Saturday, September 26, 2009

Seventh Hill-- Eastern Market

Recently my beloved Ben and Jerry's near Eastern Market closed down. Sadness! Where was I going to get my Chunky Monkey fix? But when I heard that a pizza place would be opening in its place, my frown turned upside down. It opened up on September 24, so Gary and I decided to give Seventh Hill a try.

We went on a Friday night, and it was only their second day open, so it probably is not fair to do a full review, but I'll give you our first impressions of the place.

The space was taken over by the owners of Montmartre, a French restaurant next door. The wood fired oven is made from bricks brought all the way from France. Now the French can make a great pastry and a delicious bottle of wine. But of course, our question was: can the French make a good pizza pie? We were there to find out!

Even though it was new, there was a line all the way out to the sidewalk. You go up and order at the counter, and then you can either take out or try to snag one of the few tables either inside or outside. The pizzas are all named for neighborhood spots, like the "Garfield Park" or the "Navy Yard." Gary and I tried out the Capitol Hill-- basically a margherita with tomato, basil, and mozzarella, and a Barrack's Row with tomato, mushroom, spinach, red onion, and mozzarella.

The toppings were fresh and flavorful. The crust wasn't droopy, which is a big pet peeve of Gary's. My only issue with the pizza was that the crust tasted overworked. It was too hard, and not chewy like a nice crust should taste. Hopefully this was a first week glitch, because otherwise Seventh Hill is a nice addition to the neighborhood.

Liza and Gary's rating: Since it's newly opened, our rating will be "incomplete." We'll try this place again and report back at some point.

Anyone else had experience here that you would like to share?