As with the highly anticipated grand opening of the new Ristorante Avanti, no publicity was needed to announce the debut of her sister restaurant , Pizzeria Avanti. Owners Paul and Cindy Geise held a very soft opening on Tuesday, October 16, and by the time I visited on Saturday at the early bird hour of 5pm, a crowd was already gathering—a sure sign that the word had already spread.
“My goal is to make sure everyone has a great experience,” Paul Guise says of the casual, classic pizzeria concept located in the building that his popular flagship restaurant vacated three months ago for fancier digs down the street. “You can still get a large cheese pie for the kids, but if you and your date want something a little fancy you can get that too, plus maybe a salad and a glass of wine,” he says.
The menu is broken into sections with enough variety to keep everyone satisfied. Antipasti include a soup of the day, oven-roasted items like padron peppers, organic chicken wings and a couple of antipasti plates with cheeses and salumi. A handful of salads, which include some recognizable Avanti favorites like the Caesar and the brussel sprouts with butternut squash, yellow-eyed peas and pancetta, as well as a Calzone, two 16-inch New York style Pizzas and several smaller 12-inch Pizzettes of the more Cal-Ital method fill out the rest of the menu.
The pizzetas are not your typical pizzeria fare: examples of the mouthwatering options include one topped with house-made fennel sausage, fresh ricotta, onions and Calabrian peppers; another that features fresh heirloom tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil; and a third that includes wild nettles, cream, walnuts and pecorino.
Guests can also opt for some Fra Mani salami or anchovies among a few other additions and then top it all off with a house-made vanilla gelato sandwich (another classic Avanti item) or Affogato. And the bar is still a great place to linger over a tumbler of one of the many affordable wines on offer or a cold beer, and will surely fill up with people waiting for a pie to go.
Despite some of the obvious changes to the space, like the absence of those special secret messages in the ceramic vessels that were so fun to read, the commitment to sourcing quality ingredients from primarily local, organic producers remains. The homemade chili oil on every table is a nice touch, as is the fact that the pizza cooks in about three and a half minutes, making for a quick and easy pick up, if desired.
Geise explains the reason for that is the new brick-lined gas deck oven runs at about 650-degrees. “It really retains the heat,” he explains.
“My big thing is to have a crust that is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.” This is a key component to good pizza, and a longstanding priority for Avanti. Case in point is the special double-batch, two-pound loaves of Gayle’s Franchese they have custom baked for the restaurant, a ratio of crust to crumb that makes all the difference.
“Fran Grayson, our chef de cuisine, researched and developed the dough to get the best result,” adds Geise about how they came to find the right organic pizza dough recipe.
For now, the pizzeria is open seven days a week for dinner only (5-9pm); plans are underway to eventually open for lunch as well. Former Ristoranti Avanti employees Rene Serna Martinez and Hugo Martinez are in charge. Get it while it’s hot…and before there’s a line out the door.
Pizzeria Avanti • 1711 Mission St. • 831.425.1807
About the author
Amber Turpin is a freelance food and travel writer based in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
