A favorite table, a bartender who knows your name, a room that makes you forget what’s waiting outside. For Paula Vrakas, those are the details that make a place matter.

The co-owner and managing partner of The Roxy in Encinitas took an unconventional path into hospitality, with chapters in the Air Force and veterinary medicine alongside years spent working nearly every position in a restaurant. That experience informs her approach to both the longtime neighborhood gathering place she helped reimagine in 2016 and Anigma, an intimate cocktail den built around storytelling, collected objects, and the pleasure of stepping into another world.

In this edition of The Local Edit, Paula shares what it means to care for a place with decades of local history, how her spaces take shape one found object at a time, and why the most meaningful measure of success is the stories people carry home. Plus, the familiar North County spots she returns to when she’s off the clock.

COURTESY BRYNN SMITH

You’ve had a pretty unconventional path into hospitality — from starting in restaurants at 14, to serving in the Air Force, working as a veterinary technician, bartending, and eventually becoming an owner. Looking back, what parts of that path most shaped the way you approach hospitality today?

I think every chapter of my life taught me something that I eventually brought into hospitality.

The Air Force shaped me in a completely different way. It taught me discipline, accountability, attention to detail, how to function under pressure, and—probably most importantly—that if something needs to get done, you figure it out. You don’t wait around for someone else to do it. That mindset has followed me into ownership more than anything.

As a veterinary technician I learned empathy. You’re dealing with people who are often scared, emotional, or having a really difficult day, and you have to be able to meet them where they are. I think that translates directly to hospitality.

I’ve worked almost every position in a restaurant throughout my whole life, and I think that gives me a different perspective as an owner. I understand what it feels like to be on the other side of the bar, behind the bar, and ultimately responsible for the whole thing.

For me, hospitality has never really been about food or drinks. It’s about creating a place where people feel welcome, seen, and like they belong. Everything I’ve done before becoming an owner ultimately shaped how seriously I take that.

Hospitality also runs in your family, from your grandfather’s 14-seat burger stand to your father’s diner. What did growing up around that history teach you about what makes a place matter to a community?

I think I learned that a place matters when it becomes more than just a place. I wasn’t alive when my grandfather owned his 14-seat burger stand, and I was only four when my dad sold his diner, but those stories were and are always a part of my family history.

Both of them eventually moved into politics, and I think that shaped my understanding of what it means to be part of a community. A restaurant is more than just a place, it’s a gathering place, a place where relationships are built, and a way of serving the people around you. That’s something I’ve carried with me. I want the places I create to feel like they belong to the neighborhood and contribute something meaningful to the community.

COURTESY KIMBERLY MOTOS

The Roxy had already been part of Encinitas for decades when you and your partners took it over and reimagined it in 2016. What was it like stepping into a place with that much local history, and how did you think about honoring what people already loved while making it your own?

Honestly, I was terrified. I had huge shoes to fill. The Roxy had already been such a big part of Encinitas for decades, and I wanted everyone to like me, like the space, and feel like we were doing right by something they already loved. Not to mention, I had a group of people who had invested in me and my ideas, so I felt a tremendous amount of responsibility to make it work!

At the same time, we had to make it our own. We wanted to respect the history and the memories people had, not only just of The Roxy restaurant, but the history of Encinitas it represented! I think that balance, honoring the past and having the enthusiasm to evolve it, is what makes a place continue to matter.

Anigma feels less like a traditional cocktail bar and more like stepping into another world. Where did the original idea for the space come from, and what did you want people to feel when they walked through the door?

The idea for Anigma came from something I’ve always craved myself: escape. I wanted to create a place where you could walk through the door and leave the outside world behind for a little while.

I wanted it to feel like you’d stumbled into somewhere secret. Dark, mysterious, unexpected, and completely removed from everyday life. Somewhere you could lose track of time, forget what’s happening outside, and just be present for a moment. For that short time, you can forget your responsibilities, put your phone down, have a great cocktail, and disappear into another world. That feeling of escape is really the heart of Anigma. I wanted to give people something I think we all need sometimes—permission to step away from real life for a little while.

COURTESY GRETCHEN DUNN

Anigma is filled with details you personally sourced, from antiques and historical objects to pieces with their own past lives. Where does your eye for design and collecting come from, and how do you know when something belongs in one of your spaces?

You would probably laugh if you saw pictures of everything I’ve brought through TSA over the years—things from my family, old heirlooms, and pieces I found in antique stores back in Wisconsin. I’ve definitely traveled with some things that probably made TSA wonder what exactly I was doing.

As far as my eye for design… I have no idea! But I absolutely love it. There are A LOT of texts to friends and family asking, “What do you think of this?” I love finding things that have a story or a past life and figuring out how they can have a new life.

