Lights. Camera. Pasta!
A member of San Diego’s first family of Italian restaurants is transforming three downtown San Diego eateries into settings for funny, cinematic short videos. Get ready for the dish behind the dishes.
Michael Busalacchi is a seasoned film and commercial producer. He’s the son of patriarch Joe Busalacchi. The family currently has three popular restaurants on India Street in Little Italy – Barbusa, Nonna and Lala.
Since 1983, the clan has opened and managed more than a dozen restaurants, mostly in downtown. According to Michael, there are close to 50 Busalacchi family members in San Diego and more than half have worked in the food-and-beverage industry.
“I worked every restaurant job from cook to washing dishes through high school,” Michael says. “I was always making videos. And I decided to go to Los Angeles to pursue that.”
In 2006, Michael set off for Ventura, where he attended the Brooks Institute film school and later partnered in a video business called Modern Artists Creative.
He interned at Paramount Pictures. Became a first assistant to a producer who specialized in rom-coms. Later, he produced music videos and did branded work for companies like Heineken. A reality show based on his family, called The King of Little Italy, was optioned but never got off the shelf.
Busalacchi came back to San Diego in 2016 to help his brothers, P.J. and Joey, open Barbusa. He was drawn back to L.A. and went on tour to shoot documentary footage of rapper Kendrick Lamar. Then, Covid.
Michael settled back in San Diego with his wife and two young kids. He’s active with restaurant management, and is feeding his creative side with a series of internet videos about the family business.
“The videos are Saturday Night Live-style situations,” he says. “Funny things that really happened at the restaurants, but are made a little more hyperbolic.”
He’s got 18 concepts written down. Eight videos have been shot (with Director of Photography Niky Matousek) and will drop weekly. Two are now up on various social media platforms, with the collection warehoused on Instagram.
“The videos will get more absurd as we go along,” Michael says. “There will be family interaction stuff. I want these to be different from all the food-and-drink-montage videos that every restaurant seems to create. They all look the same. I’ve seen enough of those.”
Word to the wise (and a preview of the first video): Don’t dine at a Busalacchi eatery and pretend to be a family relative. It happens. And posers get caught.
And…scene. SDSun
