How do you fancy grabbing a bite to eat in a garage? Does the question trigger thoughts of sausages and swarfega? What if I told you the cuisine would remind you of Lambrettas and Alfa-Romeos? Better still, what about eating a pizza while lounging in a Fiat convertible? Welcome to Garage Buona Forchetta.
Regular readers might recall my interest in photographing classic dishes and the classic eateries in which they are served. Well, here comes the second course. It’s another story about an iconic and historic venue, but one that did not start life as a restaurant. It’s a former garage where employees now pour olive oil rather than engine oil.


El Cordova Garage
The El Cordova garage was a fixture in Coronado from 1946 until its closure in 2017. Occupying a corner spot at the intersection of 10th Street and C Avenue, it had served the automobile maintenance needs of the local community for over seventy years. Conveniently, it was also the place you could walk to collect your car if it had been towed. All that changed when its lease was not renewed. The new owners of the building had a very different use in mind – an Italian restaurant.





But not just any Italian restaurant. In a stroke of genius, the designers of this new venue embraced rather than concealed its former life as a garage. Thanks to its enormous sliding doors, vintage signage throughout, and vehicles parked within, it feels like… a huge garage! The restaurant is part of a San Diego-based group led by owner Matteo Cattaneo, who opened his first Buona Forchetta in 2011. The name, which literally means ‘a good fork’, is a reference to someone who really enjoys food.


Garage Buona Forchetta
The exterior facade of the original garage, with its sweeping curved window, has been preserved, as have the polished concrete floors. Neon signs, burning bright orange against the fading blue sky, proclaim El Cordova and GARAGE as dusk arrives. Through the window, passersby can see shelves stocked with imported Italian produce and fine Italian wines. Ah, La Dolce Vita!



The restaurant boasts an authentic Italian pizza oven, built in Naples and then transported to Coronado. I imagine it traversing the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Panama Canal, and a short stretch of the Pacific Ocean so that I could enjoy a pizza Bruna that would have Neapolitans drooling.



Forgive me for a brief digression: while a postdoc at Columbia University in New York City in antediluvian times, I stumbled upon a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint on Amsterdam Avenue, just south of the campus. One of the toppings on offer was ‘extra grease’. I am happy to report that the pizzas at Garage Buona Forchetta have the perfect amount of lubricant. In fact, having visited Italy last year, I can testify that this local eatery matched any restaurant at which I dined on that trip.
It’s not all about pizza



In addition to its selection of pizzas, Garage Buona Forchetta offers all the antipasti, pasta, insalata, and dessert options you would expect at an Italian restaurant. The ‘specials’ board is always choc-a-bloc with tempting items, two of which – risotto veal ossobuco in saffron sauce and cioppino (illustrated) – merit special mention. A dish which does not feature, but obviously should, is spaghetti carburettor. This is after all an Italian restaurant in a former garage. Think of it as spaghetti carbonara but with piston rod valves rather than pancetta. DALLE-2 helped me visualize what this imaginary dish might look like.



The coolest diners in the house are always the two people perched on a bench seat inside a red convertible Fiat. It’s a new spin on ‘fast food’. A Fiat Cinquecento also puts in an appearance occasionally, but strictly as decoration. Today, it is parked outside. Italian cars and Italian food – a winning combination!
Why not try brunch?
As well as a mouthwatering dinner menu, the restaurant offers sensational brunch options at the weekend. The breakfast combo is a family favourite, comprising pancakes smothered in a fruit compote, poached eggs, bacon, sautéed potatoes, and mascarpone cheese. Heaven! It is, of course, always split between two people…


In response to pandemic-driven social-distancing requirements, Garage Buona Forchetta commandeered adjacent outdoor space into which it could spill. This former parking lot, which probably accommodated cars awaiting service at El Cordova Garage, now constitutes a permanent outdoor dining area.


Holiday time at Garage Buona Forchetta
Like most Coronado establishments, the restaurant goes ‘all in’ on festive decorations. Halloween is a particular highlight, with evil clowns, werewolves, and assorted inflated ghouls adorning interior and exterior spaces.



If you don’t have time to sit and eat, you can visit the take-out window and grab a pastry and a cappuccino (strictly before noon, though) prepared by the restaurant’s friendly staff. They might even send you on your way with the customary salutation: “May the fork be with you…”.


Of all fifty places to eat in Coronado, Garage Buona Forchetta is my favourite. The setting, the ambience, the staff, and the food – bellissimo! And I can walk to it in ten minutes! If any Macfilos readers ever make it to Coronado, I recommend you place Garage Buona Forchetta at the top of your list of local hostelries to visit. We could even split a pizza in a Fiat convertible.

