The Red Zebra-- Eastern Market and Other Farmer's Market Locations

Eastern Market is a favorite weekend destination for Gary, Molly, and me. We will head down in almost any weather, and our go-to food spot is Crepes at the Market. Molly loves to go see the "Crepe Man"! Her favorite is strawberry, banana, and Nutella.

But this, of course, is a pizza blog, not a crepe blog. There are lots of food vendors at Eastern Market, but we were pleasantly surprised to see a new vendor in the last few months-- The Red Zebra.

Red Zebra offers "seasonal creative fare" in a mobile, wood-fired oven. Food trucks are all the rage now, and mobile pizza kitchens are not new, but wood-fired pizza? On a truck? I was intrigued.

I decided to forgo my beloved Crepe Man for a day, and give Red Zebra a try.

Red Zebra prides themselves on using fresh, local ingredients. They have a 3-4 pizzas on the menu each week. I opted-- surprise, surprise-- for a tomato, basil, and mozzarella pie. They are personal size and perfect for one person. At $8, I thought the price was reasonable for a so-called "upscale" pizza.

The pizza was served hot out of the oven. As you can see, the crust was nicely done with a bit of char. It held up well with a minimum of droop.

The ingredients were indeed fresh and tasty. The sauce was tangy and seemed to improve with each bite.

I was frankly quite surprised at how good this pizza tasted. I wasn't expecting "upscale" pizza from a sidewalk pizza oven, but Red Zebra exceeded my expectations!

We'll definitely be back on one of our weekend Eastern Market journeys.

Liza's rating: 3.5 stars

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?