Chef Javier Plascencia’s Bracero Cocina de Raiz is a two-story F&B concept in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood, designed by Barbara Rourke and Jason St. John of Los Angeles-based Bells & Whistles in reference to the U.S. bracero program of 1942.

On the first floor, wrought iron chandeliers and succulents hang above a 10-foot-long oak and concrete table adjacent to a wall montage of vintage cutting boards.

The downstairs bar features a leather-clad, beer-dispensing column that soars through a ceiling cut out to the upper level.

Sourced with other artifacts from Guadalajara, genuine bracero hats are on display on the landing of the stairs linking the two floors.

Antique farm tools hanging on the walls engender historic and cultural authenticity.

A painting the team found at a Guadalajara flea market hangs upstairs, accenting the Venetian plaster walls. “We imagine the subject to be the beautiful wife or daughter of a Mexican rancher—the subject of many a bracero’s dreams,” says Rourke.

A selection of Plascencia’s personal cookbooks are on display upstairs, along with numerous knickknacks from his home.

Peering between the floors, a glass-enclosed cut out displays a farm tool sculpture made in Tijuana.

With one side that faces an al fresco patio, the upper level bar is fronted by a geometric pattern of concrete tiles fashioned after desert agave plants. Custom wood shelving was crafted with industrial steel bar crates.