Bottle Shop - El Cajon

Next stop before the majors is Bottle Shop Pizza in Fletcher Hills. Opened 21 years ago and still running strong. This is an institution in the East County of San Diego. It's just a take out place, but next door is Tony's Restaurant. the family's sit down eatery. We will review that at a later time.

This pizza could probably be ranked in at least the top 10 of San Diego if it just had a little more oomph to it. I mean the crust is done nicely and the sauce is just OK. Just no outstanding flavors involved here.

I always seem to start with a review of the Antipasto of the various places we are writing about even though it doesn't count in the Pizza Quest totals. They just seem to go together. I mean you can't order a pizza without a salad it would seem. They just go together.

The Antipasti salad the Bottle Shop is really run of the mill stuff. Similar to a big chains version of what it should be.
At least there is no Vinegar marinated veggies on it. The menu says it will feed 4. I think more like 2-3 people. Pre packaged salad dressings of all varieties. Classic poker night with the boys fair. Filled with cuts of mortadella, salami and provolone.

Good deals on Pizza can be had here. Right now they are having a 2 large pizza deal for $19.99. Not bad at this price.

Like I said the pizza with a little push could be ranked a lot higher and could possibly out rank a few old school top 10 lists out there.
The pizza is a classic looking San Diego version. Lot's of cheese on top with the pepperoni tucked underneath. Seems that the east coast guys like to put it on top. Either way it doesn't matter to me.

The crust was of very good quality and had yellow corn meal on the bottom. I really like the cornmeal addition to pizza. gives it a really good corn back taste. Most use the cornmeal as a granular lubricant spread out on the pizza paddle so the pizza won't stick to it.

As you can see by the photo. lots of cornmeal. good stuff. By the way, we at Foodopolis will be upgrading our photo department shortly. We are finding out that reviewing Italian establishments can be tricky photographically as most are still very dark places.

The crust was fairly think around 1/4 inch or more in places. Had a good fresh dough taste. also the right amount of salt. cooked all the way through. with a nice chewy texture that holds up to the sauce and loads of cheese. No burned pieces of cornmeal or dough on the bottom. nice clean pizza oven.

The pizza had way to much sauce on it and it tended to spill out and over when you bit into it. definitely need a plate under your chin for this pizza. If you order. try telling them to put half the sauce on yours.
The Bottle Shop has always been notoriously slow when ordered for delivery. we ordered at 3:15pm and we didn't get a knock on the door till 5:05pm. That alone can put a damper on a good football game party.

We of course ordered the pepperoni pizza on special. It came delivered hot. the mound of cheese on top had started to pull away from the crust and making it a bit hard to eat without a fork. And we know that unless you are eating pizza with the queen of England. Pizza is a hand held food.

You can't go wrong with using a fresh 100% mozzarella for pizza. Later we will take you to an old school pizza place that might win this competition that doesn't use mozzarella! stay tuned on that one.

I stated earlier that this place could be a contender if they had just a little more power to the mix. case in point. This was a pepperoni pizza we ordered. But it might as well have been a cheese pizza. The pepperoni had no taste at all and added nothing to the mounds of cheese and crust and overloaded sauce. waste. Hormel pepperoni all the way.

The sauce was mild and too much of it. over all it is still definitely a cut above the chain stuff.

Now in the second spot. We give you.



The Bottle Shop
2447 Fletcher Pkwy
(619) 469-8410

Chow

Michael