By Teresa Mariani

Sure, it may look like a funky beach town. And it is. But Pismo Beach is also a restaurant town. At last count, there were over 40 of them, from beachside taquerias and clam chowder shacks to trattorias offering some of the most exquisite Italian food in the state.

Vacation here, and you'll never go hungry - unless you try hard. Very hard. Like neighboring San Luis Obispo and Cambria just to the north, Pismo Beach is a town where it's almost impossible to stay on a diet.

In fact, it's the perfect place to cast the calorie-counter aside and just concentrate on savoring then wonderful food - and atmosphere - available in places all over town. If you're interested in dining your way through a week (or weekend), here's a quick guide to some great spots that offer one of three great Pismo Beach dining scenes: The Fancy Experience, The Western Experience, and The Seafood Experience.

The Fancy Experience

Maybe it's the Mediterranean look of the hillsides, or the Mediterranean feel to the weather. Either way, Pismo Beach is home to two of the finest Italian restaurants around.

Giuseppe's Cucina Italiana at 891 Price Street (805-773-2870) offers mouth-watering gourmet Italian fare excellent enough to rival any other Italian spot in the state. Giuseppe's opened its doors in 1988 as part of a senior project by owner-chef Giuseppe DiFronzo, a senior at the time at nearby California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

The graduation project turned into a booming restaurant that has since moved into its current quarters in a wonderfully restored Price Street building with an outdoor patio and separate banquet facilities. The restaurant itself looks like a movie setting, managing to be elegant and casual at the same time. DiFronzo added a wood-burning oven imported from Italy; it sits in the middle of the main dining room. All of Giuseppe's breads are baked there daily from scratch; and it's into the wood-fired oven all of the pizzas go for cooking. The restaurant menu is modeled on the fare offered in the restaurants in Bari, Italy, a seaport on the Adriatic coast.

The pastas are full and nutty, and DiFronzo uses fresh local produce, herbs, spices and seafood. Prices range from $6 for appetizers and salads to $23 for rack of lamb and filet mignon dishes. Giuseppe's also offers daily specials at varying prices, usually featuring fresh local seafood. A sure bet for dinner is the Scampi Aglio, jumbo gulf prawns sautéed in a garlic, caper and lemon sauce. At lunch, the meatball sandwich is supreme. The main danger at Giuseppe's is devouring too much of the restaurant's bread before the main course arrives.

Giuseppe's is so popular, it doesn't take reservations, and there's frequently a line out the door most evenings of diners waiting for tables. Arrive before 6 p.m. if you don't want to wait in line, or relax in the restaurant's full-bar (another spot worthy of a movie shoot).

Rosa's Ristorante Italiano is another excellent choice for fine Italian food. Though just as upscale as Giuseppe's, Rosa's (491 Price Street, 805-773-0551) manages to have a bit more of a "family" feel than Giuseppe's. Maybe that's because Rosa's is a family affair, too. Mama 'Rosa' Cristallo MacMillan came to California in her twenties married and ran a restaurant in the Central Valley before moving to Pismo Beach. Once here, the family opened Rosa's. Son Douglas Cristallo MacMillan went into the family business in the 1990s, spending a year abroad in Italy, apprenticing in restaurants there.

Douglas MacMillan is now the executive chef at Rosa's, and has introduced plenty of new items along with Mama Rosa's longtime favorites. Prices range from $3.25 for salads to $12.25 for steak and veal dishes. Rosa's also offers daily specials, usually featuring fresh fish. Rosa's does take reservations, so if you're with a large party (or children) you can be assured of getting a table at a fairly set time. Try the Pasta Alla California (sautéed artichoke hearts, wild mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes in a light cream sauce over penne pasta) or any of the fish specials. Really, you can't go wrong with anything here.

The Western Experience

What would a trip to Pismo Beach be without a visit to F. McLintock's Dining House? The Central Coast restaurant chain started out here, and has since expanded to San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande. But it's the Pismo Beach McLintock's that's the most famous. It's easy to spot from the freeway, what with the giant wooden cowboy sculpture standing guard out front. (750 Mattie Road, Shell Beach, 805-773-1892). McLintock's Pismo Beach trademark are those waitresses and busboys who pour the water into your glass from about two or three feet up - it's sort of like the auto races: everyone waits to see if there's a mishap, but there hardly ever is.

Oh, and the steaks. McLintock's' is the place to go when you're in a carnivorous mood: the mood for a big, thick juicy steak grilled to perfection. McLintock's serves them with all the fixin's, and also offers seafood specials and great desserts. It's also a kid-friendly place, with children's menus, plates and a toy bin the kids can rifle through for a prize on their way out.

Another spot big with locals is just across the highway: Alex's Bar-B-Q (853 Shell Beach Road, 805-773-5656). Alex's is sort of a local icon; it's been around for more than 50 years, and generations of Central Coast residents (and visitors) have flocked there for the ribs. Alex's grills all their steaks and ribs on an oak-pit barbecue, but also offers seafood specials and a full cocktail bar. It's a kid-friendly place too, with children's menus and dishes.

The Seafood Experience

Clams are what put the town on the beach in the first place; clamming on Pismo Beach was one of the first big reasons visitors started coming to town. Today you can still get a decent cup of clam chowder almost any place in town. In fact, 'round here, people take their clam chowder seriously - from home chefs to restaurants. Competition gets especially tense every year at the chowder contest at the Pismo Beach Clam Festival.

A frequent winner is The Splash Café, which has elevated clam chowder to kind of a Holy Grail art form. The Café is just a block from the Pismo Pier (197 Pomeroy Street, 773-4653).In fact, The Splash Café has gained so much notice for its chowder, that magazines Bon Apetít and Gourmet have requested the restaurant's recipe. You wouldn't guess it from looking around the café, which seems like just a very nice, sunny California beachtown place where everyone is tan and in shorts or jeans and t-shirts and flip-flops and talking about the surf breaks.

The first clue that The Splash Café might be something more is the crowd. The place is always packed. That must be why the café serves up more than 10,000 gallons of chowder a year. You can get it in a bread bowl, by the cup, regular bowl, pint or quart. Some days, the restaurant serves over 1,000 chowder bread bowls - in just one day. "As far as we know, no other restaurant on the West Coast serves as much clam chowder as we do," says Joanne Currie, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Ross.

Don't like clams? The Splash Café also serves fish and chips, steamed clams, burgers, sandwiches, and desserts. Prices range from $1.75 for salads up to $6.95 for scallops and chips or $8.95 for a bucket of clams.

Speaking of buckets, this brings us to perhaps THE place to for a Pismo seafood experience: The Cracked Crab (751 Price Street, 805-773-2722). That phone number is 773-CRAB. You know you're in for fun at a restaurant that proudly advertises, "We've Got Crabs!" No, seriously, families love this place. Order the crab bucket and the waiters will bring it and dump it into the middle of your table. You pick up the steaming hot crab (or lobster!) and eat to your heart's content. Cheeseburgers, chicken, salads and desserts for those crabby non-crab lovers.

Teresa Mariani is a Central Coast writer who insists on going to Giuseppe's for her birthday and wedding anniversary, or any chance she gets, and worships Joe DiFronzo's cooking.

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