Who will be making pizza at 4818 Folsom Boulevard next spring? Nobody has said yet. Across the street, the old butcher shop has become an Italian restaurant. Two blocks east, a taco stand that served the neighborhood for two decades has turned off its lights. The City of Sacramento also has a plan to turn the eastbound parking on these same blocks into a buffered bike lane.
All of this falls on the five blocks between 48th and 53rd Streets, between the butcher shop's closing in March 2025 and the road project's estimated finish in December 2027. By the end of 2027 this part of Folsom Boulevard is set to have different kitchens, different curbs and a different lane layout than it had in 2025.
The Butcher Counter Is Now a Pasta Counter
V. Miller Meats at 4801 Folsom Blvd. closed in early March 2025, CapRadio reported. The space went to Bocce, a casual Italian restaurant from chef-owner Joe Pruner. WhatNow described it as a neighborhood spot with pasta, pizza, sandwiches and market items to take home.
The opening took longer than planned. The Sacramento Bee reported that Pruner had hoped to open in mid-July. Inspections slowed things down, so he ran pop-ups from June on while the building went through permitting. "We finally passed our electrical inspection and got the greenlight to open," he told the Bee. Bocce opened for regular service on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.
For its first month, Bocce served the pop-up menu plus a few extra dishes. It was open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Pruner said Sunday service might come later. Those were opening-month hours, so check the restaurant's current schedule before you go. The cold case is the part that carries the most of the old shop's role. A building on Folsom where neighbors stopped in for something to cook at home still sells food to take home.
Pruner also has a profile outside the restaurant. The Bee noted he was one of the lead chefs for this year's Tower Bridge Dinner. It also reported that he planned to travel to Italy for Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, the Slow Food event held in Turin Sept. 24 to 27, once the restaurant was running smoothly.
Across the Street, a Lease With an End Date
OneSpeed Pizza opened at 4818 Folsom Blvd. in 2009. In February, the Sacramento Bee reported that chef Rick Mahan will lose that lease at the end of 2026. The landlord had earlier shown interest in tearing the building down for a multistory residential project, and the existing lease had to be honored through this year. The Sacramento Business Journal put the lease's end in January. By either account, it runs out around the new year.
Mahan told the Bee he wants to stay close:
"We definitely want to keep OneSpeed in its general area. That's where it started. That's where our customer base is. All the people that have supported us over the years, that's where they live."
He also explained what makes the search hard, and it lines up with what held Bocce up across the street. He said he would prefer a space that has already been a restaurant, because "the expensive part is the infrastructure, the plumbing, the grease trap, the hood vents, enough power going into a building." Bocce's last obstacle was an electrical inspection. For both restaurants, the hardest part has been the building's systems.
In February, Mahan estimated he was about six months away from committing to a new space. Two days after the Bee story, WhatNow reported that he was touring East Sacramento locations without having picked one. No new East Sac address has been announced since then. With the lease ending around the new year, OneSpeed's next home is the biggest open question on this block.
The restaurant has grown in another direction in the meantime. In July, OneSpeed announced that construction was finished on a location at Sacramento International Airport, with service in Terminal B planned to begin Tuesday, July 14. The Folsom Boulevard restaurant's website lists dine-in, takeout and delivery Tuesday through Friday from 4 to 9 p.m. and weekends from 3 to 9 p.m.
Two Blocks East, a 2005 Taco Stand Has Closed
Island Tacos at 5088 Folsom Blvd. closed for good on Sept. 30, 2026. The Sacramento Bee reported that the family-run stand opened in 2005 and was owned by Antonio and Maria Valderrama. The Bee's October roundup of September business changes also listed the closing. No new tenant for the address has been announced.
Not all the change on these blocks is on the boulevard itself. A short walk off Folsom, Pastry Cat soft-opened at 533 53rd St. in late April. The Bee described it as a Thai-American-owned, cat-themed bakery and café from owner Nariya Charoensupaya. In May it was open Friday through Sunday, though those hours may have changed since.
Over 2025 and 2026, the blocks between 48th and 53rd Streets lost a butcher, gained an Italian restaurant, lost a taco stand that had been there more than 20 years, and gained a bakery just around the corner. A pizza institution's lease ends around the turn of the year.
The Street Is Next
The City's Folsom Boulevard Safety Improvements Project covers Folsom Boulevard from 47th to 67th Street. Its stated goals are to reduce crashes, slow traffic and fill gaps in the bike network. The estimated cost is $6 million, paid with local funds and state grant money through the California Natural Resources Agency.
The City's project page describes the planned changes:
- 59th to 65th Streets: two lanes in each direction are cut to one, which the City calls a road diet, the countermeasure its Vision Zero plan rates most effective against speeding-related crashes.
- Center turn lane: a place for drivers turning left to wait out of the through lane. This stretch has none today, and the City links that gap to rear-end crashes.
- Continuous Class II bike lanes: these replace today's broken-up lanes, which drop out wherever there is on-street parking, mostly between 48th and 53rd Streets.
- Resurfacing and restriping, plus signal changes and upgraded curb ramps.
The bike lane gap is on the same blocks as Bocce, OneSpeed and the former Island Tacos. According to the City's May 2025 outreach announcement, the proposal converts eastbound on-street parking between 48th and 53rd Streets into buffered bike lanes. The open house presentation shown at Phoebe Hearst School counts 19 parking spaces removed across six blocks. It notes that some of the removals are also needed to meet AB 413 daylighting requirements near intersections. The City's project page links the preliminary layout sheets and renderings of the 52nd and 60th Street intersections.
The timing is less firm than the design. The City's project page still says construction is "anticipated to begin in late 2026." The City's capital improvement feed, last updated Oct. 17, 2026, lists the project in preliminary engineering. It shows a January 2027 start and a December 2027 finish. In June 2025, CapRadio reported that construction was unlikely to start before 2027. All of these dates are estimates and could move.
How the Dates Line Up
Put the two timelines side by side and they meet on the same blocks:
- End of 2026 or January 2027: OneSpeed's lease at 4818 Folsom Blvd. runs out, depending on which report you go by, with no new East Sacramento address announced.
- January 2027: the City's capital feed shows construction starting on Folsom Boulevard between 47th and 67th Streets.
- During the project: under the 2025 proposal, eastbound parking between 48th and 53rd becomes a buffered bike lane. The City has not published a separate date for that change.
- December 2027: the City's estimated completion date for the road work.
If the project goes ahead as proposed, whoever is cooking on this block in 2027 will be working on a street with a center turn lane, a continuous bike lane and fewer spaces along the eastbound curb. The project contact on the City's page is Assistant Civil Engineer Avtar S. Banwait, at [email protected].
If you own a home near Folsom Boulevard and wonder how a new restaurant, a lost parking space or a resurfaced street might affect your property's value, Danny Tejeda can give you a straight answer based on recent East Sacramento sales. Start with a free home valuation, then call Danny with whatever questions you have.
