AMICI’S HILLCREST
HEADING SOUTH
by joel martens
One of the most recent arrivals to the Hillcrest dining scene is Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria, the latest transport from the San Francisco Bay area. It’s the second SoCal venture (La Jolla being the first) for the NorCal group, a company that sports an even dozen of the highly successful pizzerias all touting the same name. Though they say, this restaurant’s design is decidedly different. Situated nicely on Fifth Avenue between Univer-
sity Avenue and Washington Street in the heart of the neighborhood, Amici’s falls in line next to Urban Outfitters, Bombay, Snooze, and D Bar and is situated directly across from the Hillcrest Cinemas complex, so parking is easily available. The restau- rant features approximately 2800 square feet, with a large dining space that seats 150 and has a beautiful open kitchen in which customers can watch staff prepare their tasty selections. If you keep your eyes open, you can see them actually tossing a “pie” as they expertly stretch the crusts to perfection.
68 RAGE monthly | JULY 2014 Pizzas are just the beginning of the offerings at the chic restaurant and are as
varied as the menu is broad. Their offerings include 18 different combinations of the brick oven baked delights, from a basic Margherita, to the New Haven White Clam and their vegan/vegetarian Asanté. The bonus; each can be easily custom- ized with over 30 additional toppings, including gluten-free options. To start off our dining adventure, the staff brought out their Flame Roasted
Lemon Chicken Wings and as our waitress said, “it’s one of our most popular dishes” and we could absolutely tell why. The lemon flavor was tangy but subtle, a surprisingly cool note infused with a decidedly spicy kick from their custom blend of spices—and the homemade buttermilk ranch was creamy goodness, though perhaps just a tad rich for the delicate lemon. The appetizer that arrived
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