Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Pizza Ain't a Pizza

Campus view from inside Pavilion Dining hall
Campus view from inside Pavilion Dining hall
Place

Heirloom Cucina at the Student Life Pavilion

5998 Alcalá Park, San Diego




“Got three minutes?”

Mickey Gonzalez is lookin’ at me, and you just know he’s from back East ’cause he speaks in that big “You talkin’ to me?” voice.

“I’ve got a fresh one in the oven right now,” he says. “Trust me, this one has gone dry. Nothing worse than dried-out pizza.” He picks the last third of a pepperoni pizza up and is about to throw it off its tray into the waste bin.

“I’ll take that,” says the student standing next to me. “I don’t have three minutes.”

“Ho-kay.” Mickey holds the pizza like it’s a piece of road kill. “Your choice.”

Seems like fresh is everything to Mickey. He was brought up in Hoboken, half a block away from the house Frank Sinatra grew up in. In Hoboken, a pizza ain’t a pizza, it’s a pie. “Back home,” says Mickey, “they’re very particular. What you gonna have?”

Sponsored
Sponsored

This is happening inside the way-big eating complex they call Pavilion Dining, part of the Student Life Pavilion of the University of San Diego. Ten minutes ago, I got off the 44 bus on Linda Vista Road outside Marian Way. That’s the main artery through the hilltop cluster of the school’s halls. Looks like the Prado in Balboa Park. Very romantic, very Spanish.

I wanted to see if they still had good cheap lunches for outsiders here.

But, my, how it’s changed. Last time I was on campus, this space was a parking lot. Now it’s this magnificent new-but-old-looking Student Life Pavilion. I hiked across sculpted gardens and into this eating area with a terrace of tables and chairs outside massive windows. It has two-story-high ceilings, massive round stone columns, tile floors, and black curly-iron grille work. Kinda Santa Fe Depot meets the temples at Karnak in Egypt. Makes everybody chowing at the tables look small.

Mickey tells me the whole thing was finished almost two years ago. “And, hey, the CIA helped them get their food operation up and running.”

CIA? Don’t worry — we’re talkin’ Culinary Institute of America, folks. The new center, Mickey says, has launched “a renaissance here, foodwise.”

My soup and salad

We’re yakkin’ in the serving area, abuzz with a dozen eateries selling different kinds of food. Pretty impressive for a student caf. I spot stations offering beef or salmon steaks (“Tapenade”), Vietnamese (“Lemon Grass”), Mexican (“Maiz”), burgers (“Sea Salt Grill”), sushi (“Nori Now”), Chinese wok cooking (“Mu Shu”), two salad bars (“Chives”), a soup station (“Bay Leaf”), Mickey’s pizza counter (“Heirloom Cucina”), and something they call “Secret Ingredient,” which is a “live-action cooking station,” where you find out what the day’s dish is by going on Twitter or visiting usd.webfood.com at midday (or 5:00 p.m. for dinner). Or, like, turning up. (Duh.)

Prices for most things are reasonable, but for students, I’m guessing, not the cheapest. We’re talking eight, nine, ten bucks for average dishes. Nori Now’s special today (“Tilapia, tempura shrimp, crab, wasabi Tobika, cucumber, ginger, Yuzu mayo”) costs $10.95. Big chunk out of any student’s meal plan. But things like salads are sold by weight, so it depends how greedy or starving you are. Actually, they’ve devised a great way of keeping you from eating too much: they have no trays. You only get what you can carry to the checkout with your two hands.

Me, I stop at the pizza place because there’s Mr. Mickey, larger than life, explaining, taking orders, laughing, joking, working pizza paddles, and throwing his pies into what looks like a wood-burning oven. Quite a show. I’m impressed that he’s a freshness fanatic. The pizzas are a good price: mostly $6.95. Plus, they have calzones and something called piadines. I see this guy next to me picking up one. It looks like flatbread with a pile of lettuce on top.

“I sell three piadines for every pizza I make,” Mickey says. Turns out these are an ancient dish. This kind of bread came from Byzantium, via Italy — basically, it’s flour and water. What Mickey does is stick it in the pizza oven, then splots a salad on top — Mediterranean, Caesar, Caprese, or steak. It costs $6.95 without meat; $7.25 with.

