Marin restaurant review: Hot Italian delivers a good meal from beginning to end

The first thing you see when entering Hot Italian is a round display of house-made gelato with both classic and seasonal flavors. You know right then what you’ll have for dessert.

Moving on into the space, you pass the kitchen on your right and display cases on your left. In the glass-fronted refrigerators are to-go items for concocting your own pizzas at home, including pizza crusts. There are also displays of wines and merch.

Shades of white, gray and black with spots of red dominate the interior. Doors at the far end lead to a heated patio with natural wood tables with red pads on the seats. Inside, the square black tables with white plastic cafe chairs looked like a perfect place to enjoy an afternoon coffee and dessert. Owner Fabrizio Cercatore wants it to be the kind of place that draws in customers throughout the day.

Dog in tow, we seated ourselves on the patio. It was a beautiful day, so no heater was needed. We were handed long, narrow paper menus, one for bevi (drinks) and the other for mangia (food).

The bevi menu offers an extensive list of drinks, like aperitivi, such as the Hot Italian Spritz ($15) my friend ordered, wines (primarily Italian), beer ($5 to $8.50) and nonalcoholic drinks ($3 to $7.50). There are a few of the wines by the glass priced in the $9 range, and bottles are on average $45, with a few heavy-hitting reds more than $100. I chose a glass of the refreshing Cinque Terre Bianco ($10).

While looking for a starter, we saw that some of the appetizers duplicated many of the flavors we were planning to taste in our pinsa and pizza, so we showed restraint and selected the Marcuzzi Salad ($15.50). The salad, a combination of fresh, crisp greens tossed with fennel, carrots, radish, red onions and Castelvetrano olives, was simple and a good choice before our heavier foods to come. It did seem a bit pricey compared to two of the other salads on the menu, which were the same price with more expensive ingredients.

Hot Italian makes good use of its pizza oven by featuring baked pastas too. We chose the Mushroom Lasagna ($24). The large rectangle of pasta could easily be shared. The mushroom base is liberally topped with tomato sauce and a spotted crown of wonderfully gooey cheese.

I wanted to report on both the Roman pinza style and the more familiar Neapolitan style, so I ordered one of each. So what if there were leftovers? Leftover pizza is never a problem. Pinza dough is made with both rice and flour and makes a thinner, crisper crust. Some say it’s more digestible, but with all the toppings, how is one to tell? Twelve-inch gluten-free pizzas are available with a rice or cornmeal crust.

The menu lists three prices after each pizza flavor. The first price is for the 12-inch oval pinsa, and the last two are for the 12-inch and 16-inch round pizzas.

The Basso Pinsa was served on a rectangular, black, slate-like tray. The oval pinsa was beautifully constructed with artichoke hearts topped around the edge with sliced Castelvetrano olives. Sun-dried tomatoes were scattered in the center, and a double line of pesto outlined the periphery. The careful arrangement guaranteed each bite of the pinsa was fully loaded.

The Jovannotti Pizza was served on a round black slate. Each pizza had a metal spatula for easy serving. This was a meaty pizza with Calabrese salami and prosciutto cotto atop smoked mozzarella. The sauce-stained puffy, round edges were easy to grab, and the pizza stayed steady approaching my mouth. It’s nice to not have all the toppings slide off when eating a slice.

A bottle of house-made Hot Italian spicy oil replaced the ever-present pepper flakes so often found at pizza places. I’m a great fan of spice, but I did wonder when and why the pepper flakes started being used on pizzas. From what I have found, it’s not often part of the pizza experience in Italy. If any of you readers have some inside information, I’d love to hear it.

We ended where we began, with gelato. We ordered the traditional Vanilla and Chocolate Hazelnut ($5 for one scoop; $8 for two scoops). Both were flavorful and creamy but not sticky and dense. Still, they were a delicious ending to our “beyond pizza” meal.

Hot Italian has been well designed and is convenient, attractive and inviting.

Ann Walker is a freelance food writer. Email her with suggestions, comments and questions at ijfoodwalker@gmail.com.

Hot Italian

Address: 909 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael

Phone: 628-285-8630

Website: hotitalian.net

Cuisine: Italian

Noise level: Moderate

Seating: Inside and outside

Liquor selection: Wine and beer

Vegetarian dishes: Yes

Vegan dishes: Yes

Gluten-free selection: Yes

Dog-friendly: Outside

Reservation: opentable.com

Parking: Street

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays; 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays

Prices: $6 to $24

Summary: Authentic Italian pizzas with fresh, organic ingredients in a stylish setting