Washington DC: 2 Amys

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Mar 092011

My Maryland friends took me to dinner at 2 Amys, a very popular pizzeria in the District of Columbia.  The decor is fairly simple and bright.  The pizzas are somewhat rustic, more like what you would see in Italy than the New York variety.  All our food was excellent.

I ordered a calzone because I saw one on the way in and the ricotta flowing out spoke to me.  (They give their calzones some other fancy name, folded pizza as I recall, but a calzone is a calzone is a calzone.) I ordered one with meat and vegetables.  The ricotta was just as luscious as I had anticipated.  That red spot on the middle off the calzone is a thin slice of meat that was made crunchy in the baking.  The texture was marvelous.

We tried a selection of desserts: cannoli (pretty light filling, very good), almond cake (great), and roasted pineapple ice cream (wow!).
The problem now faced by my friend Ankur is whether he can keep up the pace of excellent restaurant recommendations.  Based on his recommenations so far, I've come to expect quality ideas.  He can't just throw a hot dog at me and expect me to be satisfied.  Can he keep it up? Or will he fold under the pressure?  Time will tell...
2 Amys on Urbanspoon
Posted by Melinda at 1:11 pm Tagged with: , ,

Piola

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Jul 192010


Glenn introduced me to Piola, a new spot in the upper part of midtown. It is a small chain that started in Italy and then branched out to the U.S. It has a modernist decor and music. The music was loud and not conducive to conversation; this place is for people you want to be seen with, not people you want to talk to.

I ordered a pepperoni pizza. It's a traditional thin-crust pizza (although not as thin as some of the pizzas I've had in Italy). It was a reasonable pizza but not spectacular. Glenn and I both decided to have the chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert, which turned out to be a brownie with ice cream, which was slightly disappointing.

Posted by Melinda at 6:53 pm Tagged with:

Pizzeria Venti

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Nov 032009


Pizzeria Venti is on Lenox Road. It's on my back path to Lenox Mall, so I've had my eye on it for awhile. Tonight was the right night to try it. One could think of it as a Southern-style cafeteria of Italian food, but a lot of places in Italy are a similar style. You order from the counter and they bring your food to you.

I started with a bowl of vegetable soup. It came with a roll that was very soft, which was its downfall; too soft, no crust for contrast. But the soup was very good. The broth was flavorful but light and the vegetables were soft but not mushy beyond recognition.

I think of their pizza style as a variation of Sicilian. That's a species of pizza that is hard (but not impossible) to find in Atlanta. Their version is thinner, but it is rectangular and has a crunchy bottom at the bottom of the bready crust. I enjoyed my slice. I would have to say that classic New York style pizza is my favorite, but this is a nice change of pace.

Posted by Melinda at 6:31 pm Tagged with: , ,

Varasano's

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May 142009

Varasano's has been open for about two months.  Their menu is purely pizza---even if you want something as Italian as chicken parmesan, you're out of luck.  This dedication is entirely appropriate for a shrine to pizza.

The pizza is more like those I've had in Italy.  The crust is thinner than even a New York pizza.  There is also somewhat less cheese on it.  Remember, in Italy pizza is regarded as a snack while in America it is a meal.  The crust is outstanding---I'm tempted to say that my favorite part of the pizza was eating the edge.  The edge has a slight burn, which is exactly what a handmade pizza is supposed to have.  The cheese and sauce are both very delicate.  The pizza was a medium size, but because the ingredients were so light, I ate the whole thing without feeling stuffed.
I also had a Caprese salad (tomato, mozzarella, basil).  Its presentation was interesting, with small pools of olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette on the side.  That did make it a little difficult to get the dressing on the salad, but I guess I could get used to it.
I had the Italian donuts for dessert.  They didn't call it zeppole, which is a staple of the pizzeria.  It's just fried dough sprinkled with sugar, if one can refer to fried dough as simply "just".  A typical zeppole is a fairly nondescript blob, but these were healthy-sized bars.  They came with a raspberry dipping sauce.  Mine were served hot out of the fryer.  They were very light and a great end to the meal.
Posted by Melinda at 5:38 pm Tagged with: ,

Buckhead: Pizza Fusion

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May 012009

I was in Buckhead today at lunch time and decided to go with the pizza theme, so I tried Pizza Fusion.  It's on Peachtree (is there any other street in Atlanta?).  They stress their organic ingredients, their use of hybrid and electric vehicles to deliver pizza, etc.  Their individual pizza has a more artisanal feel.  It has an irregular shape and edge; the shape reminds me of some of the pizzas I've had in Italy.  The pizza itself was fine, but it didn't give me a kick.  Organic foods that come from local, small farms usually have much richer flavors.  (One could say the same of non-organic foods from local farms.)  But not all organic food is grown by a lone hippie standing knee-deep in chemical-free mud.  Much of the organic food one finds today is industrially grown and has some of the same drawbacks as any industrial farm product.  While organic techniques may confer some advantages, better taste necessarily one of them.

Posted by Melinda at 11:29 am Tagged with: ,
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