Frankie's Italian Deli

The Mister and I decided to have lunch at Frankie's on Friday. We've been coming to Frankie's for over 7 years now and it holds a bit of nostaligia for us. Well, and the fact that we feel Frankie's makes the best thin crust pizza in San Diego.

Frankie's is a very small place located in the same strip mall as Bolsa's in Mira Mesa (corner of Mira Mesa Blvd. and Black Mountain Road).

It has a very interesting history. Apparently it started out as an Italian foods grocery store and then started serving food, using the owner's old Sicilian family recipes. It has been a fixture in Mira Mesa longer than I have lived in San Diego. There still is a little (and I do mean little) part of the store that carries some Italian food items but most people go there for the food and deli items.

Gerry was the owner when we first went to Frankie's and a few years ago, he sold it when he decided to retire. The new owner wanted to keep the same recipes and make Frankie's into a nice little bistro type restaurant. Well, being new to the restaurant business, the new owner didn't realize how much work it required and only a short year later, sold it to one of Gerry's daughters. So Gerry came out of retirement and is back behind the counter. For one, I am very glad Gerry is back, for selfish reasons of course.

Although Frankie's offers a good variety of items (subs with real Italian meats, pasta, salad, and appetizers), we almost always get pizza here. When we used to live closer, we would come for dinner every once in a while and they often have daily specials on the chalk board. Sorry the picture of the menu is a bit out of focus but it's hard to tell on the Casio Exilim if a picture is out of focus, even when zoomed in.

Today, there were no daily specials except for the lunch special. (Sorry, another crappy photo)

Here's what's on the lunch special going down the list:

1. Sausage or Meatball sub with salad ($6.99)

2. Lasagna with salad ($6.99)

3. Spaghetti or Rigatoni with salad ($6.49)

4. 2 Slice of Pizza, 1 topping, with salad ($5.99)

5. Soup and Salad ($5.99)

6. Pastrami sub ($6.99)

We ordered our usual pizza, a medium combo, at the counter. The nice young man, who's worked there for awhile now, took our order. He was also making the pizza that day. I grabbed an IBC root beer from the fridge and we took a seat at one of the tables.

In about 15 minutes, our pizza arrived. Thank goodness because we were both starving. I was ready to chew off my own foot (but then how would I run later to burn off all this pizza goodness?). Here's the pizza. The menu doesn't say how big the pie is but if I were to guess, the medium is about 16". It is just perfect for us for lunch, 4 slices each, no left overs. And we are usually just getting to the point of being stuffed by the time we get to our last slices.

The pizza was very yummy, although for some reason, the pizza is always best when Gerry makes it. I don't know what it is but the Mister agrees with me. Maybe because Gerry puts more sauce on it ?? I'll have to pay more attention the next time.

The marinara sauce it what pulls the whole thing together. They use real whole milk mozarella so it's best eaten right out of the oven, when the cheese is extra stringy and gooey. The mushrooms, green peppers, and onions are all fresh, too. I like to add grated parmesian cheese on top of mine, and a little sprinkle of ground red peppers.

I've also had the pepperoni pizza and just a testimate to how good Frankie's pizza is, I loved it. I've never enjoyed other pepperoni pizza because it just didn't have enough stuff for me and seems to lack depth in flavor, even those with whole mozarella cheese. But Frankie's is just so good (and I think it really is the sauce). I haven't had just a cheese pizza there but I like to have at least pepperoni and sausage on my pies.

My MIL loves to get the meatball subs here. Although I've never had the subs, I know Gerry makes every sub by slicing the meats to order. No packaged meats here. The side salads are very plain salads, iceberg lettuce, slices of tomato. We've usually get the antipasto salad when we've been here for dinner and that's what I would recommend instead of the just the plain salad. It's still iceberg lettuce and ho-hum tomatos but the Italian meats and fresh shredded mozarella is what makes it better.

Frankie's Italian Deli
9225 Mira Mesa Blvd, #106
San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 271-7376