Leucadia Restaurant Peace Pies On Track To Reopen A Year After Burning

LEUCADIA, CA — In September 2019, Peace Pies of Encinitas burned to the ground, along with a handful of other businesses.

"We lost 10 years' worth of work overnight," owner John Paul (JP) Alfred said in a recent video, shared on GoFundMe.

Now, he's surrendering to the flow while the Encinitas location is under construction at the corner of Coast Highway 101 and Daphne Street.

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The fire began at Mozy Cafe, according to Coast News Group. It expanded to destroy Peace Pies, Shatto & Sons Custom T-Shirts and the Cali Life art gallery.

Alfred's new Peace Pies will be on the same property owned by Shatto & Sons, known as The Shatto Building, and other businesses are being sought to fill the remaining space, according to the newsgroup.

Construction began in September 2022. The Peace Pies space will be nearly double in size of the pre-fire shop, according to Alfred's GoFundMe video.

They have raised just under$9,000 toward their reopening since the fundraiser was launched.

"Instead of trying to recreate something that was, this place will be bright and beautiful and clean. Peace Pies has never been a financially driven business. We've been around 16+ years, and I feel it's been a tremendous success. I base our success on relationships with our customers and our day-to-day process of creating recipes with people we enjoy and want to be around.

And enjoying good food, friends and fans is just part of Peace Pies's vibe and something Alfred knows will continue when the new restaurant re-opens.

Until then, Alfred continues to run his second Peace Pies location in Ocean Beach, where he and his staff still create raw food and vegan desserts. There, Peace Pies earned a nod as one of the best vegan bakeries in 2021.

The goal of his GoFundMe campaign is to inform people what's going on, he said. To help further the message of raw food and express gratitude to everyone who has donated or comes by the kitchen on a regular basis.

"A lot of these guys just continue to inspire me to do my best and bring me great joy every day," Alfred said. "There's nothing I'd rather be doing."