Brand New Pizza Port in Ocean Beach!

Place:
Pizza Port in Ocean Beach
1956 Bacon Street
Ocean Beach 92107

Agents:
Nick, Gabe, Nadar and Joe

Overall: 9 out of 10

Pizza: 8.5 out of 10

Atmosphere: 9 out of 10

Who would of thought about placing a Pizza Port in Ocean Beach: Brilliant! And apparently if the crowds are any indication, the locals also think it's brilliant. The same great pies and brew found in the Solana and Carlsbad ports are now available in OB. Each port carries its own style, but the people and the staff in OB by far are the coolest cats.

We started off with a large Monterey, hold the mushrooms, but add some sausage instead. The rest of our Monterey was traditional and decked with pepperoni, onions and loads of artichoke hearts. This pie was packed with toppings, which made it difficult to taste even the slightest hint of bread. Of course, the focus on toppings is typical of California style pizza.

Next up was a large pie split with one side the Lahaina, and the other the Laguna. The Pizza Lahaina is their original Hawaiian-style pizza. No pizza can be in this category without pineapple, but they also topped it with Canadian bacon, bell peppers and onions. I'm not a huge fan of the Hawaiian pizza, but this pie was done well. The cheese was oozy, the toppings were fresh and the bread wasn't soggy from excess grease or sauce.

The Pizza Laguna was cheesy vegetarian pie loaded with with black olives, which dominated the scene. Lurking in the background were a few other key players: mushrooms, onions and artichoke hearts, but much less artichoke than the Monterey. This was the only pizza that had functional issues. The crust was soggy and made it difficult to hold and to enjoy. To their credit, the sogginess was not from excess grease in the pizza, a cardinal pizza sin. No, the most likely culprit is an overly watery sauce.

The newly formed staff were some of the friendliest people I've ever dealt with on a pizza excursion. The guy on the mic shouting out orders was more hits than misses on the quips he threw out, and the couple serving up the pitchers were all smiles. And like Port Carlsbad, they had their brew tanks on show, which really sets the pizza port vibe. One helpful piece of advice: If you plan on ordering beer AND pizza, get them both at the beer register. They only allow pizza purchases at the pizza register, but the beer line you can buy brew and pie.

Pizza Port: Round Two in Carlsbad

Place:
Port Carlsbad
571 Carlsbad Village Dr.
(760) 720-7007

Time:
5pm (the day after the winter solstice, so it was dark and felt late)
22 December 2009

Investigation Led By:
Agents Devon, James and Joe

Pizza:
7.5 out of 10

Atmosphere:
7 out of 10

While the pizza at Port Solana was some of the best pizza yet investigated, its sister port, Port Carlsbad, proved itself to be the Cinderella, only without a fairy god mother. We've had our eye on this pie factory for months, since late last summer, in hopes for an experience that sequels Port Solana. The pizza was good, the people are nice (and no doubt eye-candy), but nothing extraordinary. With all the many pizzerias around San Diego, Port Carlsbad does not warrant further investigation. Perhaps our anxiety to visit Port Carlsbad placed our expectations at an unreasonably high level, or after a dozen investigations our taste for good pizza is dull and needs honing. Perhaps, but our experiences are all that we experience, and this review is based on those experiences.

We decided to split a large pie, half with Vallarta and the rest with the Solana. The Pizza Vallarta consists of Canadian bacon, olives, onions, and jalapenos. The Pizza Solana is a seafood special containing shrimp, clams, onions, bell peppers and mushrooms. We learned after digging in that the Solana seafood style did not mesh well with the spicy Vallarta. The notable points about the Vallarta were the spicy jalapenos and the Canadian bacon. The Vallarta is definitely spicy, so those of the faint of heart look out. And the combination of Canadian bacon and jalapenos was original and nicely complimented each other. The shrimp and claims on the Solana, however, did not seem to have the same fate. The seafood pizza was new, but their compatibility seems more like a struggle for something new rather than something delicious. Agent James thought the pizza was good, and it may be the seafood pizza requires a certain mindset going in.

The pizza bread was whole grain and properly cooked. Both the crust and the bottom had a crunchy outer shell and the inside was tender, soft and had just the right amount of chewy texture. The mozzarella cheese was stringy and not too greasy. The greasy factor is a sort of feature you notice only after having dealt with grease problems. The grease factor for pizza is analogous to what people say about sex: you don't really notice it until you're not getting any. But in the case of the grease factor it should actually be: you don't really notice it until it is ruining a slice of pizza. The bottom of our pizza stayed crunchy until the last piece was in our mouths. We had no soggy crust issues due to excess grease.

I asked Agent Devon, being our in-house architect, what he thought of the structure of Port Carlsbad. He was not very impressed and replied by saying something along the lines that Port Carlsbad's outstanding architectural feature is its lack of architecture. And after he made that point it was clear that we were in basically a large box. Nonetheless the interior design made up for this lack of architecture, so it wasn't as bad as our critical architect made it out to be.

