A fluorescent-lit grocer in a Via Linda strip mall that out-cooks most of the city’s dressed-up Italian dining rooms. Calabrian-born chef Giovanni Scorzo, a James Beard semifinalist, makes nearly everything in-house: bread, mozzarella, pasta, cured meats, pastry and gelato.
The porchetta panini is the correct first visit. After that, the handmade pasta is the real reason to come back — ask what was rolled that morning, and do not ask for substitutions.
When to go: a quiet weekday afternoon. Weekend lunch brings the pilgrims and a long line, and the kitchen sells what it made until it’s gone.