During our stay in Southern California, we wanted to have a nice meal one of the evenings we were in Carlsbad. There's a number of restaurants in the downtown area of Carlsbad and we decided upon an Italian restaurant on historic State Street - Vigilucci's Cucina Italiana. (see map) Without having reservations, we decided to give the place a try.
Roberto Vigilucci grew up in Milan, Italy learning about cooking food from his grandmother and mother. He visited the U.S. for the first time in 1986 and ended up in San Diego. Falling in love with the area, he decided to live there permanently. Bouncing around for a bit, Roberto ended up managing a Thai restaurant in the beach community of Encinitas for four years. Figuring that the area could use a good Italian restaurant, Vigilucci opened his first restaurant - Vigilucci's Trattoria Italiano - in 1994 just down the street from the Thai restaurant he used to manage.
Vigilucci's restaurant venture was a hit right off the bat. He asked his childhood friend Alex Pedrazzani to join him in the business and the two continue their partnership today with Pedrazzani as the V.P. for the Vigilucci's Restaurant Group. In 1999, Vigilucci's opened the Carlsbad location and soon thereafter they opened Robbie's in the Leucadia neighborhood of Encinitas which was sort of a sports bar/Western-style steakhouse/entertainment venue. Robbie's was open for a little over 10 years before Vigilucci decided to move his original Vigilucci's Trattoria Italiano into the larger space where Robbie's was located.
Vigilucci's next venture was a steakhouse/seafood restaurant along the Pacific Coast Highway in Carlsbad. Vigilucci's Seafood and Steakhouse features fresh seafood and prime grade steaks served in a building that offers stunning views of the Pacific Ocean. (We considered Vigilucci's Seafood and Steakhouse for a moment - primarily because of the location - but decided that we wanted Italian instead.) And in 2009, Vigilucci's Ristorante Coronado opened up on Coronado Island just west of downtown San Diego. The Coronado location is locally famous for a wall-to-wall waterfall and great views of the Pacific Ocean and Point Loma.
Carlsbad on a Friday evening - at least this Friday evening - was a very vibrant place. There was a band playing in a park and the restaurants along State Street were packed. Parking was at a premium and we finally found a spot in a parking lot behind Vigilucci's Cucina Italiana. We walked around to the front and went in to the hostess stand. There was immediate seating out front on the fenced sidewalk dining area, but it was a little cool that evening. (Temperatures were unseasonably cool in Southern California during our trip in late May.) The hostess assured us that we'd be close to a propane heating tower. When she showed us where the table was, we decided to take that. It was going to be a 30 minute wait for inside dining.
The menu at Vigilucci's was an impressive selection of traditional Italian dishes - there were nearly two dozen different pasta entrees to choose from. They had veal entrees, chicken entrees, and seafood entrees, as well as a couple of entrees that featured beef filets. And they had a good selection of antipasti appetizers, salads and soups.
Our server for the evening Miguel came to greet us. I had been looking over the impressive wine list they had at Vigilucci's as we were thinking about getting some wine. The only problem was that Cindy was looking at getting a seafood entree and I was leaning toward some veal dish. She wanted some white wine and I wanted some red. Vigilucci's has a handful of wines available by the glass and I ended up getting a glass of the Santa Celina malbec from Argentina, while Cindy got a glass of the Charles Krug chardonnay.
We each started out our dinner with the house salad. Organically grown lettuce greens were tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette and garnished with chopped carrots, cucumber slices and small cherry tomatoes. I had Miguel load mine up with pepper to give it a little more kick. Everything was fresh, crisp and the balsamic vinaigrette had its own special kick to the taste. This was a good salad to start off what promised to be a very good meal.
For my entree, I resisted getting the housemade pappardelle pasta with pan-seared scallops with fresh field mushrooms in a white truffle and brandy cream sauce that kept calling my name and I ended up getting the veal piccata al limone - pan-seared veal scaloppine in a lemon/white wine sauce with capers. A side of angel hair pasta came with the veal along with a bacon-wrapped medley of roasted green beans, red peppers and zucchini. I also had Miguel load the veal up with cracked black pepper, probably too much this time. But the veal was tender and very good. The lemon/white wine sauce was thick and full of a fresh citrus flavor. I swirled the pasta around in the sauce and couldn't believe how great of a taste sensation it all was. Even as good as the veal and the bacon-wrapped roasted veggies were, the lemon/white wine sauce was the star on my plate that evening.
Miguel had entinced Cindy into one of the specials that evening - a grilled swordfish filet served with truffle-mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. She had been sort of leaning toward the grilled salmon simmered with pancetta and leeks, served over beluga lentils then topped with a garlic-saffron aioli. But when she asked Miguel to re-describe the swordfish special that evening and after that she was sold. The only problem was that the swordfish was slightly overcooked. It didn't flake apart like swordfish should, it was sort of tough to cut and it was dry to the taste. She was slightly disappointed, but it wasn't bad enough to call her meal a total bust. She had just hoped that the swordfish would have been pulled off the grill a little sooner.
After we'd finished our dinner, Miguel did a good job of selling us on the dessert menu at Vigilucci's. We ate well, but it wasn't the time of stomach-stuffing meal that sometimes happens. Cindy asked if their tiramisu was made-in-house and Miguel confessed that it wasn't. But he should have lied because the tiramisu that they served was very good. The forward taste of the coffee, the richness of the mascarpone cheese mixed with the lady fingers, and the delicate cream topping dusted with heavy amounts of cocoa powder made for a wonderful dessert. It was some of the best we've ever had.
Next door to Vigilucci's Cucina Italiana is Vigilucci's Gourmet Market, a full service Italian market that included a meat and cheese counter, a selection of imported and domestic wines (many of which they feature next door at the restaurant), and a number of imported Italian pastas and food items. I was impressed with the variety of Italian foods they offered and a little jealous that there wasn't anything like this market back home. The gourmet market also is the centerpiece for Vigilucci's catering business that has been going for over 20 years featuring a wide variety of foods including antipasto meat plates, hors d'ouevres and full dinners.
Everything about our experience at Vigilucci's Cucina Italiano was top notch. It was a classy place, but laid back and welcoming. The food was very good, even with the overcooked swordfish. And the service was attentive and efficient - Miguel did a wonderful job of taking care of us. Vigilucci's was one of the finer meals we had during our trip to Southern California and a place that we'd recommend for a nice Italian meal when you're in the Carlsbad area.
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