A Legacy Building
For nearly two decades, 3025 N. Campbell Avenue was defined by the hospitality of the late Pat Connors and his restaurant, Pastiche. Pat turned the building into a neighborhood dining room where regulars were treated like family. When he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in late 2016, hundreds packed the restaurant for a living wake to share one last drink with him just five days before he passed.
Following his death, Pastiche was cared for by Costas and Judie Georgacas until 2021, when the business changed hands to Anthonie Ruinard Jr., an out-of-town buyer. Under this new owner, what followed was a difficult period for the restaurant and its staff, marked by reports of bounced and delayed paychecks. In February 2023, employees walked out over missing wages and W-2s, and a subsequent kitchen fire and flooding brought operations to an abrupt halt, leaving behind a waterlogged, gutted shell.
Five months later, Ruinard was indicted for the murder of 18-year-old Parker League and later sentenced to seven years in federal prison for running a $5.6 million investment fraud scheme. For two years, the building sat dark as a painful reminder of headlines and community loss.
Stepping Up to the Plate
Gabriel Cordova and Tracy Hien watched the fallout from nearby. Tracy owns a nail salon next door and Gabriel runs a nearby gym. As longtime Pastiche regulars, they saw an empty space with deep roots that deserved to be restored.
In 2025, they took over the lease using their personal savings, with no outside investors, and tackled the heavy cleanup themselves.
“There was so much sweat on the ground,” Tracy said. “Regrouting, plumbing, repainting, knocking down damaged walls, and fixing what was broken.”
The extent of the damage and two years of neglect made renovations far more than a standard remodel.
“I remember when this building went down,” Gabriel added. “I remember the doors opening and water pouring out over the concrete… When we took over, we were on our hands and knees scraping the ruined floors ourselves. We rebuilt this with our own hands.”
Reviving the address meant confronting its history. Gabriel and Tracy knew they couldn’t just copy Pastiche.
“Pat was successful because of his customer service,” Gabriel said. “He made everyone feel like family. We can always change the menu, but what I knew I could do is treat everyone who walks in that door like family.”
Before opening, Gabriel sat down with Pat Connors’ widow, Julie.
“That was a huge conversation for me,” Gabriel said. “We were the first people to change the name, so she didn't know whether to love us or hate us. But she came in, saw the heart we were putting into the room, and gave us her full blessing. That meant the world to me.”
That blessing gave them the freedom to build something distinct. The District Bites and Brew is not trying to recreate Pastiche. The room is louder, the screens are everywhere, and the menu leans toward burgers and wings.
Naturally, trying to bridge the gap between a neighborhood hangout and an upscale sports bar has brought its share of friction.
"It is a weird concept, and we actually get bad reviews because people do not understand it," Gabriel said. "You always get pushback on something new if people do not see it yet. When we opened, we did not know exactly what we were going to be, but now we do. We know we are not going to make everyone happy, but we know who we are and we are dedicated to it."
Scratch Style Pub Food
The District is unmistakably a sports bar, with nine 4K screens, shuffleboard, and a pool table, but the kitchen approaches its food with a resourceful scratch-cooking philosophy. Rather than relying on frozen bags of standard fryer food, the menu is built around a few quality ingredients that can be used across multiple dishes.
“Restaurant profit margins these days are minimal,” Gabriel explained. “I needed a menu that was efficient, quick, and smooth, but really good. Now that we have our footing, we are making our own sauces from scratch and elevating the menu as we go.”
The centerpiece of the menu is the Spin Burger. Using 1865 Black Angus Beef from Merit Foods, double smash patties and cheese are crimped and sealed inside toasted brioche using a custom heated press. The result is a sealed pocket that traps the beef juices and melted cheese inside, keeping it clean to eat while watching a game and easy to dip into the cheese sauce it comes with. Tracy describes it as “an Uncrustable mixed with a French dip.”
Blackened jumbo shrimp does a lot of heavy lifting across the menu, showing up in several different formats. It stars on the Colossal Shrimp plate over a bed of wakame with mandarin sauce, and powers the Iron Plate, a cleaner, gym-friendly surf and turf that pairs shrimp and steak with cilantro-lime rice, chimichurri, and pico de gallo.
The most surprising dish was the Surf and Turf Burger. Seafood on a burger is always an ambitious gamble, but the blackened shrimp makes it work. With a deep smoky crust, Cajun spices, and a tender bite, the shrimp makes it memorable. The burger also arrives with a roasted, split marrow bone resting on the plate. The kitchen envisions you scooping the rich, buttery marrow directly onto the double smash patties, letting it melt into the cheddar, garlic aioli, and fried pickles, though as they point out, there is no wrong way to eat it.
Behind the Bar
When The District opened, the owners quickly discovered the logistical challenges of a high-volume bar.
“We had like sixteen signature cocktails to one bartender,” Gabriel said. “We learned that we need to dial it down a little bit. Those are things that we didn’t know. Nobody taught us.”
The refined list now rotates between six and seven drinks, with a few staples like the Charles Duton Old Fashioned, named after Gabriel’s grandfather. The bar serves it without muddling the orange and cherry into the drink, a preparation the owners describe as closer to a pre-Prohibition style of Old Fashioned. By not muddling the fruit, the focus stays on the whiskey and the drink is stronger.
For guests looking for something sweeter, the list has several dessert-style options. The Pistachio Dream, previously known as the Poison Ivy, is a creamy, pistachio-forward drink finished with edible gold flakes. It tastes just as decadent as it looks.
As a fan of fruity drinks, The Paradise Mule was my personal favorite. Combining tropical liqueurs, lime, ginger beer, and an upside-down pineapple shooter, “the idea is for you to pull out the shooter, and then you mix it all up,” Tracy said. “It is fun, like a ‘Trash Can’ back in the day in my early twenties when you would ‘dump the trash’ into the drink. But it has pineapple juice. It goes down real easy.”
The Choco Espresso Martini also left an impression on me. The drink uses real espresso, which is smooth and balanced rather than overly bitter. Chocolate syrup, liqueurs, and chocolate shavings add sweetness, while a wafer resting on the rim asks to be dipped into the foamy crema.
Leadership in Practice
While operations are running smoothly now and the menu is maturing nicely, growing into the space proved difficult at times. Financial struggles in particular revealed the character of the new owners in a stark contrast with their predecessor.
“The hardest part was budgeting to keep the lights on,” Tracy said. “There was a point where I was going to sell my car. I had to pull equity out of my house. The lights were about to turn off, but I had contracts to fulfill and people to pay. I want to make sure the people working for me are taken care of first, even at my own expense.”
“We help our crew buy tires for their cars when they are stuck,” Gabriel added. “It goes above and beyond this building. We take care of your employees because we truly care. That is number one.”
Revival
Near the end of our interview, Gabriel's phone rang. It was a longtime regular at the building who is temporarily unable to drive.
“Chuck called asking if he could get a ride down to The District tomorrow,” Gabriel said. “I told him, 'Chuck, send me your address and I will come pick you up myself.' When people want to be here that badly, we will do whatever it takes.”
The old regulars are returning, too. Bob, who frequented Pastiche for many years, still comes in for his regular glass of Cabernet at his corner seat.
The District is still young and developing its identity, but familiar faces are finding their way back. Gabriel and Tracy did not try to recreate Pastiche or borrow Pat Connors’ identity. Instead, they took on a ruined building, tackled the physical labor themselves, and focused on carrying forward the piece that mattered most to the neighborhood: making people feel welcome.
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