Vespa pizza, out of the fire

I’m drawn to the look of the Vespa pizza, which is pesto, mozzarella, bacon, and slices of apple. It’s $6.95. I order that. While Mickey’s squirting green pesto on the raw dough, then flinging the shredded mozzarella about and planting apple slices on top and sliding it all into the fire, I make off to “Chives,” the salad-bar area. I load up on quinoa, dark lentils with Kalamata olives, some red beans, spinach leaves, and croutons. I can’t resist filling a bowl with “Broadway basil and tomato bisque” (I could have had organic vegetarian chili soup or hearty beef and barley). By this time, Mickey’s hauling out that nine-inch green ’n’ cream pizza and sticking it in a box. At the checkout, Courtney charges me $3.50 for the soup, $6.95 for the pizza, and $3.84 for the salad. I get a small coffee ($1.45). So — whack! — the whole lot costs me $17.12, with tax, wildly over what I meant to spend. But the soup is fab; the basil makes it interesting. The pizza is light and thin and crispy and sweet (apple) and salty (bacon). And, Mickey says, healthy. “We use wheat — not ordinary white flour — and part-skim-milk mozzarella, to make it lighter.”

Fact is, I haul most of the pizza home.

“What do you think?” I ask Carla.

She’s already crunching in. She looks up, mouth full.

“You talkin’ to me?” ■

The Place: Heirloom Cucina at the Student Life Pavilion, USD, 5998 Alcalá Park, 619-260-4600
Type of Food: American, ethnic
Prices: Pizzas, e.g. the Vespa (with pesto, mozzarella, bacon, slices of apple), $6.95; calzones (around $7 each, different flavors); piadines, (flatbread with salads, e.g. Mediterranean, Caesar, Caprese, steak, piled on top, 6.95 without meat, $7.25 with; soups (e.g. basil and tomato bisque, vegetarian chili, beef and barley), $3.50; salads by weight, average $3.50; many ethnic food stations
Hours: Breakfast 7:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m.; lunch 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.; dinner 4:30–9:00 p.m.; weekend brunch 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Bus: 44
Nearest Bus Stop: Linda Vista Road, Santa Ana Drive

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

India Hawthorne is common in coastal gardens, Citrus trees are in full bloom

The vernal equinox is on March 19
Next Article

A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”
Campus view from inside Pavilion Dining hall
Campus view from inside Pavilion Dining hall
Place

Heirloom Cucina at the Student Life Pavilion

5998 Alcalá Park, San Diego




“Got three minutes?”

Mickey Gonzalez is lookin’ at me, and you just know he’s from back East ’cause he speaks in that big “You talkin’ to me?” voice.

“I’ve got a fresh one in the oven right now,” he says. “Trust me, this one has gone dry. Nothing worse than dried-out pizza.” He picks the last third of a pepperoni pizza up and is about to throw it off its tray into the waste bin.

“I’ll take that,” says the student standing next to me. “I don’t have three minutes.”

“Ho-kay.” Mickey holds the pizza like it’s a piece of road kill. “Your choice.”

Seems like fresh is everything to Mickey. He was brought up in Hoboken, half a block away from the house Frank Sinatra grew up in. In Hoboken, a pizza ain’t a pizza, it’s a pie. “Back home,” says Mickey, “they’re very particular. What you gonna have?”

Sponsored
Sponsored

This is happening inside the way-big eating complex they call Pavilion Dining, part of the Student Life Pavilion of the University of San Diego. Ten minutes ago, I got off the 44 bus on Linda Vista Road outside Marian Way. That’s the main artery through the hilltop cluster of the school’s halls. Looks like the Prado in Balboa Park. Very romantic, very Spanish.

I wanted to see if they still had good cheap lunches for outsiders here.

But, my, how it’s changed. Last time I was on campus, this space was a parking lot. Now it’s this magnificent new-but-old-looking Student Life Pavilion. I hiked across sculpted gardens and into this eating area with a terrace of tables and chairs outside massive windows. It has two-story-high ceilings, massive round stone columns, tile floors, and black curly-iron grille work. Kinda Santa Fe Depot meets the temples at Karnak in Egypt. Makes everybody chowing at the tables look small.

Mickey tells me the whole thing was finished almost two years ago. “And, hey, the CIA helped them get their food operation up and running.”

CIA? Don’t worry — we’re talkin’ Culinary Institute of America, folks. The new center, Mickey says, has launched “a renaissance here, foodwise.”

