Heirloom Cucina at the Student Life Pavilion
Mickey Gonzalez is lookin’ at me, and you just know he’s from back East ’cause he speaks in that big “You talkin’ to me?” voice.
“I’ve got a fresh one in the oven right now,” he says. “Trust me, this one has gone dry. Nothing worse than dried-out pizza.” He picks the last third of a pepperoni pizza up and is about to throw it off its tray into the waste bin.
“I’ll take that,” says the student standing next to me. “I don’t have three minutes.”
“Ho-kay.” Mickey holds the pizza like it’s a piece of road kill. “Your choice.”
Seems like fresh is everything to Mickey. He was brought up in Hoboken, half a block away from the house Frank Sinatra grew up in. In Hoboken, a pizza ain’t a pizza, it’s a pie. “Back home,” says Mickey, “they’re very particular. What you gonna have?”
This is happening inside the way-big eating complex they call Pavilion Dining, part of the Student Life Pavilion of the University of San Diego. Ten minutes ago, I got off the 44 bus on Linda Vista Road outside Marian Way. That’s the main artery through the hilltop cluster of the school’s halls. Looks like the Prado in Balboa Park. Very romantic, very Spanish.