Italian chef Giorgio Corletti plans Humili in University Heights

A new Italian name is lining up on Park Boulevard, and the draw is not just another red-sauce opening. Humili is planned for 4615 Park Boulevard in University Heights, in the former Red House Pizza space, with chef and partner Giorgio Corletti leading the project. The restaurant is still in early development and does not have an opening date yet, but even at this stage it reads like a deliberate move into one of San Diego’s busiest Italian corridors.

Corletti gives the project its weight. He trained under Gianfranco Vissani at Casa Vissani in Baschi, Italy, a pedigree that points to technique, sourcing and discipline rather than a shortcut concept built around a standard neighborhood menu. He has worked in Italy and the San Francisco Bay Area, and he is currently chef and partner at Nado Republic in Coronado, where he joined in 2021 before becoming co-owner with Sandro Lattenero. That path matters for Humili because it suggests a chef who is already operating inside San Diego’s higher-end Italian conversation, not testing the waters for the first time.

The University Heights opening also fits into a larger pattern. Corletti co-founded Decore in East Village with Giovanni Siracusa, and Decore opened in spring 2025 in the former Café Chloe space. That restaurant has already staked out a handmade-pasta identity, with dishes including oxtail casarecce and classic lasagna, and its name is said to mean “with heart” in Roman dialect. In other words, Humili is not arriving as a stand-alone idea. It looks like the next step in a three-neighborhood Italian group stretching across Coronado, East Village and University Heights.

That broader footprint could be what separates Humili from the flood of Italian concepts around town. The pitch is not simply that San Diego is getting another place for pasta, but that Corletti is building another outpost for a specific style of cooking shaped by Italian training, made-from-scratch discipline and a clear preference for housemade dishes. If Humili follows the same logic as Nado Republic and Decore, University Heights may be getting a more serious chef-driven pasta destination, with the former Red House Pizza address becoming part of a much bigger regional plan.