Jack’s La Jolla redid their upscale dining room to an Italian venture called Viaggio. The menu features chef Tony DiSalvo’s homemade pastas and much more. Haven’t tried it, as it apparently just opened with little fanfare.

La Jolla based Burger Lounge comes to Coronado and will open their third location at the end of July in the old Island Wok space at 922 Orange Avenue. If you want an organic beef burger with hand-cut in house fries, this is your place. To top it off, they are now one of a handful of green certified restaurants in San Diego.

The Cohn Restaurant Group, that many say sets the bar in the city for middle-of-the-road food and service aimed at the mass market/convention customer, is expanding. They’ve partnered with Sunroad Harbor Island (a subsidiary of Sunroad Enterprises) who just got the go ahead from the Board of Port Commissioners for a $9 million overhaul of the former Reuben E. Lee floating restaurant, currently at the end of Harbor Island. Located conveniently next to the Cohn owned restaurant, Island Prime, the LEED certified restaurant will be designed by Graham Downes Architecture whose eclectic portfolio includes Nine-Ten, Chive, and the redo of its sister property Laurel. Along with Lesley and David Cohn, chef/partner Deborah Scott will operate the Lee. Expect construction to begin late 2009 and finish about 2011.

While we’re on the subject of the Cohn collection, as Buzz reported in May, David’s supposedly best-kept-secret-that-everyone-knew-about is finally out. Hard Work, Inc. (Cohn Restaurant Group) signed a 10-year lease for The Corvette Diner to relocate to the old Officers Club at the Barnett entrance end of Liberty Station. Renovation is underway on the space. And further up the coast, in the coming-on-oh-so-hip Oceanside, the Cohns will open a steak and seafood place called 333 Pacific in the Wyndham Oceanside Pier Resort on Pier View Way and Pacific Street. Expect to see the restaurant open by the end of the year.

The Cohns join others who find Oceanside the newest area ripe for restaurant expansion. Old Town’s popular Harney Sushi just opened their second very contemporary spot on the corner of Mission and Cleveland close to the pier. They have a sake bar, lots of sushi rolls and more. The place was very hip and hopping at their opening just last night.

Good fresh sushi can dent a budget so a couple of enterprising guys, grads from UCSD, Andrew Berlin and Gino Thiers, figured they could serve innovative sushi by deleting the customary sushi bar, thus saving on overhead. They created Sushi-Fix, in Carlsbad, a mostly take-out and delivery place, with a small sit-down area, in the Vons shopping center, just a few signals away from La Costa and the Forum shopping area. Thiers sold his share to Berlin and moved to San Francisco leaving Berlin solo. Their second location in Little Italy at the corner of Cedar and India Street is larger and perfect for the urban neighborhood.

A couple of things I really like about Sushi-Fix: you can order half rolls (4 pieces instead of so you’re able to enjoy a greater variety of flavors; though they use surimi (imitation crab), you can substitute real crab for an additional $1.25 per roll; and they present many of the rolls a bit differently by putting some main ingredients on top instead of in the rolls. For example: the Red Head roll is shrimp tempura with crab and topped with spicy tuna and tempura shavings. The Cobra roll has spicy tuna and avocado with unagi on top and a slather of eel sauce. A salmon skin handroll is crunch with the skin, cucumber, avocado and spouts and a simple salad of peeled, seeded, halved and thinly sliced cucumbers with a light vinegar dressing makes a good counterpoint to the various rolls. Two pieces of hamachi (yellowtail) sushi are fresh and buttery…the rice under each piece is without the dab of wasabi, which is served on the side with pickled ginger so you can add your own level of heat. Most of the specialty rolls run $6.50 to $9.50 for 8 pieces, figure about half that for 4 pieces. Nigiri for 2 pieces runs $2.25 to $2.95. All the food is very fresh and made to order–just in the kitchen–not in front of you. If you do eat in, it’s on paper plates. 7720 El Camino Real, Suite B, Carlsbad, 760-632-8787, 1608 India St., Little Italy, 619-237-7878 www.sushi-fix.com.

Ruby’s Diner, the fixture at the end of Oceanside Pier, is part of a restaurant chain, serving good typical diner food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Ruby’s first restaurant opened in 1982 on the pier in Newport Beach. It’s a 1940’s diner atmosphere, with good hamburgers and. As the longest wooden pier on the west coast (1942 feet), you can get a good workout walking to the restaurant. 1 Oceanside Pier, 760-433-RUBY (7829).