River Street Marketplace had fencing up on Los Rios Street since the ground broke in early 2022. Opening dates shifted more than once.
The delays are no longer the whole story. The $70 million development is open, mostly full, and has quietly become the kind of place where you run into three neighbors before you've parked the car. The gap between what people remember about River Street and what's actually there now is the story.
What's Actually Open Now
Almquist, the developer behind the project, has leased nearly all 30 storefronts across the 60,000-square-foot site. The mix skews toward names that read as curated rather than accidental: Free People and Tecovas anchor the retail side, alongside Salt Optics, Hobie, and Studio Pilates. Finca, the wood-fired restaurant from chef David Pratt, draws its decor and menu from San Juan Capistrano's early California history, with dishes pulling inspiration from Mexico during that era. It sits inside a marketplace built into the Los Rios District, a neighborhood that has been continuously inhabited since the 1700s.
The food hall component, Rodeo River Street, opened as a cluster of nine separate concepts under one roof: NOM for Asian-inspired bowls, Parana Empanadas, Kebab Craft, Bred Hot Chicken, Kozan Teahouse, Pastalia, Shootz Hawaiian, The Sushi Stand, and Hudson's Cookies. It's the kind of format that lets you and three other people order from three other kitchens and still sit at the same table, which matters more than it sounds like it should when you're trying to get a group of picky eaters out of the house on a Friday night.
On the local-ownership side, Wildfire Mercantile moved from its smaller storefront on Old Mission Road into a much bigger footprint at River Street. Troy and Susan Stansbury own the western apparel business.
The Playbook Behind the Food Hall
One connection links Rodeo River Street with another Almquist project. Capas, the Baja-inspired ceviche concept serving locally caught fish and smoked queso tacos at Rodeo River Street, is run by chef Michael Campbell, who already operates a Capa's location at Rodeo 39 in Stanton, another Almquist project.
Almquist also has projects in Stanton, Ontario at Rodeo X, and Riverside at Rodeo 72 Public Market. Rodeo River Street brings its food hall format to the Los Rios District. If you've eaten at one of those other properties, you may recognize some elements at River Street.
A Second Project Is Already Filed
Almquist isn't finished here. In July 2025, the city's Design Review Committee approved plans for Forster Restaurant, a 4,294-square-foot restaurant with a dining patio and bar, as part of a larger mixed-use development at 31872 Camino Capistrano. The site will also include new apartments, a 3,500-square-foot clubhouse, a resort-style pool, and a fitness center. The restaurant's name nods to Marco Forster, whose Las Rosas Hotel and Restaurant once operated on that land.
This is worth knowing if River Street felt like a one-time event. It wasn't. The same developer now has a second dining and residential project moving through city approval a short walk away, which means the pace of change along Camino Capistrano over the next couple of years is likely to keep surprising people who checked out of watching this corridor a while ago.
What's Different a Few Blocks Away
Not everything new in town is part of the Almquist rollout, and the contrast is useful. Rosewood Social, a rooftop restaurant serving steaks and seafood with an Asian influence, opened on Camino Capistrano with craft cocktails and views that River Street's ground-floor food hall doesn't offer. Bloom, a modern Californian restaurant built around seasonal menus and a brunch program, opened separately in the heart of downtown. Neither is a multi-city concept. Both are single-location restaurants in San Juan Capistrano.
That distinction is useful when you're deciding where to go on a given night. River Street gives you the food hall efficiency and the retail built for browsing. Rosewood Social and Bloom offer different dining experiences.
A Saturday That Didn't Exist Two Years Ago
Picture the version of a weekend that's actually possible now. You park near the Los Rios Historic District, walk past the adobe buildings that have stood since before California was a state, and end up at Wildfire Mercantile browsing its western apparel. McConnell's Fine Ice Cream is a few doors down if the kids need a reason to keep walking. Dinner is whatever combination of Rodeo River Street's nine stalls your group can agree on, or a reservation at Finca if you want to sit down properly.
Earlier this month, on August 15, River Street Marketplace hosted its first Capo Country Fest, turning the plaza into an event space rather than just a place to shop and eat. CAPO Leisure House, the craft brewery and cocktail bar run by Capistrano Brewing Co., anchors that kind of evening with a 40-foot bar, a fire pit, and retractable doors that open the whole space up when the weather cooperates, which in San Juan Capistrano is most of the year.
None of this existed as a real option in 2023. The fencing was still up. The tenants were still names on a leasing sheet. If your mental map of River Street stopped there, it's worth an afternoon to update it.
The Bigger Picture
What's happening in the Los Rios District right now is two things at once. A national developer has brought a dining and retail format to the historic corridor, alongside independent operators in town. Both are changing what a normal weekend in this town looks like, and Forster Restaurant has cleared its first city approval.
If you've lived here long enough to remember when this stretch of Los Rios Street was mostly a construction detour, it might be worth a second look. And if watching a neighborhood change this much has you curious about what it's done to home values along the way, Matt Whitcomb can walk you through what's actually moved in San Juan Capistrano and put together a free home valuation whenever you're ready to see the numbers for yourself.
