Tunaville Market and Grocer: Where Local Fish Meets Community
Posted on April 7, 2026 by Local Fish
We sat down with Sunny Trent, a key force behind Tunaville since its earliest days, working alongside founder and TV personality Tommy Gomes.
There are fewer and fewer places where seafood feels like it belongs to the place you’re standing. At Tunaville Market and Grocer, that connection is still intact. Tucked along the working waterfront in Point Loma, the market sits just steps from where boats unload on a daily basis.
The deli case is filled with local Rockfish, Yellowtail, and Halibut as well as longer-range options like Bigeye Tuna and Ono. A curious customer leans over the counter, asking about spiny lobster season. It’s closed until next fall, but consumers are curious in a way Sunny and Tommy have never seen before and that’s progress. Beyond seafood, there’s lots of other curated retail items available from t-shirts and dish towels to pasta and rice.
“I’d say only a small number of people come in just looking to grab what they already know,” Sunny says. “Most of our customers are really inquisitive. They want to know what’s fresh, what’s local, who caught it, where it’s coming from.”
“That’s the cool part for us. It becomes full circle. We’re not just providing local seafood, we’re also getting to educate people about it.” That curiosity shifts everything. It turns a simple purchase into something more connected. Because when fish is local, it’s not anonymous.
“It’s so much more than just, ‘here’s a tuna steak,’” Sunny says. “There are a lot of hands behind that.” And that understanding is growing.
“I think before, some people had an idea, but now there’s a much better understanding. A lot of it is just, you don’t know what you don’t know.”
“We’re seeing more new customers come in, and they’re leaving more confident, more informed. There’s definitely a shift happening; not just with our customers, but in the community as a whole.”
For Sunny, the role goes beyond simply selling fish. “It’s so much more than just selling seafood,” she says. “There’s sustainability, there’s relationships, there’s pride in providing a really high-quality product; not just in flavor, but in what people are putting into their bodies.”
“On a personal level, it’s really important for me to be part of this movement… being able to connect people to a truly fresh, wild product. It means a lot.”
When local seafood is visible, when someone takes the time to say this is what’s coming in, this is who caught it, this is how you cook it, it creates a ripple effect. People start to care. They start to seek it out. They start to understand.
And that care doesn’t just stay in the kitchen. It supports fishermen. It strengthens small businesses. It keeps a working waterfront alive.
Places like Tunaville remind us that seafood doesn’t have to travel far to matter. In fact, the closer it is, the more it seems to mean.
If you’re in San Diego, stop by Tunaville Market and Grocer, say hi, ask what’s coming in, and see what local seafood looks like up close.
