Nick & G's Is Due Back Before Thanksgiving. Here's How the Ranch's Holiday Week Is Shaping Up.
November 12, 2026
November 12, 2026
This year the most important Thanksgiving date in Rancho Santa Fe comes six days before the holiday. Two of the Ranch's best-known dining rooms have been closed for renovation at the same time this fall. That leaves the holiday to be set by order deadlines, pickup windows and reserved seatings at the places that stayed open. If you plan from November 26 and work backward, you'll miss several of them.
Nick & G's has been closed for a full redesign at 6106 Paseo Delicias. Its website lists the closure as "October 19 through November 15." According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the restaurant is approaching its 10th anniversary and plans to reopen with a redesigned dining room and bar, new patio and private event spaces, and a California-Italian menu of handmade pastas, pizzas and seasonal shared plates. Chef and partner Alex Carballo is leading the kitchen side of the overhaul. The paper reported that his work runs from the menu to picking the plants for the patio.
The building is older than the restaurant. It's a Lilian Rice building at the corner of Paseo Delicias and La Granada, built in the 1920s as the home of the Millar family. It housed Delicias restaurant for 24 years and briefly Ponsaty's before Sandra DiCicco-Bonar of Grand Restaurant Group opened Nick & G's in 2017. So the renovation updates one of the Village's oldest dining addresses, and its listed closure ends just 11 days before Thanksgiving.
The second closure is at the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club. The Association's club page lists the Ranch Clubhouse Restaurant as "Closed for Renovations." In early October, Chief Administrative Officer Dominique Albrecht described the work as reaching "the pretty part": wood flooring, wall finishes and restroom tile, with the new kitchen holding a temporary certificate of occupancy from the county so staff could start prep and training.
With neither room on a confirmed holiday schedule, the dates that can actually be planned around belong to the places that stayed open.
From mid-November through the holiday weekend, the Ranch's calendar runs in this order:
Thyme closes on the holiday itself and stays closed through the following Monday. Anyone counting on Thyme's pies, cakes or savories has to have them in hand by Wednesday. Rancho Valencia's cutoff comes even earlier, nearly a full week ahead.
For those eating out on the 26th, the two confirmed seatings near the Village work very differently:
| Lilian's at The Inn | The Pony Room at Rancho Valencia | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 5951 Linea Del Cielo | 5921 Valencia Circle |
| Format | Four-course dinner | Buffet |
| Hours | Seatings 1 to 8 p.m. | 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Adult price | $195 plus tax and tip | $275 plus charges |
| Children | Children's menu available | $95 for ages 11 and under, free under 3 |
| Takeout option | None listed | To-go feast, order by Nov. 20, pickup Nov. 25 |
The windows matter more than the prices. Rancho Valencia's buffet ends at 4 p.m., so it suits a midday Thanksgiving. Lilian's seats until 8 p.m., which leaves room for an evening meal after a day of travel or football. A household split between an early crowd and a late one can cover both by pairing the Rancho Valencia pickup on Wednesday with a Lilian's reservation on Thursday.
In 2023 the Union-Tribune reported that The Inn planned to replace Morada with Lilian's as part of new dining concepts, so older guides may still list the Morada name. On ordinary weeks Lilian's serves dinner daily from 5 to 9 p.m. and weekend brunch from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. At Rancho Valencia, Veladora is permanently closed, and The Pony Room is now the resort's dining room.
While the two renovations have been running, the newest arrival on Paseo Delicias opened at the opposite end of the price range. Paseo Pizza and Gelato, at 6024 Paseo Delicias, Suite D, held its grand-opening activities September 25 and 26. The Union-Tribune reported a menu of build-your-own pizzas, gelato and house-made craft beer. It's open daily from noon to 9 p.m., with the same hours every day of the week.
That matters most in the days around the holiday. Thyme is closed from Thursday through Monday, and a pizza counter that serves seven days a week covers part of the long weekend the café doesn't. On the same street, Mille Fleurs at 6009 Paseo Delicias posts its regular hours. It serves dinner Tuesday through Sunday, lunch on Fridays and brunch on Sundays, with no Monday service posted.
The clubhouse restaurant is only one piece of the work at the Golf Club. On October 1 the Association board approved an $850,000 paver plaza at the club entrance, paid for entirely by the golf club. It's meant to connect the new clubhouse and restaurant, the players' clubhouse and pro shop, and the expanded snack bar. The welcome plaza will be about 10 to 12 feet wider than before and framed by two new oak trees. Albrecht noted that much of the work is required for county stormwater rules.
The target is the first week of February 2027. Tom Huesgen, the club's director of agronomy, told the Union-Tribune that his biggest concern is the expected super El Niño and the wet winter that could slow construction. He also acknowledged "some access challenges" while the work goes on. "Once construction is complete, it's going to be the best it's ever been," Huesgen told the paper.
The snack bar renovation, which adds an enhanced kitchen, upgraded restrooms and a larger patio with a small upper deck, was aiming to finish by the end of the year. The Association's page lists snack bar hours of Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with to-go orders Thursday through Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. That makes the snack bar the club's dependable food option through the holidays. Plan for a construction zone at the entrance through the holidays and into winter.
Once the Thanksgiving weekend clears, the next stretch of the Ranch's calendar centers on the Rancho Santa Fe Library at 17040 Avenida de Acacias. According to the Union-Tribune's library roundup, three events are on the schedule:
The library shares Avenida de Acacias with Thyme in the Ranch at 16905 Avenida de Acacias, which reopens on its regular Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule after the holiday closure. The December 11 tea falls on a Friday, so coffee at Thyme beforehand fits within the café's 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekday hours.
A redesigned room in a 1920s Lilian Rice building and a new plaza at the Golf Club are part of what a Ranch address means right now. At FW Property Group, we keep track of the Village's openings and calendars and include them when we describe a home we're bringing to market here. If you're thinking about what your Rancho Santa Fe home is worth heading into 2027, request your free home valuation.
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