Matthew Sieve didn’t set out to be a restaurateur. “I tried to get out of the business,” he laughs. He’d worked in his family’s restaurant since he was a kid, bussing tables and slinging orders, before heading to college to get a degree in nuclear physics, of all things.
“Nuclear physics would have paid the bills,” he says. “I just didn’t like it.”
So he did what any ex-nuclear physicist would do. He opened five restaurants in San Diego with Jeffrey Fink: Madison on Park, Sonny’s Pizza, two Madi locations, and as of this month, Josie’s in Hillcrest.
Sonny’s is Fink’s nostalgic New York project. Josie’s is Sieve’s love letter to his Minnesota roots. Named for his great aunt Josie, it’s his take on Midwestern hospitality: that down-home, small-town vibe that’s hard to pin down elsewhere. He has the experience to recreate it with San Diego style—his family still runs Traveler’s Inn Cafe in Alexandria, Minnesota, a local institution that’s been open since 1925.
“I just thought San Diego needed something like we have back home,” he says. It’s what people want—an easy-going, familiar, and affordable neighborhood spot that feels cozy, but not overly precious, and tastes consistently great.
Chef Learnel Williams will head the kitchen, using Sieve’s vision to guide the daytime menu and his own approach to the night menu once it’s introduced. (Josie’s will initially open for breakfast and lunch, with dinner service following a few weeks later.) Trained in classic French technique at Le Cordon Bleu, Williams’ resume reads like a star-studded call sheet: Eataly, Trattoria Dell’Arte in New York City, and Thomas Keller’s three Michelin-starred Per Se, which was named the Best Restaurant in New York in 2011 and one of Zagat’s top 50 restaurants in NYC in 2017.
Moving from Per Se to pancakes must mean the restaurant team isn’t playing around.
Expect a mostly traditional diner breakfast menu with items like eggs benedict, a Denver omelet, buttermilk pancakes, lox on rye, and biscuits & gravy (which, as a former Southerner, I am very much looking forward to trying). There will be twists of modernization like gluten-free pancakes and a hot honey chicken biscuit, but mostly, it’s tried-and-true comfort food to start the day. More inventive takes, like apple pie French toast bites, are meant to be shared—as if!
Beverage director Berto Villa has been with the restaurant team since Madison on Park opened ten years ago in University Heights. He’ll continue his run of caffeine-slinging creativity at Josie’s with traditional coffee and espresso drinks alongside his own concoctions, like a mango sticky rice matcha or sweet corn toffee latte. The restaurant group’s chief operating officer Tricia Rowley will keep Josie’s, well, operating.
David and Anna Sindelar of Archisects, along with design consultant Ryan Lemersal of CMNTHRD, developed the aesthetic for Josie’s, pulling in memorabilia from Sieve’s family history and blending it with an updated style. Burgundy stripes dominate the palette against classic chrome barstools, glass pendant lights inside, and lantern-style light fixtures outside. Look for pops of navy and cream among curvaceous wood booth frames (plentiful booth seating was non-negotiable, says Sieve). Finally, an old-school photo booth will tie the space together. The approximately 4,200-square-foot space seats 50 to 60 outside and around 110 seats inside, with the idea that the diner vibe will easily transition into a more intimate supper club feeling after the sun goes down.
“It’s a good blend of new and nostalgic,” Sieve says. Guests will be able to walk in and hear the clink-clank of silverware, see the hustle and bustle of the kitchen, grab a coffee to-go from the counter, and settle down with a newspaper from the provided news rack. Who says print is dead?
Josie’s opens on Thursday, November 12 at 1270 N. Cleveland Avenue in Hillcrest. Initial operating hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, with all-day service coming soon.
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