Pizza bathed in seafood at Steveston (Four Square)
Food, Hillcrest
San Diego’s Priciest Pizza
By Frank Sabatini Jr.
Customers at the new Salt & Water Pizza were recently giving its menu some serious double takes.
An offshoot of Steveston Pizza in Vancouver, Canada, the pizzeria branched into the west end of Hillcrest a couple months ago under that name. In doing so, it took over the quaint bungalow formerly occupied by Empirehouse Urban Palate.
Steveston’s specialty (and now somewhat that of Salt & Water’s) are 12-inch pizzas piled with the kind of luxurious seafood that you’d more typically see in fine-dining restaurants—and for gasping prices that include pies like the “the C6” for $850, or the former “Forty Five” for $345.
However, those and others were very recently axed off Salt & Water’s newly rewritten menu, which remains a work in progress. But a managing partner we spoke with, named Paolo, said the C6 is still available at Salt & Water upon request. The pizza is crowned with a medley of Osetra caviar, tiger prawns, lobster ratatouille, smoked steelhead fish, and Italian truffles. It requires one-day advance notice when ordering.
We were told that the C6 sells occasionally in Vancouver, although the San Diego shop hasn’t sold one in the nearly three months the pizzeria has been open. Paolo added that by the time the re-branded menu is completed, “there will be a return of some fun high-end pizzas again.”
But fear not. If your wallet isn’t so well endowed, you can opt for a plain cheese pie for $18; a Margherita pizza is $20; the “Mr. Crab for $28. There’s also one covered with wine-braised short rib, charred onions, mushrooms and basil. It tops off at a doable $34.
Regardless what type you choose, the company stays faithful to its creed, which states in part: “Our vision is to disrupt what people think about what a pizza should be, and we transform eating pizza into a true culinary experience.”
