Fresh Brothers (Carmel Valley)

mmm-yoso!!! is a food-centric blog.  Today's short post is written by Cathy.

There was a need to stop at Trader Joe's and The Mister and I knew about this location for several reasons, having seen the signage on the corner multiple times over the years.  We had to get to the parking lot and saw a few other interesting businesses, including Fresh Brothers, so we stopped for a quick lunch. 

 This small chain, with 20 stores in Southern California (this is the only one in San Diego) started in 2008 (San Diego store opened in October 2016). Modern design with indoor and outdoor seating.  A fairly basic menu- pizzas, salad, wings, knots and sliders.  Bread in different forms. 
We ordered 'basics' for this first time meal.  The antipasto salad ($11) sounded good.  This is very large.  The bowl is deep, the toppings are layered within.  Critterio brand salami, smoked ham, mozzarella bits, green and black olives, grape tomatoes, pepperoni, red onion, Romaine lettuce.  The fresh made House Italian dressing was a great surprise- it was not too vinegary and was really fresh tasting.  
An order of three knots ($4) seemed like it would be complimentary to the salad.  Oh my, they were.  A handmade dough twisted into knot shapes, fresh baked and tossed with butter, Parmesan and chunks of garlic.  The dough was crisp on the exterior with softly layered interior.  Slightly sweet, these are addictive. The side of pizza sauce wasn't needed, but tasting it after eating half of a knot was a pleasant change.  Fresh tomatoes with a light addition of herbs (oregano was predominant; not really garlic at all). 
We decided to share a personal size cheese pizza ($7).  This was just right, sauce and cheese to the edge, a light, crispy but not too thin crust and a lot of melted, gooey mozzarella.

A nice little lunch.  Now that we've studied the menu, we will return.  (You can get any salad with a one topping personal pizza for $12.  That and some baked wings sounds like a nice meal.) Faye has been here. 

Fresh Brothers 5950 Village Way Ste 103 San Diego, CA 92130   website

Comments

[Faye]

I love this place. I always get the salad/pizza combo . You must try their deep dish personal pizza next time. Their dessert cinnamon rolls are AMAZING (same dough used for your garlic knots).

[kat]

those knots sound really nice!

[Cathy]

The deep dish option is now only for a medium size, Faye :( The personal size cheese regular crust pizza was wonderful though. Those knots are definitely a different dough than the pizza dough-and yes, I was imagining those as a dessert...but we are still overwhelmed by County Fair foods.

The knots are the perfect amount of chew and savoriness, Kat. There is an ordering option of six for $6, but I was being polite.