November 22, 2020
Several alums of San Diego's popular Buona Forchetta restaurant group have branched off to launch Amalfi Cucina Italiana, a coastal Italian restaurant & bar under development in the Lake San Marcos building that last housed Decoy Dockside Dining.
Four Italian friends that previously worked together for San Diego's Buona Forchetta Group of restaurants recently took over the second story space perched above Lake San Marcos that was built in 2016 to house
Eat.Drink.Sleep's Decoy Dockside Dining to open Amalfi Cucina Italiana. Chef Marcello Avitabile is a world pizza champion and was long the executive chef of the Buona Forchetta group. Joseph Serra is a pizza chef that has been honing his craft since he was 13. Giuseppe Annunziata is an experienced general manager who worked for 10 years in San Francisco and is well versed in wine. Lastly, Emiliano Muslija recently moved with his wife from Florence, Italy after owning his own restaurant from a very young age and worked at Buona Forchetta before deciding to join with his friends to open their own restaurant.
Amalfi Cucina Italiana is now partially open. While the upstairs is undergoing a remodel, the casual downstairs space, currently known as Dockside Bar, is open and offering a fusion of Italian and American dishes including sandwiches, burger, daily specials from Chef Marcello, and an expansive selections of authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas made in a custom Stefano Ferrara oven imported from Naples. The space offers 200 covered seats of outdoor seating almost right on the lake, 12 big screen televisions with all the sports packages, and a full bar featuring 24 taps with local beer. The restaurant also offers patrons gondola rides on Lake San Marcos.
In the next couple months, the team hopes to open the second level of the space and will offer a more upscale menu featuring more homemade pasta dishes and full entree main course items made with local ingredients and fresh seafood inspired by Southern Italy. The second tier will be feature the gold Stefano Ferrara oven as a centerpiece of the restaurant and will also have a 100 seat patio with views over the lake.
Amalfi Cucina Italiana is located at 1035 La Bonita Drive in San Diego's North County community of San Marcos. For more information, visit
amalficucinaitaliana.com and call 760.653.3230.
