Building For The Future
Greg Nelson learns from the Boys and Girls Club
Story by Barbara Brill

As a youngster growing up in Carlsbad, Greg Nelson had a home-away-from home: The Boys Club on Roosevelt Street in Carlsbad, which is now the Boys and Girls Club.

Nelson spent every day after school and many evenings there. His father had walked out on the family, and his mother, Marcy, wanted a safe place for her children while she worked several jobs to support them. Nelson devoted a lot of time playing basketball at the club with his younger brother, Doug, but he also learned about life's values and responsibilities. It has been more than 40 years since he first stepped foot inside that club that made a positive influence in his life. And it has remained a very special place for him. He and his wife, Barbi, contribute money, such as the $1 million donation they made in 2004.

They also devote time and energy to help the club grow and prosper. They open their home for meetings, fundraisers and special outings for Carlsbad youth, and they are now the co-chairs of the "Building for the Future" campaign to raise $6 million to build a new central facility and headquarters for the Boys and Girls Clubs at the Bressi Ranch development.

There's no doubt that the Nelsons have helped to make Carlsbad youth feel as though they have a home away from home.

But, they also have made the entire community feel the same way about their restaurant, Gregorio's, which they named after their son, Greg, Jr., who got that nickname during his teen years.

About a year and a half ago, Greg and Barbi bought Spirito's, an Italian restaurant where classic dishes and great pizzas were being enjoyed by locals for more than a dozen years in the Village Faire center.

The owners were selling, and since the Nelsons had been eating there at least once a week since it opened, Greg and Barbi decided to make the restaurant their kitchen away from home.

They gave the place a complete makeover, including a new kitchen and a new $10,000 grill for the thick-cut steaks (New York and filet mignon) they added to the original menu of appetizers, salads, pizzas and pastas.

There are many classic dishes and desserts, such as Caprese (an appetizer of garlic bread, fresh mozzarella, basil and tomatoes), pasta fagioli (a peasant soup), pizza napoletana (fresh sliced tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh garlic and basil), ravioli, lasagna, eggplant parmigiana, chicken cacciatore, cannoli and gelato.

But, this is the place to try some great specialties: rosemary chicken salad, chicken parmigiana pizza, sausage cacciatore and chicken limone.

Note, too, that this is the place where pizza dough is made fresh daily, where the cheese on the pizzas is 100 percent mozzarella, where the steaks are USDA certified premium grain-fed beef, where the cannnolis are homemade; where the lemonade is freshly squeezed, and where any dish can be modified to your liking.

"The pizzas are the best this side of New York," said Jerry Salyer, a weekly customer who admits he has a hard time making recommendations because everything on the menu is delicious.

Yes, Gregorio's is, indeed, known for its superb food. But, it also gets kudos galore for its homey atmosphere and for its friendly service.

Gregorio's
300 Carlsbad Village Dr., Suite 208
Carlsbad, CA
(760) 720-1132
Hours are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays
and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

(South Coast Magazine Spring 2006)