Recently in Italian Category

By Eric Terrazas

I am a big fan of pizza, which has long been a favorite dish of mine.

Always on the lookout for a tasty pie, I decided to check out a place called Anna's Pizza, located in West Covina.

I ordered the mini 8-inch two-topping pizza for $4.99. The two toppings I selected were pepperoni and pineapple.

My first impression of Anna's was pretty positive. While it was not the best pizza I ever had, I still came away a satisfied customer.

For $4.99, the two-topping pizza is not a bad deal. I ate all of my pineapple and pepperoni pizza, which tasted pretty good.

I decided to give Anna's another try the next day. This time, I selected the $6.99 lunch special, which consisted of a mini 8-inch two-topping pizza, a small salad and a medium soft drink.

The toppings I selected were sausage and mushroom. 

I thought the sausage and mushroom pizza tasted better than the pepperoni and pineapple.

The salad, which comes with several choices of dressing, wasn't bad. I wish it included a couple more tomatoes.

Anna's salad dressing list includes ranch, blue cheese, Italian, thousand island, vinegar and oil, and Caesar. I ordered the thousand island.

I had no problem finishing my sausage and mushroom pie.  

For $6.99, I thought Anna's lunch special was a nice meal and deal. Other pizza sizes are also offered.

The choice of toppings also include meatballs, salami, ham, Canadian bacon, tomatoes, garlic, onions, green peppers, olives, jalapenos, anchovies and chicken.

If you happen to have a light budget, the $3.99 mini 8-inch cheese pizza sounds like a good choice.

Anna's menu also features dishes such as spaghetti ($6.99), lasagna ($7.75) and ravioli ($7.25). All dishes are served with garlic bread.

Different varieties of sandwiches and salads are also available. A regular (8-10 inches) sized sandwich costs $5.25 while a foot-long is priced at $6.25.

Salad selections include chicken ($6.50), antipasto ($6.25), and garden ($4.75).

So if you are in the mood for Italian fare and happen to be in the West Covina area, Anna's just might sound like a good place to eat.

Anna's Pizza is located at 1010 West Covina Parkway in West Covina. For information, call (626) 337-7297.

By Evelyn Barge

I'm not a big fan of restaurants with gimmicky food names; even less so, nightclubs with lame drink labels.

It's an allergy I developed after ordering, with head hanging in shame, the embarrassing "Jenny's Favorite" smoothie at a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Monterey many moons ago. I still haven't figured out just why Jenny - an abused child, turned counterculture hippie, turned druggie, turned baby mama, who finally gets sick, settles down and then immediately dies - would have a predilection for strawberries, cranberry juice and non-fat raspberry frozen yogurt. (Send me a memo if you know more than I do.)

At any rate, New York's Finest Bakery and Cafe proprietor Salvatore Mangiafreno obviously disagrees with me. 

Every sandwich on the West Covina eatery's menu is named for a New York City attraction or borough - The Bronx, The Staten Island, The Yankee Stadium, The Shea Stadium, The Park Ave., and on and on.

I find this a little too cutesy for my taste. But, let's be honest, a good taste - the kind that really counts at a restaurant - can overpower all sorts of cornball phrases.

That's how I felt ordering "The NYPD" sandwich ($5.50) at New York's Finest. Yes, the sandwich is really called that, and just speaking the name aloud gave me low expectations for it. 

But I was won over by the force - or, more specifically, the ingredients, which piqued my interest from their place on the menu.

Hot capicola, prosciutto, provolone cheese, pepperoncini, lettuce, oil and vinegar. Simple, spicy; I'll take it. I picked the round roll, which is really more of a giant oval, but the sandwiches are also available on 12-inch hero subs.

The pepperoncinis really steal the show here, acting en masse to overpower thick layers of meat with a mild, pleasing, pickled heat.  

The New York Style salad ($5.00) with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella balls, olives, olive oil and balsamic vinegar glaze was beyond basic but comprised of fresh ingredients and quite satisfying. It reminded me of something I'd whip up at home to take on a picnic.

New York's Finest has an interesting kind of appeal for a city like West Covina. It's Italian-American deli fare through-and-through, with fresh bread, cookies and pastries baked daily on the premises.

It's the kind of place you stop on the way to work to get a baker's dozen of cannolis for the office.

It's refreshing, light, healthy fare - just don't forget something to satisfy your sweet tooth.

