Soquel’s Silver Spur opens second location in Watsonville

Soquel’s longstanding Silver Spur is the kind of restaurant where most guests know what they’ll order before they even walk in the door. 

Some will pay a passing glance at the daily specials scrawled across the whiteboard, and make hay over the three-page menu while nursing a cup of strong coffee in a thick ceramic mug. But when the server arrives to ask, “What’ll it be today, hun?” they’ll go for the short stack, the classic eggs Benedict or the French dip sandwich they walked in craving. 

“Ninety percent of our customers are regulars. We have people who come every single day,” said owner Daniel Govea. “When they drive up, we know what they want, what their drink is and what their order is. That’s what makes them come back.”

This week, this beloved temple to hot and hearty Americana fare spread south and opened a second location, in the East Lake Village Shopping Center in Watsonville. The new Silver Spur Watsonville renovated the former home of Carmona’s BBQ Deli and joined other nearby locally owned businesses in what is fast becoming a food destination on the east side of the city. 

Inside, heavy white plates clacked onto tables, piled with stacks of buttery pancakes, fried eggs and long slices of bacon. The side of my fork crunched through the outside of the hash browns — I was encouraged by my server to specify “crispy or extra crispy” — and topped them with a fiery homemade salsa and a thick squeeze of ketchup. 

The Denver omelette is buttery, golden and filled with chopped ham and quick-sauteed bell peppers and onions. And I am reborn after my first bite of fluffy homemade biscuit swimming in thick sausage gravy, which I washed down with numerous cups of hot coffee. 

The recently remodeled space has been furnished with booths, new tables and a counter along the back wall facing the kitchen. The dining room is roomier than Silver Spur’s original location — the Watsonville spot can seat around 95 people, while Soquel’s maximum is 75, said Govea — but he aimed to recreate the same timeless atmosphere. 

“It’s the same menu, same specials, same experience,” said Govea. “We’re not switching Soquel for Watsonville. We’re adding a second location to continue to serve Santa Cruz County.” 

There is one exception: The Watsonville location will add a beer and wine list, including mimosas, within the next three weeks, said Govea.

Govea and his father, Juan Valencia, a longtime cook at Silver Spur in Soquel, took ownership of the nearly 60-year-old Silver Spur in 2023. Last year, the future of the Soquel location became uncertain when property owner Lori Greymont announced that she planned to develop the site into an assisted living and memory care facility. At a community meeting in October, Greymont said the restaurant could be reopened in a commercial space inside the facility. 

That project is still in the conceptual phase, and Govea said that the three years remaining on the Spur’s lease would be honored. But opening a second location also gives employees and customers a fallback option if they need to leave the original location. 

Clark Codiga, property manager at Oaktree Property Company, who owns the East Lake Village Shopping Center, had been looking for a good breakfast and lunch spot for years when he approached Govea in November. They signed a lease 10 days after that initial visit. “Silver Spur was at the top of the list,” said Codiga. “Their food, their community table and their vibe in their restaurant fits perfectly with Watsonville. Just in the last two days, the community has really embraced Silver Spur even in the short amount of time they’ve been open.”

Codiga’s family has owned the center since the 1990s, and over the past 15 years, he and his brother have carefully selected locally owned businesses that they felt would support the nearby community and each other, occasionally turning down offers from chain restaurants and retailers in the process. Other businesses in the shopping center include craft brewery Fruition Brewing, sushi restaurant Sushi Qu, Coffeeville, a café, Ozzy’s Pizzeria – named by Lookout as a top pizza destination in the county – and Staff of Life Market, the only natural-foods grocery store in the Watsonville area.  

The vision, said Codiga, is to build an outdoor shopping mall with a wide variety of hand-picked businesses that would support locals with quality goods and services, and create a destination for people traveling through the Monterey Bay area. 

Silver Spur is a welcome addition to that vision, said Codiga. “They’re a local, independently operated business, and that’s who our tenants are and who we enjoy working with.” 

1040 East Lake Ave., Watsonville.

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