FOODIES

Il Vicino is one of my favorite pizza places. Everyone knows that I’m not a pizza person. Before Papa Murphy’s and Pacific Coast Pizza came into my life, Il Vicino used to be the only place I would eat pizza.

Brian and I used to go to the Il Vicino on Douglas a lot before we started regularly packing our lunches. As much as we like the original Il Vicino and as close as their Bradley Fair location is to our place (it’s within biking distance — or walking if you’re feeling ambitious), it’s amazing that we’d never been there until now. I guess we’re staying true to our goal of not eating out as much. Though, we fail at it about as much as we succeed.

Brian and I usually split a chicken Caesar salad (sans anchovies unless Brian forgets to tell them, which is what happened this time around) and the vespa. The vespa is so yummy! It’s my favorite thing to get there.

We’ll usually split a tiramisu also, but I was still feeling guilty about eating a large bowl of ice cream earlier that day while Brian took his afternoon nap. I was also good and opted for water instead of drinking soda because I’d been drinking more Pepsi that I should lately. I’m going to make up for all that bad eating by doing a two-hour workout today, though.

Anyway, I’m glad that I was outnumbered and we decided to go to the Il Vicino at Bradley Fair last night. I don’t know when we would have been able to check it out otherwise.

What Brian likes best about Papa Murphy’s is that you can watch while they make the pizza. He’s always paranoid that people will do funny stuff to his food so he prefers it when he can see the food prep take place.

Actually, the open kitchen concept at 715 Restaurant is one of the reasons we really liked it. As much as possible, we prefer to dine at places where you can see what’s going on in the kitchen. Although, we should really eat at home more.

We had half and half pizza: half Herb Chicken Mediterranean and half Chicken Bacon Artichoke, which is my new favorite. Both were really yummy.

Brian wanted cheesy bread, so we got that and a cinnamon wheel also.

The cinnamon wheel was good, but I prefer the S’mores dessert pizza better.

The Dills love Papa Murphy’s so that’s what we brought on Saturday.

The garlic chicken minus green onions is their favorite.

The s’mores dessert pizza is mine.

Brian enjoying a glass of wine while watching the sun set.

They have some good sunsets at Casa Dill. =)

Jay, Becca, Ronnie, April and little Addi joined Brian and me at Pacific Coast Pizza after Zumba on Tuesday night. It worked out great because Brian and I had a $15 Groupon. Dinner for the two of us, which consisted of a large three-topping pizza and ten wings, only cost $16 after gratuity because of our Groupon so it worked out great.

Brian wanted to try a different sauce on the chicken wings so we settled on “China Town” flavor. He agreed that the “Thai” flavor, which is my favorite, is actually better.

This was the night that Jay introduced us to Alchemy. Brian is completely addicted to it now. LOL.

Addi is soo cute!

Brian and I have been eating at home a lot lately. Dining at Pacific Coast Pizza with Chad was our first time eating out in a long time and also our first time there. Like a deprived child, I stuffed my face stupid and almost singlehandedly put away 10 garlic Parmesan chicken wings.

We had the Venice Beach all-meat pizza, which was really good. Chad thinks Pacific Coast pizza is better than Il Vicino pizza. I don’t know about that. It’s better than Pizza Hut for sure. I still like Il Vicino better, as far as pizza goes, though.

What gives Pacific Coast an edge is the homemade potato chips. They are yummy! The chicken wings are a plus, too. I can’t get chicken wings at Il Vicino. But then, no tiramisu at Pacific Coast. They’re about even, I guess, because I’m really not sure which one is better after all factors are considered.

There’s one thing I’m sure of, though… I’ll be back.