The theme, naturally, was surfing. Half a dozen long boards hung from the high ceilings, and black and white pictures of people surfing in what looked like the 1960's were hang up around the tables. The bar and the tables, and pretty much all other furniture was polished wood. Near the front door toward the bar sat a giant brewing tank. The music was difficult to hear, the volume was low and the crowd murmur high. From what I could make out it didn't sound like we missed much. I asked Agents Devon and James what type of music they were playing. Devon said "beachy music" and James said it sounded like 1980's country. I don't think those two analyzes are compatible with each other, but this will give a feel for what we were half listening to. The pizza ports are not only known for their pizza, but for their own handcrafted beers. In fact, pizza port is making a name for themselves nationally after recently taking home some awards from a prestigious beer festival in Denver.

So, we decided to see what all the fuss was about. Agent Devon suggested that we order the Chronic, but I told him that we investigated that beer in Solana. We took a second look over their brews and opted for the Sharkbite, a hoppy ale that promised its bite. I wasn't sure how it would go wiht the beer, but I already felt like the beer choice was taking too long and had to act fast. Fortunately, the beer and pizza worked together well, even if the beer overpowered the pizza pound for pound.

We were helped by a short brunette when ordering our pizza who was friendly, and worked with me through my embarrassing moment when I could not figure out the proper amount of tip to write on the receipt. I asked her if she could just fill it out for me, which in hind sight was a ridiculous thing to do, but that is what happened. I ended up taking the receipt back, focusing for a moment, and writing down the tip like a normal human being. We then migrated over to the bar where e were helped by a sexy blond with a nice smile, who directed us to the list of their own hand crafted brews.

Port Carlsbad is a bit pricey but this seems to compensate for the quality. I wouldn't say that Port Carlsbad is overpriced, like a $300 umbrella I once found in Banana Republic. A large pizza ran about $23 and a pitcher of beer about $17. And this is a sort of place where the pizza AND beer are a must. You cannot have the one without the other.

Classic California Style: CPK

Place:
Fashion Valley Mall
7007 Friars Road
(619) 298-4078

Time:
Tuesday 25 August 2009
21:00

Investigation Led By:
Agents Nick, Chastity, Nader, Nader’s girlfriend Melissa, her two guy friends and Joe

Pizza:
8.5out of 10

Atmosphere:
7 out of 10

The development of the California pizza style is shared between California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) and Spago’s. The idea was to bring gourmet ambition into an originally classified peasant food. For better or worse, these ambitions led to the California style of pizza. I happen to be one of those who are not completely on the boat with the gourmet idea. The notion of having gourmet food is a great idea, but the pretentiousness that comes along with it may not measure up to the advancement of the pizza. CPK dose bake a good pie in California style, but the concomitant atmosphere adds an unfortunate aspect to the tradition of pizza.

Pizza is originally a peasant food, but you’d never know it if you ate at CPK. In this way, CPK is similar to the frequent stories of professional athletes, who came from the slums and rose up to athletic greatness. Having achieved the success and money that comes with this recognition, these athletes soon forget their roots and begin to live as though they never had a history. As a result they tend to lose good friends and even distance themselves from their family. Ultimately, they become unhappy since they begin to lose what is really needed to sustain a good life. CPK are these professional athletes in the pizza world. As I sat in their restaurant, it almost seemed inappropriate to talk about how pizza was originally a peasant food. After all, the fabulous bar was tended by, what seemed like, a knowledgeable sommelier uncorking a variety of wines. To be fair, the atmosphere CPK presents to its customers is a nice sit-down restaurant that is not out of range for the occasional visit of the lower middle class. But the attempt to bring the democratic nature of a slice of pizza into the realm of an elite food does not digest well.

The California style is a variation of the Neo-Neopolitan style pizzas. Naples will be our starting point for the development of pizza even though it has earlier origins that go back to Greece. When Italians immigrated to America so did their culinary tradition. The New York style is a variation of the pizza made in Naples, hence the name Neo-Neopolitan for the New York style (there are also other styles, such as the pies in New Haven, that are also classified under Neo-Neopolitan style). The New York style is a large thin crust pizza, whose pizza bread is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. My paradigm example of New York style pizza in San Diego is Bronx pizza. The focus is on producing a quality pizza bread. The toppings are a bonus, not the center piece. This encompasses the more traditional idea that pizza is basically just bread with a little something on top. This is where the California style differs. The focus on California style pizza is the toppings. The idea is to place unique, sometimes heavy, sometimes fairly sophisticated toppings on pizza. The spotlight moves from the bread to the topping in California style. The emphasis on bread seems to move away from creating delicious bread to creating a bread that is at least good enough so that it will not interrupt the eater’s enjoyment of the fantastic toppings. The central difference from a New York style pie and a California style pie is the shift of focus from the bread to the toppings.

