The one and only Tommy Gomes along with Mitch Conniff of Mitch’s Seafood opened up TunaVille Market and Groceries over a year ago! I have known Tommy for over a decade now and have some great memories of when he was at Catalina Offshore. I basically stopped going to Catalina after he left in 2019. And then of course Covid hit. And then Tommy Gomes got his own television show; the Fishmonger. Look him up now and he's listed as a "Television personality"…..well, at least they got the personality part right!
Anyway, a couple of months back Candice asked me if I'd like to meet her at TunaVille and I jumped at the chance! It would be great to see Tommy and interesting to see if time and "fame" had change him at all. Well, it hadn't, to me he's still the same old Tommy. I had a great time and have returned to TunaVille several more times, even when Tommy's out being a "personality"!
I'm just going to breeze thru this post since I'd like you to just drop by the place for yourself.
The shop is located on Driscoll's Wharf in Point Loma. Though getting there the first time using Google Maps was weird as I put in the address and it tried to take me into the gated Government facility there!
My best advice; if you have problems when on North Harbor Drive, just look for the vintage Driscoll's Wharf sign.
Park in the lot, you can get 1 hour of free parking from the machine in the lot. I park in Lot 'F'.
From there you head toward the water and Regatta Walk.
I like walking along the waterfront….a real "working" wharf. On Saturdays boats are selling their tuna along the wharf.
Unlike the owner, TunaVille is fairly discrete. Sometimes there's a sign outside, otherwise just look for this storefront.
On one of the days I visited, Tommy saw me coming and opened the door for me, waving me in:
Tommy: "See a television star is opening a door for you….."
Me: "Wait, I thought PeeWee Herman was dead……"
You get the picture! It's still Tommy!
The shop is spacious, clean, and wonderful…..
With lovely fresh seafood….I've gotten the wild shrimp from here a couple of times. And as always, Tommy is devoted to the local fishing community.
And prepared items as well.
But visit a couple of times and you'll see that there's a special place where Tommy likes to hold court.
It's at the table right across the dry aging cabinet.
Where Tommy will entice and ply you with wonderful samples of dry aged seafood.
And ever the showman, Tommy will extol you with the virtues of what you are tasting.
You can tell Tommye is in his element here.
And Tommy is really a proponent of what he call "seacuterie", basically charcuterie of the sea.
And strangely enough, the Missus has been into this stuff over the last couple of months too. Here's my last haul from TunaVille. BTW, the Missus loved those percebes that Tommy recommended. It brought back fun memories of Portugal.
And while perhaps his celebrity and success has changed him a bit over the years, he's still Tommy. Recently, I dropped by to get some Salt Farm Ghost Pepper Salt, but they were out. When I asked Tommy about when he was getting more in; he asked me to hang on a minute….and proceeded to call the company and order some for me! His heart is as big as his personality.
So, I'm now a regular customer, whether it's seafood, some stuff for the Missus's "seacuterie" dinner, or just to say hello (which can last up to an hour!).
It was good to see that Mister Grumpy Tommy was doing well!
TunaVille Market and Grocery
4904 N Harbor Drive Suite 102
San Diego, CA 92106
Current Hours:
Wed – Sun 10am – 5pm
Closed on Monday and Tuesday
Man, this location of Boston Market had been here forever! I decided to walk on over to see what was up….hoping that perhaps an interesting eating establishment was coming to this location. I should have known better. It's a chain swap out. At least it's California Fish Grill which claims serve only "Responsibly Sourced Seafood". You can read about 
Does the presentation of the sashimi look familiar? Well, it should. When I sat, I was told "Sashimi Kirk-san…." it wasn't a question, more of an affirmation.
Which kinda hit the spot. This was not bad. So, here's where it gets interesting. This was actually from a package, albeit with some "additions". A few months back, I saw some frozen ramen on sale at Nijiya at $3.99. I thought it was expensive (it's now $5.69). And having tried the Nijiya brand and other stuffs by Sun Noodle that I thought wasn't very good….still, I couldn't help myself so I bought 5.
dinner, She said, "I'd like some ramen…." So, my first thought was Menya of course. But then I remembered "FOY" Junichi's mention of enjoying having a bowl of ramen at Santouka. Santouka holds a special place in our hearts. We consider it to be the first "real" ramen spot to open in San Diego, which started what we call "San Diego's Ramen Renaissance" back in 2008. Over the years it's the 
Man, this was so much better than takeout. The noodles, which were the biggest issue with takeout was decently springy. Still not quite I recall it being in the "good old days", but much better.
We managed to get a high-top for two. And along with the standard menu, the menu del-dia was presented. There was a nice, easy going, yet joyous vibe here. Folks were having fun. There was a group of folks, it seemed like employees from a company having a "very" happy hour. They asked me to take a photo of them. Of course, being American, I told them to say "cheese"….perhaps I should have had them say "fromage"?
