Urge Common House: Eater-tain Your Heart Out

The newest location of Urge restaurants—the chain that’s not really a chain—is the third in the brand’s repertoire and thrives in a bustling university neighborhood in San Marcos. In addition to the original Urge American Gastropub in Rancho Bernardo and Urge Gastropub and Whiskey Bank in Oceanside comes Urge Common House, a distinct new flavor in the restaurant trio.

Urge co-founder Grant Tondro describes the concepts as siblings––they’re all clearly related, but in no way identical triplets. Each location is unique, with enough difference in menu options and décor to give guests a new experience at each place. But the San Marcos location in particular is outdoing itself (and likely every competitor in the vicinity) as it embraces the idea of eater-tainment.

At Common House, guests find more than great food and beer. It’s a multi-faceted experience that combines the best of social activities and entertainment with a traditional dining affair. For starters, this place has a brewery. Joining the ever-expanding craft beer market in San Diego is Urge’s special brewing division, Mason Aleworks. The in-house brewery began at the Oceanside location in 2015. Since then, Mason Aleworks has had a whirlwind year and a half of success, launching into draft-only distribution in San Diego in March of last year.

The brewery keeps four core beers on tap year-round that encapsulate a range of flavors. There’s a coffee stout, a Red IPA, a white ale and a traditional, West Coast-style IPA to appeal to all palates. Those four are primarily brewed in San Marcos, while the seasonal, creative one-offs are brewed at the Oceanside location. All beers are then distributed between each of the three Urge locations, so no matter which you visit, you can always taste what’s brewing currently.

The massive complex that houses Urge also features three different bars, two private dining rooms, a huge patio with fire pit-embedded banquet tables, two bocce ball courts, outdoor games like life-size Jenga and a partitioned dining room that stretches nearly the entire length of the warehouse building. At almost 21,000 square feet, there’s enough room for large groups of friends, plus elbow room. Topping off Urge’s unique design is a bowling alley with The Big Lebowski decor.

The sheer size of the place is a feat, but the masterminds behind the concept divide the space expertly. The focus on activities is all part of the guest experience and creating a sense of community. The Common House aims to be your destination of choice, somewhere between home and work where you can relax and hang out. Grant Tondro and his two business partners Zack and Nate Higson struggled at first when they encountered the large, airy, empty space.

"The deal with the developer was that we had to take the whole building," Tondro says. "We thought it was way too big, and we were never going to fill it. So how could we come up with something to utilize this space so we can afford the rent on this thing? We threw all this stuff in there, but people end up coming and staying for like, five or six hours sometimes. They’re just having a really good time."

It would be hard not to have a good time at Urge Common House; one thing that’s admirable about a place like this is that, despite the amount of energy and focus that goes into hosting games and activities on its property, not one aspect of the restaurant is lacking. And if nothing else, come for the food.

"We always knew we wanted to do elevated American bar food, which is essentially what a gastropub is, at this point," Tondro says. "We have three very accomplished chefs at the three locations–-not just a straight kitchen manager––and they have a decent amount of culinary freedom between the locations to mess around with specials as long as they’re fitting with that common theme."

Tondro explains that the "elevated" menu at Urge is derived from the process. The kitchen makes as much as it can from scratch and buys out as little as possible to keep meals fresh, flavorful and in-house. The freedom each location takes in its menu adds originality to the chain and offers something new.

"I’m a sucker for the flatbreads," Tondro says. "We have them in San Marcos, but we don’t have them in our other locations. Chef Brian [Freerksen] put together a barbecue bacon-cheeseburger flatbread, and it’s pretty awesome." Tondro also recommends the restaurant’s best-seller, the California Burger, which is the classic California burrito turned into an Urge-style burger. "At the end of the day, my two favorite items are a burrito done as a burger, and a burger done as a flatbread!"

While you’re enjoying the delicious food, the details of Urge Common House’s décor swim into view. Yes, it’s a warehouse—Tondro admits he couldn’t mask the skeleton of the space—but he and his team worked hard to make it not feel that way. The Common House isn’t a drafty, bland restaurant. In fact, the exposed ceilings and tough steel beams quaintly meet cozy booths and couches beneath upcycled beer kegs turned into dangling pendant lights for a surprisingly inviting atmosphere.

"When we did Oceanside, it worked out well because [the building] was built in the ‘60s as an old bank building. There was some architectural character to it," Tondro says. "The problem when we got to San Marcos is the pendulum really swung the other way, where it was a 1970s building—literally nothing exciting about the architecture of it. It’s just a big, gray box. It’s been an industrial, mixed-use building for 40 years," he explains. 

"At the end of the day, without spending [a fortune], we had to somewhat embrace the fact that it was an old industrial building. So let’s go with modern industrial design," Tondro says. They installed a steel I-beam trellis and wrapped the entire main bar in cold rolled steel. Those tough elements meet a warm, traditional style in the softer fabrics used on the chairs and banquettes, plus a touch of color here and there, like bold blue and fire engine red.

"If we had been in Rancho Bernardo, there’s no way we would have pulled that look off. It just would have seemed really fake," Tondro says. The bowling alley is an attraction in itself. Tondro says it’s popular, with more than 120 reservations at the lanes sometimes, of which there are just 8. The real testament to the space is the only face that can appropriately decorate a bowling alley: The Dude. This space is decorated with homages to the classic cult film, The Big Lebowski, with giant posters of The Dude himself, as well as other characters from the movie. Though there’s no rug to tie the room together, there is a bar inside the alley, and it’s not just any bar—it’s a White Russian Bar (but yes, it does serve more than White Russians). Tondro and co- founder Zack Higson are huge fans of the movie and knew immediately that there was only one way to decorate their alley inside Urge.

Outside is just as welcoming, with long banquet tables equipped with fire pits and plenty of room for a crowd. It’s the perfect place to grab a drink and enjoy a superb summer evening. For the full experience, walk up to one of three roll- up windows that access the equipped nine-well bar and top off your beer before joining a game outdoors. "If you look at all the games we try to include in the space," Tondro says, "they are all games that you can do while you have a drink in your hand. That, for us, is really an integral part of that social interaction we’re trying to create."

It’s called a common house, after all, and it embraces just that—commonality. Everything about the venue encourages camaraderie and community. Create conversation here (maybe about that beer keg lighting overhead), or join in on some low-key competition at the bowling alley among friends and family. Whatever you do, do it at your own pace and for your own pleasure. There’s no rush to push people out the door and fill the table here. There’s no sense of urgency or discomfort that might limit a guest’s stay. Instead, you’re invited to linger, to enjoy everything Urge Common House has to offer. 

It's All in the Name

URGE has nothing to do with the craving you might feel for some killer bar food. Instead, it’s a sneaky work around the word "burger." Co-founder Grant Tondro says he removed the first letter B and the last letter R of burger to get Urge. The team was wary of including the term "burger" in their name because they didn’t want people to think the menu was burgers only. But, if you do get an urge to try some of their tasty handhelds, check out the Burger of the Gods—an intense patty combining chuck, brisket and short rib, with bacon on top. 

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