On Morena Boulevard, the Next Openings Were Tony D'Amato's Ideas

"There is no better way to honor him than by continuing to welcome others with the same warmth, hospitality and love that he showed every single day." Angela Salemi said that in early July about her uncle, a longtime restaurateur. He died on June 30 at 73. A week after his death, Baci Ristorante reopened on schedule after its planned vacation closure.

That reopening set the pattern for the rest of the year on Morena Boulevard. The new things opening along this stretch of Bay Park this fall and next spring mostly aren't outside concepts moving in. They're projects D'Amato started, now being finished by his children and his business partner. A month earlier, a second family on the corridor faced the same test and kept its doors open too.

The Year the Curb Disappeared

Morena Boulevard had a rough stretch before any of this. Since 2022, the City of San Diego's Pure Water project has been laying two pipelines through Bay Park. They follow Morena Boulevard, Milton Street, Jellett Street and Denver Street up to Clairemont Drive, then continue north toward University City. Each line runs about 36,170 feet. One is a 48-inch wastewater force main and the other a 30-inch line for brine and conveyance.

The restaurants felt it. In late April, Alexander Sciuto, bar manager at Luce Bar & Kitchen, told 10News that business had been down since the previous August. A lane closure had removed curb parking out front. "There used to be 10 spots on that side of the street," he said. "A lot of our customers come in and if they don't see a parking, they just keep driving." Luce had cut staff hours as a result.

By mid-May, the city had marked the pipeline installation complete. It scheduled final resurfacing for Jellett Street to Clairemont Drive and for Milton Street to Jellett Street on May 21 and 22, and said roads would generally stay open during the work. The city's project page still lists overall completion as "2026." The improved bikeways it promises for Morena Boulevard, West Morena Boulevard and Clairemont Drive haven't been confirmed as striped in any update since.

One addition from this summer is easy to miss. In June, MTS and SANDAG opened a free park-and-ride with 145 spaces just south of Clairemont Drive along Morena Boulevard, at the Clairemont Trolley Station.

Two Founders, One Summer

The corridor's two longest-running family restaurants each lost the person at the center of them within about a month.

JV's longtime owner died May 29 at age 62. The shop is at 1112 Morena Boulevard, on the Linda Vista side of the street. His family says he ran it for 32 years. SanDiegoVille gives 1994 as JV's founding year. The paper describes it as a rite of passage for nearby University of San Diego students and late-night diners, and as famous for oversized burritos like the Surf & Turf. When the local food blog mmm-yoso visited on June 11, JV's was open and busy.

Tony D'Amato's story goes back further. He was born in Porticello, Sicily, and came to San Diego as a teenager. He started out washing dishes at Mister A's and worked up to captain before opening Baci on West Morena Boulevard in 1979. Baci became known for white tablecloths, tuxedoed servers, a deep Italian wine cellar, and repeated AAA Four Diamond recognition. In 2012 he opened Luce next door in the former DaNino's space as a more casual gastropub. He ran it with his brother Gaetano and later with his children.

A longtime friend told SanDiegoVille, "People in Clairemont and Bay Park are really going to miss him. Old-school places like that are going away fast." The same article says D'Amato had already been stepping back to travel, visit family in Europe and fish. It adds that his children have long had active roles in the family businesses. That handoff was underway before June. Since then it has moved faster.

Tony's, at 1959 Morena

Luce at 1959 Morena Boulevard is in the middle of a major remodel and expansion. The new part has a name. Tony's will be a gelato and espresso shop, run by D'Amato's children. According to SanDiegoVille, it finishes an idea he had long hoped to see built: a neighborhood shop like the ones he knew in Italy, where locals stop in for gelato and espresso.

Tony's and the expanded Luce are expected to open together sometime between late October and early November. That's a projection, not a firm date. Luce's website still shows regular hours, and none of the coverage says whether the bar is serving during construction. Calling ahead is the safest approach for the next few weeks.

"There is no better way to honor him than by continuing to welcome others with the same warmth, hospitality and love that he showed every single day."

Angela Salemi, D'Amato's niece, speaking to SanDiegoVille in July

The Old Trieste Lot, Seven Years Later

Half a mile up the street, the second project is also partly D'Amato's.

Old Trieste ran at 2335 Morena Boulevard from May 1963 to May 2019. Ramiro "Tommy" Tomicich, a native of Trieste, founded it, and his son Larry and the family later ran it. It was white-tablecloth Italian with tuxedo-clad servers and martinis, and for a long stretch it required jackets. Joey Vaught, then one of the main partners in the hospitality company Verant Group, took over the property in 2019. The site has sat waiting since.

Its next tenant will be The Butcher's Wife, an American restaurant with a full bar under a Type 47 liquor license. Vaught and D'Amato came up with it together years ago. Vaught will now run it on his own rather than as a Verant Group concept. The plans call for building outward and upward into a larger, multi-concept destination, bigger than the restaurant that stood there before.

After the longtime restaurateur died, Vaught paused work on The Butcher's Wife to help the family finish Luce. Now that Luce and Tony's are close to done, attention is shifting back to Old Trieste's former site, with completion targeted for spring 2027. SanDiegoVille notes that construction schedules can change. So the order of openings on Morena over the next six months follows from one family's loss: Luce first, then the old Trieste lot.

The Newcomer Is a Family Business Too

The one completely new arrival this season fits the same pattern. Modern Kabob opened in early September at 1118 Morena Boulevard, two doors from JV's in the same small strip center. It took over the former Greenhaus space. Eater San Diego, which added it to its list of notable new restaurants on October 1, says it's run by an Iraqi-American mother and her four sons. The family also runs Garden Fresh Grill and Smoothie near SDSU. The sign first appeared in August 2025, so the space took more than a year to open.

One more family-run project is on the calendar, a few blocks off the boulevard. In May, Nutmeg Bakery & Cafe announced plans for a third location at 4120 Napier Street, Suites A and B. The target is early 2027, pending review.

Where Things Stand, Address by Address

The latest reporting on each address, as of early October 2026:

Baci's website lists dinner Tuesday through Saturday and lunch on Thursday and Friday. If you're driving instead of taking the trolley, the strip center lot at 1112 and 1118 fills up early, even before 10:30 on a weekend morning. If you're heading south from Clairemont, the free lot at the Clairemont Trolley Station is a short ride away.

Bay Park has been part of our work at The Daniels Group for a long time, and we're following Morena Boulevard's next chapter closely. If you'd like to talk about how changes like Tony's and The Butcher's Wife are shaping your part of Bay Park, we'd be glad to hear from you. Contact Us.

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