New York's Finest Bakery and Cafe is located at 648 S. Sunset Ave. in West Covina. (626) 814-9900. www.nyfinestbakery.com. 

At only $3 a pop, I tried a few of the five varieties available of Quizno's Bullets, which are the same offerings for the $4 foot-long Torpedoes.

I'm not big on turkey but I thought I would give the Pesto Turkey Bullet a try first.

The sandwich with thin-sliced turkey, red wine vinaigrette, mozzarella cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, topped with basil pesto and toasted in a ciabatta bread was all snuggled in its own paper sleeve for on-the-go munching.

Perfect for when I eat at my desk while checking emails, messages, etc....

The warm and toasty 8 inches of sandwich was just enough to save room for chips and a drink or if you're feeling really ravenous, another sandwich.

Even though this is the first one I tried, I must say it is my favorite and all because of the pesto.

The fresh ingredients were great but the pesto really brought it all together. I usually like to add some peperoncinis or some of their Batch 81 sauce, which has a nice kick to it, to my sandwiches but the pesto sauce was so flavorful it didn't need anything else and I didn't want to ruin it.

The second variety I tried was the Italian with pepperoni, spicy capicola, ham, mozzarella cheese and red wine vinaigrette, and chopped lettuce and tomatoes.

I liked the spicy capicola and ham, but the vinaigrette didn't impress as much as the pesto did so this seemed like a basic Italian sub.

The next sandwich I tried was the Beef, Bacon and Cheddar with thin sliced roast beef, crispy pieces of bacon, mayonnaise and cheddar.

I liked that there wasn't much mayo in this sandwich because I hate when I have to wipe off excess mayo that's oozing out the side of a sandwich or burger. If anything I would prefer no mayo.

The roast beef and cheddar was nice but it was the crispy bacon, not greasy either, that made this one my next favorite.

There is still a Turkey Club and Big Kahuna Tuna that I will try next, but so far these little bullet-sized sandwiches are worth their $3 price tag.

For a few bucks more you can make it a combo with chips and a drink. 

NEXT TIME: SUBWAY'S $5 FOOTLONGS

By Emma Gallegos

At the intersection of Italy and Americana (specifically, the intersection of Citrus and College), there's Claro's.

The market, deli and bakery in Covina is the latest addition to the Claro's empire that got its start in San Gabriel and now includes outposts in La Habra, Tustin, Arcadia and Upland.

Browse the aisles and you're sure to find a healthy mix of devotion to the homeland and imports from the homeland. 

There are T-shirts and keychains and caps and vanity license plates proclaiming love for Italy or Sicily right alongside some of the imports that are trickier to find at, say, Ralph's. There are chocolate hazelnut "Baci" and "Kinder" candies or the menthol cough drops that Italians suck on in sickness and in health. There's dark, bitter chinotto soda and light Italian beer.

But, if you are truly dining on a budget, I'd advise you to skip most of the imports. Undoubtedly, the weak dollar and the fuel it takes to bring Italy to Americana contributes to a ridiculous mark-up on some of the items. I found myself unknowingly shelling out $4 for an Abbondio Rossa soda - a bitter, subtly sweet Italian soda that would have tasted less bitter without the aftertaste of sticker shock.

Penny-pinchers should stick to the deli on one side of the store and the bakery on the other.

For only a few dollars more than Quizno's foot-long special ($6.99), you can order a sandwich and watch the meat being sliced right in front of you. 

Or you can wander over to the other side of the market and salivate at the sight of so many beautiful loaves of bread and cornettos (Italian croissants) and a broad selection of other freshly baked goods to dunk in your morning coffee. 

I opted to try their take on a cannoli ($2.49). I've never met a cannoli I didn't like and this one wasn't any different. The ricotta filling was rich and fresh but not too sweet. The ground pistachios at either opening of the crispy shell was a nice touch.

Back at the deli counter, the man who made my prosciutto sandwich warned me that the Canadian kind would be a little saltier, a little less tender than the imported Italian kind. To his credit, he was right. The budget diner in me didn't want to spring for the imported kind that would cost an extra $2.

The domestic prosciutto was as delicious as any I've tried, but the stack of so many slices of salty meat was overwhelming. Savory Italian prosciutto crossed with the all-American love for sky-high stacks of meat isn't exactly a match made in heaven.

