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Pacific Beach resident Keara McCullough munches on some healthy Powerhaus pizza next to Crystal Pier. COURTESY PHOTO

The Detroit-style at Square Pizza Co. has a soft yet crispy bottom dough, caramelized cheese around the edges and sauce on top. COURTESY PHOTO

The Margherita pizza at Mamma Mia, which is on special Wednesdays and Sundays. COURTESY PHOTO

A traditional cheese and sausage pie from Gabbiano in Mission Beach. COURTESY PHOTO

A mushroom pizza from Marino’s Italian Restaurant. COURTESY PHOTO

The Mediterranean pie at Powerhaus Wholesome Pizza & Eats. COURTESY PHOTO

Victoria Davis dives into an enormous slice at Luigi’s At The Beach. THOMAS MELVILLE/BEACH & BAY PRESS

You don’t need a special day or even an excuse to do it. It’s something we all do. Some people do it before bed, some at midday, and more than you think do it cold in the morning. It’s perfectly normal. Eating pizza is a national pastime. In San Diego’s beach communities, there are a variety of pizzas to choose from – from healthy cauliflower crust to Detroit-style sheet pizza to old school Italian hot pies – you’re going to find a slice of love. With National Pizza Day this weekend on Feb. 9, San Diego Community Newspaper Group decided to highlight some of the local pizzas that our readers may enjoy. PACIFIC BEACH Powerhaus Wholesome Pizza & Eats Powerhaus Wholesome Pizza & Eats really packs a culinary wallop, serving wholesome pizzas, superfood smoothies, nourishing wraps, unique salads and Kombucha on tap. A variety of pizzas to meet customers’ health needs are offered including high protein crusts, two gluten-free options, a traditional garlic herb made with organic flour, and a unique and crispy cauliflower crust. Powerhaus uses only wholesome, nutritious, all-natural and organic ingredients. Dairy is grass-fed, and all meats used are naturally-raised with plant-based, vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. “At Powerhaus Wholesome Pizza & Eats, we serve an elevated and health-driven take of the craveable foods you love,” said pizzeria owner Anisha Blodgett. “Our pizzas are made with nutritious, natural, organic, grass-fed, and farm-fresh ingredients. We provide vegan, gluten-free, and macro-friendly options to meet your health needs. Visit our beach-themed restaurant in Pacific Beach. We're here to feed the yogi, adventurer, and athlete in you to nourish your body and power your soul.” The eatery is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Powerhaus Wholesome Pizza & Eats 1550 Garnet Ave. 858-886-7666 powerhauspizza.com. Square Pizza Co. For something a little different, Square Pizza offers thin-crust Boston Beach Pizza, Upside-down Sicilian, and Detroit Style pies. The pizzeria owners grew up in the North Shore of Boston, where there’s a style of pizza called “Beach Pizza,” which they decided to bring to San Diego. But they didn’t stop there, on a trip to Brooklyn they tried pizza where cheese went down first, then sauce on top. It looked and sounded different, and they loved it. Then they included Detroit’s favorite sheet pizza that has a soft yet crispy bottom dough, caramelized cheese around the edges and house-made sauce on top. All three styles are available, along with gluten-free options, for an amazing pizza experience. “We took the best of local favorites from Boston, New York, and Detroit and put our spin on it to make great pizza,” said Fred Santos, Square Pizza Co. owner. Square Pizza Co. 4508 Cass St. 858-412-4469 squarepizzaco.com. Marino’s Italian Restaurant A classic, sit-down, family-run, time-honored classic Italian restaurant in Pacific Beach, Marino’s Italian Restaurant is considered by many to be a hidden gem. “Our family-owned business has been serving PB since 1954,” said restaurant spokeswoman Camille Gordon-Kling. “Our pizza dough and sauce has been made the same way, by hand, for the last 66 years. Try it with sausage, made in house, or fresh veggies.” Hours at this old-school neighborhood venue offering traditional pizza and various pasta dishes in vibrant, colorful surroundings are 4 to 9 p.m. daily. Marino’s Italian Restaurant 4475 Ingraham St. 858-490-0168. Mamma Mia There are few things that are better than fresh, made-to-order thin-crust pizza pies – and Mamma Mia’s Italian restaurant has some of the best. The quaint eatery masquerades as a small home-style cottage but inside smells of baked bread and homemade pasta. Some of the more original pizzas on this their menu include the Cotto E Funghi Pizza with ham and mushrooms, the Polpette Pizza with meat sauce, meatballs and provolone cheese along with the Ligure Piza with pesto, mozzarella cheese, and sautéed shrimp. Mamma Mia’s pizza is not only delicious but also light! In fact, you could be eating a great, Italian-style pizza with only under 800 calories (ask chef Cinzia Mezzetti or her staff for more information). They also offer gluten-free options. Mamma Mia Italian 1932 Balboa Ave 858-272-2702 mammamiasandiego.com MISSION BEACH Rosaria Pizza Here is a trendy spot for pasta and sandwiches, as well as innovative options including their Vietnamese-style pizza. The restaurant is committed to making its customers happy with one of the best-tasting pizzas in San Diego. Rosaria prides itself on serving the Mission Beach community and its visitors. Only the freshest ingredients are used and the cooking stove provides the latest in technology contributing to just the right amount of crisp in the end product of dough and bread. “We have a Vietnamese sweet and spicy pulled pork pizza that we’re famous for,” according to Rosaria cooks. “It’s saucy and spicy, we use chili powder flakes, and very interesting. Once you try it you go, ‘Oh, my God.’” Pizza crust used at Rosaria is just right, not too thick or thin. There is also a deep-dish pizza choice on the menu. A total of 13 different styles of pizza are available. The eatery also offers pastas, chicken wings, sandwiches, and salads. Rosaria Pizza 3741 Mission Blvd. 858-488-7220 rosariapizza.com. Gabbiano Pizza Pizza toppings include pepperoni, Italian sausage, Canadian bacon, salami, ham, meatballs, fresh garlic, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, black olives, jalapeno peppers, pineapple, fresh tomatoes, anchovies, turkey, extra cheese, pepperoncini's, genoa salami, Cotto salami, artichoke, chicken, and bacon. Pizzas come in 12-, 14- and 16-inch sizes. There are also an 8-inch pizza for one and by-the-slice options. Seating inside is limited but patio seating outside is available. Besides its pies, is known for its delectable sandwiches Gabbiano Pizza 2912 Mission Blvd. 858-488-4010. Round Table Pizza In 1959, Bill Larson opened the first Round Table Pizza in Menlo Park where he envisioned a gathering place where you could “share a little pizza with someone you love,” which is why Belmont Park is the perfect place for the latest shop. Families can ride the Giant Dipper roller coaster, bumper cars, or Liberty Carousel working up an appetite for King Arthur-themed pizza with gold-standard ingredients, nobly topped to the edge, and classic recipes, hand-crafted in the same manner for almost six decades. Try Guinevere’s Garden Delight, Montague’s All Meat Marvel or King Arthur’s Supreme. Round Table Pizza 3146 Mission Blvd. 858-228-9292 roundtablepizza.com. Luigi’s At The Beach It might surprise most people to hear that a slice of pizza at Luigi’s At The Beach on Mission Boulevard is $6.50. But it’s even more surprising to be presented with a slice of pizza that’s bigger than your torso. While it might induce a food coma, the oven-baked pizza, made from scratch, is worth every penny. The New York-style slice is fresh and perfect to fold and bite. Whether it’s a regular cheese slice or topped with anchovies and broccoli, one slice of this Mission Beach delicacy could feed a family for a week. Luigi’s At The Beach 3210 Mission Blvd. 858-488-2818 luigisatthebeach.com. LA JOLLA Bernini’s Bistro This local favorite has been a community staple for 22 years offering a wide variety of woodfired pizzas. Whether you’re filling up on your greens with the Nature Lovers pizza — drizzled with caramelized onions, grilled zucchini and jumbo white beans — or catering to your inner carnivore with the prosciutto, Canadian bacon sausage and all the other toppings that come with Everything But The Kitchen Sink, there’s something for everyone at Bernini’s. Owners Hamdi and Reyhan Gumustekin have been making pizza for over 29 years, first starting in Vancouver, British Columbia after Hamdi immigrated to Canada with $500 in his pocket and an engineering license from Turkey. The La Jolla couple has been in the restaurant business ever since, and they say they have their regular customers to thank — and their unique oven. “We have one of the top ovens here,” said Hamdi. “It came from Italy, and it rotates the bottom of the pizza slowly so it cooks perfectly even.” “But we’re also blessed with the nicest customers,” said Reyhan. “A lot of our regular customers have turned into friends.” Bernini’s Bistro 7550 Fay Ave. 858-454-5013 berninisbistro.com Piazza 1909 This Italian spot brought back a historic La Jolla beach house first built in 1909 that was dubbed “The Brodiaea.” Now restored to the classic yet contemporary setting it’s known for, owners Roberta Ruffini-Ceresoli and Stefano Ceresoli opened the restaurant in 2015, naming it after the Italian word “Piazza,” which describes an “open space in the center of public life.” Naturally, their pizzas mimic the couple’s Italian roots with savory combinations like Crudo & Rucola’s mozzarella, tomato, parma prosciutto and arugula or Cotto & Funghi’s mozzarella, tomato “cotto” hame and mushrooms. Piazza 1909 7731 Fay Ave. 858-412-3108 piazza1909.com Pizza Pronto Boasting as one of the first pizza shops ever in La Jolla, Pizza Pronto offers freshly made pizza in classic styles for both Cheese Lovers (a delicious blend of ricotta, feta and mozzarella) and Meat Lovers (a yummy combination of pepperoni, ham, bacon and sausage) as well as some more unique options like the Philly Pizza, Chicken Bacon Ranch or Mushroom White. And of course, you can’t forget the must-have homemade red sauce. The eatery also has a variety of salads, pastas, wraps, sandwiches and even kabobs on its menu. Pizza Pronto 7556 Fay Ave. 858-459-9000 pizzaprontolj.com.

A double rainbow recently hung over the infamous Surf Shack at Windansea Beach, which still stands strong today. Photo by Jim Grant.

Sometimes a shack is more than just a shack.

Unless you are a surfer or a local, you might not know about La Jolla’s famous Surf Shack at Windansea Beach located below Neptune Place at the west end of Westbourne, Nautilus, and Bonair streets.

Besides its noteworthy surf, Windansea Beach showcases a palm frond-covered shack planted in the sand along the shore. It was designated as a historical landmark by the San Diego Historical Resources Board on May 27, 1998. According to historians and surfers, the shack was built in 1946 by local San Diego surfers Woody Ekstrom, Fred Kenyon, and Don Okey.

Throughout the 1940s, Windansea Beach was considered the ultimate place for surfing, as well as the formation of the Windansea Surf Club.Prior to the club’s formation, it has been said they visited the surf spot during the 1960s and founded the club so they could enter a surf contest in Malibu.

In its heyday, the areas were also a place for Polynesian luau beach parties during the 1940s and 1950s.

Nowadays

Today, Windansea Beach is still is home to the San Diego beach culture and is widely respected by the locals as a sacred place. However, well known as it may be, it has been able to keep a rather low profile. If you go, be aware there are limited parking spaces and no public facilities such as water fountains, restrooms or showers.

However, surfers still come from far and wide to this famous beach to ride the same surf that many famous surfers once.

La Jolla Historical Society Historian Carol Olten said the Surf Shack itself is unusual for the simple fact that “it has historical designation. I don’t know how many surf shacks around the world have such a designation, but ours does.”

She said what makes it even more special is that surfers Woody and Carl Ekstrom, as well as many old surfing families in and around La Jolla, are connected to the structure.

“There was also ‘Woody’ Parker Brown, who was kind of a mystic who came out from the East Coast and when he suddenly saw the waves, he became a world-class surfer,” she said. “Then he started building hang gliders and became a world-class hang glider and surfer.”

She added Woody and Carl Ekstrom were “well known throughout the surf world, and Woody is now in his 90s living in North County while Carl became world-known for his surfboard building.”

Olten, like many, said the Surf Shack does blow over periodically or a wave catches it and it must be rebuilt, but that’s fine by locals.

“I think if you talk to any surfers about it, they realize the Surf Shack has a great history and there is something charismatic about Windansea Beach. I also think you must be a surfer to really dig it.”

Olten recalled she used to lay on the beach to get a tan when she first moved to La Jolla in the mid-1960s.

“Back then the surf crowd was small but then ‘Gidget’ movies came around,” she said. “After that, there was a shift and surfing became big and even bigger. Then Tom Wolfe wrote his book [‘The Pump House Gang,’ 1968] and blew the culture out of proportion. Some surfers were upset and many were ticked off.”

Sacred shack

Long-time surfer Bird Huffman, 62, who is also the owner of Bird’s Surf Shed at 1091 W. Morena Blvd. in San Diego, said the Surf Shack is indeed sacred to surfers.

Huffman was born and raised in San Diego and said he has been “going to the La Jolla beaches since day one.”

“The Windansea Shack has always been in my life since I started surfing there 50 years ago,” he said. “It was one of many structures built along the California coast by the few true original surfers. Because it sits smack dab in front of one of California's most important surf breaks, [that] has always guaranteed its respect and popularity.

“While there have been encampments all over the place – San Onofre and Malibu – I think the Surf Shack at Windansea has more prestige,” Huffman continued. “The fact the Windansea Surf Club is tied to it also gives it its own notoriety throughout the world.”

Besides being a historical landmark, the area and the Surf Shack has served as a base for many events such as weddings, funerals, and memorial paddle outs, as well as daily use to hide from the shade and just relax, Huffman added.

Sustainability

Like Olten, Huffman said the Surf Shack has been ravaged by bad weather time and again over the decades but somehow it always gets rebuilt and/or repaired.

“True, although it has been knocked down and suffered some bad storms, it continues to be maintained by local surfers and members of the Windansea Historical Association and Windansea Surf Club,” Bird said.

He said when this happens, the Surf Shack gets torn down and then will be moved further back because of extremely high tides.

“Locals defend it sometimes by taking palm fronds off the wooden structure so there isn’t such a drastic impact when there's a storm,” he said.

Additionally, Huffman said beams have been replaced periodically but he isn’t certain if there is a solid piece of the original shack remaining.

“Even though it’s a fundamental structure, quite a few local La Jolla families have watched it over the years and have tried to keep it in place with chains, ropes, and watched so it doesn’t become condemned or torn down,” Huffman said.

He added there used to be “many great shacks up and down the coastline but as the 1960s and 1970s came so did liability, and they were torn down.”

“… But people here took a vested interested to get the Surf Shack as a landmark. They wanted to leave something in this town that was original and give a nod to the way it was and what it was like during a simpler time.”

As for how the original builders might feel today knowing their structure is alive and well, Huffman said: “Up until their passing, most of them would visit it regularly and I feel would enjoy their accomplishment. It's a generational thing so it is assured preservation and respect.”