NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Gotham City delivers a real taste of the East Coast
Gotham City Pizza
1237 28th St.
Golden Hill
619-234-9141
www.gothamcitypizza.com
George Nason has no use for false modesty.
“We definitely make the best cheesesteaks,” said Nason, owner of Golden Hill's Gotham City Pizza. “There's no doubt about it.... Anybody who knows cheesesteaks [knows] we got the best.”
After 30 years operating pizza joints in San Diego, this South Jersey native has earned some bragging rights. Open now for just over a year, his current venture is the go-to place for homesick East Coasters.
“We have a lot of transplants,” Nason said, “and it makes them feel good. It ain't gonna make them feel like they're home, but close-closer than they've been for a while.”
For anyone who's spent time in New York or New Jersey, Gotham City's menu offers all the essentials you don't often see here on the Left Coast. There's thin-crust pizza, naturally, but also stromboli, spinach rolls and the obligatory cheesesteaks served on genuine Amoroso rolls.
Nason guesstimates that 60 to 70 percent of South Jersey and Philly sandwiches are built on Amoroso rolls. “They've been [baking rolls] for 100 years,” he said. “They just make great little Italian rolls for sandwiches.”
According to Nason, true cheesesteaks consist solely of meat, cheese and onions-and that means white American cheese, not Cheez Whiz. Though Nason is something of a purist, he does offer some nonstandard variations, like a pizza steak with marinara and mozzarella and the cacciatore steak with peppers, mushroom and pepperoni.
In addition to pizza, cheesesteaks and spinach rolls, Gotham City also offers meatball, sausage and Italian subs, as well as a number of hearty, old-school pasta dishes like homemade lasagna, baked penne with ricotta and manicotti.
The dining room, such as it is, offers only two small plastic tables that seat two each. There are few outdoor tables, but the bulk of Gotham City's business is takeout and delivery.
On our first visit, we sampled a pizza steak, the baked penne and a couple of slices. On a subsequent visit, we brought home the traditional cheesesteak, spinach lasagna and spinach roll. The good news is that the food was consistently good. That's also the bad news, since the food is far from low-cal.
The pizza steak is pretty sizeable, the pleasantly chewy bread stuffed with meat, sauce and cheese. It's good-though given a choice between the pizza steak and the cheesesteak, I'd opt for the latter because the flavor is beefier. It's easy to see why displaced natives would go out of their way for one-it's kind of like the East Coast version of the carne asada burrito, flavorful street food that fills you up for not a lot of money.
The pasta dishes at Gotham City are also a good way to get filled up on the cheap. The baked penne with ricotta was gigantic; it could have easily fed three people. A to-go tin is filled with al dente pasta, a generous amount of ricotta cheese and marinara sauce, with mozzarella cheese melted on top. The sauce is flavorful and tomato-y; it's tang is a perfect foil to the insanely rich gobs of ricotta cheese nestled among the noodles. This is the closest I've had to the baked ziti you'd find in pizza shops all over New York City.
A bit less huge, the spinach lasagna had the same great balance of flavors, with the spinach adding an illusion of healthfulness. It's a cut above most of what passes for lasagna in San Diego's pizza parlors.
Similarly, Gotham City's pizza is among the best in San Diego. For fans of the New York-style, thin-crust pizza, Gotham City's pies have an authenticity that's lacking elsewhere. The thin crust here is chewy and not excessively crisp, with the perfect amount of cheese and sauce. Toppings include all the standards, though there's a nod to California-style with barbecued chicken and Buffalo chicken.
Gotham City Pizza is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, except for Tuesday, when it's closed. Friday and Saturday hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. The delivery area is surprisingly large, covering Downtown, Bankers Hill, Hillcrest, North Park, Golden Hill, University Heights and more-check the website for a complete list of neighborhoods.
Prices are quite reasonable, with ample portions of pasta going for $7.50, sandwiches for $6.25 and pizzas ranging from $9 to $17 for the extra-large Deluxe. Gotham City Pizza also offers package-deal dinner specials, with various combinations of pastas, sandwiches and pizzas. These are also listed on the website.Published: 11/09/2005
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