In honor of National Pizza Day on Feb. 9, we are showcasing three popular pizza places in Pacific Beach with three distinct styles of pies. Ambrogio15 serves authentic Milan-style pies with paper-thin crusts, Powerhaus Wholesome Pizza and Eats offers gluten-free and vegan pizzas, and Square Pizza Co. specializes in Detroit-style pies with a thicker crust and heartier pizza.
AMBROGIO15
The restaurant’s two founders, Giacomo Pizzigoni and Andrea Burrone, are from Milan, Italy. They opened Ambrogio15 at 926 Turquoise St. almost six years ago and now have two other locations in Little Italy, and Del Mar.
“We’re super authentic and we replicate that in our product because everything we have and all the ingredients of our pizzas are imported from Italy,” said Fabio Rauscher Bascon, chief marketing officer of Milano 5 Group, the company that oversees all Ambrogio15 restaurants.
Ambrogio15 even imports flour from Italy to make its paper-thin crust, which is a little different than what you would find in an average American pizza restaurant.
“Our dough is quite nutritious, so it has a lot of minerals, a lot of nutrients,” he said. “Our goal is to make eating pizza a little more healthy and not just a type of food that you eat on a Sunday night at home on your couch, essentially.”
The North Pacific Beach location has more than 20 types of pizzas, as well cold cuts, cheese, and some traditional Italian appetizers and salads, like focaccia, and antipasti. For more on Ambrogio15, visit ambrogiopacificbeach.com.
POWERHAUS WHOLESOME PIZZA AND EATS
Anisha Blodgett founded the restaurant at 1550 Garnet Ave. in 2019 with the goal of making eating healthy pizza both simple and enjoyable. Blodgett consulted with naturopathic doctor Emily Poccia of Wildcraft Medicine to create a menu with maximized nutritional benefits.
“We’re known for our pizzas, smoothies, wraps,” said Melissa Lopez, one of the leads at Powerhaus. They also have salads and more recently, alcoholic beverages.
Their location is bright and airy, with large garage doors that open onto the sidewalk, making an enjoyable indoor or outdoor dining experience. Powerhaus offers gluten-free crusts and vegan options, including vegan chicken and mozzarella, as well as more traditional pizza.
“We even have a whole grain [crust] that’s high in protein,” said Lopez. “Our garlic herb crust is our main crust. We have the gluten-free and we even have a cauliflower crust.”
In honor of National Pizza Day, Powerhaus is partnering with San Diego artist Abeeha Awan and PizzaDAO, a community of digital artists creating pizza NFTs. They will be celebrating the launch of the NFT sale with a meet-up on Feb. 9 from 6-8 p.m. The goal is to raise funds for pizza parties at low-income San Diego schools. If you’d like to nominate a classroom, reach out to [email protected]. For more on Powerhaus, visit powerhauspizza.com.
SQUARE PIZZA CO.
Frederico Santos has been in the pizza business for about 17 years and moved to San Diego from Boston to start Square Pizza Co. At 4508 Cass St., which specializes in Detroit-style pizza.
“It started at a place called Buddy’s Pizza in Detroit,” Santos said. “It’s essentially a Sicilian pizza with crispy cheese to the edges.”
The pizza has a thicker focaccia dough, cooked in pans that were originally used in the auto industry and held things like bolts in the assembly line.
Square Pizza Co. also serves Boston Beach Pizza, something that Santos grew up with. It is a thinner Sicilian pizza and again, the pan it is baked in plays an important role.
“The pans are very large,” he said. “They’re 29 inches by 19 inches.”
Square Pizza Co. also offers an upside-down Sicilian pizza, a recipe Santos discovered on a trip to Brooklyn where he first tried the unique pizza. The cheese goes on the dough first, then the sauce on top of that.
“It blew my mind because it was so backward,” Santos said. It was so good that he decided to make his version.
Santos opened Square Pizza Co. because he saw a need for more pizza variety in San Diego. “This is something that can add to the neighborhood instead of taking away from,” he said. “My idea was to come in and be part of the pizza movement, so to speak.”
They also offer a few vegan and gluten-free pizza options and cannolis for dessert. Visit squarepizzaco.com for more about the restaurant.
Not that anyone needs a reason to eat more pizza, but National Pizza Day is the perfect excuse to support these or some of the other pizza restaurants in your neighborhood.
