The Privateer Coal Fire Pizza

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Old-World Fire, California Roots

The Privateer Coal Fire Pizza was born from a handshake between two childhood friends. Charlie Anderson and Jamey Stone grew up surfing the breaks around Oceanside, crossed paths in the action sports industry, and spent years talking about opening a restaurant in their own neighborhood. In 2013, they did it. More than a decade later, the place they built on South Coast Highway has become exactly what they hoped — an Oceanside institution.

At the center of everything is a 6,500-pound anthracite coal oven that burns at a steady 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Coal burns cleaner and hotter than wood, cooking each pizza in roughly 90 seconds and producing a crust that is crisp at the edge, tender through the middle, and marked by a char that no conventional oven can replicate. The dough itself is fermented for 72 hours before it ever sees the fire.

What Comes Out of the Oven

The pizza menu ranges from a classic Margherita — tomato sauce, Fior di Latte, fresh basil — to more ambitious builds like the Fig & Fire Pie, which layers white sauce, linguica sausage, caramelized onions, rapini, and fig jam, or the Fungi Pie with herbed crème, fontina, maitake mushrooms, thyme, and truffle oil. The signature Privateer Pie tops walnut pesto and whipped feta with sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and NAE chicken breast. Gluten-free dough options are available.

The coal fire does more than pizza. Roasted mussels, crispy brussels sprouts with whipped ricotta and habanero honey, handmade pasta, and a rotating selection of entrees — including a white sea bass with butter risotto and a goat cheese mascarpone gnocchi — all pass through the same oven. Produce comes from Cyclops Farms, Scintilla Farms, and Seaco Catch, local purveyors the team has built relationships with over years.

A Wine Program Worth the Recognition

The drink side of The Privateer earned a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, and the list backs it up: 180-plus labels, most of them small-production bottles selected through extensive tasting. The wine program eventually grew into its own dedicated space at 1704 South Coast Highway, right next door to the original restaurant. The Cocktail and Wine Bar operates side by side with the pizzeria — guests can start at one and move to the other. The Oceanside Wine Society, launched in 2019, gives members early access to limited bottles and invitations to winemaker dinners.

The Feel of the Place

The Privateer is a full-service restaurant with outdoor patio seating, a bar, and the coal oven on open display. Walk-ins are welcome every night. The atmosphere is relaxed and neighborhood-rooted — "come as you are, stay as long as you like" is how the founders describe it, and the place genuinely runs that way. Happy hour runs daily from 3 to 6 p.m. and all day on Thursdays. For a restaurant that earns wine recognition and serves American-Italian cuisine at this level of craft, it carries itself without pretension.