{"id":239644,"date":"2017-11-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/a-road-to-rome\/"},"modified":"2017-11-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T07:00:00","slug":"a-road-to-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/a-road-to-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"A road to Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>\n

While a steady stream of people followed their noses into Napizza in Little Italy, the eatery\u2019s largest location in Hillcrest had gone dark just days prior.<\/p>\n

In comparison to Napizza\u2019s additional outposts in 4S Commons Town Center and Encinitas, \u201cHillcrest wasn\u2019t making much money,\u201d said co-owner Christopher Antinucci, a Roman transplant who exposes us to crispy-bottom pizzas distinguished by low-glutinous dough that rises for 72 hours before it\u2019s stretched onto cookie sheets.<\/p>\n

\"A
Baja chicken panini (Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More water goes into the recipe than usual and the dough is never tossed or aggressively kneaded. The result is something that resembles focaccia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exactly how everyone makes the dough back home,\u201d he emphasized when I first met him shortly after Napizza expanded into Hillcrest nearly three years ago.<\/p>\n

\"A
A place for Roman-style pizza in Little Italy (Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Antinucci isn\u2019t fazed by the location\u2019s failure. Sales are thriving at the other locations, which will come to include a new shop in the revamped section of University Towne Center by the end of the year. As for his coveted, now-empty space in The HUB Hillcrest Market, he recently partnered with a \u201chigh-end chef\u201d from Rome and plans on turning it into a sit-down Italian restaurant in March.<\/p>\n

Back in Little Italy, Napizza\u2019s sheet pies are beautifully displayed with various toppings that include locally grown veggies, truffle pate, meaty Bolognese, tender potatoes and more. With their chubby, raised crusts, they\u2019re cut into sizable squares and appear painfully heavy. But they\u2019re really quite airy. Eat one slice and you won\u2019t thick twice about going further.<\/p>\n

My favorite is the \u201cspice me up,\u201d which puts sweet sausage and roasted red peppers in titillating contrast to fresh jalapenos. As with classic Roman pizza involving tomato sauce and mozzarella, as this creation does, both ingredients are used sparingly.<\/p>\n

Porcini mushrooms, truffle pate, parsley and a little mozzarella strike an earthy flair in the top-selling \u201ctruffle porcini\u201d pizza. Keep in mind that it\u2019s perhaps the driest in the lineup, with no sauce of any kind. Although a few drizzles of olive oil from your kitchen cupboard is all you need if toting it home.<\/p>\n

\"A
Mushroom and veggie slices (Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Conversely, the wettest pie in the bunch is the \u201cla lasagna,\u201d where Bolognese and b\u00e9chamel sauces join forces with judicious plops of mozzarella and grated Parmesan. Think lasagna without the pasta bloat.<\/p>\n

On this recent visit, I tried the Baja-style panini. Antinucci has lived here long enough to know that you can\u2019t go wrong combining chicken, jalapenos, bell peppers and avocado between toasty pressed bread. A layer of mozzarella gave the sandwich a courteous Italian essence, although I could have done without the generous smear of mayo inside.<\/p>\n

In a nod to herbivores \u2014 and the late Tijuana-based Italian restaurateur, Caesar Cardini \u2014 the salad menu includes one called \u201cI can\u2019t believe it\u2019s vegan! Caesar salad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
Caesar salad for vegans (Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Only because \u201cnutritional yeast\u201d is used to replace standard Parmesan cheese, I did believe it was vegan. Otherwise, I found the nut-based dressing delightfully creamy and rather lemon-y.<\/p>\n

The salads are made to order in eyeshot of the cash register from a station showing off fresh produce. They\u2019re a big hit here, as they were in Hillcrest. There are about 10 medleys to choose from \u2014 some vegan\/vegetarian and others spotlighting ahi tuna, hormone-free chicken or grilled Angus.<\/p>\n

Yet if you\u2019re looking for a week\u2019s worth of fiber and amino acids, the \u201csuperfood me\u201d salad yields a jungle of leafy greens and nutty grains amid cool slices of green apples and house-made basil-lemon dressing.<\/p>\n

\"A
House-made cannoli (Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With numerous pizza and salad possibilities in the offing, Napizza\u2019s dessert menu is limited to Nutella pizza, delicate cannoli made in-house, and tiramisu served in a little glass jar and sporting a creamy sweet-sour flavor. It\u2019s a uniquely odd version of the ubiquitous dessert, which an employee told us is outsourced from a local vendor.<\/p>\n

\"ANote: The menu is the same at all locations and features combos starting at $11 that allow you choose two food items plus a soda, draft beer or house wine.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Frank Sabatini Jr. es el autor de \u201cSecret San Diego\u201d (ECW Press) y comenz\u00f3 su carrera como escritor local hace m\u00e1s de dos d\u00e9cadas como miembro del personal del antiguo San Diego Tribune. Puedes localizarlo en fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":239645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"A road to Rome","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}