Hey everybody, this is Jorge Castellon. Welcome
to my channel once again where we tour everything
having to do with little Italy. Today we are
in an awesome unique food and beverage experience
known as little Italy Food Hall, right in
the heart of little Italy. I mean it's starting
to get really lively up in here. And we have
Mike here. Mike DiNorscia, the CEO of little
Italy Food Hall. How are you doing Mike?
Good. Thanks for having me, Jorge.
Thank you for having us. We really appreciate
it. So Mike, you guys have been here for a
little while now. When did you guys open?
We opened in July of last year, July 12th,
2018.
July 12th, 2018 so you've been here for about
a year.
Yep.
You're probably getting your legs under you
and it looks like you guys are doing really
well. How's business been for the first year?
It's been fantastic. So most important is
that the neighborhood, the community, has
really embraced us and we've had a lot of
fun, had some transitions. It's been a little
bit of a learning curve in the process, but
we love it here and we love little Italy.
For the people who don't know, my viewers
who don't know, just describe little Italy
Food Hall for them.
Yeah, a Little Italy Food Hall is a collection
essentially. We were looking to create a casual
dining environment and it's a collection of
six food stalls and a bar. The six stalls
are comprised of what we consider to be the
best of the best in terms of their product
category in San Diego. And the bar that we
have here serves not just the interior here
in the patio, but entire Piazza della Famiglia
in Little Italy.
Exactly. So that leads me to my next question
and you can expand on how the Piazza works
here. So what made you choose not only little
Italy, which we all know was a great neighborhood,
but also the Piazza?
Yep. Well, obviously I'm a huge fan of little
Italy and the neighborhood, but we were hired
by the developer that built these two buildings
to consult them on the retail leasing for
the project. And in the process of doing that,
we decided in collaboration with them, that
a food hall would be a good fit. And we're
operators as well, so that's kind of how it
all came about.
Awesome. Well you nailed it with the food
hall. Obviously we'll take a look. You can't
see it, but there's people all around us right
now. You guys definitely nailed it on the
location. And then also having access to the
Piazza. I know that you guys have been very
successful for the first year or so that you've
been here and you're going to have great success
moving forward. So now what we're going to
do is we're going to check out each of the
stations, and we're going to start right here
in the bar.
We've launched these a couple of weeks ago.
They're light, they're bright, and it's something
that you can take out and experience a good
portion of the bar menu without having to
order a whole beverage. These have been pretty
popular as of late.
So Mike, we're here at the first station.
I'm going to let you pronounce it and describe
it.
Yeah, this is Bobboi gelato. Typically this
is where you'd end your night. We have a lot
of late night crowds that come to Booboi.
So it's an organic gelato product. These guys
are from Italy, the product's very authentic.
They have a shop in La Jolla. And we were
really excited to bring them into the Food
Hall and they're doing spectacular. So I think
with that, maybe we can try some of the product.
Let's have a couple of samples.
So I've had the Mediterraneo, and I've tried
to Stracciatella, which are probably my two
favorites.
All right. So this is the Mediterraneo.
Pretty good. Right?
Taste's supernatural. Supernatural.
You can [inaudible 00:04:04].
The nuts. The almonds. Yeah. Pistachio, yeah,
okay. I tasted pistachio for sure. This is
delicious. Super creamy. It's hot today. So
it's like super cooling for a day like today.
All right, so now we're at Wicked Maine Lobster.
Mike, what do you got going on here with this
place?
Well they have another location up in Liberty
Station, and we recognized them kind of quickly
as being really good operators and serving
a really good product. They get their lobster
from Maine. These guys are from Maine so they're
very authentic as well. They actually just
got recognized in San Diego Magazine as having
the best Taco Tuesday.
50% off lobster tacos on Tuesdays, and that
is famous here within the neighborhood, little
Italy. A lot of people will come down here
cause it's a great special.
So now we're at Ambrogio 15 which is an authentic
pizza place straight from Milan. Very delicious.
I've had it plenty times. Tell us a little
bit about it.
Yeah, the Milan pizza, they kind of really
specialize in the thin crust pizza. So the
flavor profile, you can really eat a whole
pizza by yourself, at least I can buy myself.
When we brought them in, they actually imported
the oven from Italy, which we thought was
super cool. They built the oven, as they imported,
onsite. And these guys are really about their
product. They're really about using the best
ingredients. They actually have another location
that's up in Pacific Beach. And that's how
we got introduced to them.
Right. A lot of the restaurants here, a lot
of the stations here, you had maybe experienced
them at a different place, at a bigger location
and you brought in a smaller operation here
for the station.
Yes.
Cool.
This is a margarita pizza. They have a special
on this every day for lunch. For $10, you
can get a margarita pizza. It's very popular.
Amazing. Beautiful. This is a great deal.
Super authentic. It's got a little bit of
crust on the bottom. This came right out of
the wood fired oven. Give it a try.
Okay. So now we're at Not Not Tacos, the line
is starting to form. It's lunchtime right
now. Mike tell us a little bit about Not Not
Tacos.
Yeah. So Not Not Tacos was really kind of
born by Sam, the cooking guy. Sam and I have
known each other for probably seven or eight
years. And when we did the Food Hall, I had
an opportunity to get reconnected with Sam
and we talked about creating a concept. And
this was his idea and it's been a lot of fun.
So basically it's about putting everything
in a taco that you wouldn't necessarily expect
to be in a taco.
So we have a short rib taco, we have a cheeseburger
taco. Right now you can see the special for
the month, we've got a baby back rib taco.
So it's been a lot of fun. Sam has quite the
following.
Yeah, he does.
And he is truly authentic and passionate about
his product. So it's great having them here.
That's why they call it Not Not Taco.
Exactly.
And I actually watched Sam quite a bit in
college. He helped me through college with
all of his recipes that he had that are quick
recipes, good recipes. So that's Not Not Tacos.
Last but not least, we have the Main St. Asian
Kitchen, which is the Asian influence here
at the Food Hall. So Mike, tell us a little
bit about this one.
Yeah, this stall is actually tremendously
popular. People really love coming here. It's
something that's unique in Little Italy when
you have so much Italian food.
Yeah. We don't have a lot of Asian food at
all.
No. And they've recently expanded their menu.
They have everything from bento boxes where
they sell orange chicken and rice, more traditional
Asian food too. They also sell the poke bowls.
They have ramen and they have some salads
on here as well.
Okay, great. I got to check it out. Mike,
is there anything else you want to tell my
viewers in regards to the Little Italy Food
Hall?
I think honestly, just to come out and enjoy
it. It's an incredible environment with great
people. The Piazza itself is programmed a
large portion of the week, whether it's movie
nights on Sundays or paint nights. We have
live music, we have salsa dancing on Wednesday.
So the main thing is just come out and enjoy
it.
A pleasure to meet you and speak with you.
And if you're out there and you haven't been
to the Little Italy Food Hall yet, please
come. It's a great place to be. Right now
it's super packed because everybody loves
this place. So thanks. I'll see you guys next
time.
