San Diego, CA (The Joy of Food) — You can take the girl out of Naples, but you can’t take Naples out of the girl.
I knew Caffè Calabria was legit the first time I stepped inside and the scent in the air was a swirling mix of coffee, coal, and tomatoes. Everywhere the cups clank, the spoons stir, and the espresso machine makes that whirling noise that beckons any coffee aficionado. There’s even a stand-up bar where you can order your coffee, knock it back, and go.
If you close your eyes, you could be in any number of bars on Via Veneto, where the experience is similarly fragrant and chaotic. But you’re far, far away on San Diego’s 30th Street, a gritty area that serves as an unofficial border between North Park and parts east.
By night, this coffee hotspot becomes a chic wood-fired pizza restaurant. Caffè Calabria belongs to the Associazone Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), meaning they abide by traditional pizza-making measures to crank out their Neapolitan pies. In Italy, there is no business more serious than pizza, except maybe football.
A pizza here will be some of the best in town, especially if you go for the Margherita D.O.C., elevated with some buffalo mozzarella for a few extra bucks. The crust is chewy, the tomatoes are sweet, the mozzarella is tangy, the basil is fragrant, and the center of the pizza center is slightly soupy, the way that god and all of Naples intended. All of it is suitably charred and smoked from the wood-fired oven.
Is the pizza served here exactly like what you’d get in Naples? No. It’s not stretched enough, not wet enough, the ingredients not pure enough to pass for the real thing if your nose and taste buds know what to look for. In other words, the pizza is delightful, but not transcendent. Nothing in San Diego passes that high bar, but a pizza from Caffè Calabria is a damn close substitute when you’re no where near the world’s pizza epicenter.
The pizza oven is fired up just a few days a week so check current hours of operation to avoid pizza-induced disappointment.
Written by Joy
Thanks for reading. The Joy of Food blog celebrates eating well, traveling often, and living la dolce vita. San Diego, California is home base, but thoughts are from all over. Reviews and photos help to highlight wonderful (or not) food experiences from around the world.
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