Getting back into the swing of things after Christmas, and I thought I'd do a quick review from a place that I visited in Los Angeles. San Diego is definitely a town where good pizza can be found. Filippi's, anyone? Or if you're more into Neapolitan style, how about Buona Forchetta or Caffe Calabria?
One thing that this town is lacking, however, is a good place to land some soft serve. When I went to the Bay Area this fall, I was delighted to find so many places with organic (!) Strauss soft serve as a dessert option. Poured onto cones, and dipped in dark chocolate, then sprinkled with a tease of French sea salt, this was a grown-up version of the cones that I cherished as a child from Dairy Delight after Sunday School.
When I saw that Pitfire Pizza had Strauss soft serve on tap, we made a plan to visit the next time that we were in LA. Wood-fired pizza and soft serve? Is there anything better? 
Pitfire is a counter-service place, with lots of friendly people helping the customers have a great experience. There are several stores around the LA County area, but sadly none in San Diego. Besides pizza, they also offer panini sandwiches and pastas, but really, the pizza is the thing to get.
We are kind of lame when it comes to pizza, usually seeking a plain pepperoni or just a margherita. Of course, Pitfire offers all sorts of toppings and combinations, but we decided to stick with our faves. The pies are somewhat small, so two pies was perfect for three very hungry people.
The crust was puffy with the bubbly goodness that makes a pizza great. Chewy and crispy, it was a perfect example of everything done correctly. The cheese was a buffalo mozzarella, checkmark for using the best cheese for pizza. The sauce was a bit sweet, and homemade with the best canned tomatoes (the only correct way to make traditional pizza sauce in Italy).
Marghertia pizza tends to be my absolute favorite, as the ingredients are simple and the flavors have no place to hide. This offering of a classic was perfect, with a slight burn on the crust, and nice pieces of fresh basil.
And the raison d'etre, the soft serve!
Served in a dish rather than a cone, since it's a restaurant, the ice cream was everything that I wanted. Creamy, sweet, and slight thicker than frozen yogurt, with a more mellow flavor. The toppings were a bit of a disappointment, however. The soft serve was to come with dark chocolate and a sprinkle of sea salt, but this was doused with salt. So much that it detracted from the sweet richness of the chocolate. Twice the chocolate and a quarter of the salt would have made this dessert magnificent. Still great, but far from perfection.
1 comment:
Oh my goodness that all looks and sounds delicious!
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