"We finally passed our electrical inspection and got the greenlight to open," Joe Pruner told The Sacramento Bee in late August. The space he was talking about is 4801 Folsom Blvd., the old V. Miller Meats building. His Italian restaurant, Bocce, opened for regular service on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Four weeks later, on Sept. 30, Island Tacos serves its last day a few blocks east at 5088 Folsom Blvd. after more than twenty years.
On their own, one opening and one closing are the normal churn of a commercial street. This stretch of Folsom Boulevard has two more dates to add to them. OneSpeed Pizza's lease at 4818 Folsom Blvd. was reported to run through the end of 2026. The City of Sacramento expects construction on its Folsom Boulevard Safety Improvements Project to start in late 2026. The business lineup and the road layout are both being reset in the same few months. The people deciding the first one are committing to a street that hasn't been rebuilt yet.
Eighteen months between a butcher and a pizza oven
V. Miller Meats closed at 4801 Folsom Blvd. on Thursday, March 6, 2025, two days before its planned last day. Owner Eric Veldman Miller pointed to rising operating costs, wider economic pressure, competition from large meat sellers, and slower seasonal sales. At the time he said he didn't know what came next, though he thought he might stay in the meat business.
The next tenant took a slow, public route in. Pruner started doing pop-ups in June. He used them to try out the pizzas, sandwiches, pastas, and cold-case takeaway that would end up on the regular menu, while the restaurant got through inspections and permitting. He had hoped to open in mid-July, but inspections ran long, and the final pop-up weekend was Aug. 29 and 30. Abridged, the KVIE local news site, reported the Sept. 1 opening of Bocce Ristorante the same day.
Bocce isn't a small bet. Pruner was named one of the lead chefs for this year's Tower Bridge Dinner, and he planned to travel to Turin for Slow Food's Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, which ran Sept. 24 to 27. For the first month, the restaurant planned to be open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Pruner said Sunday service might come after that. That first month ends this week. Check the restaurant's own channels for October hours before planning a Sunday visit.
So a building that held a neighborhood butcher shop now holds a chef-driven Italian kitchen. It was signed, permitted, and opened while the City was finishing designs for the road out front.
Twenty-one years in a parking lot
Island Tacos operates as a stand. It sits in the parking lot of the Folsom Boulevard shopping center at 5088 Folsom Blvd., across from University of Beer East Sacramento and Trader Joe's. It opened in 2005 and is owned by Antonio and Maria Valderrama, who came to Sacramento from Mexico and run the stand with their family. The sign on the door says the owners are "deeply grateful for every conversation, every purchase, and every familiar face that walked through (their) doors."
Island Tacos opened in 2005 and closes on Sept. 30, 2026. That's longer than many of the businesses around it have been open. Its closing takes one of the oldest operators off the east end of the corridor in the same month a brand-new one opened on the west end.
The lease that has an end date
OneSpeed Pizza is the next business on this calendar, and its story is still open. In February, the Bee reported that chef-owner Rick Mahan's lease at 4818 Folsom Blvd. ran through the end of 2026. He was looking at other East Sacramento sites but hadn't committed to one. WhatNow Sacramento reported the same search.
Since then, OneSpeed's own website has announced a separate location in Terminal B at Sacramento International Airport. It said construction was complete and service was tentatively set for July 14. That post doesn't give a replacement East Sacramento address. As of today, Sept. 30, we haven't found a public announcement of a move date, a new neighborhood address, or a closing date for 4818 Folsom Blvd. The restaurant's site still lists service at the current location.
Bocce and OneSpeed share the 4800 block. One just signed on to it and the other is deciding whether to stay, both within months of the City's anticipated construction start on the road in front of them.
What the City plans to do to the street
The Folsom Boulevard Safety Improvements Project runs from 47th Street to 67th Street. The City says it aims to reduce crashes, calm traffic, and fill gaps in the bike network. The estimated cost is $6 million, paid for with local funds and state grant money administered by the California Natural Resources Agency. In June 2025, the City Council also put the project on its FY2025–26 SB1 funding list.
The changes depend on which segment you're on:
| Segment | Today | Planned |
|---|---|---|
| 47th to 59th Street | One lane each direction, center turn lane, bike lanes with gaps | Resurfacing, restriping, continuous Class II bike lanes |
| 48th to 53rd Street, eastbound | On-street parking breaks up the bike lane | Proposed in 2025 outreach: parking converted to buffered bike lanes |
| 59th to 65th Street | Two lanes each direction, no center turn lane, no bike lanes | Lane reduction, center turn lane, bike lanes |
| Full length | Existing signals and curb ramps | Signal modifications and curb ramp upgrades |
The parking row needs a caveat. The 48th-to-53rd conversion comes from the City's May 2025 outreach, when the project was in preliminary design. The City's current project page says more generally that continuous bike lanes "will require the removal of on-street parking at a few locations." We haven't found a final list of which curb spaces will go.
The City's 2025 announcement described the bike lanes as filling a key gap in the route between Sacramento State and the Central City. It also listed businesses along Folsom Boulevard among the expected beneficiaries.
Why "late 2026" is the date to watch, and why it may move
The City's project page says construction is "anticipated to begin in late 2026." The page has no update date. The May 2025 outreach set final design for summer 2026. A CapRadio report in June 2025 passed along a City estimate that construction might not start until 2027. We haven't found a public contract award or a specific start date for 2026. Treat the start date as a target, not a schedule.
The overlap holds either way. If work starts this winter, it starts in the same weeks OneSpeed's lease is reported to end and Bocce finishes its first season. If it slips into 2027, Folsom Boulevard's next business lineup will be mostly in place before restriping begins. In both cases, the businesses deciding now to come, leave, or stay are the ones that will be operating on the redesigned road.
Here's the short version of the corridor's dates:
- March 6, 2025: V. Miller Meats closes at 4801 Folsom Blvd.
- June 2026: Bocce starts pop-ups at 4801 while working through permits.
- Sept. 1, 2026: Bocce opens for regular service.
- Sept. 30, 2026: Island Tacos closes at 5088 Folsom Blvd. after opening in 2005.
- End of 2026: OneSpeed Pizza's reported lease term at 4818 Folsom Blvd. ends, with no new East Sacramento location announced.
- Late 2026: The City's anticipated construction start for the lane reduction, bike lanes, and signal work between 47th and 67th Streets.
Before construction begins, you can follow the project on the City's Folsom Boulevard Safety Improvements Project page, which lists the scope, funding, and schedule. For more on the rest of the neighborhood's dining changes this year, our earlier look at how J Street became East Sacramento's restaurant row covers the other corridor. The East Sacramento neighborhood page has the bigger picture.
If you live near Folsom Boulevard and want to know how a new storefront mix and a redesigned street could affect your block in the next year, Allison R Billings follows these changes and can walk you through them. Let's Talk Your Goals.
