One of University Heights' most recognizable restaurants is preparing to serve its final meals. Madison on Park has announced it will permanently close after more than a decade at the corner of Park Boulevard and Madison Avenue, bringing an end to a restaurant that became nearly as well known for its dramatic architectural design and cocktail program as its Mediterranean-influenced food.
The impending closure was announced by Madison on Park through social media, with the restaurant confirming its final day of service will be September 6. But while the Madison name is going away, ownership isn't abandoning the prominent restaurant space at 4622 Park Boulevard.
Madison partner Matt Sieve confirmed to SanDiegoVille that the team is already developing a completely new concept for the property.
"We're working on that with our team right now but it will be another neighborhood spot, new age/euro cafe/small plates," Sieve told SanDiegoVille. "We'll be hiring a new chef and have a huge focus on hospitality."
The project remains in its earliest stages, however, as Sieve and longtime business partner Jeffrey Fink are currently concentrating on another opening across town.
"We're still so focused on getting Josie's open to give our attention to the new concept," Sieve said, adding that he would provide additional details as the plans develop.
The change represents a major transition for a restaurant that has been part of University Heights' dining landscape since early 2016. Madison on Park debuted that January inside the former Lei Lounge space as a collaboration involving longtime San Diego attorney and hospitality entrepreneur Jeffrey Fink, third-generation restaurateur Matt Sieve, and chefs Mario Cassineri and Tony Gutierrez.
From the beginning, Madison was visually unlike almost anything else in the neighborhood. Its defining feature was a soaring, cedar-lined vaulted dining room complemented by rope installations inspired by guitar and harp strings, intimate booths and a bar and lounge facing Park Boulevard. The restaurant's architecture became an attraction in its own right and helped establish Madison as a date-night, dinner and cocktail destination.
SanDiegoVille reviewed Madison shortly after its 2016 debut, describing the newly opened restaurant as an "indoor-outdoor oasis" and predicting it would become a neighborhood gathering place. That prediction largely proved accurate, with Madison ultimately surviving more than a decade in an industry notorious for short-lived concepts.
The restaurant also endured one of the most turbulent periods in modern San Diego hospitality, navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and expanding outdoors with a Park Boulevard parklet. In the years that followed, Madison continued operating as a Mediterranean-influenced restaurant and cocktail bar while developing a recurring live jazz program.
Its current menu includes dishes such as mussels, gnocchi, chicken piccata, local sea bass, steak frites and the Madison Burger, while longtime favorites including its waffle churro sticks remained part of the lineup.
The closure also comes at an interesting moment for the ownership group because Madison's end does not appear to signal a retreat from San Diego's restaurant industry. Quite the opposite. Over the past several years, Fink and Sieve have steadily built a small portfolio of concepts extending well beyond the restaurant that started it all.
In May 2025, the pair opened Sonny's just steps from Madison at 1728 Madison Avenue in University Heights. The Brooklyn-inspired pizzeria transformed a century-old former auto shop and flower store into a 3,500-square-foot homage to 1980s New York pizza culture, complete with vintage televisions, a repurposed copper bar, a custom Italian pizza oven, backyard patio and Santa Maria-style wood-fire grill. Its menu combines New York-style pizza with Neapolitan technique alongside pastas, sandwiches, Italian-inspired dishes and an amaro-heavy cocktail program.
The group has simultaneously expanded Madi, its brunch-focused offshoot that first opened in Normal Heights in 2022. A second Madi debuted in Pacific Beach last September inside the former Rubio's space at 910 Grand Avenue, extending the brand into one of San Diego's busiest coastal neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, another project originally announced as a Hillcrest location of Madi has evolved into an entirely different restaurant. The forthcoming Josie's at The Hub Hillcrest is being billed as an all-day diner inspired by "102 years of family restaurant history." Promotional materials recently released by the restaurant declare, "Dear Hillcrest, we're almost ready," suggesting its long-awaited opening is approaching, likely unveiling in September.
Taken together, Sonny's, Madi and Dear Josie's put Madison's closure into a considerably different context. Rather than contracting its restaurant portfolio, the ownership team has spent the past several years expanding and diversifying it. Now the restaurant that effectively launched that portfolio is itself being cleared away for something new.
And unlike many restaurant closure stories, there will apparently be little mystery about the future of the real estate. Sieve's confirmation means the distinctive Madison space is expected to remain under the same restaurant group's control while being reinvented with a new name, new chef and substantially different culinary identity. His description of a "new age/euro cafe/small plates" neighborhood restaurant also suggests the successor will not simply be Madison with a cosmetic makeover.
