Two East Village Restaurant Spaces Near Petco Park Have New Concepts

Two restaurant spaces near Petco Park changed in the past two years. City Tacos closed its East Village location, and Basic Bar & Pizza moved to another nearby address.

The two stories offer a comparison of what happened next at their former locations: a new food-and-drink concept opened at each.

The corner that used to be City Tacos

As reported by the Times of San Diego, City Tacos opened its East Village location at 323 Seventh Avenue in March 2020, days before California's statewide shutdown order, and somehow turned that timing into a five-year run steps from Petco Park's Gaslamp Gate. The shop operated under a sublease from J Street Hospitality that was originally set to run through 2026. It never got the chance to finish that lease. On May 1, 2025, the San Diego Padres exercised a buyout of the lease rights and chose not to renew the taqueria's tenancy. Founder Gerry Torres closed the doors for good on June 30, 2025, after one final homestand against the Royals and Nationals.

Torres also offered a response.

In the Times of San Diego, Torres said, "We were given minimal notice, but it's hard to be too upset at our hometown team."

The space, inside the historic 1913 Simon Levi Building, spent the rest of 2025 hosting short-term pop-ups, including a Labubu boutique and a Pac-Man Cafe during Comic-Con, before opening in January 2026 as The Diamond Room, an upscale cocktail lounge built as a joint venture between the Padres' own hospitality arm, Finest Collective, and Patina Group, the Delaware North division that already runs premium dining inside the ballpark. The menu leans into shareable small plates rather than tacos: a Korean-style corn dog made with Snake River Farms wagyu beef, kimchi, and spicy mayo runs $16, fondue for two is $24, and deviled eggs with caviar land at $18. It is open year-round with no game ticket required, which is a meaningful shift from a taqueria that lived and died by the Padres' home schedule.

Two blocks over, another change of operators

The other corner offers a second example of a restaurant space near the ballpark changing operators.

Basic Bar & Pizza opened at 410 Tenth Avenue in 2006, when East Village was still mostly warehouses and Petco Park was two years old. Under founder Jon Mangini, Basic built a nearly two-decade reputation as the pregame stop for New Haven-style pizza, including a mashed potato and bacon pie that became something of a local legend. The building itself, a 1912 structure originally built to manufacture airplane parts, had been owned by the Senescall family since the 1980s. When Basic's lease came up, the family chose not to renew it. Instead, Maxwell Senescall, a chef with kitchen experience at Bar Boulud in New York and Juniper & Ivy in San Diego, opened his own pizza and cocktail concept in the same building.

Far Corner Bar & Pizzeria opened on March 27, 2025, timed deliberately to coincide with the Padres' home opener. The 4,000 square foot space was divided into a sunlit dining room, a DJ-equipped bar, and a leather-lined lounge, and the pizzas moved from Basic's New Haven style to 15-inch pies built on dough that rises 48 hours. Far Corner opened in the former Basic space with a pizza-and-cocktail concept of its own.

Basic did not disappear. It relocated to a new ground-floor unit inside the Park 12 high-rise at 100 Park Plaza, a few blocks from its original address, targeting a reopening timed to the start of the 2026 Padres season. On its own website, the team behind Basic put the move plainly, noting they were not happy about leaving their spot at Tenth and J after twenty years but were glad Park 12 gave them a new home on the other side of the ballpark.

A comparison of the two locations

The two locations offer a comparison of how restaurant spaces near the ballpark changed operators.

In both cases, a restaurant tenant left a prominent East Village storefront and a new food-and-drink concept opened there. The Diamond Room is a joint venture between the Padres' hospitality arm, Finest Collective, and Patina Group; Far Corner was opened by Maxwell Senescall in his family's building. Together, the examples show different arrangements at the two spaces.

What it actually means if you eat there

For a resident who walks past both corners a few times a week, the practical differences are worth knowing before you show up expecting the old menu.

The Simon Levi Building corner has gone from a counter-service taco stop to a sit-down cocktail lounge. Diamond Room does not require a game ticket, but it is built for lingering rather than grabbing a quick bite on the way to your seat, and the price point moved up with the concept.

The Tenth Avenue corner still functions as a pizza-and-bar pregame spot, just under new ownership and a new name. Far Corner kept the same basic job the building has done since 2006, pizza, cocktails, walking distance to the gate, while changing almost everything about the execution, from the dough to the room layout to who owns the register.

If you were loyal to the old Basic recipe specifically, it is not gone. It moved to Park 12, close enough to walk from most of East Village, and reopened under the same ownership that built the original following over twenty years.

What to watch next

Two corners do not establish a citywide trend. They show that restaurant uses and operators have changed at these East Village locations near the ballpark. Whether similar changes occur elsewhere nearby remains to be seen.

If changes to restaurant spaces and operators in your neighborhood have you thinking about where East Village fits into your own plans, whether that means buying here, selling a place you've owned since before Petco Park's expansion, or just understanding what these changes mean for property values on your block, San Diego's Favorite Team has been tracking neighborhood changes across the city for exactly this reason. Start your San Diego home plan and get a tailored consultation whenever the timing makes sense for you.