“We were able to negotiate a decent rent, because so much of the area around us was dilapidated.”

That’s one of the reasons restaurateur Lesley Cohn says she and her husband, David, chose Hillcrest as the site for their first sit down restaurant, the Corvette Diner. The year was 1986, and as Lesley tells it, the two transplanted Midwesterners were taking quite a chance. Although they owned a successful meat market and a ‘50s-themed fast food restaurant called Rory’s in the Mission Gorge area, “we really didn’t know anything about the full service style of restaurant. At Rory’s you’d come to the counter and order a chicken sandwich, a hamburger or a Vienna beef hot dog.” As history would soon prove, the Cohns had no trouble figuring out the drill.

Why, besides cheap rent, did they choose Hillcrest as the location for Corvette Diner? “It was a funky location in what we saw as a rising neighborhood,” says Lesley Cohn, adding that it was also “on the cusp of becoming known as [San Diego’s] gay community” and that, even then, “an interest in improving the neighborhood was springing up.” It soon became apparent that everybody in the neighborhood felt they had a stake in the diner’s success. People would stop by regularly to offer encouragement and check on the status of construction. She recalls that the gay community, in particular, was “very, very interested in the project.”

Corvette opened in March of 1987, and the vinyl seats on its booths haven’t cooled down since. David Cohn went on to serve as president of the Hillcrest Business Association, a group of area businesses which, among its other activities, had been a prime mover in efforts to restore the Hillcrest sign. The Cohns soon discovered that they were rather good at creating full service restaurants – as well as finding up and coming neighborhoods to locate them in. In 1993, they took another big chance and opened Dakota Grill and Spirits, one of the first upscale dining spots in a seedy part of downtown known as the Gaslamp Quarter.

Today Lesley and David Cohn own and operate nine restaurants that stretch down Fifth Avenue from Hillcrest all the way to the Convention Center. They include The Prado in Balboa Park, Kemo Sabe, the Indigo Grill, Blue Point Coastal Cuisine, the Gaslamp Strip Club and, most recently, Mr. Tiki Mai Tai Lounge. None of that would have happened had the bet they placed on Corvette, and on Hillcrest, failed to pay off.

“…the rents certainly aren’t cheap anymore,” laughs Lesley Cohn. But more importantly, she says, “we’ve turned the corner on intolerance.” At Corvette, she says, gay and lesbian couples dine amiably with North County grandparents who bring their grandchildren to Hillcrest for cheeseburgers and chocolate malts. In addition, she adds, “we have over 700 employees of all races, creeds, religions and sexual orientations. All we care about is that they work hard and give our customers great food and first class service.”

You might call that Lesley Cohn’s recipe for success. It may also explain why she and her husband don’t just open restaurants – they create landmarks.