Overview: Civico 1845
Of the dishes we tried, each delivered striking flavors while adhering to the jaunty Calabrian essence that has kept the restaurant’s pulse rate running high since opening in 2015.
In celebration of its 10-year anniversary, Civico 1845 in Little Italy has teamed up with some of San Diego’s most eminent chefs for creating a special menu of dishes that jive to the restaurant’s recognized use of high-quality ingredients.
It was earlier this year that Civico received the prestigious “Q” certification from Ospitalita Italiana, an organization that assesses quality and authenticity in Italian restaurants worldwide.
“We are the only restaurant in San Diego to receive the Q award,” said executive chef Pietro Gallo, who owns the business with his brother, Dario. Both were born and raised in Italy’s southern region of Calabria.
Gallo added that reps from the certification program spent three days intensively examining Civico’s bill of fare before bestowing the honor, which is displayed on an outdoor plaque at the entrance.
For the recently introduced anniversary menu, which is offered daily through Oct. 1, the siblings worked with a quintet of culinary trailblazers: Travis Swikard of Callie; Claudia Sandoval, a past winner of MasterChef and a frequent guest on Food Network shows; Brad Wise of Trust Restaurant Group; Accursio Lota of Cori Trattoria; and Enea Sintoni from Ambrogio15.
Dishes did not fail to satisfy
Stuffed zucchini blossoms. (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)
Of the dishes we tried, each delivered striking flavors while adhering to the jaunty Calabrian essence that has kept the restaurant’s pulse rate running high since opening in 2015.
Swikard’s stuffed squash blossoms came still attached to their baby zucchini—something I’d never seen in all the times these super-delicate blooms have landed on my plate.
Filled meticulously with buttery-tasting Caciocavallo cheese that is marinated in Calabrian peppers, they attest to the chef’s strict farm-to-table credo. A drizzle of honey and a pinch of fennel pollen in the scheme gives the appetizer a subtle yet memorable complexity.
Leave it to American-Mexican celebrity chef Claudia Sandoval to incorporate her Mazatlan heritage into an unshakable Italian kitchen such as this.
Pork belly tacos with a Calabrian touch. (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)
Sandoval is no stranger to peppers, onions, tropical fruits and roasted meats. Here, she dazzles the mouth with a trio of pork belly tacos embellished with pineapple, red onion, Calabrian chili peppers, tomatoes and lemon zest.
What sounded busy on paper turned out to be some of the dreamiest multinational tacos you’ll find anywhere. Too bad they’ll disappear next month.
My dinner companion, a sister visiting from out of state, is a big fan of braised short rib. So we dove straight into an order of ravioli di carne conceived by local chef-restaurateur Brad Wise.
Ravioli di carne. (Photo by Frank Sabatin Jr.)
These aren’t your ordinary beef-filled pasta pillows.
Their added bonuses are a veal-pepper paste known as “nduja,” which is used in the dark-red tomato sauce. In addition, mild burrata cheese is melted on top. Compared to other ravioli, these are richer and last longer on the taste buds.
From the restaurant’s regular menu we kept our carnivore urges sated with more shredded short rib, this time served generously with house-made pappardelle pasta blanketed by thick shavings of imported Parmigiano. Good stuff – especially between sips of palate-cleansing prosecco produced in Italy’s Veneto region.
Pappardelle pasta with short rib. (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)
The only dried pasta in the house is imported filei, a common Calabrese cut of dense, twisted ropes tossed typically with sausage ragu.
It’s listed here as ragu di Salsiccia. Although in this version, the pasta is infused with Calabrian peppers, which raises the spice level to a manageable “medium.” The entree produced abundant leftovers that doubled in savor overnight.
We ended our meal with spicy chocolate profiteroles, which Roman-native Sintoni brings to the collaboration menu.
The chilled vanilla cream he uses in desserts at Ambrogio15 is the prize hiding inside these light pastry puffs. The velvety chocolate sauce on top is mildly piquant, thanks to tiny flecks of crunchy Italian chilies. The outcome is both nostalgic and novel.
Pasta infused with Calabrian peppers. (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)
Civico 1845 offers a separate year-round vegan menu—a rarity in Italian restaurants.
“We break the rules for American-Italian food,” said Gallo, a past vegan and alumni of the former San Diego Culinary Institute.
His plant-based dishes include calamari (made with oyster mushrooms when I tried it several years ago); eggplant meatballs minus the use of egg; lasagna with vegan ragu and bechamel; and a commendable tiramisu made with cashew cream and house-made ladyfingers.
Non-vegan specialties extend to beef carpaccio with truffle sauce; lemon-caper chicken scaloppine; seafood risotto; fusilli pasta with eggplant in tomato-ricotta sauce; zucchini-crusted branzino; and more.
The restaurant is situated alongside Little Italy’s Piazza Basilone.
Chocolate-covered profiterols offer a speck of heat. (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)
It is named after its numeric address on India Street. The atmosphere beckons to Italy’s Arte Povera movement of the late 1960s, in which everyday materials and objects are used as decor.
An illuminated wall inside shows off items such as antiquated milk cans, oven paddles, rolling pins and other homey bric-a-brac.
Combined with fine food and enthusiastic servers, it is easy to envision the restaurant sticking around for future anniversaries.
Civico 1845
1845 India St. (Little Italy)
(619) 880-3761; civico1845.com
Prices: Appetizers, $15 to $21; salads, $14 and $15; pasta, $25 to $31; meat and fish entrees, $33 to $45.