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Busalacchi Restaurants has announced that its Busalacchi’s A Modo Mio restaurant will shutter tomorrow in Hillcrest. The 4,500-square-foot restaurant, which sits on a prime corner at 3707 Fifth Avenue, was opened in 2011. It was an evolution of Busalacchi’s on Fifth, the family-owned group’s original location first founded in 1986 by family patriarch and chef Joe Busalacchi just a few doors south on Fifth Avenue.
After more than 30 years in the Hillcrest community, the Busalacchis say that they will now be focusing all their attention on their restaurants in Little Italy, another neighborhood where the group’s holdings have been fixtures on the food scene. Last summer, they opened Barbusa, a Southern Italian-inspired restaurant on India Street, and they are currently remodeling two long-tenured eateries, Trattoria Fantastica and Cafe Zucchero, which will reportedly be rebranding and reopening later this summer.
In a letter, the family shared its final farewell to Hillcrest:
Dear San Diego, family, friends, and the Hillcrest community
The time has come for us to share some bittersweet news with you: After more than 30 years, our family of restaurants is ending our time in Hillcrest with the upcoming closure of Busalacchi’s A Modo Mio. While this decision didn’t come easily, we felt it was the right thing to do for the continued growth of our family business. We want to send our most sincere thanks to you, the neighborhood we’ve called home for over 30 years. You’ve welcomed us with open arms and we couldn’t be more appreciative of the support you’ve shown us. We deeply cherish all the birthdays and anniversaries, the spilled sauce and broken glasses, the long nights that led to early mornings. Every memory made helped to shape our family’s story.
It feels very poetic to say goodbye to a place that helped our family business grow and transition. Thankfully we won’t be far away and you can still visit us at our restaurants in Little Italy. There would be nothing better than to see your friendly faces at our other Busalacchi family restaurants where more memories await.
As always, we thank you for your continued love and support,
The Busalacchi family
