Sempre Famiglia

When I was eight, my family started taking yearly week-long vacations to Southern California. We would drive seven hours from Phoenix pulling an old, used tent trailer and would set up camp at one of the public beach campgrounds in Orange County. Our favorite place to go, although it required what seemed like a mile-long, steep paved walk up from the beach to the campground after a day of playing hard in the ocean surf, was San Clemente State Beach. The first year we started this family tradition, we happened upon a family-owned pizza place in town and we had to go there every year following. The place was always hopping at night with locals and vacationers alike, and it's no different today.

It's called Sonny's, and they serve my family's favorite pizza. It's thin, crispy, even charred a little on the bottom, and is topped with, in my opinion, the world's best tomato sauce, along with whatever else you want. My family particularly likes the sausage pizza, the addicting taste of fennel from the sausage dancing on our tongues. We also love the meatballs, and we usually get a few on the side to share as an appetizer. (Dad likes a bit of gorgonzola on the top.) The leftover sauce can be used for dipping pizza. Believe me, you won't want it to go to waste.

Sadly, I haven't been to Sonny's in a few years, work and distance not allowing me the visit. Luckily, though, just a couple hours north of my very own hometown is a restaurant run by the same family to which Sonny's owner belongs. That one is called Genovese's and serves similar pasta dishes and pizza. Although not exactly a carbon copy of the first restaurant, you can still enjoy that same satisfying, crunchy crust, the savory, delicious sauce, and the fennel-y, tender sausage that makes Sonny's a family fave.

I actually had the rare pleasure of going up there this past weekend with Mom and Dad. And it just so happens we were on the way back from the glory of all Arizona...

...to which I had never been in my life. And I'm an Arizona girl. But California sort of feels like home, too, in a way. And all this thinking of Sonny's makes me want to go back soon--if I can ever make it. I am glad, though, that Arizona has something to tide me over until I get there.

Thanks, Genovese's.

And one more thing: On the wall of Genovese's is a little plaque that reads "Sempre Famiglia" which means "Always Family." It has caught my eye each time I've walked through the door of the cozy little restaurant. Always Family. Isn't that what food is all about? Serving, sharing, enjoying, savoring--with the ones you love. Always.