The Best Lead Yet: Pizza Port in Solana Beach

Place:
Pizza Port
135 N. HWY 101
Solana Beach, 92075
(858) 481-7332

Time:
Wednesday 8 July 2009
14:00 hours

Investigation Led By:
Agents Denise and Joe

Overall Score: 8.5 out of 10

Breakdown:

Pizza: 9 out of 10

Bread: The bread was of quality ingredients, and not a single bubble in the entire pizza. There wasn't much crust since the cheese and topping pretty much covered the entire pie. With a soft doughy texture, the bread was thicker and softer than the thin and crispy, angry and prude, New York style pizza bread.

Toppings: Denise and I opted to split our medium sized pizza into two different types. She went with the Carlsbad: an impressive pizza made with pesto sauce, grilled mesquite chicken, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and loaded with feta cheese. I went with the San Francisco figuring the people in San Fran know good eats: it consisted of a light layer of traditional tomato sauce, Canadian Bacon, pepperoni, bell peppers and onions. The menu claims that it also includes salami, but I didn't find any in my pizza. Of course, my excitement could have caused me to overlook the salami. Both Styles were delicious, although I have to give it to the Carlsbad, a pizza layered in pesto sauce rather than tomato, awesome. The feta cheese packed just the right kind of punch, however, at points there was such an abundance of feta that it was a little too much.

Cheese: The San Francisco was prepared with the regular mozzarella. The cheese to bread ratio was nice, I'd say about 35% to 65%. The Carlsbad, as I just mentioned, was heavily sprinkled with feta, a nice change of pace.

Toppings: Pizza Port was not miserly with there chicken chunks on the Carlsbad. The feta cheese and the artichoke impressed me, and I thought they were a unique touch. On the San Fransisco, all the toppings were layered under the cheese as traditionally intended, I believe. The meats, the Canadian bacon and pepperoni, were of good quality: not too greasy or plastic in appearance.

Condiments: The standard condiments: Parmesan cheese in a shaker and in little pre-sealed packages, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. I used both Parmesan and red pepper for my slices and thought it added a nice touch.

Drinks: Pizza port has an great selection of beers. In fact, they have an entire selection of their own beer they brew right there in house. We decided to buy a pitcher of their very own Heart of Chronic, an amber ale. We were not disappointed. Heart of Chronic had a nice malty taste but still balanced by a somewhat hoppy flare. Chronic, however, is by no means a hoppy beer, and that is why Chronic and I got along so well. Pizza Port has a fabulous selection of beers, form all over and from right there in house; this is the type of complex place that needs many revisits to cover all the ground they lay out. But the investigation must proceed, there are many pizzerias in San Diego. We cannot be tempted by every worthy place we visit or else surely we'll never finish our mission.

Atmosphere: 8 out of 10

Eye-candy: Pizza port has much going on to stimulate the eyes. I appreciated the wood walls and tables. The place is predominately made of wood. Some of the wood pillars and other beams had inch thick rope wrapped around them, sort of reminding me of the harbor and ships. The back of the pizzeria has a little area designated for arcade games. Enough games to keep the kids busy while mom and dad finish their beers. There was a slight family vibe there, and, indeed, I saw a few families while I was there. Thankfully the families don't seem to rule this roost, or else Pizza Port would be in competition with Chucky Cheese and we would have never went to investigate it in the first place. We sat outside under the overhangs made of palms and fixed with tube lights for what I figure would be mellow lighting in the evening. We looked off into the road and watched the cars drive by. Directly across the street was the Solana beach Amtrak Station, which gave me the great idea to tell my neighbor Nick, a frequent Amtrak visitor, to check out Pizza Port.

Music: We stayed until the end of a Jack Johnson song finished. The rest of the music could appropriately be categorized, as Agent Denise said, as 80's rock. I wasn't that impressed with the music selection, this was probably Pizza Port's biggest flaw, and even then it wasn't absolutely horrible.

People: As I said there were some families there. I thought the place was pretty busy considering that it was 2 in the afternoon on a weekday. But hey, it's summer time in San Diego, and no less in Solana Beach, footsteps from the ocean, so maybe that's understandable. There were a couple girls, probably in their late twenties, having a beer. I noticed that the middle-aged men, in surfer-type clothes were the predominant breed. While I waited for Agent Denise to get out of the bathroom before we decided on what to order, I let about 3 of these type of men go in front of me. Nothing wrong with this though, in fact, they were pretty nice guys. And, not surprisingly, I sat next to another one while we ate on the patio.

Service: We ordered our pizza from a friendly girl. She then ushered us to the bar for our pitcher purchase, where were helped by another friendly, a little more sassy, girl. Both girls, however, were pleasing to the eye. They seemed relaxed and cheery, but without being cheesy about it.

Price: Pizza Port did cause us to reach a little deeper into our pockets than usual, but the price could be argued to be proportional to the quality of the pizza and beer. We ordered a medium pizza split into two types for 18 bucks and change, tax included. I also added on a tip to that. Agent Denise covered the beer tab. A pitcher of Heart of Chronic ran about 14 bucks and change. So, we ended up throwing down about 32 bucks plus tip for quality pizza and beer. Not something I could afford on a regular basis, but worth it every once in a while.