The most interesting Point Loma new restaurants of summer 2026 are not trying to detach the peninsula from its past. They are using that past as the brief.
The Boatyard is reviving the former Fiddler’s Green building at 2760 Shelter Island Drive. Corallino is bringing a new coastal Italian concept to the former Pummarò Pizzeria and Ristorante space at 1101 Scott Street. These are two familiar restaurant properties returning to use, though only The Boatyard is a direct revival of a longtime landmark.
That distinction matters. Neither Fiddler’s Green nor Pummarò is reopening under its former name. The incoming operators are taking different approaches to continuity: The Boatyard is preserving the social memory of a specific restaurant, while Corallino is drawing from the deeper fishing history around Scott Street.
Both are anticipated this summer, but neither has published a confirmed opening day. As of July 15, their official sites do not confirm that service has begun. Plans can shift, so it is best to treat both as forthcoming rather than make a dinner reservation around an unannounced date.
A useful correction: The Admiral at NTC is not one of the two summer openings covered here. Earlier reports projected a 2026 debut, but The Admiral’s official website now says the Liberty Station project will break ground in 2026 and is slated for completion in spring or summer 2027.
The history is doing more than decorating the dining rooms
Coastal restaurants often borrow the visual language of their setting. Rope, brass, weathered wood and framed nautical charts can establish a mood quickly. Point Loma asks more of that idea because maritime life here remains active.
Shelter Island still has marinas, guest docks, a public fishing pier and one of California’s busiest boat-launch facilities. The Port of San Diego estimates that the Shelter Island launch handles about 50,000 launches annually. Boats are part of the daily rhythm, not a historical abstraction.
Scott Street carries a different layer of that story. According to the Point Loma Association, early Portuguese fishing settlements developed near Kellogg and McCall streets in La Playa and Roseville, when natural tidelands extended inland toward present-day Scott Street.
During the early and middle decades of the 20th century, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and Hispanic fishing families helped establish waterfront communities around San Diego Bay. The San Diego History Center describes tuna as one of the city’s major industries during that period.
The Boatyard and Corallino are therefore working with two connected forms of local memory. One belongs to residents who remember a particular dining room. The other reaches back to the families and fishing economy that shaped the surrounding streets.
The Boatyard is restoring a social role, not only a building
Fiddler’s Green operated at 2760 Shelter Island Drive for close to three decades before closing in 2023. Its identity was clear: nautical surroundings, steak and seafood, and a familiar place within Shelter Island’s boating community.
The Boatyard’s own project materials describe the incoming restaurant through the phrases “chophouse roots, Fiddler’s Green soul” and “since the 60s, reimagined today.” That language sets an unusually specific expectation. The team is not merely occupying a waterfront address. It is promising to preserve the character residents associate with the property while creating a new restaurant.
The concept has been described as a “blue-collar yacht club.” The phrase is useful because it identifies the balance the operators are trying to strike. The Boatyard is intended to feel refined without becoming exclusive, with room for boat owners, deckhands, neighborhood residents and visitors.
Plans reported by San Diego Magazine include:
- Wood-fired steak and seafood
- Marina-facing dining
- A concealed cocktail space entered from the harbor side
- A captain’s-quarters atmosphere with old-school nautical references
The design is being led by Paul Basile, whose local hospitality work includes Morning Glory, Raised by Wolves, Puesto and Underbelly. His challenge here is different from creating a concept in an anonymous shell. The building arrives with decades of associations already attached to it.
The clearest sign of that approach may be a material one. A 2025 project update reported that original cedar from Fiddler’s Green was being reused in the renovation. Preserving actual material from the former restaurant gives the project more credibility than applying new finishes made to look weathered.
The local connections extend to the operating group. Cal and January Muir of Sail San Diego helped originate the project, and their charter company works on the same block. Whitney Eckis and Spencer Moran were also named among the original partners.
A later update named Jason McLeod as executive chef and Chris Wood as partner and general manager. McLeod’s San Diego experience includes Ironside Fish & Oyster, Born & Raised and Morning Glory. Wood previously held leadership roles with TRUST Restaurant Group and Ironside.
Taken together, those details suggest that The Boatyard is trying to restore what Fiddler’s Green represented at its best: a recognizable Point Loma gathering place grounded in the marina community. The new cocktail room and wood-fired cooking give it a fresh operating model, but the emotional proposition is familiarity.
