San Diego Italian food destination Civico 1845 is expanding in Little Italy, but the store sited in the space the restaurant is taking over is not too happy about it.
In early 2024, Civico 1845 will expand into the neighboring space that has long housed Love & Aesthetics, a quirky retail store selling unique gifts, jewelry and home aesthetics. Love & Aesthetics has occupied the standalone building at 621 Fir Street near Piazza Basilone behind Civico 1845 since 2013. Love & Aesthetics took to social media to express displeasure with the news of being ousted from its longtime space.
"We have to move out of our home of 10 years in @littleitalysd end of January to make way for another restaurant," posted Love & Aesthetics on its Instagram story. "We are looking for a new space so stay tuned... [small] business should support [small] business [,] shame @civico1845".
Apparently, Love & Aesthetics lease will expire in January next year and the building will then be taken over by Civico 1845 starting in February 2024. Civico 1845 is exploring options on what it will do with the expanded footprint, but don't expect the newly acquired area to be activated until around summer 2024. Love & Aesthetics also has a store sited in Palm Springs, CA.
From the Gallo family - Eugenio and brothers Dario & Pietro, who hail from the city of Cosenza in the Calabria region of Southern Italy - Civico 1845 (pronounced CHEE-vee-ko) opened in June 2015 and has been packing the house and keeping hungry diners lining up at the door to get a taste of its expansive array of scratch-made pastas, breads, entrees and desserts. In May 2019, the Gallos opened its second area restaurant, an upscale, 7,000 square-foot "Calabria meets San Diego" fusion restaurant named Il Dandy in partnership with the with father and son chefs Antonio and Luca Abbruzzino of Italy's Michelin-starred Ristorante Abbruzzino. In 2020, Il Dandy was rebranded to become Civico By The Park, which ultimately closed in early 2022 and is now leased by the team behind Little Italy's Nolita Hall.
Civico 1845 is located at 1845 India Street in San Diego's Little Italy. For more information, visit civico1845.com.
