- Hi everybody! This is Jorge Castellon.
Welcome back to my
channel where we explore
all the great things that
Little Italy has to offer.
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videos about Little Italy.
I am excited to be here
in front of Civico 1845.
Easy to remember because it's
located on 1845 India Street,
right in the heart of Little Italy.
This is one of the most
authentic Italian restaurants
in all of San Diego.
The two brothers that opened
this restaurant came here
just a few years ago in
order to provide us with
a true Italian experience
that we can all enjoy.
Let's take a trip to Italy.
(upbeat music)
All right, so we are here
inside of Civico 1845
and co-owner Dario Gallo has
been nice enough to let us in
and chat with us for just a minute.
Great to meet you.
Thank you for having us.
We appreciate it very much.
We're gonna get right into it.
Tell us a little bit about Civico 1845.
- So Civico is our first restaurant.
We open it four years ago
now, with my brother, Pietro.
We move here in San Diego
because we had this dream.
We had the dream to open an authentic,
traditional but yet
modern, Italian restaurant,
and we decided to open it
right in the middle of Little Italy.
Because of course Little Italy should,
you know, should represent
the being Italian 100 percent
so where for us it is very
important to showcase our food,
in the middle, in the
heart of Little Italy,
and this is where we are.
So with Civico, our intention
was to bring this out,
especially through the dishes
that we have over here.
We focus mostly on the Calabrian
food that is our region.
Plus my brother, Pietro,
that is also a chef,
introduce the very
first Italian vegan menu
in the whole country.
This has been probably the
real biggest differentiator
compared to the rest of
the other Italian restaurant in town.
And on the traditional part,
only work with fresh ingredients,
so our purveyors are local
farms around San Diego County
for produce, and then for the seafood,
only local fisherman, so
wild-caught local from San Diego.
And this is the best thing, of course,
in order to get the freshest produce,
and of course, then the
authenticity of the Italian.
(fast music)
- All right we're gonna
have to take a sample,
maybe of your favorite dishes.
What about drinks?
Do you guys have a selection
of Italian wines here--
- [Dario] Yes.
- And beers?
What is the most popular drink here?
- So here we only have beer and wine,
but we are focusing
especially on the wine program
to try to go more and more
on the slow wine philosophy.
The slow wine philosophy
is kind of like the son of
the slow food philosophy
that started in Italy
and there are those small producers that
they don't have big production,
but they can control the
quality of the wines,
in this case, that they produce.
My favorite, and actually
that it's either my favorite
and either the best seller,
is our wine from Calabria,
from my home town actually.
Maybe 10-15 minutes from my
house, there's this producer
that he makes this Cataratto it's called,
wine that is my local grapes.
It's a red wine, medium full bodied,
and everyone is loving it,
and for us we're proud because of course,
it's literally from our hometown.
- That's crazy.
This is a real, authentic experience here.
I mean, there's a lot of
Italian restaurants here,
but when I come in here
people are talking in Italian,
and sometimes it sounds
like they are screaming
at each other.
- [Dario] Yes. (laughs)
- So when you come in here,
you get a real true Italian experience.
I've been lucky enough to
be there a couple of times
and this probably as close as you can get,
in San Diego, to real deal Italian.
You have two Italian owners,
Italian chefs, a lot of Italian--
- [Dario] Most of the staff.
- The staff, yes, a lot of the staff are--
- They're mostly Italian.
It looks like we're fighting all the time,
Don't worry, it's just the
way to communicate between us.
- That's exactly my thought,
I'm like, "Wow are you?"
Okay, cool.
So what about, you guys now are
starting another restaurant,
is that true?
- Yes, we recently opened
four months ago, Il Dandy.
That is our next step.
We start with the traditional of Civico,
now it's finally time to
showcase what is the food
that us Italian's we
eat in Italy right now.
(fast music)
We introduce now also a
restaurant within the restaurant,
that is a very new thing here in San Diego
and it's basically a chef's
table where people, our guests,
they can experience this,
experience trait with the chefs
that they do a 12 courses
for fixed menu and
that is the ultimate, gourmet,
modern Italian experience.
- All right, and that's
up in Bankers Hill?
I've actually been there for drinks,
I haven't eaten there yet,
but I definitely will do that
and I recommend it for all of you as well.
And Dario, now we are going
to have to take a look
at some of the food and
maybe get something to eat,
but for all of you out there,
when you are walking by
here on India Street,
when you see these green awnings,
Civico 1845, make sure you stop by.
This is the real deal,
true Italian experience
and that's it, tt's a wrap.
(fast music)
Thank you for joining me at Civico 1845.
Remember to like and comment
below if you have any questions
and join me next time as we continue
to explore Little Italy.
(soft music)
