Blade 1936 earns international honor, and Pacific Breeze Cafe offers outdoor dinner

A Neopolitan style pizza at Blade 1936 in Oceanside.

Oceanside’s Italian restaurant Blade 1936 was awarded the ‘Napoletana’ certification its Neopolitan-style pizzas.

July 17, 2020 4 PM PT

Blade 1936, the authentic Italian restaurant that opened last September in Oceanside’s historic 1936-era Blade-Tribune newspaper building, has earned an international honor for its Neopolitan-style pizzas.

It was named the 20th California restaurant, and 10th in Southern California, to become a certified member of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. The certification means the restaurant’s pizza program, overseen by Blade co-founder and pizzaiolo John Carlo Ferraiuolo, meets the international standards of true, traditional Neopolitan pizza. This includes the sourcing of ingredients, dough-preparation and fermentation, presentation and cooking temperature.

For social distancing reasons, an expanded outdoor patio seating area has been installed and family meals and affordable lunch specials are being offered. Blade 1936 is a collaboration between founding partners Maro Cassineri, Ferraiuolo and local chef Danilo “DJ” Tangalin. Blade 1936 is at 401 Seagaze Drive, Oceanside. Visit blade1936.com.

Pacific Breeze Cafe introduces outdoor dinner service

Pacifica Breeze Cafe, the all-outdoor casual sister eatery of nearby Pacifica Del Mar restaurant in the Del Mar Plaza shopping center, has introduced dinner service for the first time to appeal to quarantine-weary diners.

Blade 1936 in Oceanside has built a tented outdoor dining room

Previously open only for casual breakfast and lunch options, Pacifica Breeze is now offering dinner service starting at 4 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays, featuring tacos, burgers, salads and half-size portions of Pacifica Del Mar classics, including sea bass, scallops and seared ahi, as well as full bar service.

It’s on the Plaza’s second floor at 1555 Camino Del Mar. Visit pacificadelmar.com/breeze-cafe.

Pam Kragen

Pam Kragen is a feature writer and critic who specializes in writing dining, theater, opera and human interest stories. She joined The San Diego Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the president and co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. In 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in New London, Conn.