Santino's Pizza, Ventura

I love the old school Italian pizzerias, with the red checked table clothes and the Chianti bottle candle holders that you can sometimes find in the older parts of LA. You know, like what Buca di Beppo wants to be but isn't quite. Ventura has a couple of old Italian restaurants, like Ferraro's and the Spaghetti Factory, (both of which I'll get to in another post) but yesterday we headed out to Santinos. A 30 year old family run pizzeria located next to Ventura college, we went because of the "Family Special," a large, one topping pizza with four small salads, all for $25.95, but discovered that the special isn't offered Friday or Saturday. We ordered that anyway, for the additional $5 or so dollars. They have a fresh salad bar, and while we ate that we could see the pizza chef twirling the dough. He didn't throw it in the air, which is what I was waiting for, and as far as I'm concerned, the mark of a good pizza maker. Still, he did spin the pizza with some skill.

We went with the white topping, which I found to taste like a garlicy ranch dressing, and with the very pleasant wait staff and quick order-to-table time, it was a good family pizza night. I think the best pizza in town is still Toppers, but this was good, fresh and fast. The kids liked it, so we'd go back again.

There's also a bar that serves the full restaurant menu, a banquet room (where my daughter had her AYSO banquet last year) and a small game room. Would I drive out of my way for it? No. If it was suggested, would I go? Yes.

Angelyne

If you happen to be around 40 and spent anytime on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood during the early 80's, you remember seeing the above billboard (there were several around town). If you drove down the Strip on a Friday or Saturday night, you probably spotted Angelyne's hot pink corvette, and if you went into the occasional club, you might have actually seen Angelyne in all of her fake boob and bottle blonde glory. I was lucky enough to have an in the flesh spotting in the doorway of the Whiskey A Go Go, I think while seeing X but I could be wrong about the band.

So what does this "famous for being famous" lady of Hollywood and Beverly Hills have to do with Ventura? Oddly enough, I passed her latest hot pink corvette with the "Angelyne" vanity plate driving down Main Street as I was about to park in front of the 99 Cent Store.

And it's not the first time I've seen her in town. I've seen her coming out of Gloria Jean's Coffee Bean at the Pacific View Mall, where I've also seen her car on a few occasions.

It was a few years ago when I first spotted her car at the mall, and I turned to my wife and said, "Look, that's Angelyne's Car!" My wife and the kids all looked at me blankly, as I quickly tried to explain who she was. All I could come up with is that she ran for Governor when Uncle Arnie won, and that she was also in the opening credits of "Moonlighting," and that she drove around in a pink corvette. My wife gave me the big deal look, but it was a little piece of my history that somehow followed me to Ventura. I don't know why she's here, but I still think of it like a celebrity sighting.

Oh, by the way, the pic is from PopSugar City. Thanks to them.

Dec. 1, 2013 Update

For some reason, this had four hits in the last couple of days, so I went back to reread it. I was still pretty new to blogging when I first posted, so I adjusted the punctuation a bit, and checked to see if Angelyne had her own blog. She doesn't, but she does have her own Twitter, which I just looked at. It has a post from Kim Kardashian and lots of talk about gods and fairies. She also seems to have a relatively new Facebook page as well.

I still see Angelyne from time to time. From what I can gather on the internet, Angelyne lives in Calabasas, which isn't that far from Ventura, so that would explain her sightings here in town. Recent video, which you can find plenty of on YouTube, reveals a woman who appears older than god, heavily made up and with a mistaken notion of how attractive she is.

Then again, I'm posting about her again, and like I said, there's plenty of video on YouTube, and plenty of postings on the internet.

I'm not sure if it's beauty or a train wreck, but we all want to look.