Corallino takes the longer historical view
Corallino is not a revival of Pummarò. It is a new restaurant from Cesarina Group entering the former Pummarò space at 1101 Scott Street. The approximately 3,100-square-foot property will become the group’s third restaurant, following Cesarina in Point Loma and Elvira in Ocean Beach.
Chef Cesarina Mezzoni, Niccolò Angius and Giuseppe Capasso lead the independent, family-owned group. Before opening Cesarina in 2019, the team sold fresh pasta at farmers markets. Their restaurants have remained on or near the peninsula because the founders live locally and see the concepts as a way to share their Roman heritage with their own neighborhood.
Corallino means “coral” in Italian. Its official description draws from the textures, colors and rhythms of the sea, but the more substantive connection will be on the menu. Current plans call for regional seafood and an in-house dried-pasta program designed specifically for seafood-driven sauces.
That pairing gives Corallino a stronger Point Loma argument than coastal styling alone could provide. Italian cooking and local seafood meet on a street tied to the peninsula’s historic fishing settlements. The concept reflects the Italian and Portuguese traditions that helped shape San Diego’s tuna industry without claiming to reproduce a historical restaurant.
Limes Architetti, the Italian architecture and interior-design firm that worked on Elvira, is involved with the Corallino renovation. That creates continuity across the restaurant group while allowing Scott Street and the coastal seafood focus to guide the new room.
There has also been some confusion about the ownership. David Cohn is an individual financial investor, but Corallino is not part of Cohn Restaurant Group. Cesarina Group retains independent ownership and operational control.
The relevant story for Point Loma residents is therefore quite local. A restaurant team that began with farmers-market pasta, opened its first permanent location in Point Loma and continued investing near the peninsula is now interpreting the working waterfront through its own Roman perspective.
Two different kinds of preservation
The projects become more interesting when viewed side by side.
| The Boatyard | Corallino | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | 2760 Shelter Island Drive | 1101 Scott Street |
| Former use | Fiddler’s Green | Pummarò Pizzeria and Ristorante |
| Primary connection to the past | The memory and materials of a longtime nautical restaurant | The peninsula’s Italian, Portuguese and commercial-fishing history |
| Planned food focus | Wood-fired steak and seafood | Regional seafood with in-house dried pasta |
| Design approach | Chophouse and captain’s-quarters references | Coastal Italian identity shaped by the sea |
The Boatyard is practicing preservation through inheritance. It takes on a building with a strong former identity and selectively carries that identity forward.
Corallino is practicing preservation through interpretation. It is not recreating an earlier restaurant. It is using food, location and design to connect a new concept to the people and industries that shaped the surrounding area.
This is the shared wager behind both openings: Point Loma’s history still has practical value. It can guide menu development, material choices, service style and the intended relationship with regular customers. History becomes part of how a restaurant operates rather than a story added after the concept is finished.
What to watch before the doors open
With no confirmed grand-opening dates, the most useful signals will come directly from the restaurants.
For The Boatyard, watch for a formal service date, reservations and details about how the main dining room and concealed cocktail space will operate. The official materials establish the concept clearly, but the opening schedule remains general.
For Corallino, watch for a menu release and confirmation of reservations. Its official site still says early summer 2026, yet it does not currently provide a menu, booking link or announcement that the restaurant is serving guests.
That uncertainty does not diminish the larger neighborhood story. Restaurant timelines move, particularly when older properties and substantial renovations are involved. The thoughtful approach is to follow official updates and avoid treating a projected season as a guaranteed opening date.
Point Loma does not need a borrowed coastal identity
The strongest new neighborhood restaurants tend to understand where they are before deciding what they want to look like.
The Boatyard has Fiddler’s Green, Shelter Island and an active boating community to work with. Corallino has Scott Street, a local Roman-led restaurant group and the peninsula’s fishing history. Each concept has enough specific material to avoid becoming a generic waterfront dining room.
That is why these anticipated openings deserve attention beyond the usual summer restaurant list. They offer a practical test of whether two operators can turn local memory into places residents will use now.
For those of us who follow Point Loma closely, that is the more meaningful measure. A successful neighborhood restaurant should feel connected to its address, responsive to its regulars and confident enough to let the setting speak without overplaying it.
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