Morena Boulevard Is Coming Back Above Ground, and Bay Park's Restaurant Families Are Ready

In May 1963, Ramiro "Tommy" Tomicich, a native of Trieste, Italy, opened Old Trieste at 2335 Morena Boulevard. It became known for white tablecloths, tuxedo-clad servers and martinis, and for many years diners needed a jacket to get in. The restaurant stayed at that address until it closed in May 2019. Later that year Joey Vaught bought the property.

Vaught's plan for the site, The Butcher's Wife, now has a target of spring 2027. He developed it with Antonio "Tony" D'Amato, the Bay Park restaurateur behind Baci and Luce. The Luce expansion and The Butcher's Wife are both moving forward this fall, as the pipeline work that filled Morena Boulevard with cones for four years winds down. The people reinvesting now are mostly the ones who kept their doors open through the dig, and they are getting ready to build again just as the street reopens.

Four years under the street

The pipeline work was the City of San Diego's Morena Conveyance South & Middle project, part of Pure Water Phase 1. It put in about 36,170 linear feet of 48-inch wastewater force main, plus a 30-inch steel brine line of the same length. The lines run from the Morena Pump Station at Sherman and Custer Streets north along Morena Boulevard, Milton Street, Chicago Street, Jellett Street and Denver Street to Clairemont Drive, then continue through Bay Ho toward University City.

Here is the timeline that matters for anyone driving or parking on Morena:

1. October 2022: Construction began. The City's schedule called for night work Sunday through Friday from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
2. August 2025 to April 2026: In an April 2026 10News report, Luce Bar & Kitchen said its business had been down since August. A lane closure had taken about 10 parking spaces on its side of the street, and Luce cut staff hours.
3. May 2026: The City scheduled final Bay Park resurfacing for May 21 and 22, on Jellett Street to Clairemont Drive and Milton Street to Jellett Street.
4. August 1, 2026: According to Hoodline, the City announced that construction on the project was complete.

The City's own post said:

"All construction related to the Morena Conveyance South & Middle project is complete and performance testing is the next step. While some minor work remains, the core functionality of the infrastructure is in place."

What is left above ground

"Minor work" covers the parts drivers will notice. According to Hoodline's account, the work still left after August included testing, paving, striping, bike-lane work and other restoration. The City's project page lists improved bikeways on Morena Boulevard, West Morena Boulevard and Clairemont Drive, and gives 2026 as the project's anticipated completion year.

Clairemont Drive shows what that bikeway work looks like. OB Rag reported in October 2025 that the street now has one travel lane in each direction instead of two. A separated bike lane runs along the curb, and on-street parking was kept, moved out to sit between the cyclists and moving traffic as a buffer.

The south end of the neighborhood has its own schedule. The Morena Pump Station, at the southwest corner of Sherman and Custer, started in June 2021 and is now expected to finish in 2027. The biggest relief there has already arrived. The City says the underground work on Friars Road is complete, and eastbound Friars between Sea World Drive and Napa Street has reopened to cars and bikes. Times of San Diego reported in August that unexpected underground conditions had delayed the station and that crews ended up building six sewer structures. Medians and traffic signals still had to be rebuilt after testing.

So Morena north of the pump station is moving into restoration, and the area around Sherman and Custer will see construction for a while longer. The restaurant news on the street follows the same timing.

The family that stayed through it

Tony D'Amato's career began on the bottom rung. He came to San Diego from Porticello, Sicily, as a teenager and started out washing dishes at Mister A's. In 1979 he founded Baci Ristorante on West Morena Boulevard, and it became one of the city's long-running old-school Italian restaurants. In 2012 he opened Luce Bar & Kitchen nearby as a more casual neighborhood gastropub, with a California-Italian menu and a drink list built around wine, craft beer and cocktails.

Luce is also the restaurant that spent the last stretch of the dig with cones out front and fewer parking spaces. Now it is expanding. SanDiegoVille reported in September that Luce is in the middle of a large remodel and expansion at 1959 Morena Boulevard. The project adds Tony's, a gelato and espresso shop run by D'Amato's children. According to SanDiegoVille, D'Amato had long wanted a neighborhood shop like the ones he knew in Italy, where locals could stop in for gelato and espresso.

The late restaurateur's work runs along this one stretch of road. Baci on West Morena, Luce and Tony's at 1959 Morena, and The Butcher's Wife at 2335 Morena together cover almost five decades of one family's restaurants in Bay Park.

The corner that waited

The former Old Trieste property is where the end of construction and the reinvestment come together most clearly. According to WhatNow, the plans changed over the years. The Butcher's Wife is now moving forward as Vaught's own independent project rather than as a Verant Group concept. Vaught set the work aside for a while to help the D'Amato family finish Luce.

Here is what is planned for 2335 Morena:

• An American restaurant with a full bar, operating under a Type 47 liquor license
• A building larger than the original restaurant, expanding both outward and upward
• Completion targeted for spring 2027, which SanDiegoVille notes could change as construction moves along

SanDiegoVille drew the connection between the two founders. Old Trieste was started by an Italian immigrant who spent decades building a neighborhood institution. Its replacement was planned with D'Amato, a Sicilian immigrant who spent his career in hospitality in the same part of San Diego. The building sat for about eight years. If the target holds, it will reopen in the first full spring with the pipeline work behind it.

Who else is betting on the street

The pattern reaches beyond one family. Several other operators have set their timelines around the same stretch of years:

Mmm-Yoso, the San Diego food blog, first noticed the Modern Kabob sign in August 2025. That is the same month Luce's slowdown began, and the restaurant held its grand opening a full year later. Inka'fe's Denver Street address sits on the pipeline's southern route. The Explore Clairemont coffee guide listed the shop in July 2026. Nutmeg filed in May 2026 for a cafe on Napier Street, aiming to open in early 2027, according to WhatNow.

The openings on this list land in the same window as the last of the construction. The City's restoration work on the pipeline route carries a 2026 completion year, The Butcher's Wife is aiming for spring 2027, and the pump station at Sherman and Custer is expected to finish in 2027. When the street finally looks finished, these businesses will be the ones on and around Morena Boulevard.

Locally rooted businesses are setting Morena Boulevard's next chapter, and that connects to how Bay Park homes are valued and presented. If you own on or near the corridor and want to know what the end of construction means for your street, Tami Fuller & Associates can put it in context. Request a complimentary neighborhood market consultation, and we'll walk through what's changing on Morena block by block.