Buona Forchetta: A Taste of Naples in South Park

Sometimes the best places are the hardest to find.  Buried deep in the recesses of South Park sits a great little Italian restaurant and pizzeria.  Buona Forchetta.  A friend of Kyle's recommended it and we thought we would check it out.

Keep in mind, my pizza quest stems from my hailing from near New Haven, CT-home of arguably the best pizza in the world.   I suffered through a couple of decades of a pizza drought in San Diego, CA where people think Fillipi's is good pizza.  It's not.  It's average. It's doughy and its filling.  Half way through the first slice and I'm done.  It's not good enough to justify the calories.  That's actually my barometer for good pizza.  I'm not overweight but I could easily be.  I'm very careful about what I eat.  We avoid processed foods, eat natural, fresh local vegetables and limit our sugar.  When I treat myself to pizza it had better be good.  I know it's good if I say "screw it" and down more than two slices.  I'm very good at quitting before I'm stuffed.  I don't mind stuffing myself at Pepe's, Zuppardi's, Sally's or Modern in Connecticut.  I still need to try Mike's in West Haven.  In San Diego, so far, I'll pig out at Urbn, Bronx, Cafe Calabria, and now Buona Forchetta. 

I need to try Pizzeria Bruno again.  And there are many more. The drought is over.  Landini's and Napizza in Little Italy do a good job.  

I'm sure there is a story behind Buona Forchetta's authentic oven

My New Haven pizza background does not make me an expert.   I just know that I love it and I need it.  I've never been to Italy, so I have no expertise when it comes to authentic Neapolitan pizza.  I have had pizza in other countries in Europe. It was very good.  The point is I have a bias. The bias is:

But back to Buona Forchetta.  I have to believe this is close to what you would find in Naples. The owner is from Italy, as are most of the staff.  Our waiter certainly was.   We arrived around 6:00pm or so.   There was a line of people waiting to be seated and every table was taken.  The patio was full.  We would be eating outside on the patio because we had our dog, Roo, with us.  

I recognized an old co-worker from my Merrill Lynch days.  We caught up.  He highly recommended we order the artichokes as an appetizer.  I have to be honest. That didn't particularly excite me.  We had a 45 minute wait.  In the meantime we talked to people, window shopped at the neighboring stores and took Roo around the block. 

Seinfeld, party of 4!   Actually it was Steve party of 4, if you count Roo.  We were seated, outside.  It was a beautiful evening.  The sun was just going down.  Jets were flying overhead were just off of the flight path.  We watched the 7:00 pm daily British Airways 747 come in.  The restaurant is far enough away from the flight path that the noise wasn't an issue.  

Our Italian waiter greeted us.  Took our drink orders and returned with wine and a Peroni for me.  

The last piece of the Artichoke appetizer.  We fought over this one.

The patio was perfect.  I'm afraid it was pretty loud inside.  

There were three of us; me, Kyle and her mom, Mary.  We ordered the artichoke appetizer and two pizzas, the Regina Margherita and the Alexa.  The Margherita came with 

Buffalo mozzarella, Tomatoes, basil and extra virgin olive oil.  

Regina Magherita

The Alexa had rapini, scamorza, house made fennel sausage and EVOO.  Rapini is a small, bitter broccoli.   Scamorza is a smoky, cow's milk cheese similar to mozzarella.  

Alexis

Before the pizza arrived we got the artichoke appetizer.   I don't know what that did to it but it was amazing.  There were four artichokes. Pretty much the heart and the stem.  It was soaked in an incredible olive oil and garlic mixture.   Order the artichoke appetizer. 

Our Italian waiter delivered the pizzas.  I asked for grated Parmesan.   He looked at me like "really dude?".  I was like, "is that not done?"  It was fun and light, but he let me know that this sacred pie really should not be desecrated with the scourge of this filthy condiment.  I might as well have asked for catsup.  He followed up with letting me know the customer is always right and he would be happy to oblige me.  I relented letting him know I would accept his recommendation.   I don't think it mattered one way or the other.   I always put Parmesan on my pizza.  I didn't this time.   I've never heard of this.  I googled it but can't find anything that says this is " a thing". 

 I loved the Margherita.  Easily comparable to the pizza we had at Cafe Calabria the week before.  The crust was a little bit better here.  Again,the pizzas were the smaller, individual size pies.  Three of us has no problem finishing the two pizzas. People who have bigger appetites are going to need more. 

The Alexis was delicious as well.  For me it was better with out the rapini.  I found it bitter and not a great topping.  I took it off and are it separately.  The sausage was exquisite. 

An unsung hero was the Peroni.  It was perfect with the setting sun and great authentic Neapolitan pizza. Of course when you forgo New Haven pizza you forfeit your right to Foxon Park Birch Beer. 

I'm really enjoying this explosion of quality pizza in this town.  I still look forward toy pilgrimages back to Pepe's et al, but it great to know I don't have to go far to find a great pizza.  I just have to look and work a little harder. 

Caffe Calabria in North Park-a Delightful Surprise

How our groupon helped us find a great new pizza joint. 