Next time, I'll skip the bitter soda and splurge on the saltier, tender meat or I'll tell the man slicing my meat "when" midway through. A little goes a long way, as they say.

But I'll be coming back. All the ingredients in my sandwich were fresh and high-quality. The bread was firm and flavorful and the mustard was sharp and tangy.

And I know that even in such a small grocery store, I hadn't even scratched the surface. It might take a few tries, but if there's anywhere that will hit the sweet spot where Italy meets Americana (on a budget and around the corner), Claro's will be it.

Claro's Italian Market is at 159 E. College St., Covina,  (626) 339-3333.

By Claudia Palma, Staff Writer

WEST COVINA - We have so many choices to get a fresh sandwich nowadays - Subway, Quizno's, and even Vons - but I still like giving the little family deli shops a try.

I've seen the Old World Delicatessen hidden in the expansive Eastland Shopping Center in West Covina before and thought I would see what they had to offer.

The old-Italian style storefront nicely welcomes you into the shop, which offers both a sit-down and take-out restaurant and a deli shop where you can buy your own meats and cheeses to take home and cook with.

As much as I would have loved to stay in and enjoy the fresh and tasty-looking all-you-can-eat salad bar, I needed to get back to the office and ordered to go instead.

The menu features a variety of cold and hot sandwiches, New York-style hot dogs, soups, broasted chicken meals, pizza, and pasta dinner combos.

I chose the Brooklyn Bridge Grinder cold sandwich. It has a combination of Italian cuts - mortadella, coppocolla, dry salami - with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, bell peppers, and topped with a special blend of Italian dressing, on a six-inch Italian roll.

 

The sandwich alone is $6.85, but I made my order a combo with a drink and a side order of potato salad for a couple bucks more.

Everything in the sandwich tasted fresh and cold, the way it's supposed to be. The meats were not too salty and had a nice kick of spices of their own.

The dressing was perfectly seasoned, not too overwhelming, and covered the vegetables in the sandwich enough to make them a little soft.

The potato salad definitely had to be freshly homemade and not the mass-produced buckets you can get at the supermarket. It had just the right amount of mayonnaise and seasonings. I even detected a little mustard which I usually don't like but it blended in well. 

The size of potatoes varied from small to large round slices and had the right amount of pickles thrown in.

The shop, which has been in the deli business since 1969, offers daily dinner specials and catering. They also have another location in Upland.

Old World Delicatessen is at 2649 E. Workman Ave. in West Covina, (626) 967-6307; and 281 S. Mountain Ave. in Upland, (909) 608-0418. The deli's Web site is www.owdeli.com.

Daily Bulletin columnist David Allen writes about the closure of the Romano's Macaroni Grill in Rancho Cucamonga because of slow sales. He mentions that the West Covina location is closing for the same reason.

I was surprised. You would think that the West Covina restaurant would have tremendous sales. It's next to a insanely-popular movie theater and across the street from the West Covina mall. Then again, the last time I went to the Macaroni Grill was at least a year ago...

Macaroni Grill didn't necessarily have the most amazing Italian food, but it was good. The menu had all the traditional favorites, and the restaurant was casual enough for a weeknight dinner but nice enough for a special occasion. Now that it's closing, where else can you find Italian food in the area?

Tulipano's in Azusa
Giovanni's in downtown Covina
Macaroni Grill in Rowland Heights/Industry (wonder if that one will close, too)
Avolio's in Covina
Artie's Pizza in Covina
Johnny Carino's in Covina
El Appetiz in Baldwin Park
Olive Garden in Industry
Spaghetti Eddie's in Glendora

Caffe Notrellis

Judging from the wistful gleams in my colleagues' eyes when I tell them I went to lunch at Caffe Notrellis, this little lunch counter is much-loved around the Tribune newsroom, despite being a little more expensive than we poor reporters prefer to pay for lunch.
The Irwindale cafe has a surprising amount of charm for being in an office park. Petite cafe tables, cheery yellow walls and pink bougainvillea over the front patio help the lunchtime business crowd forget their mundane surroundings. The food is good, but still feels overpriced at nearly $7 for a sandwich.
The ingredients in the cafe's paninis, pastas and salads hint at either appreciation of foodie ingredients or perhaps just copy-cat pretension: blue cheese and brie, curried chicken salad, jasmine rice, peanut sauce. Perhaps that's why the Basil Pesto Pasta With Chicken comes to about $9, with tax.