Enoteca Del Fornaio

Nice place to grab a glass of wine and people watch.  Service is always pretty mediocre.

Honestly, not really my type of place...seeing as it fancy AND smancy...but Enoteca might have opened me up (figuratively) to trying new things (literally).

Now, my review might be tainted (you know what I mean) because I was fresh off a bike ride and was STARVING and THIRSTY...but they accepted my wrinkled-t-shirt-and-jeans look without much ballyhoo (and this is the type of place that if a ballyhoo is in order, ballyhooed you shall be!).

The dude who took my order was very thoughtful about my query of pesto lurking in my dishes.  Pesto, you see, makes-a me-a sick-a.  Why did I just slip into a faux Italian accent?  Ask yourself why you don't more often...

Anyway, the order taking guy thought and thought and thought about my question.  He was very thoughtful, as I said.  Eventually, after thinking about it for a good minute (not exaggerating) he confirmed that my food requests were indeed nut free (the way I like my food AND women).

The view was pretty spectacular...overlooking Del Mar.  We also saw Steve Fisher who I booed for some reason.  I then yelled out a serious question, "How long is it going to take for SDSU to go on probation for recruiting violations?"  He couldn't hear me...he's old, so that makes it ok.

All in all, a great experience...just a little too pricey for my taste.  I'm used to paying $3 bucks for a burrito. $5 if it's pay day.  $10 if there is crack in it.

I spent a lovely evening here last night for happy hour with some girlfriends to celebrate liberation from a horrible job. Hooray! It's one of my favorite places to take people in North County on a nice day. The outdoor bar sits on the rooftop of the plaza in downtown Del Mar with views of the ocean. It's a very cool, relaxing vibe.

I noticed that prices recently went up a bit but they still have a great happy hour-$6 glasses of wine and $6 pizzas from 4 to 6pm. The margherita and veggie pizzas were both quality and delicious, especially for only $6 bucks. Just beware of the parking! We ended up staying and gossiping for 5 hours and even with validation it was still $18, yikes. Either way, I couldn't think of a better place to celebrate new beginnings.