![\"Lasagna1webtop\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Lasagna1webtop.jpg\")
<\/a>Here, the bill of fare is decidedly more commonplace \u2014 chicken wings, sandwiches, traditional pasta dishes and pizzas cooked in a high-heat oven left behind by the restaurant\u2019s original founder.<\/p>\n
Its new owner, Robert Zaitona, kept the name and concept, but elevated many of the dishes with organic produce and grass-fed beef. He also expanded the craft beer offerings from six to 24 taps while enhancing the wine list.<\/p>\n
He uses the grass-fed beef in meatballs, lasagna and Bolognese sauce. And his pizza dough recipe calls for \u201c00\u201d flour and less water for achieving a crispier crust. Though not as thin and delicate as others constructed similarly, it was well-structured nonetheless.<\/p>\n The Caesar salads we started with were exactly how I like them, made from the crispiest inner leaves of Romaine lettuce, and adorned with wide shavings of sharp Parmesan and oversized, house-made croutons. The dressing was exquisite, smoothly emulsified, and with a sweet-tangy essence accented by a tinge of anchovy paste.<\/p>\n An appetizer of double-fried jumbo chicken wings coated in Buffalo sauce didn\u2019t yield the crackly skins I expected when biting into them, but they were still a significant cut above the rubbery ilk I encounter all over town.<\/p>\n Zaitona says he deep-fries the wings for four minutes, and then lets them rest a bit before frying them again for another five minutes. In total, that\u2019s about three minutes longer than what most San Diego kitchens cook them for, and six minutes less compared to how they\u2019re traditionally made in my hometown of Buffalo, New York.<\/p>\n Our choice of sliced meatballs and green bell peppers on a 12-inch pizza proved savory, and hinted at Zaitona\u2019s Chaldean roots. The meat tasted faintly like gyros because of onions and Arabic parsley he mixes into it. With Belgian strong ale by North Coast Brewing Company parked alongside, we were in gustatory synch with the restaurant\u2019s simplistic, fully translated name, \u201cpizza and beer.\u201d<\/p>\n My lasagna-loving companion couldn\u2019t resist ordering Zaitona\u2019s four-layer recipe made with thin, imported sheet pasta. It was classic in the American-Italian sense \u2014 covered in vaguely acidic red sauce and mantled with melted mozzarella. Served with a slice of pinwheel garlic bread, it satisfied the craving.<\/p>\n With an appealing atmosphere and side patio shaded by copious greenery, Pizza e Birra offers a good bang for the buck, as prices across the board are reasonable compared to trendier establishments charging upwards of $20 for pizzas and pasta dishes. Here, the costs are half the amount, and for food that adheres to a respectable standard of quality.<\/p>\n \u2014Frank 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 ex San Diego Tribune. Puedes localizarlo en <\/em>fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":250502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Discovery on India Street","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250501","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\/816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a>The menu has likely expanded since our recent visit. In the pipeline were additional pasta dishes and sandwiches, plus desserts such as tiramisu and s\u2019mores bars orchestrated by Zaitona\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, Elizabeth Martinez, who learned the ropes of baking at an early age.<\/p>\n