If you are looking for some of the best pizza, pasta, and more look no further than Italia Pizza. This family-owned and run pizza joint has been in business for 35 years! Bring the community authentic family recipes from Sicily, passed down from father to son. If you are looking for a new spot to get your authentic Italian food fix, then don't sleep on Italia Pizza in El Cajon.

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Are you looking for some amazing Italian food from a fun little family owned and operated business here in East County? We're at Italia Pizza at El Cajon, let's get to it. East County, San Diego has a lot to offer. Amazing food, a rich history, tons of community events, and amazing people and organizations. I'm Kyle Whissel with Whissel Realty Group and this is Everything East County. Frank, how are you?

Good, how're you doing?

Good, man. I'm excited to be here. You guys have been around for a little while.

Yeah just about 35 years now.

[Kyle] That's super cool.

[Frank] In April.

And so did you start this? Did your parents start this?

I started it myself.

Okay. What was the inspiration to start your own restaurant?

My dad's been a chef his whole life and from Sicily, he passed down all the recipes to me.

All right.

So, it was kind of easy for me to learn from him and get it all started with.

Okay. What do you think makes you guys unique? I mean, you've lasted a long time. A lot of restaurants have come and gone. What's made you guys have some staying power?

What makes us unique is the authenticity of our food. Like we make our own sausage, our own dough, everything's from scratch. Our meat sauce ,I use my dad's wine with the ground beef to put inside the sauce and it all blends in. It makes a perfect recipe. It's all authentic. Homestyle.

What's your favorite thing on the menu?

Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken. Really good dish.

Very cool.

very tasty, because of the blend of the cheeses that we use. You'll be able to taste that today.

Cool. I'm ready to make some food. Let's go back there and check it out.

For sure.

Alright, so we're going to make some pizza now.

Yeah.

So, let's talk about the dough first. Like, what goes into a really, really good pizza dough?

What goes into it is making your own, first and foremost. We put oil, yeast, white yeast, sugar, salt, water. It's all about timing with the dough. We hand toss all our pizzas. We make our own dough, fresh daily. That's a pizza sauce that we have that I use as a recipe that is just plain herbs, just oregano and stuff. Just the key to that is how much you put in.

Yeah.

And the tomato has to be really good. Like good tomato. You can't buy cheap tomato. So then, along there, we're putting the pepperoni on right now. That's something we don't make, but they try to pick the best quality possible out there. Okay. So he's got that ready to go. And we're going to be baking that in a stone oven.

All right, guys, I'm super excited to dive into this. Again, this place has been around for 30 plus years, all passed down Sicilian family recipes. This looks so amazing. And now we're sitting in front of this. This is a massive plate of food. Let's dive into it. Get just the right amount of noodles. Get a little bit of chicken in there. That is super, super tasty. We got just the right amount of richness of cheese. Sometimes, maybe a little too much. This is perfect. Just the right amount of blended cheese. We've got a really good season on that chicken. This stuff is delicious, guys. Look at this pizza, this garlic bread, got some amazing wings over here waiting for us. If you guys want to support a family owned and operated Italian restaurant here in East County, been around for over 30 years. Love for you guys to come check it out. Italia Pizza in El Cajon on Broadway, just east of second street, you guys got to come check them out. Talk to Frank. The owner here is an amazing guy. He'll tell you all kinds of fun stories and he's going to talk with his hands 'cause that's what they do in Italy, right? So come check them out, guys. Support these amazing restaurants we have here on the show. And if you enjoyed it, make sure to like, comment, and share it so more people can learn about Italia Pizza here in El Cajon. With that said, thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Everything East County. I'm Kyle Whissel with Whissel Realty group.