Design your own pie

The rain was blowing sideways in Oceanside when we decided to leave our hotel room at the Wyndham Oceanside Pier Resort, so it made sense that we took the elevator down to street level and walked into Zigzag Pizza without getting wet.

I am very fussy about my pizza and I usually make it at home, so I was hesitant about following my family into the brightly lit, casual eatery.

The menu with its well-written descriptions posted on the wall made me decide to give it a try. And the names of the pizzas and salads are named after rock & roll music, which is often a theme at Cohn Restaurant Group eateries, so that’s cute.

The pizzas and chopped salads are in the $8 to $9.50 range, good enough for two hungry diners.

The husband and I shared the pizza called Good Vibrations. As I walked down the pizza assembly line, a little like Subway, I conversed with the young man making the crust, and he said that the dough is made from scratch every day. Gluten-free dough is available.

I supervised the young woman at the next stop as she added ham, bacon, mozzarella, pineapple, red onion, and tomato sauce. Pineapple-mango habanero chutney drizzle was added on the side, as the husband is a bit of a wuss when it comes to hot stuff. It was spicy, but I finally convinced him to add it to his slice. He liked it.

The crust on my pizza was just crisp enough, and the sauce had a little zing to it, complementing the chutney drizzle. All the veggies were fresh, and the combination was sweet and spicy.

The nephew ordered the Roadhouse Blues Pizza, which has marinated herb chicken, red onions, cilantro, mozzarella, and barbecue sauce. He finished his entire pizza while I was still on my second piece.

Three walls of Visi Coolers were filled with an array of local brews, sodas, water, and wine. There are some nice wines sold as bottles only, but the only single-size glass of chardonnay offered is Sutter Home. Since I didn’t want to drink a whole bottle of wine, I chose the low-end mini and eventually threw half of it away.

The wooden tables are large, and colorful surfboards hang from the ceiling along with large flat screen TVs, highlighting skate and surf action videos. One out-of-towner turned on his heels when he realized none of the TVs were showing football.

The thing about small, tasty pizzas, I realized as we were leaving, is that there are no leftovers for the next day’s breakfast. At that price, next time I will order two.