Our First Suspect: Pizzeria Luigi

Place:
Pizzeria Luigi
2121 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92104

Time:
Tuesday 7 July 2009
12:45pm

Investigation Led By:
Agents Joe, Justin and Billy

Overall Score: 6.5 out of 10

Breakdown:

Pizza: 6 out of 10

Bread: Pizzeria Luigi definitely makes a New york style pizza, so if you like the thin crispy style this is your pizza. I'm not a fan of the extra crunchy crust, which explains why, contrary to how I typically leave no trace of a crumb on my plate, a few remains of half-eaten crusts were left for the trash. Bubbles in the dough popped up on every other slice. My crust expert accompanying me to the scene informed me this was due to a lack of airing out the dough properly.

Toppings: The toppings were probably the best aspect of the entire pizza. We ate The Capone Special, which included peperoni, sausage and meatball. Clearly, this place puts the extra time into their toppings. The sausages were nicely slice as opposed to the typical sausage that comes in those unusual chunks found on the regular pizzas. The meatballs were sliced and sporadically layered onto the cheese. And nothing noteworthy about the peperoni. I was overall impressed with the toppings.

Sauce: There was nothing extraordinary about the sauce. This may be a good thing, however, since the sauce is usually only noticeable if it has taste defects. Good sauces tend to go unnoticed. But this sauce was so subtle that, on my first time around, I completely forgot to include this important category in the pizza breakdown.

Cheese: The cheese was the typical mozzarella; it had a good stringy tension. The cheese to bread ratio was appropriate. There wasn't a copious amount of cheese, and this complimented the thin amount of bread.

Condiments: Luigi's has an interesting selection of condiments, in fact, this is one of the best aspects of the place. They offered a garlic salt that I have never seen at any other place; it added a nice touch, but careful with the amount, it comes out fast and packs a punch with just a sprinkle. They also offered the typical condiments and they were of decent quality. One other condiment that stood out was Oregano. this along with the garlic salt packed a pleasant flavor punch.

Drinks: No beer. They had a selection of fountain sodas and lemonade. The selection was not that wide: about six or seven choices.

Atmosphere: 6.5 out of 10

Eye-candy: There's not too much to look at in Luigi. There are two TV's on the top left side wall that were set to some sports station, I believe. I didn't see a single picture on the wall. The walls are blank white all around accept for a fat red line, about 3 feet wide, that horizontally encircles the room.

Music: By far the best aspect of the pizzeria. I think the very general and vague genre 'Indy' captures the type of music played. As we walked in I was happily surprised to hear Electric Feel from MGMT playing. If I recall correctly, I also heard a Shins song, or at least a song of the sort that's reminiscent of The Shins.

People: We went in the afternoon. Across the room was a friendly enough gang of four college-aged men, who looked like they were auditioning for The O.C., but not going to get the call back. Near the window, two middle-aged men, one with a laptop, sat together. They dressed casually and seemed to be harmless. And, of course, a beautiful college-aged girl walked in just as we are finishing up. She was wearing a summer dress that nicely hugged her sculpted features and a cute little hat with a 360 degree brim. Her outfit is a testament to the profound effects clothing has on the determination of beauty.

Service: From what I could see, there were only two guys working. Both guys wearing typical street clothes and gave of a relaxed feel. The guy who rang me up, I'd guess his ethnicity Filipino, seemed to be having a good day. We watched, from our tables for a moment, the other pizza guy flip our dough (maybe that was the point where he should have aired out the dough a little better to avoid those bubbles). The pizza guys set a relaxed vibe and made ordering the pizza a comfortable task.

Price: The Capone Pizza was $17.50. I just got a water cup and Justin bought a soda, which brought the tab up to $18.50. So, apparently, sodas are a dollar; or at least a dollar when you buy a pizza.