Park Boulevard Is Being Rebuilt Around a Tuesday Night

On a Saturday, the corner of Park Boulevard and Madison Avenue has never had a problem filling seats. During the week it's harder, and one of the people who knows that best is shutting down a ten-year-old restaurant to fix it.

Matt Sieve, co-owner of Madison on Park, told the San Diego Union-Tribune this month that the weekday gap is part of why the restaurant at 4622 Park Blvd. is being renovated and rebranded.

"We do great on weekends, but it's that Monday-through-Friday crowd that can be hard to capture," he said. "The lease is really good, but when the profits stop coming in, you have to make changes."

Almost everything that opened, moved or changed hands on Park Boulevard this fall adds something for a weekday: a faster takeout counter, a weekday lunch, a kitchen that opens at noon every day of the week.

The corner that closed to come back different

Madison on Park closed on Sept. 6, after more than a decade at Park and Madison. According to the University Heights Community Association's October roundup of Park Boulevard changes, the ownership group plans a top-to-bottom renovation and an entirely new concept: a lighter, small-plates neighborhood spot with a new chef and a strong focus on hospitality. Anna and David Sindelar, the designers behind Madison's original look, are expected back for the redesign.

The Union-Tribune reports the reopening is expected around New Year's, ten years after the restaurant first opened in 2016. Until then, the space behind the windows at 4622 is a construction site.

The weekday problem Sieve describes is the same one his neighbors have been working on, each in their own way.

Bahn Thai moved 150 feet and built for the takeout line

Bahn Thai didn't go far. The owners bought 4628 Park Blvd., the 1929-era building that once housed Small Bar and then the short-lived Johnston's, in December 2023 for $2.33 million. It sits about 150 feet from the original location.

The building's 1,581 square feet were just the starting point. The owners remodeled the front and added an expanded kitchen, storage, employee space and offices at the rear, more than doubling the total footprint. The UHCA report describes more than triple the seating inside and out, a planned on-street parklet and expanded patio, and a takeout setup with multiple ordering and pickup lines.

Those pickup lines matter most at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday, when people want dinner without sitting down. The liquor license was sold separately from the building, so the new location still serves no alcohol, but the plan announced for the move put its Thai iced tea on tap.

The restaurant's online ordering page lists 4628 Park Boulevard with hours of 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 4 to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Lunch is where the block is competing now

Humili is now serving at 4615 Park Blvd., in the space where Red House Pizza used to be. The team behind it runs Decore in East Village and Nado Republic in Coronado: chef Giorgio Corletti with partners Giovanni Siracusa, Sandro Lattenero and Michael Massaro. They bought the beloved neighborhood pizzeria's space earlier this year. Corletti trained under the Italian chef Gianfranco Vissani before working in the Bay Area.

The Humili menu leans on Roman-style pizza. There's a Margherita and a Diavola, a Taleggio e Funghi with roasted mushrooms, truffle sauce and caramelized onions, a Broccoli e salsiccia with Italian sausage and ricotta, and a Romana with guanciale, honey and black pepper. Smaller plates include whipped ricotta, eggplant parmigiana and camembert in crosta. It opens at noon every day, closing at 9:30 p.m. most nights and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Muzita Abyssinian Bistro at 4651 Park Blvd., one of the longest-running restaurants in the district, went after midday business too. It now serves lunch seven days a week, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. At lunch, individual bowls and salads stand in for the family-style platters the restaurant is known for. That's a faster single plate for someone on a lunch break, cut from a menu built for groups sharing on a weekend night.

Here's how the core of the strip looks this week:

The buildings are turning over, too

The changes go deeper than the menus. Baker's Vacation Holdings LLC, led by hospitality veterans Chad Owen and Brett Winfield, has filed with the state to take over Park & Rec's on-sale general liquor license, along with its caterer's, portable bar and event permits. Owen has managed hospitality operations, including a stint as Southern California director of operations for Pouring With Heart. Winfield has more than a decade in San Diego's bar scene, including time behind the bar at Seven Grand in North Park. The UHCA reports that Owen has been talking with neighbors and says he wants to improve operations and how the venue gets along with the people around it.

Two buildings on the strip also went up for sale this fall. The building at 1733–37 Adams Ave., home to Meraki Cafe, was listed at $1.2 million as a multi-family and commercial income property with a residential loft above the cafe. Meraki stayed open when the listing went up. Around the corner, the two-story building at 4636 Park Blvd. was listed at $2,189,825. Its ground floor is leased to Align Pilates through February 2029, there's a two-bedroom apartment upstairs, and plans have already been drawn for adding one to two residential units and expanding the ground-floor retail.

That second listing hints at more people living right above the shops someday, and those are exactly the weekday customers Park Boulevard is trying to win.

The same owners are testing the idea in Hillcrest

Sieve and his partner Jeffrey Fink are trying the same approach a short drive away. Their new diner, Josie's, was set to open Nov. 12 in the Hub Hillcrest Market, the center with Ralphs and Trader Joe's, in the former Panera Bread space that sat empty from 2018 until now.

The pair also own Sonny's Pizza in University Heights and the Madi brunch restaurants in Normal Heights and Pacific Beach. They spent about $1.5 million on the 175-seat diner. According to the Union-Tribune, it starts with breakfast and lunch from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and adds dinner late in November, with a coffee bar open all day. The menu runs from country fried steak and Grandma Helen's Swedish meatballs to a Korean fried chicken sandwich and red curry peanut noodles. Sieve described the Hillcrest bet in familiar terms: "we'll fill it up on weekends for sure. We'll just have to get that Monday-through-Friday traffic."

Whatever opens at 4622 Park around New Year's will be the same group's second try at that problem in two months.

Two December nights that fill the street anyway

The weekday question goes quiet on the two nights the University Heights Community Association has on its December calendar, when the neighborhood fills the street on its own:

1. Winter Walk & Caroling, Saturday, Dec. 12, 5 to 6 p.m. The UHCA's listing bills it as "Sip, Stroll, and Celebrate!" Check the event page for the meeting spot as the date gets closer.
2. Lights in the Heights, Sunday, Dec. 13, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. This is the fifth annual tour. It leaves from Trolley Barn Park at 1943 Adams Ave. and covers a three- to four-mile route past the homes entered in the holiday lights contest, with online voting for the best, most creative and wackiest displays. Riders go out with the UHCA and the Nice-n-Easy bike club, runners with Sunday Runday Club, and walkers in the last group with a UHCA walking lead. Halfway through there's a hot cocoa stop at Santa's Workshop. Jingle bells, holiday tunes and glow sticks are provided, and people are asked to register for their group. The tour heads west, then south, then loops back to the park from the east between about 5:45 and 7:15 p.m., and it wraps up with discounted drinks at Cheer's.

If your house is on the contest route, the organizers say you can cheer from the front steps instead of riding.

The same stretch of Park Boulevard looks different from one month to the next, and property values on nearby streets can shift as the block does. If you own near the strip and want to know what this fall's changes mean for your place, Ben Crosby can walk you through it block by block. Request a free home valuation, or start with his University Heights neighborhood guide.