Most of the photographs in this article were taken using a Leica Q2. Its compact size, wide field of view, fast lens, and big sensor make it the perfect accompaniment for restaurant visits. It can handle poorly illuminated interiors, moody dusk exteriors, baristas, culinary subjects and Halloween figures with aplomb. It should be on every Leica fan’s menu.
Have you ever dined in a former garage? What is your favourite Italian dish? Have you ever ordered ‘extra grease’ on your pizza? When was the last time you sat at the roadside waiting for someone to come and tow your Alfa Romeo? Let us know in the comments below.
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That would be nice.
Dear Kieth,
we’ll check out that place when we get to San Diego in August 23.
Whenever you get to Berlin and want to dine i a garage, the Garage Dupont is the place to go in Potsdam. It’s one of the oldest gas stations in Germany.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/GARAGE+du+PONT/@52.4125151,13.0867883,18z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x47a8f787a1dc5f93:0xf4c5b7e317634645!8m2!3d52.4128586!4d13.0860796!16s%2Fg%2F11f77_712b?entry=ttu
Greets Dirk
Hi Dirk, please let me know when you might visit Coronado. It would be great to meet up. I am traveling for part of the month, but would love to say hello if I am around. Thanks for the suggestion of visiting Garage DuPont. Berlin is one of the few European capitals I have not visited and so am hoping to make a trip there sometime in the next year or two. All the best, Keith
We’ll get to La Jolla late on Aug. 25th.
How do we get in contact?
info@robin-oslo.com
Hope to see you in August.
Greets Dirk
I can put you both in touch with your permission, Dirk.
Don’t have to go there, last be in Rome NY, grew up on home made Dago Red, and best Italian cuisine in NYS. (Dago Red, is not a slur, every Italian family I know, make their own wine their own grapes. You really want get a high, my best bud Grand pop smoked the Italian cigars, D’Nobili, it’s a dry cigar, put it in a pie plate pour some home made Red over them, let em dry, light it up U have no clue what day it is! )
Hi John, I suppose it makes sense that a place called Rome has really good Italian cuisine! Sounds like it might even be a contender for the best in NY! Impressive. Cheers, Keith
Loro hanno fatto una bella figura!
My kind of place where two of my main interests come together in one. Wish we had one in Chicago.
The nearest thing I have experienced was a Ducati Corse Café north of Milwaukee that was decorated with vintage bike gear and vintage race bikes along with good food. All you needed were Stoner and Capirossi to make it complete.
Hi Le Chef, I am amazed to hear that Coronado might have an edge over Chicago in the area of motor-themed Italian restaurants. Thanks for expanding my practically non-existent knowledge base in motorcycle racing. I had never heard of Stoner or Capirossi, but I can see they are both accomplished in the field. I am ashamed to say that the only British motorbike guy whose name I know is Barry Sheene. I suspect Mike our editor will now hold a very dim opinion of me… Cheers, Keith
“When was the last time you sat at the roadside waiting for someone to come and tow your Alfa Romeo? Let us know in the comments below.”
When I bought my Alfa Romeo Giulia nearly five years ago it came with: five years warranty, three years free servicing and five years breakdown cover. Is there a joke here as I have not had to use the breakdown cover?
Hi Chris, glad to hear your Alfa-Romeo has worked out so well. The question was an oblique reference to a running joke on Top Gear (former BBC show about cars and motoring, for people who have not come across it) that in order to be considered a true ‘petrol-head’ you must have owned an Alfa-Romeo at some point in your life. In addition to enjoying a thrilling driving experience, those who met this criterion had inevitably encountered regular breakdowns because of the poor reliability of the brand. Based upon your experience, it sounds like those days of poor build quality are in the rear-view mirror! Cheers, Keith
Keith, my comment above was somewhat tongue in cheek. I consider myself a petrol-head and the Giulia is a brilliant car to drive. The charging system has some flawed logic though. I had a third battery put in it last week and the car is not yet five years old. I have a decent drive for a family wedding next weekend so I hope I haven’t spoken too soon about its reliability.
B-but where was that restaurant on Fulham Road in London – just south of Chelsea – you know ..not the ‘Bluebird’ restaurant, but it was in an ex-garage; it was one of what’s’isname’s restaurants; Conran’s. Ah; ‘Bibendum’! ..It has two Michelin stars, and is in what was a Michelin garage! ..Hence the name ‘Bibendum’ (the name of the Michelin-man mascot made-of-road-tyres(tires)).
To quote the Michelin guide “..Bibendum sits on the first floor of the historic art deco building which was built as Michelin’s London HQ in 1911”.
Then there’s the ‘Wolseley’ (..but that’s so NOISY..) on Piccadilly in London: a swish restaurant in what was the showroom for Wolseley cars of blessed memory. (Wolseley, Riley, Austin, Morris, MG – and other British marques – all became merged into the British Motor Corporation, which was then absorbed into British Leyland ..though Leyland had been a British bus and lorry builder.)
The trouble with restaurants sitting within cavernous auto warehouses – I’ve found, anyway – is that they’re so echo-ey, not intimate, and the sound of knives and forks clicking and clattering bounces off all the walls and the ceiling (without enough sound-absorbent carpet and soft furnishings) making it almost impossible to hear what your friends or companions – or even the onions – are saying! ..They look good, but they sound awful. (Unless it’s in a Tarantino film like Pulp Fiction.)
Hi David, I agree that large, open-plan restaurants with mostly hard surfaces do suffer from poor acoustics which adversely affects the dining experience. I for one have become more sensitive to this as I have grown older. I specifically avoid some venues because of this issue. I usually try to sit outdoors at restaurants, not so much because of infection risk these days, but to avoid those echoey interior environments. Fortunately, the Southern California climate enables outdoor dining year round. Cheers, Keith
Lovely article, Keith, and I suitable vehicle to get my taste buds primed on Easter Monday. But those are eye-watering pizza prices, especially when you add a glass of wine and the 20% service charge!
Hi Mike, Thanks! The last time I treated myself to a pizza Bruna and washed it down with a nice glass of Chianti (get the Chianti reference?) it would have been $18 for the pizza, $9 for the wine, 18% tip, totaling $32, which at current exchange rate (1.23) would be 26 GBP. Do you consider that expensive in the UK these days? Cheers, Keith