San Diego Strolls: The Chickens of Seaport Village

There are certain sounds I expect to hear while walking through Seaport Village: gulls calling overhead, jet skis darting across the bay, music drifting from shops and restaurants, and the constant murmur of people enjoying this waterfront area.

Clucking wasn't on the list.

But tucked behind Malibu Farm, a waterfront restaurant at Seaport Village, I recently came across something I wasn't expecting to find in downtown San Diego: a chicken coop.

There they were—actual chickens scratching around just steps from one of the city's busiest tourist destinations.

I had questions, but unfortunately, Malibu Farm didn't respond to my request for more information about its San Diego flock, and the restaurant's website doesn't explain the coop. But after some digging into the company's history, I found that chickens aren't nearly as out of place at Malibu Farm as they initially seemed.

Founder and chef Helene Henderson started Malibu Farm by hosting cooking classes and farm dinners from her home. Henderson still raises free-range chickens there—chickens she says all have names—along with goats and a pig. In the early days of the Malibu Pier restaurant, eggs came from Henderson's own flock and citrus came from trees growing on her property.

Eventually, the business became far too large for a backyard flock to supply. Henderson writes that her chickens produce around 30 eggs per day, while the Malibu Pier restaurant alone uses roughly 500.

The restaurant has grown considerably since those backyard dinners. Malibu Farm now operates locations along the California coast, including its largest outpost here in San Diego, which opened at Seaport Village in 2023.

And somehow, amid all that growth, a few chickens made it downtown.

I don't know whether the San Diego chickens provide eggs for the restaurant or simply provide a little piece of the "farm" in Malibu Farm. Without hearing from the restaurant, I won't speculate.

But I do know that finding them stopped me in my tracks.

Maybe that's because we've become accustomed to thinking about cities and farms as opposites. Farms have chickens. Cities have high-rises. But walking keeps showing me how often boundaries blur.

I've spotted butterflies floating past my apartment window several stories above downtown. I've stopped to admire plants growing in sidewalk planters and restaurant patios. And now I've found chickens at Seaport Village.

This article originally appeared in the San Diego Sun as part of the "Walking In The City" column. Read the original version here.