Forchettina

I told my wife I would take her anywhere she wanted to go for a birthday dinner, Pampelmousse, Jakes, Mille Fleurs, anywhere.

It was really hot here and we had a monsoon wind this morning. Neither of us felt like working. We decided to leave for the cooler coast around 3:00 and figure it out on the way.

She knew that she wanted to walk on the beach but had two choices for dinner, good pizza or roast duck curry at Bangkok Bay, a Thai restaurant in Solana Beach. "Why not do both," I asked?

Fine.

But where would we go for pizza?

I remembered a nondescript place in Encinitas, located in  a large strip mall on El Camino Real that Ron and Lena took me to. It had outrageously good pizza. It also had a connection to Buono Forchetta but I was stumped on the name. We drove around through the endless malls and looked for it but couldn't find it.

We called Lena and she said the name was Forchettaboutit. We looked it up but couldn't find it, maybe it had moved or gone out of business? 

No, Lena called with the address. 252 El Camino Real. It has a new name, Forchettina. But they wouldn't open for another forty minutes. That's alright, we would wait. 

We drove back up to Leucadia Blvd.and made the circle east again, maybe the third time.

The sign on the door suggested that reservations were required. The busboy told us that it wouldn't open for a half hour but that we were welcome to sit down outside on the patio. The owner finally arrived and we were on.

We started with grilled long stem Italian artichokes, carciofi. She had a rose prosecco, I stuck with water. 

It was a tough decision but we ordered the large parma pizza, with arugala, prosciutto and burrata. 

It was totally amazing.

We had been to Buono Forchetta on coast highway twice last year. 

The first time it was great, when we went with chef friend Melissa later it was less so. Inconsistent.

And then they had their well documented problems with ICE.

Well three months ago the new owners of Forchettina bought their independence from the mother ship. 

The young Sicilian owners Joele and his wife, could not have been any nicer.

And this is a great pizza and looks to be a very popular spot with the locals.

We ate about half the pie and realized that Thai food later was a fantasy that our stomachs could not cash, another time.

We had a lovely dessert instead, an elegant and understated ricotta, pistachio cake.

Quite yummy.

My go to pizza is still the Bronx in San Diego. 

But honestly the raw ingredients are better at Forchettina. In fact, Leslie says the whole pizza is better.

We will definitely be back and trying other things on the menu.