To be fair, I don’t really design a space from a strict plan, but there’s always a general concept. For Anigma, it started as dark 1920s Art Deco with psychic influence. If you see the space now, it’s evolved into something much more Art Nouveau and occult. The Roxy started with the idea of a 1920s train station. The original ideas and the final spaces are connected, but they’re definitely not the same. I’ll find one piece that I absolutely love, and that piece leads me to the next piece, and that one leads to the next. Before I know it, I’ve created an entire space around this collection of things I’ve fallen in love with.

It drives my partners absolutely bonkers, but I think that’s what makes the spaces feel personal. They evolve organically, piece by piece, rather than being designed all at once. And honestly, I love not knowing exactly where it’s going to end up.

COURTESY GRETCHEN DUNN

Even the cocktail menu carries stories, including drinks inspired by San Diego and regional folklore. How important was it for Anigma to have a sense of place rather than feel like a concept that could exist in any city?

We wanted the original menu to have a connection to San Diego—to tell stories about the place we are from and live as well as the history and folklore around us. It gave people another way to connect with the space right away.

But, Anigma is an ever-changing concept, and that part of the menu has already evolved! Given my Greek heritage, we’re happy to launch a cocktail menu inspired by Greek gods and goddesses.

That’s what I love about Anigma. The common thread isn’t necessarily one specific place or mythology—it’s storytelling. We’re constantly finding new stories to tell and new ways to make people curious about what’s behind the next door, on the next page of the menu, or in the next cocktail.

From reimagining The Roxy to expanding the concept to Denver and creating Anigma from the ground up, you’ve had the opportunity to shape spaces in very different ways. Where does a concept usually begin for you — with a feeling, a story, the physical space, or something else entirely?

It always starts with what I want people to feel.

Before I think about the name, the menu, the design, or even the physical space, I think about the experience I want someone to have when they walk through the door. From there, the story and the space start to develop around that feeling.

The Roxy Encinitas, Roxy on Broadway, and Anigma have all been very different, but that through-line and vision has always stayed the same. I want the space to have a personality of its own and for people to feel something when they’re in it. The concept is really just the beginning—the space tells me what it wants to become along the way and often changes many times in the first few months. For me, the fun is watching it evolve. I want the space to develop its own energy and ultimately create the feeling I imagined in the beginning.

Anigma went through a name change right around its launch — a reminder that bringing any new business to life rarely goes exactly according to plan. When you encounter a major curveball after investing so much time and energy into a concept, how do you approach the pivot and keep moving forward?

Honestly, it sucked. I think sometimes people talk about entrepreneurship like you’re supposed to be endlessly adaptable and excited about every pivot. The reality is, sometimes a pivot just really knocks the wind out of you. You can be devastated by it, but you have no other choice but to keep going! I think what I learned from the name change most of all is that it’s okay to be emotional about the curveballs. I had to separate the name from the thing I had actually created. The vision, the space, the experience, the stories—all of that was still there. We had to make a decision, move forward, and build the next chapter. It’s just a part of Anigmas story now. At the risk of sounding corny, turn lemons into lemonade.

What do you think makes a restaurant or bar become a true neighborhood institution rather than simply a place people visit?

I think it comes down to heart. And honestly, that’s probably the thing I care about most in hospitality.

I want people to feel like my places are more than somewhere they went for dinner or drinks, but somewhere they have memories. The bartender knows them, their friends know the staff, they have their favorite table, they’ve celebrated birthdays there, fallen in love there, had breakups there, or walked in after a terrible day because they knew they’d feel better when they left.

That’s what I love about The Roxy. After all these years, I hear stories from people about what that place has meant to them, and that’s incredibly special to me. You realize you’re not just running a business; you’re taking care of a piece of people’s lives. A true neighborhood institution is a place people feel protective of. They tell their friends about it, they bring people there. You can’t manufacture that. You earn it by showing up for people, taking care of them, and giving them a place where they feel like they belong. To me, that’s the part of this business that makes all the hard stuff worth it. It’s the smiles on people’s faces and the stories they tell. 

You’ve spent much of your career creating places for other people to gather. Where do you like to go in North County when you’re off the clock?

Haha, besides my couch?! I honestly rarely leave my little Encinitas bubble.

One of my favorite things is heading down to Cornish, and watching the sunset from my tailgate. It’s probably one of the simplest things I do, but there’s something about sitting there, watching the ocean, and not having anything to do that I absolutely love. I’m also pretty predictable on social Sundays. You can usually find me and my pup Addie at Besta Wan or The Shanty. Theres always Duck Foot for trivia on Thursdays, and of course, you’ll find me at The Roxy for Packer games.

I spend so much of my life creating places for other people to gather, so when I’m off the clock, I really like the places that feel easy, familiar, and like home. I guess I don’t have to go very far to find that. 🙂

Connect with Paula Vrakas / The Roxy & Anigma

Anigma Instagram
509 S Coast Hwy 101, Encinitas, CA 92024
The Roxy Instagram
517 S Coast Hwy 101, Encinitas, CA 92024

COURTESY BRYNN SMITH