San Diego’s first “chef-to-table” restaurant, with a team of chefs both cooking and serving customers, opens Monday in Hillcrest.
Chef-owner Marco Maestoso’s namesake Italian restaurant, located in the Hub Hillcrest Market, will also introduce San Diego to pinsa — the Roman ancestor of pizza — and passaggi — daily chef’s whims offered directly to guests.
“I am very enthusiastic about this new adventure in beautiful San Diego. Our main goal as a culinary team is to educate the community through our Italian cooking techniques and deep daily study on how we treat Mother Earth’s products. This new concept has huge potential and will be lots of fun for both us and our guests,” said Maestoso.
Maestoso, an alumnus of Rome’s prestigious Gambero Rosso culinary school, opened his first restaurant, the successful Casa Maestoso, in the Italian capital in 2015.
His restaurant in Hillcrest is co-founded by his longtime partner Dalila Ercolani, with whom he moved to San Diego in 2017, as well as childhood friends Christopher Antinucci and Giulia Colmignoli, known for their successful Napizza restaurants, and Antinucci’s brother and professional race car driver Richard Antinucci.
“I am happy to be working with such talented individuals like Dalila and Marco and am sure that they will bring a breath of fresh air to the culinary scene here in San Diego,” said Christopher Antinucci. “I’ve always wanted to increase the representation of Roman food in San Diego as I feel like so far it hasn’t been represented to its full potential on the full service side. I think Maestoso will do just that.”
The new restaurant will be open daily at 4:30 p.m.
