Tribute Pizza

San Diego, CA (The Joy of Food) — Everyone has a personal pantheon of pizzas: the light, airy, crumby Roman; the crispy, crackly New York; the savory red top Detroit; the thick-crusted, rectangular Sicilian; and the drippy, saucy, cheesy, floppy Neapolitan. Tribute Pizza pays homage to these classics from near and far, from the streets of Naples to the picnic tables of the Costco food court, then elevates it all with organic, local, artisanal ingredients.

This place smells like a real pizzeria, the type you’d find on any block in southern Italy, the sort that whomps you with hits of tomatoes and garlic as soon as you step in the door. In a previous life, the space was a post office, now converted into the archetypal neighborhood spot: loud, always crowded, with all the bustle you’d expect in this corner of the city.

If you’re into people-watching, the pizzaioli like to twirl the dough up to the ceiling as they form the bases for the pizzas, available in three sizes and crusts — the 13″ ‘Neo-Neapolitan, the 9″ x 13″ G-Ma rectangle, and the 18″ NY Style — and at price points to match. Though the round pizzas are thin crust, they have the taste of a deep dish crust, thoroughly buttery, crispy, and crunchy like a pan pizza might be. I actually liked the dough recipe in the early days, when it was airier, gently risen, and slightly charred coming out of the oven.

On the menu, if you can get past the cutesy, fluffy descriptions like ‘fresh mozz’ and ‘fancy olive oil,’ you will find the actual food at Tribute to be enjoyable, for the most part. The good stuff is used in the way of ingredients, as the wall art (yes, the wall art) of Bianco DiNapoli organic tomato sauce will attest.

There is nothing quite like a margherita pizza, beautiful in its simplicity and tasty in its ingredients. The version at Tribute harkens back to the original Pizzeria Brandi in Naples, but here, despite tons of sauce and cheese, the taste of the few toppings dissipates quickly on the tongue. The sauce tastes nothing like what fresh San Marzano sauce would taste like, but the Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes — produced in northern California — come with their own brand of aromatics, underpinned by an herby basil taste that’s packed into each can. It’s easy to see why they’re so popular and beloved; every can also comes packed with 200+ grams of sodium. By comparison, whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes have between 10-30 grams. I find the composite flavor of the margherita here to be passable, but a bit bland aside from all the salt.

The margherita sbagliata is more of the same, made ‘wrong’ (sbagliato/a/i/e means wrong in Italian) with two types of cheese (fresh and aged mozzarella) and something resembling pesto, but less dense and fragrant. More than any other, this pizza comes close to the Neo Margarita that Daniele Udiiti is putting out at Pizzana in style, taste, and texture. This is more a work of art than a pizza, a solid layer of cheese topped with swirls of tomato paste and zig-zags of the not-pesto sauce. In case there’s not enough unami already on the actual pizza, there’s a healthy dusting of parmigiano added as a final touch on literally everything this place serves.

Something called the biancoverde, an homage to Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, adds different cheeses (parmigiano, ricotta, pecorino), some peppery arugula, and the option for prosciutto takes you into even deeper into umami territory. The best of all is probably the lady diavola, a pizza that comes topped with a whole deli case of different meats (salami, pepperoni, and caciocavallo) and the all-important calabrian chile for a blast of heat. 

A meal might begin with some warm marinated olives finished with a fresh squirt of citrus. This is the right size for an appetizer, merely a nibble, that will still leave you hungry enough to eat your pizza. There’s also the focaccia that’s nothing like actual focaccia but is still first-rate, freshly wood-fired and accompanied by oil and balsamic vinegar to start or a bunch of other salsas and pestos at an up-charge.

I can sum up Tribute Pizza like this: if we had better pizza in San Diego, I wouldn’t give this place a second look. But since we don’t, it passes for greatness. I’d consider it more worthwhile if everything wasn’t completely loaded with salt.

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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