Brace — Little Italy Food Hall Debuts Soon with Six Restaurants

San Diego’s highly anticipated Little Italy Food Hall makes its debut inside the Piazza della Famiglia on Thursday, July 12, at 3 p.m. San Diego-based hospitality group Grain & Grit Collective — an extension of Sweet 100 that helped develop and expand local brands including Carnitas’ Snack Shack and Broken Yolk Café — gathered a collection of six restaurants set up as food stations, as well as a menu of Italian cocktails, an outdoor patio, and an outdoor area where local chefs can offer food demonstrations.

Vendors include Ambrogio15 with its gourmet Milanese pizzas made in a traditional pizza oven imported from Italy.

Mein St. Asian Kitchen from the owners of Zen Modern Asian Bistro in Carmel Mountain features dumplings, wings, and boba teas.

The new Not Not Tacos by Sam the Cooking Guy, who plans to take on the first cooking demonstration in August, has a collection of tacos filled with meatloaf, pastrami, and smokey pork and mac.

“The last thing San Diego needs is another Mexican taco shop, especially from a Canadian Jew like me,” TV personality Sam Zien says in a press statement. “We will serve tacos in the sense that the food will be served in a tortilla, but they’re certainly not the Mexican tacos you’re thinking of.” Instead, the 11 tacos feature ingredients ranging from curried egg salad to Korean short rib.

Diners can order salads and sandwiches at Victoria, British Columbia-based Roast Meat & Sandwich Shop, which also plans to serve whole roasted chickens and meatballs.

Single Fin Kitchen by chef Antonio Quindere with his pedigree working for Nobu Matsuhisa plans to serve Japanese Donburi, a traditional Japanese dish with rice bowls topped with seafood, vegetables, and other ingredients.

Lobster mac and cheese, shrimp baskets, lobster rolls, clam bakes, and chowders make the menu at Wicked Maine Lobster.

Diners can belly up to the Little Italy Food Hall Bar in the center of the space with its roster of local draughts, lagers, and ales as well as Italian wines. Local spirits, bitters, and liqueurs help create the cocktails designed to work with the cuisines found here. 


The Little Italy Food Hall plans to open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

• Sam the Cooking Guy Launching First Eatery in New Little Italy Food Hall [ESD]

• Asian Eateries Rounding Out Little Italy Food Hall [ESD]