By far the most impressive aspect of CPK was the beautiful fired oven. We sat at a table the allowed me to stare at it while the conversation went on around me. I say it was a fired oven because I’m not sure exactly what was fueling it. If I had to guess I would say gas since the flame was bright and powerful the entire time we were there. The rest of the place was also thoughtfully constructed. The restaurant tables were a light tan polished wood and separated from each other by panes of glass. The numerous pictures on the wall were of cartoonish renderings of pizza ingredients and words too small to make our from our seats.

The people around us were of a mixed variety. Directly behind us sat a couple of girls that looked to be in their mid twenties, young and single most likely. I figured they were either in college living on loans or off the wallets of Mom and Dad, or just got a real job and making the transition from having nothing in college to having more money than they are accustom to spending. Two middle-aged men sat at the door. They appeared to be professionals of some sort, perhaps engineers with a devious hint of the capitalist spirit of entrepreneurship. Our waitress was a tall, kind brunette with a nice smile, most likely this was job was paying her way through college. She took our order, which ended up being three pizzas, an artichoke dip and some drinks.

Nick made the great decision of ordering the artichoke dip as an appetizer. They brought out a combination of blue and white tortilla chips that we used to shovel the creamy balance of spinach and artichoke into our mouths. But if you had told me that this was a spinach and cheese dip I would have agreed with you; the presence of artichoke was secondary. Nonetheless, the dip was great. But we were there for the pizza, well, at least I was. I think Nick and Chastity might have been there for the drinks above all else But there was no doubt that at least Nick appreciated the Shrimp Scampi pizza. We ordered three pizzas: the Shrimp Scampi, the Sweet and Spicy Italian Sausage and, of course, the Original BBQ chicken, their pioneering work.

The Shrimp Scampi Pizza consisted of shrimp, mild onions, roasted garlic, Mozzarella, oregano and Italian parsley with a white wine lemon-garlic butter sauce. The minced roasted garlic complimented the shrimp well. The butter sauce had a potent taste of garlic, and there’s nothing that goes better with shrimp than garlic and copiuos amounts of butter. However this pizza had a good balance; the sauce was not too buttery or too strong with garlic.

The Italian sausage was the least impressive one out of the three; it consisted of a combination of sweet and spicy Italian sausages, tomato sauce, red and yellow peppers, mild onions and Mozzarella. This pizza was not bad, but it did not stand out like the Shrimp Scampi or the BBQ chicken. Unfortunately, I could not try this pizza without a sumptuous amount of Parmesan sprinkled on by Nader’s girlfriend Melissa. Parmesan is a strong cheese; it doesn’t take much of it to overpower other flavors, but I still think I caught the essence of this pizza. The yellow peppers stood out as visually appealing. The spicy Italian sausage was not very spicy, and my adverse review of this pizza may be due to my dislike of sweet sausage, although I couldn’t taste the sweetness that much either. The tomato sauce was nothing extraordinary, but it was good.

And last but not least their famous BBQ Chicken pizza. This pizza consisted in barbeque sauce, smoked Gouda and Mozzarella, BBQ chicken, sliced red onions and cilantro. Fortunately for Nader and I, we were still full from reviewing Newport Pizza, where one of the pies we had was a BBQ chicken. So we were able to compare and contrast the different pizzas that we ate within only hours of each other. Not surprisingly, CPK’s BBQ chicken dominated Newport’s. The onions, just as at Newport, went well with the BBQ sauce. However, CPK had superior pizza bread and higher quality cheeses, which resulted in less grease and stronger cheese flavor. The cilantro was also a nice subtle touch that gave the pizza more of a bite but not so much so that it came out from being a background flavor.

CPK does make a pretty tasty pizza in its own original way. That in itself is worth respect. But I don’t know if I see myself in the near future having the irresistible desire to experience the entire CPK ambiance again.

Just Off the Trolley Tracks: Zpizza

Place:
Zpizza
5175 Linda Vista Road, Suite 106
(619) 272-0022

Time:
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Approximately 16:30 on our way home after leaving midway through a Padres game (they were losing 4 to 1 to the Mets by the sixth inning).

Investigation Led By:
Agents Nader and Joe

Overall: 5 out of 10

Pizza: 5.5 out of 10.

Bread: The crust was thin and not too crispy; it had a "healthy" taste to it. Zpizza apparently prides themselves on being healthy, but I don't know if health and good pizza will always go together. To their credit, there were no bubbles or any major issues that would ruin a pizza, like those those gigantic bubbles in the pizza bread at Pizzeria Luigi's, an earlier investigation.

