Lumberyard Shopping Center
897 So. Coast Hwy 101 Suite F102
Encinitas CA 92024
760.634.7671
Last night a group of friends and I went out for dinner in Encinitas at the new upscale pizzeria, Blue Ribbon Artisan Pizzeria. My friends had been there three times and never actually got in, the place is always so packed.
We called ahead and they said that they would probably be able to seat the five of us with no problem. Unfortunately it was cold and raining and it took us about twenty minutes outside the diminutive little restaurant to find a table. However the staff was really sweet, getting us drinks and water and we eventually got seated.
I don't know a lot about the chef owner, Wade Hageman. Graduate of Scottsdale Culinary Institute. He was the executive chef at blanca in Solana Beach which got rave reviews but which I never got to try. Worked at Aqua in Las Vegas with Michael Mina. Big time pedigree. And now a pizzeria that is packed to the gills. Another local, best ingredient, farm to table, sustainable devotee, but who isn't these days?
I wish that I loved the food a little better.
Bread came without any oil or butter. It was pretty good.
We started off with a yellowtail crudo. It was prepared with grapefruit sections, avocado and extra virgin olive oil, abbreviated to EVOO throughout the menu. Totally delicious, the grapefruit imparting the fish with a fresh, clean flavor.
I also ordered a chilled calamari dish with meyer lemon aioli, fennel and arugula which I unfortunately could not eat, since it was covered with my mortal enemy, onions, an ingredient not listed on the menu. Why do restaurants do that?
Our waitress suggested that we order three pizzas, since they are not overlarge. About six slices per pie. We settled on the white, a pizza containing EVOO, cherry tomatoes, garlic, mozzarella and basil, the classic, topped with crimini mushrooms, fennel sausage, mozzarella and tomato sauce and the knights, a meat lovers pie with Salumi-Soppresata, Tuscan, Finocchiona & Coppa Molina.
The small wood fired grill cooks over pecan wood. Homemade mozzarella. Ingredients all tasted top rate and fresh.
As far as the pizzas go, I liked the white the best, then the knights and finally the classic, which was a bit of a snooze. Something in the meal, maybe the spicy meats in the knights, upset my stomach, which is still not right this afternoon.
I think that two things bothered me about Blue Ribbon. The crust tasted a bit floury, and didn't really fall back and disappear as a pizza crust should in the Sommers' kingdom. It should have a crisp texture and not much else. There was also a noticeable lack of garlic on the pies and no accompanying usual spices like oregano or cracked red pepper.
There is a reason people like pizza - it makes you feel good. The old reliable pie is hard to improve on. I started eating the little gourmet pizzas when they came into vogue in the early eighties. I remember eating a Bertrand Hug salmon pizza at a little forgotten place in Encinitas that disturbed me greatly. Wolfgang Puck fathered the gourmet pizza revolution. It was a way for chi-chi restaurants to quadruple the prices that the italian guy on the corner could realize.
Last night's meal set us back about one hundred and fifty bucks. The best pizza in the region, in my opinion and to most of the critics, is Bronx Pizza in Hillcrest. Lefty's maybe if you like Chicago style. I think that I could have had better pizza at Bronx for about one third of the price, easy. The spinach ricotta pizza at Bronx is simply sublime.
I never got sublime last night. I got very good. We were all at about 8 or 9 on the 10 scale. But would I ever go back considering the price? Probably not. The elements were so disparate and lacked some invisible binder, schmaltz if you will to meld everything together. It was a white man's pizza. Blue Ribbon Pizzeria, pizza separated from its ethnic origins.
Blue Ribbon is a neat place, full of a lively young clientele. Very nice, professional staff. The food is good, the appetizers adventurous. If you want to spend some dough and hang out with beautiful people, give it a shot. But if you are dying for a perfect slice, head to Hillcrest.
