Road Trip! Amici's East Coast Pizzeria in Vacaville

I took a drive to Vacaville last week, where I had lunch at Amici's East Coast Pizzeria, part of a Bay Area restaurant chain. I knew they had a vegan pizza on their menu, and I wanted to check it out.

But first, I really wanted to try their Artichoke Panzanella Salad, a Tuscan bread salad that included artichoke hearts, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red onion, Romaine, basil, and capers. It was dressed with a red wine vinaigrette. The bread in the salad tasted a lot like pizza dough, thick and chewy. The salad was excellent and very fresh. It comes in large and small sizes, with the large size feeding three to four people. The small size turned out to be a fairly generous helping.

Since I had a salad, I decided to order just a mini pizza. The Asante is made with Daiya vegan cheese, baby spinach, broccoli, red onion, tomatoes, and fresh basil. It does not come with tomato sauce. The crust at Amici's is very thin and baked directly on the brick oven floor, so it was a little darker than I usually prefer, but it was still tasty.

Other vegan options at Amici's include the Chilled Broccoli with extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice, the Garden Salad, and the Linguini with Marinara. The Minestrone Soup is not vegan because it contains a small amount of cheese.

Amici's has twelve locations, with the restaurant in Vacaville being the closest one to Sacramento. More information about locations, hours, and menu options is available at http://www.amicis.com/default.asp.