Pasta Anyone?

Written by Mike Stepanovich

One of the great lunch specials in Bakersfield is at a small, family-owned restaurant in northeast Bakersfield in an old shopping center across from Bakersfield College...

It’s the angel hair pasta with freshly diced tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, Parmesan, and olive oil at L.A. Pizza Veloz. For a scant $5.99, you get a lunch that is so fresh, so flavorful, you’d think it was a bargain at twice the price (in fact, many other restaurants do charge twice that for a similar lunch). If that isn’t enough, it also comes with a salad—your choice of dressing—and a soft roll cut in half, buttered and toasted. The rolls are baked fresh daily at Pizza Veloz and are soft and delicious. For an extra $1.25, I get the angel hair with Italian sausage, which makes for a splendid meal. The menu says “add chicken for $1.25,” but I prefer sausage. The angel hair pasta is one of my favorite lunches.

That’s not the only lunch deal at Pizza Veloz, as it’s known by folks who frequent the place. Also for $5.99 you can get spaghetti marinara, spaghetti with olive oil and garlic, penne pasta with your choice of sauce, and fettuccini Alfredo.

For an extra buck—$6.99—you can have spaghetti with meatballs, meat sauce, sausage, chicken, or cheese; lasagna; tortellini; and cheese or beef ravioli. I also enjoy the spaghetti. I go back and forth between meatballs and sausage because the sauce has a wonderful aroma that just beckons you to taste it, and when you do, it’s heaven.

What makes these lunch specials, well, special, is the freshness of the ingredients. Owner Carlos Delgado insists on fresh, top-quality ingredients. The sauces (marinara, meat sauce, pesto, Alfredo) are made from scratch using only fresh ingredients, including the tomatoes and basil. They’re simply scrumptious. “The sauces are prepared fresh every day,” Delgado said.

Another great lunch special is the large, three-topping pizza for $9.99. Normally, Pizza Veloz’s pizzas are $16.99 for large, so that’s quite a deal. It will feed three people easily.

With so many pizza places to choose from, what makes Pizza Veloz’s pizza worth seeking out? Let’s start with the crust; like the sauces, it’s prepared daily from scratch, using Italian semolina flour. It’s then spun thin, with the edges slightly raised. The crust is excellent; on many pizzas, I often don’t eat the edge of the crust, but I do at Pizza Veloz. It just tastes great. And—I know, I’m sounding like a broken record—the freshly made sauce makes a difference, as do the quality of the toppings.

So, what’s the story on this quiet place that consistently produces top-notch fare? We can thank Delgado’s visits to Bakersfield to see friends that convinced him Bakersfield was a good place to be.

Originally from El Salvador, Delgado came to this country in 1990, settling first in Los Angeles.

“A lot of people ask me why I have an Italian restaurant when I’m a Latino,” he said. “Well, when I first came to Los Angeles I worked in an Italian restaurant. I learned everything about Italian cooking.”

He subsequently decided to open a restaurant, which he named L.A. Pizza Veloz. While his restaurant was successful, he became less enamored of life in Los Angeles.

About that time he began visiting friends in Bakersfield. He liked what he saw. He returned a few times, each time gaining a greater appreciation for Bakersfield. “I really liked it here,” he said. “The schools are much better.”

Finally, in 2007, he decided to move to Bakersfield and open a restaurant. He found a vacant spot in the old shopping center at Mount Vernon and University avenues. Back in the 1960s, a Mayfair Market was the anchor in the small center, and a Swensen’s Ice Cream store was also there. The market closed in the mid-1980s, and no one seems to remember when Swensen’s left.

When Delgado found the place, it had been vacant about a year, he said, adding that the previous tenant had been a Chinese restaurant. He opened that same year, keeping the name of his original Los Angeles restaurant.

He also maintained his formula of freshly made sauces, quality ingredients, and good service. His servers, brother and sister Jose and Karen, along with Delgado’s daughter Stephanie, take good care of patrons with a quiet, friendly demeanor.

Delgado recognized that a quality restaurant with reasonable prices across the street from Bakersfield College had a better than even chance of success. And he was right: it’s common to see BC students, faculty, and staff in Pizza Veloz during lunch. The walls sport BC paraphernalia, including a football helmet, jerseys, pennants, and other items. He also has East Bakersfield High and Highland High items that add to the décor. Interspersed among the college and high school decorations are short jars of tall dry spaghetti that splay outward, somehow emphasizing the restaurant’s quality focus.

Delgado also has a creative side. I was visiting with him one day and Jose, the waiter, sauntered up and said, “Tell him about the spaghetti pizza.” Delgado grinned. “It’s not on the menu,” he said. “We only make it for those who know about it.”

Finding myself suddenly in the know, I ordered one. If you are looking for hearty, this is a pizza for you. It’s the same great crust topped with spaghetti, fresh tomato meat sauce, basil, and covered with mozzarella cheese. It’s a nice blend of flavors, and, as you might guess, thoroughly filling.

While the restaurant is certainly Italian, some Latino influences have crept in, like the chili verde pizza, or the Mexican pizza. But Delgado’s greatest creations, without question, are his calzones.

Anyone familiar with typical Italian calzones knows they look like a pizza folded in half, so that the ingredients are stuffed in the folded crust. That’s not how they come at Pizza Veloz. You get the full pie, bottom and top crust, stuffed with various ingredients (the supreme, for example, has pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, and ground beef swimming in mozzarella cheese) and served with a cup of marinara sauce to spread over it. It’s cut into wedges, like a pizza. And I’m telling you, it’s incredibly good! As much as I like the lunch specials, this is my favorite item on the menu.

The concept, Delgado said, stems from his native El Salvador and one of it traditional dishes, the pupusa, a corn tortilla typically stuffed with cheese and pork.

“I thought I’d do an Italian twist on the El Salvadoran pupusa,” Delgado said. “Why not do an Italian pupusa?”

Rather than corn, he uses wheat flour for the crust. “I bake it slowly so it’s completely cooked inside and crispy on the outside,” he said. His servers caution that it takes a while to cook, so if you’re in a hurry, perhaps this isn’t the choice for you. But if you have time, it’s worth the wait. If you’re ordering for two, get the small ($12.99), and you’ll likely take some home. You can also order medium ($14.99), large ($18.99), or extra large ($21.99). Anything larger than small, and I presume you’re feeding an army.

This gem of a restaurant at 3605 Mount Vernon Ave. is open daily 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and accepts Visa and MasterCard. You can dine in or take out. Phone is (661) 872-3637.

Article appeared in our 28-3 Issue - August 2011