Quick Take
Fawn Pizza & Vinyl Bar, which opened in February in Aptos’ Deer Park Marketplace, blends thin-crust pizzas, hearty appetizers and salads with DJ-curated vinyl sets. The space is inspired by Japanese listening bars, a trend that’s gaining traction nationally along with a rise in the popularity of records. Owner Carlos Perez, a former Bay Area DJ and chef, hopes to build the restaurant into a community gathering place centered around music, food and family-friendly nightlife.
On a Friday night, gently thumping bass drew me up a staircase in Aptos’ Deer Park Marketplace toward Fawn Pizza & Vinyl Bar, a restaurant that could easily be mistaken for a house party.
Entering the dining room felt like being invited into someone’s swanky den. Shelves of vinyl, CDs and books dominated the back wall behind a DJ, his eyes downcast toward a turntable. A silvery disco ball hung from the ceiling, casting sparkles on wallpaper depicting an extraterrestrial and Bigfoot walking hand in hand through a redwood forest. As my guest and I dug into wide pizzas and sipped cold glasses of chardonnay, the DJ slipped discs from their sleeves, saturating the atmosphere with textured sound.
Fawn Pizza’s emphasis on both food and acoustic entertainment reflects an international trend. Listening bars, also known as sound or record bars, originated in Japan a century ago and have popped up across the U.S. within the past decade. In America, the bars offer a curated sonic experience played to a crowd that’s less stimulating than a concert, and allows customers to mingle over a drink or bite.
The bars also reflect a resurgence in the popularity of vinyl over the past two decades. In 2025, record sales grew for the 19th consecutive year, and rose above $1 billion for the first time this century.
“The fact that vinyl is making a comeback is great,” said Fawn owner Carlos Perez. “It’s good for the next generation to be able to touch and feel and listen to something, rather than be on your phone.”
Japanese kissas, or jazz vinyl bars, inspired Perez to open Fawn in February, but his love of music and food goes back decades. Perez was a resident DJ at clubs in San Francisco and the wider Bay Area in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After leaving the music scene, he graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and worked in fine dining and corporate catering. In 2012, he founded Lotería Taco Bar in San Pedro Square Market in San Jose, with creative takes on Mexican street food.
Perez and his wife, who live in San Juan Bautista, were looking for another restaurant opportunity when the former Mangiamo Pizza & Wine Bar came up for sale. They decided the time was right to blend Perez’s passions for vinyl and dining, and to take advantage of the existing double ovens to offer a simple menu of California-Italian comfort food.
The main thing at Fawn is pizza: 14-inch Neapolitan-style pies with Central Coast ingredients. The combinations are familiar but thoughtful, such as the Fun Guy ($26), with a ricotta-based white sauce, local mushrooms and scallions ($26), and The Concrete Ship ($28), with sausage, pepperoni and mild, meaty Castelvetrano olives. Everything is colorful and fresh, even the Classic Cheese ($19), dotted with bursting cherry tomatoes and basil leaves.
A few robust appetizers could easily make a meal. The baseball-sized meatballs al forno ($15) were well-seasoned, saucy and covered in melted mozzarella. A plate of chicken wings ($16) seasoned with a spicy West African dry rub, came with three sauces: creamy pesto ranch, barbecue and Buffalo. The crisp Caesar salad ($14) made with bitter pink radicchio and kale was a welcome foil to a warm evening and hearty food.
Perez aims to elevate the menu after hiring more staff, but wants to keep Fawn welcoming to families. “We want a place for people to hang out, bring the kids, and not feel like you’re at a club,” he said. “It’s fun for parents to come and feel like they went out on a date.”
DJ Ron and DJ Harry Who run the turntables at Fawn on Friday and Saturday evenings, respectively, and Perez and his staff play records on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday nights. Once a month, Fawn hosts larger themed events with multiple DJs. In April, Perez welcomed half a dozen house music artists, and on May 31, DJ Selecta 7 will play a reggae-themed set.
While kissas are known for their technical sound setups, Perez keeps it fairly simple at Fawn with industry-standard equipment. He uses a Technics 1200MK2, an iconic turntable used widely in the 1970s to 1990s, and KRK Systems monitors. “For now, that’s what we’re using because the room is so small and it sounds good already,” said Perez. “You don’t need too much because then it’s overkill, and you can’t talk to your partner or your friends.”
When he’s not cooking, pouring beer or jumping in to handle all the tasks associated with running a restaurant, Perez occasionally has a chance to spin his own records. Since Fawn opened, he’s enjoyed conversations with guests about music and the DJ scene in San Francisco. Customers are beginning to seek out the Fawn for its music as much as its food, and love asking for requests, said Perez.
As Fawn establishes itself in Aptos, Perez wants to offer weekly music-themed trivia nights, add DJs more nights of the week and record live podcasts of the performances.
Said Perez: “My goal is to host different DJs, record them and do livestreams so people can see what we’re doing at Fawn around the world.”
783 Rio Del Mar Blvd., Suite 45, Aptos (second floor); 831-688-1477; fawnpizza.com.
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