Neighborhood Italian deli in Surf City

DINING OUT

Remember that little Italian deli you used to go to after school

for a great submarine sandwich and a soft drink? It’s not gone, it’s

only hiding in the 7-11 strip mall on the corner of Bushard Street

and Garfield Avenue.

It’s called Pulcini’s and it’s owned by Huntington Beach residents

Wayne and Kay Pulcini. It’s a tiny, seven-table place where friendly

owners know their customers’ names and have pictures of all their

cousins and nephews hanging on the wall along with ones of Frank

Sinatra and the Rat Pack.

Owner Wayne, whose son is an actor, was an entertainer on keyboard

and saxophone before his restaurant career and has a soft spot for

the nightclub circuit.

This lunch it was a “Little Italy” sandwich (7-inch, $4.50;

18-inch, $9.95), which is great to share and full of all kinds of

good stuff besides the lean pastrami and ham. It is a soft-crust

whole wheat roll overloaded with chopped lettuce, tiny pieces of

onion and black olives, slices of pepperoncini for punch and doused

with Italian oil and vinegar dressing. It’s the freshness of the

ingredients that makes this so tasty. A bag of chips is included.

But if it’s chilly outside, you could order a hot pasta dish,

which includes soup or salad. The salad is ordinary, but the homemade

minestrone soup is spicy and good with the tiny navy beans, kidney

beans, cubes of potato and tomato.

Fettuccine ($7.50) -- slender, narrow egg noodles, with big pieces

of chicken in a delicious Alfredo sauce -- was a special one day.

It’s a huge serving in a rich sauce of butter, cream and Parmesan

cheese sprinkled with coarse pepper. It’s said to have been created

by a Roman chef Alfredo di Lello in 1920.

Another hot pasta is the Cannelloni ($7.95), large homemade pasta

tubes stuffed with fresh spinach, ricotta cheese and lots of chicken,

bathed in tomato marinara and topped with melted cheese. The ratio of

chicken to spinach got better in places where it was balanced with

the ricotta cheese. The pasta, though firm, bordered on toughness at

each end, as if undercooked.

In addition to 15 varieties of sandwiches, there are pizzas (9 to

16 inches) with six toppings from cheese (9 inches, $5.99) to Goomba

(16 inches, $17.50)

Cheese cake, pie and cakes are made by Wayne’s wife, Kay.

Service can be slow. One friendly diner who went into the kitchen

to help serve the orders, laughingly said she was just “in training.”

Pulcini’s is that kind of relaxed place where you will feel

comfortable and enjoy the kind of food you’d get in an Italian home.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have

comments or suggestions, call (562) 493-5062 or e-mail

[email protected].