Straight From Italy, Maestoso Opens Doors In Hillcrest Today

March 1, 2018

Following several months of construction along University Avenue in Hillcrest, Italian eatery Maestoso will soft open to a limited audience today and fully open its doors to the public on Monday, March 5. Built out within The Hub Hillcrest Market where Napizza once was, Maestoso is a chef-driven restaurant that will introduce new Italian concepts such as pinsa and passaggi to San Diego’s dining scene.

Maestoso is the aptly-named project of chef-owner Marco Maestoso, who has found global success while cooking for former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and Donatella Versace. An alumnus of Rome, Italy’s prestigious Gambero Rosso culinary school, while living in New York City in 2013 Chef Marco was praised by national media for his series of sold out pop-up dinners served in his small apartment. In 2015, he opened his first restaurant Casa Maestoso, which spent more than five months in the number one spot on Trip Advisor’s list of the more than ten-thousand restaurants in Rome. New restaurant Maestoso will lightly model its predecessor while simultaneously embracing San Diego’s laid back dining culture.

"I am very enthusiastic about this new adventure in beautiful San Diego," said Chef Marco Maestoso. "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."

Maestoso is co-founded by Chef Marco’s longtime partner Dalila Ercolani, with whom he moved to San Diego in 2017, as well as childhood friends Christopher Antinucci and Giulia Colmignoli, well known throughout San Diego for their successful Napizza restaurant group, and Christopher’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."

Maestoso will be open daily at 4:30pm and will debut novel concepts alongside comfort food favorites in a four-part menu comprised of (1) Pinsa - the Roman ancestor of pizza blending rice and wheat flour for a lighter, crunchy bite (2) build-your-own fresh pastas like tagliatelle, ziti and pici (3) house favorites such as smokey beef tartare and cherry pork tenderloin, and (4) Chef Marco’s own innovation: the Italian concept of passaggi, translating to "to pass by" and equating to daily chef’s whims offered directly by the chefs to guests’ tables. Notably, passaggi will round out Chef Marco’s ambitions for a true chef-to-table dining concept, complimented by Italian wines and San Diego craft beers.

Maestoso’s 2,000+ square-foot interior will be centrally anchored by an open kitchen where Chef Marco and fellow chefs will create each day’s fresh fare in view of guests. A warm, modern industrial design complete with an open island kitchen, a copper accented wine display, and a majestic chandelier will span the indoor dining room, which will seat up to sixty guests. Outside, a 1,000 square foot wraparound patio featuring a fire pit will seat up to thirty guests.

For more information on Maestoso, visit maestoso.com and check out the menus below.