![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sut-l-busalacchi-1011-010.jpg\")
The interior of Barbusa, one of the restaurants owned by the Busalacchi family. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nIf you sit down with Joe Busalacchi for more than a minute, chances are he will offer you food. Make it 15 minutes, and you might be invited to stay for lunch, have a snack or a beverage. Or at least leave with takeout.<\/p>\n
Feeding people con gusto is what Busalacchi, 67, has been doing since at least 1986, when he opened Busalacchi\u2019s on Fifth, a white tablecloth Italian bistro where Hillcrest meets Banker\u2019s Hill, and the first of 14 restaurants he and his family would go on to own and operate in San Diego.<\/p>\n
Forty years later, Busalacchi Restaurants has that and several other things on its menu of accomplishments. One is operating those restaurants through the global financial recession and the pandemic. Another is livening up India Street, starting in 1995. The family\u2019s restaurants, along with others that came before and after, made the sleepy harbor-adjacent neighborhood into the must-visit culinary and cultural corridor it is today, one bowl of bolognese at time. But maybe the crowning achievement for Busalacchi: doing all that while raising three boys who have joined the business as the next generation.<\/p>\n
Today there are more than 80 restaurants, cafes and bars in Little Italy, according to the neighborhood\u2019s business association. Busalacchi\u2019s restaurants helped paved the way. India Street and avenues nearby had venerated businesses \u2014 Mona Lisa Italian Foods, The Waterfront Bar & Grill, Filippi\u2019s Pizza Grotto, Assenti\u2019s Pasta, and others \u2014 but the arrival of Busalacchi\u2019s Trattoria Fantastic was a turning point. Restaurant upon restaurant opened after that.<\/p>\n
The interior of Barbusa, one of the restaurants owned by the Busalacchi family. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
To celebrate this journey, the business is hosting a milestone marking fundraiser<\/a> Sunday\u00a0with tickets starting at $350, with all proceeds going to two nonprofits: The Positive Movement Foundation<\/a> and Convivio<\/a>. The city is also declaring Sunday \u201cBusalacchi Family Day\u201d to recognize the family\u2019s contributions.<\/p>\n The company, which employs around 200, isn\u2019t just looking back. It is currently eyeing an expansion outside San Diego. Encinitas has been explored, as are Newport Beach and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s opportunities for us to open up multiple Barbusa concepts,\u201d said its general manager, PJ Busalacchi. \u201cWe\u2019re young, we\u2019re still hungry. I think it\u2019s to a point where the newer generation is ready to take that leap. We\u2019ve established that we know what we\u2019re doing, and we\u2019re ready to continue moving forward and building this legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n Old school<\/p>\n Joe Busalacchi recently sat down at Barbusa, which, at 10 years old, is one of the group\u2019s newer restaurants, to talk history.<\/p>\n As for what\u2019s next? That is a question for PJ Busalacchi, who, along with managing the business, is one of Busalacchi\u2019s three sons.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I started, it was really hard,\u201d Joe Busalacchi began. He sketched a story that is, in ways, archetypal: child immigrant, hard work, determination, a dream. \u201cI worked my little tail off to get where I am today. It\u2019s been a while. It\u2019s been a lot of hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n One detail that is wholly his family\u2019s: the food. Sicilian. Lots of it. His mother would send him to school as an 8-year-old boy with a giant submarine stuffed with eggplant, tuna and other meaty fillings. She\u2019d also toss a handful of bananas into the grocery bag that served as his lunch tote. Other kids got half a bologna sandwich in a little Batman lunchbox. Joe got enough tuna to feed a soccer team.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom thought I was going away for a year, you know? I was just going to school!\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n A plaque on Barbusa\u2019s outer wall honors his parents, who \u201cworked hard to instill tradition and work ethic in their children, which is very evident throughout Little Italy today. Pietro could be seen checking on each family restaurant every day, and Cristina often gave recipe advice when needed.\u201d<\/p>\n Busalacchi picked up that work ethic and kitchen know-how, and in the mid-1980s, when he was not yet 30, he shifted from cooking staff meals aboard a commercial tuna boat to opening his first restaurant.<\/p>\n \u201cI started out with one stove, my wife working in the front. We had two waiters, one dishwasher and one helper. We ended up with three stoves, nine waiters and five busboys. So we did a very good volume there,\u201d he told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2011. (He and his wife, Lisa Busalacchi, have since divorced.)<\/p>\n Joe\u2019s brother, Frank Busalacchi, joined the business and they opened one restaurant after another, expanding into Little Italy. Trattoria Fantastica came in 1995, after nudges from investors and fans who told him to keep growing.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like when you\u2019re hot, you should strike, and I was hot. Everything seemed to be going my way,\u201d he said in 2011.<\/p>\n Barbusa and Lala came later, while others \u2014 including Po Pazzo, Busalacchi\u2019s on Fifth and Busalacchi\u2019s A Modo Mio, one block north \u2014 have come and gone, some evolving into new concepts and some shuttering.