Breakers

RestaurantsOwner Verified

About

Breakers on Santa Fe Drive in Encinitas is a Hawaiian-inspired café, bar, and grill founded by retired pro surfer Benji Weatherley, a member of the Momentum Generation crew that included Kelly Slater and Rob Machado. The menu builds around what Weatherley calls Hawaii food — ahi katsu, garlic shrimp, poke, and teriyaki plates blending Asian and Pacific Island traditions — extending a surf-culture dining identity shared with Moonlight Beach Surf Camps nearby. Named after his mother's former restaurant in Haleiwa on Oahu's North Shore, which operated for twenty years, Breakers opened July 4, 2025 in a 2,300-square-foot building that has housed restaurants since the 1970s. Décor salvaged from the shuttered Captain Keno's dive bar includes original bar stools, red vinyl booths, and a misspelled cocktail sign that hung for over sixty-five years — nostalgic pieces from the same Encinitas scene that feeds the poke bowl program at Poki Poki. A garden dining area centers on a transplanted palm tree from Weatherley's father's property, with a small stage built for live ukulele performances and hula instruction.