Old Town San Diego Historic State Park is home to around 15 Mexican restaurants, which is a lot for an area you could walk end to end in about as many minutes.
So when Pietro Busalacchi, his dad Sal Busalacchi, and their longtime friend Gustavo Rios, decided to open their own Mexican eatery in Old Town this summer, they knew they had to think outside the box.
The result is El Sueño Restaurant & Bar, a large, two-story indoor-outdoor 300-seat restaurant-bar that debuted in June in the old La Piñata building on Juan Street. The property has been revamped to resemble an elegant older hacienda overgrown with jungle vines and flowers from the rain forest. It serves a Mexican seafood-forward menu and a playfully creative cocktail menu. There’s late-night dining and drinking, a huge fenced patio area for outdoor dining and special event rentals and optional valet parking.
The second-floor bar at El Sueño Restaurant & Bar in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.
(Courtesy of Kimberly Motos)
For more than 40 years, Sal Busalacchi has been in the Italian restaurant business in San Diego. Three years ago, Sal, Pietro and Rios partnered up as the Vibrant Group on their first joint venture — the date night-style Italian restaurant Trattoria Don Pietro, on the east side of Old Town. Happy with that venue’s success, they decided to open a second Old Town restaurant that would serve Mexican food and drinks in a different way.
El Sueño is Spanish for “the dream,” which Pietro Busalacchi said represents the trio fulfilling their dreams as restaurateurs: “It has to do with our overall group, our growth within this industry and the fact that the first one went so well it led us to where we are now, which is truly a dream.”
El Sueño’s menu reflects the culinary ideas Pietro picked up during extensive travels in Mexico, where the food served at restaurants hardly resembles the Americanized dishes served in many of San Diego’s Mexican restaurants. Some of the dishes were also inspired by the Huasteca style cooking of Rios’ mother, who passed away a few years ago. There are also Mexican sushi rolls that recognize the Japanese immigrants who first arrived in Mexico in the 1890s.
“Some of the best meals I’ve ever had were in Mexico while doing our R&D … It really opened my eyes,” Pietro said. “At El Sueño, we do have a great crudo (raw seafood) section. A lot of great restaurants in Mexico also do crudo. I think it has a lot to do with the great fishing there is off the coast of Mexico. The tuna always tastes better when it’s from warmer waters.”
The Del Mar burrito, filled with butter-poached lobster, shrimp and crab, along with a Bad Bunny pickled-carrot cocktail at El Sueño Restaurant & Bar in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.
(Pam Kragen/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Unlike most other local Mexican restaurants, there are no fruity frozen margaritas on the menu. Instead, the cocktail menu star is the top-selling Bad Bunny, a bright-orange mezcal drink made with carrot juice that tastes just like the pickled carrots served as a garnish with many Mexican dishes. Pietro, who spent many years as a mixologist at bars and nightclubs in L.A., including the famed Tom Tom Restaurant & Bar, said that was an intentional choice.
“I love a creative and adventurous cocktail program,” he said.
Beyond food and drinks, service is a big part of the Vibrant Group’s formula, both at Trattoria Don Pietro and El Sueño.
“We definitely give guests an elevated atmosphere they wouldn’t normally expect in old Old Town. It’s a very upbeat and fun place to be. Our food is vibrant across the board, and we’re also adding a bunch of new things to our menu this upcoming month — stuff other places in Old Town definitely do not have — so I’m excited for that.
Specialties of the house include the lobster queso fundido shared appetizer, the daily crudo specials, the marinated and grilled lobster tacos plate, the taquitos plate and the super-size Del Mar burrito, filled with butter-cooked lobster, shrimp and white crab meat with chipotle rosa sauce and cotija cheese, and topped with crema.
El Sueño
When: 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays. 11:30 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays
Where: 2836 Juan St., San Diego
Phone: (619) 510-9813
Online: elsuenosd.com
Crab empanadas at El Sueño Restaurant & Bar in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.
(Courtesy of Kimberly Motos)