<\/p>\n All along the way, the Busalacchi family took business risks while staying close to their roots: Sicilian cuisine, from quaint (Nonna+Zucchero) to contemporary (Barbusa).<\/p>\n \u201cThe Busalacchis are really good at changing things up and keeping things fresh,\u201d said Kevin Massery, a longtime customer, business associate and family friend. His current favorite meal: Barbusa\u2019s sea bass with \u201creally good\u201d sauce and crisp broccolini.<\/p>\n \u201cJoe is definitely a cultural icon in San Diego,\u201d he said. \u201cHe founded Little Italy, pretty much. Thirty years ago, Little Italy wasn\u2019t much. Now it\u2019s transitioned into one of the hottest markets in the country, if not the world. The real estate has gone crazy, and (San Diego\u2019s) Little Italy, compared to other Italian cultural centers and cultural neighborhoods \u2026 has really grown to be one of the better Italian centers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I\u2019m part of the family,\u201d Massery added.<\/p>\n Over the years, the restaurants have also welcomed Tommy Lasorda, Jane Seymour, Henry Mancini \u2014 legends from a different era.<\/p>\n Looking back on it all \u2014 he brought up visits from food critics, news coverage, the pressure and exhilaration and intensity of his career \u2014 Busalacchi was moved.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just puts tears in my eyes, seeing a little boy who came to America, who didn\u2019t speak English, only had a high school education. And getting that far is pretty impressive. And I didn\u2019t know that. And I\u2019m tearing up right now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just,\u201d he paused. \u201cWhat you want in life. Nothing is going to come your way. You gotta make your way. I think it\u2019s impressive to me now. It wasn\u2019t impressive to me then.\u201d<\/p>\n Busalacchi also joked that seeing his sons and nephews working on the business makes him feel \u201ca little old.\u201d That word surfaced again when he talked about the virtues of tradition, attentive service.<\/p>\n \u201cI come from old school,\u201d he said. \u201cThings are a little bit different today. \u2026 We were closer to our customers. Customers were there to dine for an hour or two. Now it\u2019s a little more of the drinking, more of the younger crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n About his own younger crowd. For years, Busalacchi didn\u2019t want his kids to enter the restaurant business, because the long hours make it hard to raise a family.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t get to see your children. You\u2019re working on Friday, you\u2019re working Saturdays, you\u2019re working on Monday, Tuesday. It\u2019s pretty much seven days a week, just trying to see what\u2019s going on in the restaurant so that it\u2019s working correctly, and the food is coming out good, and that\u2019s what\u2019s going to bring people back.<\/p>\n \u201cMy kids missed out on a lot, because I worked a lot,\u201d he added. \u201cBut I think they understand now. PJ was going to be a lawyer. My son Joey was going to be a surgeon. Michael was going to be in Hollywood.\u201d But they told their father: \u201cWe were born with the restaurant business. We\u2019re coming to help you out,\u201d Busalacchi said.<\/p>\n \u2018What we know best\u2019<\/p>\n As his father was talking, PJ Busalacchi, 36, was working from his laptop and cell phone a few tables away. He paused for a quick photo shoot with his father, brother Joey and Uncle Frank, then got back to business. Also involved are his brother Michael, Uncle Vince, and cousins Vince and Nino.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, PJ Busalacchi slowed down for two interviews about growing up in the business and where the new generation is taking the restaurants.<\/p>\n He sounded like his father when he talked about joining the business. \u201cMy parents never wanted any of us to be in the restaurant business. They know how difficult it is,\u201d he said. \u201cI actually took my LSAT.\u201d But the pull was too strong. \u201cThe restaurant business has been around my life for my entire life, and it\u2019s too far into my blood to really go another way. I think all of us have really come back and do what we know best.\u201d<\/p>\n The story of Busalacchi\u2019s restaurants can\u2019t be untangled from the story of Little Italy \u2014 or the story of his life, he continued. He was born in 1989, three years after Busalacchi\u2019s on Fifth opened. He remembers seeing his dad and mom stroll through that dining room, greeting diners. He has internalized that, and other things his parents taught him.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really takes 24 hours, seven days a week of your time and energy of cultivating these relationships. Because one thing is for sure. People may come back and give you a second try if the food wasn\u2019t good, but they\u2019re definitely not going to give you a second try if the service was bad. So for us, it\u2019s really (to) make sure that our guests are always taken care of,\u201d Busalacchi said.<\/p>\n From his mother, he learned about the partnership required for a successful family business. While his dad worked at the restaurants, his mother worked for their family.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was at home, taking care of us, making sure we got to school, to appointments, to sports and all those things. It takes a village to run restaurants, and the village was held down by both my parents,\u201d PJ Busalacchi said.