The new restaurant is expected to open this month at 608 North Coast Highway, replacing Venezia Italian Cuisine with a pizza-focused concept serving four distinct styles: Sicilian, New York, Detroit and Chicago-inspired pies. The project marks the first restaurant venture Tore and Damiano Trupiano have opened together and will bring another operation from one of North County's better-known restaurant families into central Oceanside.
Trinacria Pizza Co. takes its name and inspiration from Sicily, where the Trupiano family's story began generations ago. The concept traces that family journey through Sicily, New York, Chicago, Detroit and eventually California, using the pizza traditions associated with those places as the foundation for its menu.
"Something new is coming to Oceanside, but its story has been over 100 years in the making," the Trupiano family announced in introducing the restaurant.
Rather than specializing in a single regional style, Trinacria will attempt to put four very different pizza traditions under one roof. The restaurant says its pies will be made from scratch using long-fermented dough, traditional techniques and carefully sourced ingredients, with each style intended to represent another chapter of the family's history.
"Four styles. One family story," the restaurant states in its announcement.
The new project is being led by Tore Trupiano, founder of Oceanside Italian restaurant Mangia e Bevi and captain of the U.S. Pizza Team, alongside his son Damiano. Tore is a third-generation restaurateur who grew up in Monroe, Michigan, south of Detroit, in an Italian immigrant household where his mother and grandmother made fresh bread and family meals from scratch.
His family's restaurant history eventually extended through several Midwestern states before the family relocated to California in 1986. Tore later established himself in the competitive pizza world and now leads the U.S. Pizza Team, the organization of pizzaioli that represents the United States at national and international competitions.
Trupiano has accumulated a considerable competition résumé of his own. In 2025, he won the grand championship at the REAL California Pizza Contest at the Culinary Institute of America at Copia in Napa with a five-cheese pizza, and earlier this year he placed third in the Best of the Best competition at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas.
The Trupiano family's next generation has already begun appearing alongside him on the competition circuit. Tore and Damiano were among the U.S. Pizza Team representatives headed to Parma, Italy, for the 2026 World Pizza Championships, placing the father-and-son pair on an international stage before launching their first restaurant together.
For Damiano, however, Trinacria represents something different: his first restaurant location of his own within the family's broader restaurant tradition. The concept is intended to give him room to bring a younger generation's ideas and style into a business grounded heavily in the family's past.
"This isn't about following the latest pizza trend," the family stated. "It's about taking more than a century of family history and asking what the next generation can do with it."
Trinacria will occupy the existing restaurant space at 608 North Coast Highway, immediately north of Oceanside's downtown core. The address is currently home to Venezia Italian Cuisine, also listed online as Venetos Cucina Italiana, an Italian restaurant offering pasta, seafood, traditional entrées and pizza. (Uber Eats)
According to What Now San Diego, San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality records identify Trinacria Pizza Co. as the incoming operator of the space, with an opening targeted for September.
The transformation represents a notable shift for the property from a broad Italian menu to a business centered specifically on pizza. In addition to its four regional styles, Trinacria plans to offer beer and wine, dine-in service, takeout and online ordering, as well as catering and private and group dining.
The Sicilian component connects most directly to the family's roots, while the Detroit influence reflects Tore's upbringing in Michigan. New York and Chicago represent other stops in the Trupiano family's American journey, with California and Oceanside providing what the family describes as the final layer of West Coast influence.
That eclectic approach also arrives during a period when regional American pizza styles have become increasingly distinct restaurant categories in San Diego County, particularly Detroit-style square pies and thicker pan pizzas that once received far less attention locally than traditional New York or Neapolitan pizza.
For Trupiano, the restaurant also expands a growing Oceanside presence. His existing Mangia e Bevi has built its reputation around Italian food and pizza, while Trupiano has increasingly become identified nationally with competitive pizza through the U.S. Pizza Team. Mangia e Bevi continues operating in Oceanside, meaning Trinacria is being launched as an additional concept rather than a replacement for his existing restaurant.
The Trupiano family is leaning heavily into its history in introducing the new restaurant, summarizing the concept with the tagline, "Over 100 Years in the Making. Each Slice Tells a Story."
Trinacria Pizza Co. is anticipated to open during September 2026 at 608 North Coast Highway in Oceanside. For more information, visit tpcoceanside.com.
Originally published on September 1, 2026. Information first reported by Joey Reams of WhatNow.
