crews have already installed all of the 60-inch, 66-inch and 36-inch underground storm drain pipe.
"Finished" applies only to this segment. The Coast News reports that Segment B, from Basil Street to Jupiter Street, and Segment A1, from A Street to Marcheta Street, have completed preliminary designs but no construction funding yet. When the barricades come down this winter, the north end will look like the plans. The middle and south ends will look much as they do now.
A Leucadia Weekend Built Around the Ones Still Here
Most of the stops below stayed open through the construction, and the rest opened or moved during it. Each one has been named in recent local coverage, and they fit easily into an ordinary weekend:
Saturday morning. Start at Leucadia Donut Shoppe. If you are heading north, remember Chu's point about the La Costa Avenue U-turn. Coming from the south side of town is easier until the lane work clears. Next comes Coffee Coffee, and then a stop at Leucadia Cyclery, the shop next to the Avocado Street work zone. Sip-N-Sea runs a walk-up window. Its owner, Giuseppe Georgees, told The Coast News in July that he wasn't sure how customers would reach it while crews worked at his storefront.
Saturday evening. Coast Thai-Way serves Lao-Thai food at 698 North Coast Highway 101 and was open by the time The Coast News reviewed it in September. Behind it, Marbella Oyster Bar was announced in San Diego Magazine for 133 Daphne Street, with an opening planned for August or September 2026. Check whether it's open before you plan around it. Finish with a drink at The Leucadian, the bar whose event bookings dropped when street parking went away.
Sunday. The Leucadia Farmers Market now runs every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Oak Crest Middle School, 675 Balour Drive. Between now and early December, that means November 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, and December 6.
Before Saturday night. Leucadia Liquor closes at the end of October. That leaves Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31, for one last visit to the store with the missing letter in its sign.
The rest of the corridor's calendar also shows why these businesses matter. The 20th LeucadiART Walk on August 30 drew an estimated 8,000 people to North Coast Highway 101, with more than 100 artists, musicians and food vendors. It came in the middle of construction. Turnout on that scale needs open storefronts to come back to. For a wider look at how Leucadia compares with the rest of the city, our Encinitas neighborhood page and our breakdown of the city's five distinct housing markets put the corridor in context.
If you own a home near North Coast Highway 101, the finished segment will change how your street looks and works, with added west-side parking, roundabouts, wider sidewalks and new drainage. The Houston Team follows Leucadia block by block and can show you how those changes may affect your home's value. Request a complimentary home valuation and we'll walk you through it.