<\/p>\n Two tough times at the business came to mind for PJ: the 2008 recession, when 4% of the nation\u2019s restaurants closed. At the time, he was a teenager. He remembers seeing his dad work as hard as ever. He took away that dealing with economic swings is \u201cpart of the business, and what it takes to run and own a business.\u201d<\/p>\n Also in 2011, Joe Busalacchi described his strategy for staying afloat in that period. Not overspending profits from previous years, watching costs. They redid menus, took out certain cuts of meat, let some staff go. They also lowered prices and margins on wine. \u201cYou gotta do what you gotta do in this tough economy,\u201d he said then.<\/p>\n The pandemic was another challenge. Hardest, PJ Busalacchi said, weren\u2019t the mandated closings, but \u201cwatching our employees struggle and doing what we can to make sure that our employees lasted through this terrible pandemic. We sent our employees home with food when we closed the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n They emptied all the kitchens, inviting people to take home \u201cpasta, produce, anything that they could get their hands on.\u201d<\/p>\n A high, for PJ Busalacchi, hasn\u2019t been a moment, but a feeling. \u201cMaybe this word is too cliche, but I think the first thing that comes to mind is family. Not only is it a family that is running these restaurants, but it\u2019s our employees who we think of as family, and our guests who come in these doors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n New beat<\/p>\n What\u2019s it like being part of a big family business? Is Christmas dinner ever tense if you\u2019re mixing work and family?<\/p>\n \u201cWorking with family is tough. Working with an Italian family is even tougher at times,\u201d PJ Busalacchi said and chuckled, \u201cbecause of everyone\u2019s strong opinions and personalities. But that\u2019s the beauty of it all. We can have our differences about the business and the next day move along, because we have the same goals in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n When Barbusa opened its doors, one difference showed up in the music, PJ Busalacchi said. The patriarch asked: \u201cWhat sort of music are you guys thinking about playing?\u201d Sinatra and Martin, he urged.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018No, Dad, no,\u2019\u201d PJ Busalacchi pushed back. His idea: tropical house music. And loud.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sort of stuck to our guns,\u201d the younger Busalacchi said, \u201cand continue to play it.\u201d It was risky, catering to different tastes, but the restaurant became a \u201ctrendy and cool\u201d place that still feels cozy and familiar. The music set the vibe.<\/p>\n Joe Busalacchi has minimized his involvement in day-to-day operations but stays on as mentor-uncle-dad. And CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cI embedded that in my children: that to be in the restaurant business, it\u2019s important to be here. On site. And to make sure that people are getting the service and the attention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He shared three cooking lessons his mother taught him. Taste as you go. Buy good ingredients. Be patient.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing gets done fast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n PJ Busalacchi, his brothers and cousins have kids who range in age from 1 to 18. He said they parent differently. While Joe Busalacchi said his kids \u201cmissed out on a lot,\u201d PJ Busalacchi is trying to be more present.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a different generation of dads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Might those kids one day join the business?<\/p>\n \u201cAre we going to be saying the same thing our parents told us? \u2018Don\u2019t do the restaurant business.\u2019 Or are we going to embrace them being in this business? I guess only time will tell,\u201d PJ Busalacchi said.<\/p>\n If his sons, nieces or nephews showed interest, \u201cI\u2019d be more than willing to teach them. Because I think, at the end of the day, it\u2019s a beautiful thing to pass down legacy, and to pass down restaurants, and to really keep this restaurant alive for 40 more years. That is, I think, our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you sit down with Joe Busalacchi for more than a minute, chances are he will offer you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,421,181,412,74,76,75,420,1696],"class_list":["post-490725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-business","tag-food-and-drink","tag-latest-headlines","tag-restaurants","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8945-1.jpeg\")
A plaque outside a restaurant owned by the Busalacchi family talks about the first generation immigrants who settled in San Diego in 1966. (Roxana Popescu \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sut-l-busalacchi-1011-002.jpg\")
Joe Busalacchi Sr. (right) and his brother Frank Busalacchi pose at Barbusa in Little Italy. The company is celebrating a 40 year anniversary. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Executive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sut-l-busalacchi-1011-004.jpg\")
Executive chef Nino Zizzo poses at Barbusa in Little Italy. The restaurant is 10 years old, and one of several celebrating the company\u2019s 40th anniversary. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Rigatoni](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sut-l-busalacchi-1011-008.jpg\")
Rigatoni salsiccia being prepared at Barbusa in Little Italy. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n