My soup and salad

We’re yakkin’ in the serving area, abuzz with a dozen eateries selling different kinds of food. Pretty impressive for a student caf. I spot stations offering beef or salmon steaks (“Tapenade”), Vietnamese (“Lemon Grass”), Mexican (“Maiz”), burgers (“Sea Salt Grill”), sushi (“Nori Now”), Chinese wok cooking (“Mu Shu”), two salad bars (“Chives”), a soup station (“Bay Leaf”), Mickey’s pizza counter (“Heirloom Cucina”), and something they call “Secret Ingredient,” which is a “live-action cooking station,” where you find out what the day’s dish is by going on Twitter or visiting usd.webfood.com at midday (or 5:00 p.m. for dinner). Or, like, turning up. (Duh.)

Prices for most things are reasonable, but for students, I’m guessing, not the cheapest. We’re talking eight, nine, ten bucks for average dishes. Nori Now’s special today (“Tilapia, tempura shrimp, crab, wasabi Tobika, cucumber, ginger, Yuzu mayo”) costs $10.95. Big chunk out of any student’s meal plan. But things like salads are sold by weight, so it depends how greedy or starving you are. Actually, they’ve devised a great way of keeping you from eating too much: they have no trays. You only get what you can carry to the checkout with your two hands.

Me, I stop at the pizza place because there’s Mr. Mickey, larger than life, explaining, taking orders, laughing, joking, working pizza paddles, and throwing his pies into what looks like a wood-burning oven. Quite a show. I’m impressed that he’s a freshness fanatic. The pizzas are a good price: mostly $6.95. Plus, they have calzones and something called piadines. I see this guy next to me picking up one. It looks like flatbread with a pile of lettuce on top.

“I sell three piadines for every pizza I make,” Mickey says. Turns out these are an ancient dish. This kind of bread came from Byzantium, via Italy — basically, it’s flour and water. What Mickey does is stick it in the pizza oven, then splots a salad on top — Mediterranean, Caesar, Caprese, or steak. It costs $6.95 without meat; $7.25 with.

Vespa pizza, out of the fire

I’m drawn to the look of the Vespa pizza, which is pesto, mozzarella, bacon, and slices of apple. It’s $6.95. I order that. While Mickey’s squirting green pesto on the raw dough, then flinging the shredded mozzarella about and planting apple slices on top and sliding it all into the fire, I make off to “Chives,” the salad-bar area. I load up on quinoa, dark lentils with Kalamata olives, some red beans, spinach leaves, and croutons. I can’t resist filling a bowl with “Broadway basil and tomato bisque” (I could have had organic vegetarian chili soup or hearty beef and barley). By this time, Mickey’s hauling out that nine-inch green ’n’ cream pizza and sticking it in a box. At the checkout, Courtney charges me $3.50 for the soup, $6.95 for the pizza, and $3.84 for the salad. I get a small coffee ($1.45). So — whack! — the whole lot costs me $17.12, with tax, wildly over what I meant to spend. But the soup is fab; the basil makes it interesting. The pizza is light and thin and crispy and sweet (apple) and salty (bacon). And, Mickey says, healthy. “We use wheat — not ordinary white flour — and part-skim-milk mozzarella, to make it lighter.”

Fact is, I haul most of the pizza home.

“What do you think?” I ask Carla.

She’s already crunching in. She looks up, mouth full.

“You talkin’ to me?” ■

The Place: Heirloom Cucina at the Student Life Pavilion, USD, 5998 Alcalá Park, 619-260-4600
Type of Food: American, ethnic
Prices: Pizzas, e.g. the Vespa (with pesto, mozzarella, bacon, slices of apple), $6.95; calzones (around $7 each, different flavors); piadines, (flatbread with salads, e.g. Mediterranean, Caesar, Caprese, steak, piled on top, 6.95 without meat, $7.25 with; soups (e.g. basil and tomato bisque, vegetarian chili, beef and barley), $3.50; salads by weight, average $3.50; many ethnic food stations
Hours: Breakfast 7:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m.; lunch 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.; dinner 4:30–9:00 p.m.; weekend brunch 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Bus: 44
Nearest Bus Stop: Linda Vista Road, Santa Ana Drive

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Taco Taco Poway still has 99-cent fish tacos

Tacotopia prizewinner is well known among Powegians
Next Article

Coyote tracks in frail San Diego avocado grove

Second place winner in Reader neighborhood writing contest
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.