It all began back in 1994, when Roberto Vigilucci opened a trattoria in Encinitas. That was his first venture into the restaurant business, although he admits a familiarity with food, learned in his mother and grandmother’s kitchen in Milan. The Encinitas trattoria was just down the street from a Thai restaurant he had managed for four years. Vigilucci’s Trattoria was an instant success and remains so to this day.
It wasn’t long before his Cucina Italiana opened in Carlsbad and shortly thereafter Robbie’s in Leucadia. That one was different, offering a fusion menu, huge TV screens and entertainment several days a week. Just to keep things perking, Roberto’s next challenge was right next door with an entirely different look: a floor-to-ceiling wood-fired pizza oven and full menu.
Another concept was developed for his Oceanside lot on Pacific Coast Highway “” an upscale restaurant featuring seafood and steak, the prototype for the newest jewel in his crown in La Jolla.
All of them have the same things in common: He and his wife designed and executed all of them; his long-time manager, Alex, is a boyhood friend, and many of his staff have been with him for 14 years. Consistency is the key, which brings us to the food: high quality, well prepared, with attention to detail.
My array of samples began with seafood salad (we’ll dispense with the Italian names for now), which was a delightful mix of octopus, calamari and shrimp, blended with e.v.o.o. (a la Rachael Ray) and fresh lemon juice, simple, light and absolutely delicious. And because I can never have too much calamari, the calamari Luciana was next: garlic, wine and a lovely tomato sauce just this side of fra diavolo. More seafood was my choice, this time scallops with saffron sauce bedded on spinach. The scallops were huge, moist and perfectly done, but I have a slight quarrel with the sauce, which was a tad on the salty side for my tastes.
Instead of soup I chose a dish of mussels and Manila clams, sauced with chopped tomato, garlic and white wine, a more than acceptable alternative to soup. Delicious! That was not all “” still in a seafood mood, I swung over to cioppino, a combination of mussels, clams, shrimp, calamari, scallops, fish “” which in my case was a perfect chunk of salmon “” along with a monster longostini all done in a fabulous tomato broth. Yum-o! Not having realized there was one in the cioppino, I had ordered the langostini alla griglia, and my companion and I shared a dish with two of them obviously on steroids, grilled and seasoned with herbs over arugula and chopped tomatoes.
Roberto insisted I try one of the meat dishes, ranging from filet mignon through porterhouse, New York strip, ribeye and all the way to pork chop, veal chop and rack of lamb plus several other offerings. So petit filet it was, served with my choice of side. In this case it was spaghetti aglio e olio, perked up with a sprinkle of chili pepper flakes. It was delivered as ordered “” my standing order is “burn ’em and turn ’em” “” and I left a tad over to dine on the next day. Just as delicious cold, as was the spaghetti.
Of course, that left no room for dessert, although the array offered was mouth-watering, but that is another idiosyncrasy of mine. Why waste calories on sweets when there is so much delicious regular food to sample?
Instead I’ll talk about the décor “” it gives off the vibe of classical Italian without being stuffy, with the wavy glass dividers, the Murano chandeliers and the peaceful water panel on the wall near the private dining room in the rear, which, by the way, has a pull-down screen for business meeting presentations. Best of all, there are two wine cellars, the second one for high-end bottles, ranging in price from $60 to $1,000.
For more information or reservations, call Vigilucci’s on Prospect (909 Prospect, Suite 290) at (858) 454-9664.