Date Night in San Diego: Little Italy and Improv

Since we moved to San Diego, date nights around here have been few and far between. It’s hard when family isn’t around, because spending $10 an hour on top of what a date actually costs is kinda ridiculous…even if it is for the sake of our relationship.

But last month (before the baby arrived (before the baby arrived) we needed a date, so I found a sitter and we made some plans. Actually, my husband made some plans. I told him the day and times the sitter would be here, and suggested we skip seeing a movie (because there’s as much as I love zoning out for two hours, I just wanted something more); he took care of the rest. I also suggested that we didn’t do anything wild and crazy since I was 38 weeks pregnant at the time. Date night in San Diego, here we come!

Thankfully we actually kept the cost down, because for Christmas we got a couple San Diego Restaurant gift cards (they sell them at Costco!), so he picked a place that accepts them in Little Italy for dinner. He also picked our activity: a comedy club!

I went to a couple comedy clubs in my college years, and I’ve gotta admit that they were totally on the raunchy and leaned more towards the uncomfortable side of comedy, so I was hesitant when he told me that’s what he picked for us. But then he dove into the details a little more: it’s actually an improv theater and the “unrated” version only happens once a month and it’s always well past our bedtime at 11:45 pm (we’re cool like that and go to bed before 11 pm).

The National Comedy Theatre has actually been around for more than twenty years, and they just surpassed their 5,000th show the weekend before we were there. I’ll get back to the NCT in a bit, because first we had dinner.

Little Italy has a special place in our heart since we lived in real Italy for a couple years, but so far in the nine months we’ve lived year, we had yet to actually stroll and dine in Little Italy. Don’t worry, we’ve been to their awesome market on Saturday mornings plenty of times! But speaking of visiting San Diego’s Little Italy: plan for extra time and extra cash for parking. Many of the streets are one-way, with sparse parking, so you may have to circle around for a bit or find a small lot to park in.

My husband picked a place called Trattoria Fantastico (covered by our gift card), and it was pretty tasty. I picked the “Pescatore” (basically seafood pasta), and all of the fish was cooked perfectly. Often when you get seafood in pasta you get pieces that are overcooked and too rubbery, but not here; I was impressed. My husband picked his favorite, a classic Carbonara, and it was just as it should be: creamy, cheesy, a little salty with the crispy pancetta, and a hint of tanginess from the shallots.

I would’ve taken a picture of my meal…but I pretty much devoured it. #pregnantladyproblems

We debated for about two seconds on getting dessert, and ended up trying their tiramisu, because…when in Italy, you try the tiramisu. It was good, but we’re thinking they used something possibly other than lady fingers. Either that or it was made quite awhile earlier since the lady finger section was soggier than the classic sponge-like texture. Despite that, it was still tasty.

By the way, in case you’re curious about how my gestational diabetes numbers were with all the bread, pasta, and dessert we had for dinner, I was pleasantly surprised that I came in under my target goal for a meal! Gestational diabetes is so strange.

After dinner we moseyed around Little Italy for a tiny bit, and vowed to go back again sooner than later. There were so many pizzerias, and if you’ve been around here long enough then you know how much we love pizza!

The next stop on our date night in San Diego was pretty much around the corner. Just two miles from our dinner spot was the National Comedy Theater nestled up on the second floor above some good-smelling restaurants. Just in case you want to check out one of their shows: buy tickets early, because they sell out. My husband thankfully bought ours ahead of time, but the couple behind us wasn’t so lucky. NCT put a “sold out” sign up right before we walked up to get our tickets, and let’s just say that I don’t know if the couple behind us is still a couple anymore—there were some heated words going back and forth there about not getting tickets early.

The theater itself was small, but rightly so since it was a live, interactive performance. If you’ve ever seen “Whose Line is it Anyway,” the 100-minute show was pretty much like that. It was very fast-paced, spontaneous, and pretty funny. They have a small concession stand with soda, water, candy, local beer, and popcorn, and there was an intermission (which this pregnant lady was very thankful for).

After the show we walked over to a nearby cafe and topped our night off with a little tiramisu gelato from Gelato Vero Caffe on our walk back to the car.

Talk about a great night out with my husband! I can’t wait to go on another date; we already have an idea for the month of May, and I’m excited for it. But for now, I’m just happy to cross “comedy club” off our bucket list!

What are some of your favorite date nights in San Diego…or if you’re not in SD, what do you like to do besides the traditional dinner and a movie date?