Opera Cafe & Pappalecco

I never knew there was a Church of Scientology in San Diego, did you? It's on 4th and Ash. I went outto lunch today with a friend of mine ( 1/3 of the educator lunch/dinner group). While looking for parking near Opera Cafe, our destination, we turned left on 4th and found a spot. Across the street was this building...
I hadn't been to Opera in a few months (not since my first time) and I had been obsessing of macarons. I ordered the Quiche Lorraine (came with bacon inside) which came with a lightly dressed side salad. Although it looks small, the portion was just right. It was $5.50. I noticed that the hanging menu placards had a few items blacked out. Last time I was there, each placard (4 total) had 3 or 4 items on each board. Now some were missing. The crust was firm yet flakey with each bite. I love crust!
My friend ordered a Croque with ham and cheese (or was it something else?). Funny, my friends are used to me taking photos of food. Same with my family. I'm used to getting wierd stares. And I used to do all this before I starting blogging about food! For a light dessert for the both ofus, I ordered two of each macaron pictured below: raspberry, pecan caramel....and...

pistachio!

Our real dessert was to be had in this place:

We wanted gelato and originally were going to go to either Mimmo's or Cafe Zucchero (based on a passerby's recommendation). Coincidentally, we bumped into another friend's husband (he was just over last week for Korean BBQ). His wife was my former co-worker and a very good friend. We just had lunch at Seoul BBQ (I posted about that) and Ranas (in April). He just finished his lunch break with a friend and was walking to his car. His office is in downtown near Athens Market. Anyways, introductions were made and we went on our way. While walking back down India Street, he comes by in his truck and offers us a ride to a new gelato place on the corner of State and Cedar. I reassured my friend that he was 'safe' (ha ha) so we got into his truck while he drove us a few blocks around the corner. Turns out that this place, Pappalecco's, is fairly new, having opened just two months ago.

Read a review here , here, and Alice Q. Foodie's review here. This place's website isn't up yet, but here's the link. My friend's husband dropped us off across the street and we headed into uncharted territory. And to think that we were going to go to Gelato Vero (again).

The top half of the exterior was bright orange while the inside was tiny but chic. There were also mod orange chairs in a mini and narrow lounge area. The guy who served us was Italian and he may have been the owner, judging from the reviews I've read. My friend asked him where he was from - Pisa. He took his family business to the States. They also serve sandwiches and salads, but we came here for the gelato!

Their signature flavor is their namesake, Pappalecco, which is chocolate with amaretto flavoring and bits of biscotti. He gave me sample, but I didn't really like it (didn't tell him that though!) so I got the Chocolate instead. My friend got the coffee flavor. What can I say? Their gelato was superior to Melt's and maybe, just maybe better than Gelato Vero. It was creamier and the flavors were much more intense. In the meantime, our server and cashier flirted with my friend and blew kisses to us (I didn't see him doing it because my back was turned towards him). My friend thought it was hilarious. As we left, he shouted, "Ciao Bella!

The cash register area. Nice flat screen above:

Oops! Dark photo! Sorry!

Our gelato - chocolate & coffee:

The view from our window - corner of Cedar and State Streets in Little Italy. Nice sunny day!

I ended up calling my friend telling her that her husband gave us a ride to the gelato place. In the truck, he was joking with his friend that they were looking to pick up chicks. No, but seriously, I was glad to have found out about this place. It's about 2 blocks from India Street, so it's not on the main street where all the restaurants are. It's a bit out of the way, but I'm sure as word of mouth travels, this place will be just as popular a destination for gelato as Cafe Zucchero (haven't tried their food or gelato yet). All this gelato isn't going to help me lose a few pounds for our upcoming reunion! Ha ha.

[edit - 7/19 - Today's SD Reader has a Tin Fork review of Pappalecco. Read it here.]