The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce hosts its latest CBAD Happy Hour on Wednesday evening at Casa de Bandini, billed as North County's premier networking event, running from 5 to 7 p.m. at the restaurant's Calle Barcelona location.
The chamber, which describes itself as the voice of business in Carlsbad for more than 95 years, is asking attendees to register in advance through its website, according to a post from the Carlsbad Chamber, CA
The event promises opportunities to meet local business leaders, make new connections, and develop referral channels, according to the same post, which lists the venue as Casa de Bandini. The restaurant is located at 1901 Calle Barcelona in Carlsbad, as detailed by The Vista Press.
A Restaurant With Deep San Diego Roots
Casa de Bandini's Carlsbad location carries a longer backstory than most happy-hour venues. The restaurant relocated to The Forum shopping center in Carlsbad in 2009 after operating for 25 years inside Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, bringing along its 1970s Mexican Cantera stone fountain and hand-wrought iron chandeliers, as detailed by The Vista Press. The move came after the restaurant's state park lease expired, per the same account.
Restaurateur and interior designer Diane Powers created Casa de Bandini in 1980, naming it after 19th-century Peruvian-born California figure Don Juan Bandini as part of her Bazaar del Mundo cultural enterprise, according to Bazaar Del Mundo. Powers operates four Mexican-inspired dining locations and artisan shops across San Diego County, the organization notes. The Forum itself is a 265,000-square-foot outdoor lifestyle center originally built in 2003 and 2004, later recapitalized through a joint partnership between Northwood Investors and Nuveen Real Estate in September 2021, according to a release carried by PR Newswire.
How CBAD Happy Hour Works
CBAD Happy Hour is a recurring chamber tradition held on the third Wednesday of every month at rotating member locations, according to a Carlsbad Chamber description previously reported by Hoodline. Host venues are expected to accommodate roughly 200 attendees and provide heavy hors d'oeuvres in exchange for feature coverage in the Carlsbad Business Journal, that reporting noted, adding that hosts do not need to be restaurants but must offer sufficient gathering space.
The chamber ranks as San Diego County's second-largest business chamber, representing more than 1,000 member businesses employing over 65,000 workers, and it also ranks as the 10th largest business chamber in California, Hoodline has reported. That scale reflects a nearly century-old institution: founded in 1923 under first president Roy Chase, the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce once functioned as Carlsbad's de facto local government before the city's official incorporation, handling early public services like petitioning county officials for road repairs and daily rural mail delivery, according to The Coast News. Early chamber meetings in 1926 drew over 350 residents to discuss community issues, per the same account.
Leadership and a Diversifying Local Economy
Bret Schanzenbach has led the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce as President and CEO since January 2019, following a decade leading the neighboring Vista Chamber of Commerce, according to the chamber's own biography materials. Schanzenbach previously worked in software development and residential real estate, the chamber notes.
The mixers serve a local economy that increasingly leans on high-wage industry clusters. Carlsbad's life sciences sector is among its growth sectors, according to City of Carlsbad Economic Development data. Beyond networking mixers, the chamber's philanthropic arm, the Carlsbad Chamber Community Foundation, established in 1993, runs initiatives, per the foundation's own materials. The chamber also produces the bi-annual Carlsbad Village Street Faire, a tradition dating to 1974 that has grown into one of the largest single-day street festivals in the country.