There are so many great eateries in San Diego, both new and established. We prefer quaint,  unique one of a kind places.  Pizza hasn't really been a priority lately. I took a trip back to Connecticut a few months back and made sure I got to some of the best pizzerias on the planet. This time it was Pepe's and, for the first time ever for me, Modern Pizza in New Haven. I need to try Mike's in West Haven next chance I get. 

It hardly seemed worth the effort to look for a new spot here in San Diego.  We definitely are no where near the "pizza belt". The odds of finding worthwhile pizza are not 

My wife was on her way home from work tonight.  After a long week of beautifying the lucky women of San Diego she deserved a nice dinner dinner and drink. We were looking for a fun happy hour and came up with Tom Hamm's Lighthouse on the harbor. We'd just been there for dinner a few weeks ago to celebrate our 26th anniversary. Our first date was there in 1986 at a friend's wedding.  I know this because Kyle(my wife, she's a girl) tested me a week earlier and I failed.  I won't forget that one ever again.  

It turns out Tom Hamm's happy hour, which by the way features $1 oysters , ended at 6:00pm.  We didn't have time to get there so the hunt was on.  

"What do you feel like?"  

"I don't know, what do you feel like?"

"Why do I always have to decide?"

"Ok, then how about sushi?"

"Naw, I'm not feeling sushi tonight"

"WTF?"

Kyle had a groupon for pizza at a place called Brooklyn Pizza.  Never heard of it but why not?

So we headed over there. It was a small shop in a tiny strip mall at the corner of Texas and University. Next to the Olympic Diner. There was nothing exciting about the place from the outside.  One quick look and we decided we would save the groupon for another time.  Take out perhaps.  I'll let you know if it's any good when we try it. 

We were almost in North Park by now.  Our favorite pizza in town is Urbn Pizza. The owner, Jon Mangini has done a nearly flawless job of bringing New Haven to San Diego.  He has the two locations for Urbn, one in North Park and the other in Vista.  In addition, he owns Basic Pizza, near Petco Park.  Basic was just named Best Pizza in SD by SD Magazine.  I've never tried it. Not yet anyway.  Must go soon. 

So we get to the heart of North Park.  Man has that place changed, for the better, since we moved away a decade ago. The place was hopping. 

Parking was a bear. We ended up parking in the library parking lot after a neighbor told us it would be ok.   We walked a couple of blocks to University and came around the corner to Urbn.  The place was crazy. It was jam packed.  There is no recession in North park.  We found out it would be an hour and a half to be seated, an hour just to order a pizza.  

Plan C. We whipped out our phones and started looking

at nearby places on Yelp. Kyle found an Italian place called Il Postino.  We walked a few more blocks. Poked our heads inside.  It didn't excite us.  

Next door to Il Postino sits Caffe Calabria.  I've heard great things about this place, but only about their coffee. They were recently  voted best the coffee house in town, again by SD Magazine.  We peeked into the place.  I had no idea they were a full-on restaurant and pizzeria.  Just inside the front door was a guy rolling dough and working the pizza oven.   It looked interesting and we were getting pretty hungry so we stayed.  

The guy making the pizzas was right out of central casting.  When I first started watching him I mentioned to Kyle I thought the dough was pre rolled. It looked way too perfect.  Then we watched him proceed to make more.   He pulled clumps of dough, rolled it, sprinkled it with flour, pounded it and shaped into flawless pies. 

We ordered some red wine and a $5 insalata verde.  Best five dollar salad I've ever tasted.  Kyle ordered the pizza, a Quattro Stagioni.   All the pizzas are made Neapolitan style.  

Quattro Stagioni means Four seasons - organic san marzano tomato, prosciutto cotto, fior di latte, mushroom, artichoke, black olive, grana.  The sauce was quite possibly some of the best I've ever tasted- rich, just the right touch of sweetness.  The toppings were arranged into quadrants on the fairly small sized pizza. Every pizza served was more of a personal sized one.  I'm not sure, but I don't think they serve larger sized pizza. . 

We shared one and it was the perfect amount for two people who don't eat a lot.  The table of four next to us each had their own pizza.  We would have most certainly ended up taking half home for leftovers had we ordered one each. Between the salad, which we also shared and the small pizza we were perfectly satiated with just enough room to head down the street to Heaven Sent for a tasty dessert. 

Between the sauce and the delicious fresh toppings of organic tomatoes, prosciutto, artichokes, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese this pizza was nearly perfect.  The thin crust was tasty, but a bit soggy for my taste. I prefer it crispy and slightly burned. But it couldn't diminish the other flavors. 

The atmosphere has very a European feel.  We could have easy been sitting in a small bistro in Italy.  

One of the first pizza places I tried when I started this hunt was Pizzeria Bruno on Park Avenue.  I wasn't initially pressed, but I think it is worth a trip back to check it out again.  The oven and the style of pizza was very close to what we had at Caffe Calabria.   

Being from Connecticut has been a blessing and a curse.  My standard for a worthwhile pizza us high.  Very few places can stand up to the challenge.  Caffe Calabria stands up to the test.