Cheesy tots and Bacione

[Bacione has been closed for past few years and replaced with another business]

Last Thursday (when I was still on Spring Break), TC and I went to Mission Valley to do a few returns. At the mall food court, we got some (forbidden) snacks. A small order of fries from Burger King and this new menu item called "Cheesy Tots" which are deep fried cheese embedded potato nuggets. Mmmm. I only bought the 6 piece because I wasn't sure if they would be good or not. They were okay...
After Mission Valley, we went to Fashion Valley to make a few more returns. As we were walking from the parking structure (near the movie theatres) to get to the mall, I happened to look up and there were two boys (maybe 10 or 12 years old) standing above us. As we walked under them, TC and I were showered with popcorn bits. I could hear their laughter above. I was upset that these kids were doing this for fun...What total losers. After I did my returns, we went to have lunch so I figured we would kill two birds with one stone and have lunch somewhere near Trader Joe's in Hillcrest. After finding a lone parking spot behind the store, we walked over to this place in the Ralph's/Trader Joe's shopping center.We were greeted by an elderly man with an Italian accent who seated us in a window facing booth. He was so nice and he seemed to know most of his customers. He said "Bye boys, see you later" to a male couple who were leaving as we walked in. Turns out that the man was the owner and his name is Ned Geha.

The interior, dark wood with hand painted murals of Italy:

The front counter:

I ordered the Pizza Margherita which came with a green salad. I didn't care too much for the dressing because I eat my salads plain. I picked at the dry pieces instead and TC had a bit of the salad as well:

I'm not kidding when I say this is one of the best pizzas I've ever tasted. The ingredients were so fresh and simple. The crust was also very good. Most crusts are thick and doughy or thin and cardboardy. Not this one. It was light and crisp with a satisfying mouthfeel . When I mentioned that I really liked the crust to the owner, he was so happy I noticed. He told me that all of the other places use refrigerated or ready made dough but he made his from scratch every day and that was the difference.

TC had the child size portion of the spaghetti marinara with fresh parmesan cheese on top. There was a time when TC had spaghetti at Lotus's house and Lotus joked with her, "Do you want some spaghetti with that cheese?" since she totally piled it on!

There was a trio of older folks sitting in the booth behind us and I could overhear their conversation. One of the men knew the owner (that's how I found out his name was Ned) and he was greeted like an old friend. Ned even joined them for part of their lunch.
He and his wife were so kind to me and TC. Before we boxed up our leftovers, he said to TC, "You didn't like your spaghetti?" To which she replied, "I did like my spaghetti but I couldn't finish it all". So he said, "Can I finish it for you?" He proceeded to make a show of taking her fork and pretending to scoop up the pasta; she ended up laughing and smiling. I'd like to go again (next time with Bert) and try a few other items on their menu...