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

Oh good, more Italian!

Unexpected hospitality experience in Nolita

A classic margherita pizza
A classic margherita pizza

Attempts to make food halls viable in San Diego have come and gone over the past five years, and when I heard about Nolita Hall opening recently at the north end of Little Italy, I figured we had another contender. When I realized it isn’t a congregation of small food counters around a shared dining room, but a self-contained restaurant and beer hall, I thought, well, plenty of those have come and gone too.

Place

Nolita Hall

2305 India Street, San Diego

Then I checked out the web site of Black Swan Hospitality, the young group behind the venture, which proclaims, “we aim to stir up the San Diego restaurant scene and offer unexpected hospitality experiences that will shift the flavor profile of our transforming city.” That statement reads as presumptuous in a couple ways, but having visited, I will credit them this: several aspects of Nolita Hall are indeed unexpected.

Sponsored
Sponsored
A slipper of bread makes this sandwich.

First, it’s beautiful. The spacious hall stretches a third of a block, with high ceilings and an extended skylight to match huge windows and roll-up doors that fully open the restaurant to a breezy southwest exposure.

Nolita Hall interior design by Tecture.

Inside, leafy green plants and elegant pendant lights hang from iron and wood beams, criss crossing a space that extends from a horseshoe-shaped bar at one end, across a minimalist dining room of high top and bench seating, to the recreational end of the restaurant, where a counter faces a pair shuffleboard lanes backed by huge projection screens equipped for videogames and televised sports.

It occupies a space between an elevated sports bar and sports-friendly lounge. My favorite part is the joint’s wood-fire oven. Not for looks, but for the fresh, charry bread and pizza crusts it churns out.

For $12, I couldn’t resist trying Nolita’s margherita pizza, the first in a list of pies made with organic tomato sauce, garlic sauce, or olive tapenade. The classic tomato, basil, mozzarella, and extra virgin olive oil lived up to my expectations; but the chewy, soft crust Italian bread it was baked on really stole the show. It’s nothing extravagant, simply great bread to gnash your teeth on.

This carried over to a much smaller, but not to be ignored, sandwich menu. A $12 sandwich features much the same ingredients as a margherita (or caprese salad): tomatoes, basil, mozzarella. It goes by the name cagna basica. My Italian’s never been good enough to have gotten rusty, and I wondered whether this was another traditional name to describe the winning combination of flavors. Alas, no. Online translators tell me cagna basica means, “basic bitch.”

No problem, I ordered the $14 Nonna’s Lunchbox anyway. Less simple, this one features Italian deli meats, soppresata and pistachio mortadella, piled with shredded romaine, chucks of pecorino romano cheese, castelvetrano olives, and roasted red peppers, drizzled with Italian dressing.

All delicious, but again the wood-fired bread stole the show. It looks denser and flatter than most ciabattas I’ve tried — more like a slipper, which is the literal translation for the word ciabatta.

If you’d asked me last year, “What kind of restaurant does Little Italy need more of?” it’s doubtful I’d have suggested pizza or a beer joint. But I’d have had to take it back. A place like this may not transform the city, but it was overdue.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

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

Peaceful, eaze-y feeling

The evolution of San Diego's dope delivery
Next Article

Jacobs Music Center Grand Opening

The concert did what it was designed to do
A classic margherita pizza
A classic margherita pizza

Attempts to make food halls viable in San Diego have come and gone over the past five years, and when I heard about Nolita Hall opening recently at the north end of Little Italy, I figured we had another contender. When I realized it isn’t a congregation of small food counters around a shared dining room, but a self-contained restaurant and beer hall, I thought, well, plenty of those have come and gone too.

Place

Nolita Hall

2305 India Street, San Diego

Then I checked out the web site of Black Swan Hospitality, the young group behind the venture, which proclaims, “we aim to stir up the San Diego restaurant scene and offer unexpected hospitality experiences that will shift the flavor profile of our transforming city.” That statement reads as presumptuous in a couple ways, but having visited, I will credit them this: several aspects of Nolita Hall are indeed unexpected.

Sponsored
Sponsored
A slipper of bread makes this sandwich.

First, it’s beautiful. The spacious hall stretches a third of a block, with high ceilings and an extended skylight to match huge windows and roll-up doors that fully open the restaurant to a breezy southwest exposure.

Nolita Hall interior design by Tecture.

Inside, leafy green plants and elegant pendant lights hang from iron and wood beams, criss crossing a space that extends from a horseshoe-shaped bar at one end, across a minimalist dining room of high top and bench seating, to the recreational end of the restaurant, where a counter faces a pair shuffleboard lanes backed by huge projection screens equipped for videogames and televised sports.

It occupies a space between an elevated sports bar and sports-friendly lounge. My favorite part is the joint’s wood-fire oven. Not for looks, but for the fresh, charry bread and pizza crusts it churns out.

For $12, I couldn’t resist trying Nolita’s margherita pizza, the first in a list of pies made with organic tomato sauce, garlic sauce, or olive tapenade. The classic tomato, basil, mozzarella, and extra virgin olive oil lived up to my expectations; but the chewy, soft crust Italian bread it was baked on really stole the show. It’s nothing extravagant, simply great bread to gnash your teeth on.

This carried over to a much smaller, but not to be ignored, sandwich menu. A $12 sandwich features much the same ingredients as a margherita (or caprese salad): tomatoes, basil, mozzarella. It goes by the name cagna basica. My Italian’s never been good enough to have gotten rusty, and I wondered whether this was another traditional name to describe the winning combination of flavors. Alas, no. Online translators tell me cagna basica means, “basic bitch.”

No problem, I ordered the $14 Nonna’s Lunchbox anyway. Less simple, this one features Italian deli meats, soppresata and pistachio mortadella, piled with shredded romaine, chucks of pecorino romano cheese, castelvetrano olives, and roasted red peppers, drizzled with Italian dressing.

All delicious, but again the wood-fired bread stole the show. It looks denser and flatter than most ciabattas I’ve tried — more like a slipper, which is the literal translation for the word ciabatta.

If you’d asked me last year, “What kind of restaurant does Little Italy need more of?” it’s doubtful I’d have suggested pizza or a beer joint. But I’d have had to take it back. A place like this may not transform the city, but it was overdue.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

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

Experience Hendrix, Falling Doves, Peter Sprague, Sandi King, Clikatat Ikatowi

Tributes, listening parties, and screenings in Kensington, Carlsbad, La Mesa, Little Italy, and downtown
Next Article

San Diego Reader's Best Of Poll 2024: Remington Tattoo Wins!

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.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader