Warm Welcome, Hot Pizza

Borrelli’s is a plainly decorated 22-seat pizza place (the visual highlight is a poster advertising a 1920s car show in Milan) in the pleasant Palos Verdes Estates community of Lunada Bay. Recently I went there with a friend who used to be a Borrelli’s regular but hadn’t been back for six years.

When we entered, manager Raphael Dominguez greeted her by name, as if he had just seen her the night before. It’s probably that warm greeting, as well as the pizza, that has allowed this little neighborhood establishment to survive for 18 years.

While the pizzas won’t make Wolfgang Puck overhaul his menu, they’re reliable old-style pies with a slightly puffy, medium-thick crust and lots of gooey mozzarella. The toppings are traditional ones such as pepperoni, crumbled sausage, green bell peppers, button mushrooms and Canadian bacon. No mashed-potato-mango-smoked-Gouda pizzas here, though there is an ever-so-slight concession to the lighter modern taste in the offering of a shrimp and chicken sausage. Pizzas range from $7 to $17.25.

Pasta choices include meatball or sausage-stuffed ravioli ($5.95), lasagna ($5.95) and baked rigatoni ($5.25), short, ribbed tubes of pasta in a casserole with meat sauce and melted mozzarella cheese. All pastas come with soup or salad and garlic bread.

A word of warning: During the week, the place is taken over from 2 to 4 p.m. by students from the nearby junior high school, who flock to Borrelli’s for a square piece of pizza ($1.25) and the two video machines. Basically, the place becomes a raucous school playground for two hours, so if you prefer a quiet atmosphere, pick another time to come.

On the other hand, if you’re nostalgic for your school days, go there about quarter to three. Right around then, as Cab Calloway and his friends might have said, this joint is jumpin’.

Borrelli’s is at 720 Yarmouth Road, Palos Verdes Estates. (310) 541-6545. Open Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.