Sammy's Woodfired Pizza (Power Lunch)

Thanks for clicking onto mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog.  Kirk and Ed(from Yuma)- both are busy, busy. Cathy is staying indoors today and able to blog, so enjoy reading.  

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza opened it's first location in La Jolla in 1989, now has eight locations in San Diego County with a total of 17 locations in California and Nevada.  The concept and menu began as simple (the owner, Sami Ladeki, didn't even hire a chef at first, because the menu was so basic) and has expanded into small bites and other items in addition to pizza.  It's not an 'Italian' menu (Sami is from Lebanon) as much as it's fresh and local (items are sourced from within 125 miles). The website uses the trademarked term "Healthy Global Cuisine".The former Naval Training Center, now Liberty Station, is listed on the National Register of Historic places and the former military barracks and other government buildings have been adapted as stores, schools and restaurants.  One of Sammy's locations is here.    

This past summer, an additional menu, the Power Lunch (available from 11 to 2 daily), was introduced.  Choose any two items for $10.  We've tried the whole menu except for the kale salad and the spicy Italian sausage pizza...
Mentioned at the bottom the regular menu is that water and bread are served if requested.  Two multi-grain crisps (really nice seeded crackers) and a few pieces of fresh made soft crusted white bread and butter is brought out.  
The fresh tomato basil soup has been different every time we've had it.  Flavorful fresh tomatoes, sometimes with the shaved Romano cheese at the bottom of the bowl, sometimes on the top and basil are the main ingredients.  Recently the tomatoes were supplemented with red peppers, which were very tasty and made for a different soup flavor than I was expecting.The butternut squash soup (on the right) is always tasty...made with fresh squash, ginger and apple, it is brisk and fresh...and sometimes a bit stinging from the amount of ginger while sweet because of the apple.  

The corn chowder (on the left, above) is the 'calmest' of all the flavors.  A bit sweet because of the corn and carrots and complimented by potatoes, celery and red pepper, it's just good and creamy.The salads  (on this and the regular menu) are always so very fresh and quite large, even at lunch.  The Greek (above) has all the standard ingredients (tomato, cucumber, onion and olive) as well as Feta and is tossed with a simple red wine vinaigrette.The arugula with calmyria fig salad is simple; the other ingredients are feta and toasted almonds, along with some of the broken crisps that are served with the bread plate, above.  It's tossed with a pomegranate based dressing.  This I crave.The pizzas are larger than a 'personal' pizza, cut into quarters.  The margherita (above) has the most wonderful fresh ingredients in addition to a perfect (to me) crust.  There's a roasted garlic sauce under the mozzarella cheese that puts this pizza into one of my 'sudden craving' categories.The pepperoni pizza has a house made tomato sauce that is lightly spiced.  There are some bell pepper slices as well as pepperoni with the mozzarella cheese and those flavors along with the chew and crunch of the wood fired crust are a perfect combination.

I hope your week is going well!

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza, multiple locations. Website

Comments

[J.S. @ Sun Diego Eats]

I love the labneh pizza here! Sammy's is such an underrated unpretentious chain but they make good pizza. Much better than other pizza chains I've tried.

[Cathy]

I agree, J.S.- Sammy's is very underrated and I guess this local treasure is taken for granted. Hadn't realized that I never wrote a post, even though it's part of our 'rotation'. Everything on the menu is great.

[caninecologne]

I remember when Sammy's was the only choice for gourmet style pizza back in the 90s. I've been there so many times over the decades.

[Kelly Kurcina]

That place looks great. I would try the kale and romaine salad!

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Good post. I'd always dismissed it as a chain. I didn't realize it was a local chain, and good. Something else that Yuma could use.

[Cathy]

Sammy's was *the* place, cc...being in La Jolla and with all that 'wood fired' stuff. It's held up after all these years; I was surprised to see that I'd never posted.
The kale salad does have me curious, Kelly; it does look good. Every time we are headed here, it seems that I have a craving for something specific and kale wasn't it. Welcome to the commenting side of our blog!
Thanks, Ed. Yes, Sammy's is a place we all seem to take for granted...I saw several locations in Las Vegas a few years ago; it sure is popular.