That could ultimately leave Fink and Sieve operating two distinct concepts within steps of one another in University Heights, with Sonny's on Madison Avenue and Madison's still-unnamed successor on Park Boulevard, while simultaneously operating Madi restaurants elsewhere in San Diego and launching Dear Josie's in Hillcrest.
The transition reflects just how much both the ownership group and the surrounding neighborhood have changed during Madison's lifetime. When the restaurant opened in 2016, University Heights was still developing into the densely packed dining and nightlife destination it is today. The surrounding stretch of Park Boulevard has evolved considerably during the decade since, as has San Diego's broader restaurant industry.
Restaurant operators throughout the region now contend with substantially higher labor, food, insurance and occupancy costs as well as increasingly unpredictable consumer spending. There is presently no indication, however, that any particular economic factor prompted the decision to retire Madison, and ownership has not publicly attributed the closure to financial difficulties.
What is clear is that September 6 will mark the end of a lengthy run for a restaurant that helped define the modern era of dining along this portion of Park Boulevard. It will not, however, mark the end of the ownership team's presence there.
Originally published on August 16, 2026.
In May 2025, the pair opened Sonny's just steps from Madison at 1728 Madison Avenue in University Heights. The Brooklyn-inspired pizzeria transformed a century-old former auto shop and flower store into a 3,500-square-foot homage to 1980s New York pizza culture, complete with vintage televisions, a repurposed copper bar, a custom Italian pizza oven, backyard patio and Santa Maria-style wood-fire grill. Its menu combines New York-style pizza with Neapolitan technique alongside pastas, sandwiches, Italian-inspired dishes and an amaro-heavy cocktail program.
The group has simultaneously expanded Madi, its brunch-focused offshoot that first opened in Normal Heights in 2022. A second Madi debuted in Pacific Beach last September inside the former Rubio's space at 910 Grand Avenue, extending the brand into one of San Diego's busiest coastal neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, another project originally announced as a Hillcrest location of Madi has evolved into an entirely different restaurant. The forthcoming Josie's at The Hub Hillcrest is being billed as an all-day diner inspired by "102 years of family restaurant history." Promotional materials recently released by the restaurant declare, "Dear Hillcrest, we're almost ready," suggesting its long-awaited opening is approaching, likely unveiling in September.
Taken together, Sonny's, Madi and Dear Josie's put Madison's closure into a considerably different context. Rather than contracting its restaurant portfolio, the ownership team has spent the past several years expanding and diversifying it. Now the restaurant that effectively launched that portfolio is itself being cleared away for something new.
And unlike many restaurant closure stories, there will apparently be little mystery about the future of the real estate. Sieve's confirmation means the distinctive Madison space is expected to remain under the same restaurant group's control while being reinvented with a new name, new chef and substantially different culinary identity. His description of a "new age/euro cafe/small plates" neighborhood restaurant also suggests the successor will not simply be Madison with a cosmetic makeover.
That could ultimately leave Fink and Sieve operating two distinct concepts within steps of one another in University Heights, with Sonny's on Madison Avenue and Madison's still-unnamed successor on Park Boulevard, while simultaneously operating Madi restaurants elsewhere in San Diego and launching Dear Josie's in Hillcrest.
The transition reflects just how much both the ownership group and the surrounding neighborhood have changed during Madison's lifetime. When the restaurant opened in 2016, University Heights was still developing into the densely packed dining and nightlife destination it is today. The surrounding stretch of Park Boulevard has evolved considerably during the decade since, as has San Diego's broader restaurant industry.
Restaurant operators throughout the region now contend with substantially higher labor, food, insurance and occupancy costs as well as increasingly unpredictable consumer spending. There is presently no indication, however, that any particular economic factor prompted the decision to retire Madison, and ownership has not publicly attributed the closure to financial difficulties.
What is clear is that September 6 will mark the end of a lengthy run for a restaurant that helped define the modern era of dining along this portion of Park Boulevard. It will not, however, mark the end of the ownership team's presence there.
After more than ten years beneath Madison's unmistakable blue facade, the name will disappear, a new chef will eventually enter the kitchen and an entirely different restaurant will take its place. For now, Sieve says the team has only begun determining exactly what that next chapter will look like.
Madison on Park is located at 4622 Park Boulevard in San Diego's University Heights neighborhood. For more information, visit madisononpark.com.Originally published on August 16, 2026.