Cheese: Nothing out of the ordinary. We decided to split our large pie into to different types. Agent Nader chose the Provence and I chose the Santa Fe. Both styles used the same typical mozzarella cheese and, of course the same pizza bread since they were both one and the same pizza. The toppings and sauces was where all the difference were.

Sauce: Thin layer of tomato sauce. To be honest I don't recall even seeing any pizza sauce, but I would have been able to tell if there was a complete lack of sauce. Either way, the sauce was not anything extraordinary.

Toppings: The Santa Fe consisted of chipotle pesto, mozzarella, chicken sausage, red onions, corn, fresh avocado, sour cream, and cilantro. At least this is what the menu lists. The reason I chose the Santa Fe was precisely for the chipotle pesto. Come to think of it, the chipoltle pesto most likely replaced the tomato sauce, which would explain the mysterious lack of tomato sauce I just mentioned. I hope this was the case because the pesto sauce was not easily visible, or tasteable for that matter. I was fairly excited to taste this chipotle pesto and my anticipation turn to mild disappointment after hardly noticing any pesto at all. The pizza reminded me of a vegetarian pizza except for the tasty chicken sausage slices dealt out on top of the mozzarella. The above description of the Santa Fe is a little misleading. The pizza appears much more plain then the menu description. One surprise was the light sprinkle of corn, yes, corn. The menu, on a second glance, does mention that corn is one of the toppings. The corn topping provoked agent Nader into mentioning an international pizza investigation he once led with Agent Munir in Israel. They were shocked to find that pizza makers there never mixed cheese with meat, an apparent violation of the the old Jewish adage: "Never boil the calve in the mother's milk". Needless to say, they knew that the best pizza in the world must be sought out in other regions of the world.

Agent Nader opted for the Provence style pizza, which consisted of organic tomato sauce, roasted garlic sauce, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, capers, tomatoes and basil. There were noticeable little seed/pod looking things sown across the pizza. I didn't venture to try one by itself, but Agent Nader did and thought they were decent. Assuming that these pod-like things were intentionally place on the pizza, I figure that they must be the capers.. Maybe a little google research on capers would settle this mystery. Both pizzas were not bad. They may be just the right pizza for vegetarians who would thrive on bread and plants.

Sauce: The Provence half was tomato and the Santa Fe half was chipotle pesto.

Condiments: The standard: Pretty good Parmesan, crushed red peppers and salt and pepper.

Drinks: No beer. Not even a fountain selection. They did have a selection, but this was more of a health conscious pizzeria, so naturally they offered bottled drinks from behind the counter. For some reason there seems to be a tendency to equate healthy drinks with bottled drinks. Agent Nader bought a bottled Arnold Palmer. The company that manufactured the drink was called something like Manson and Sons Inc., which sort of gives a off a vibe that the company is some small farm family hand crafting each drink in the barn. But I think Manson and Sons is more properly equated to some major corporate law firm with a name like Bariben and Sons Inc.

Atmosphere: 4 out 10

Eye-candy: There wasn't much for visual stimulus. The pizzeria was located in a low traffic plaza right off the trolley tracks. The place seemed more like a neighborhood than a market, directly across the parking lot was a condo or apartment complex. Inside Zpizza there were what looked like mass produced poster-size pictures of pizza ingredients. One was of an avocado sliced in half with the pit still intact. There was one TV screen around the top corner nearest to the window ( the only window, the place was built in the hole-in-the-wall fashion ). There was one red sofa, the rest of the furniture was black tables and chairs. Zpizza was apparently trying to offer a more relaxed vibe with the sofa, but it wasn't working. In fact, the sofa seemed out of place enough so that it got me thinking about the future of Zpizza in this plaza: I concluded that it won't be in business for much longer than a year.

Music: This was the worst aspect of Zpizza. It would have been better if they hadn't played any music at all. By playing what they did, they showed that they had no deep concern for music. The music was playing on some sort of radio program that intermittently and fairly frequently ruined the flow of music with commercials. When there wasn't commercials they played worn-out, tame, and commercialized rock such as Stained. Who do they expect to come and lounge on their single red sofa looking forward to this music? The masterminds behind Zpizza may or may not know how to run a business, but it is clear that they are out of touch with culture.

People: We were the only people in the joint that afternoon, and we were the only people in there the entire time we stuck around to eat our pie.

Service: We were helped by a cute Latin girl wearing an all-black uniform. She also delivered our pizza to our table. There was one guy working on the pizzas, or pizza, singular, since we were the only ones buying pizza, and another guy who came out from the back a few minutes later. I wondered how Zpizza could afford to staff 3 people while they manage to sell at best one pizza an hour. This became another reason why I don't think Zpizza will be around next fall.

Price: We got a large pizza split into two of their "Zpizza Creations" and a bottled Arnold Palmer for $23 and change.

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.