Pizzeria Orso-- Falls Church

It takes a good pizza to get us out to the 'burbs. Not that there's anything wrong with the 'burbs, to paraphrase Seinfeld, but sometimes it's hard to break out of our homebody ways to drive out too far for dinner. We'd heard a lot of great things about Pizzeria Orso, though, so we decided a mini-road trip was in order.

Gary, Molly and I headed out early to beat the weekend dinner crowds. When we arrived around 5 PM, there were plenty of tables available and we were seated right away. The menu has a great selection of appetizers, so we split a mixed green salad and took some time to peruse the pizza options.

In addtion to their traditional Neopolitan pizzas, Pizzeria Orso makes several specialty pizzas. One that intrigued me was the "mezzaluna" (which means "half moon" in Italian). Half the pizza is stuffed and folded, meaning the ends of the crust are pinched together and stuffed with ricotta cheese, and the other half is a traditional margherita pizza. I ordered the mezzaluna, and Gary got a pizza that was on special that had grilled zucchini and heirloom tomatoes. Molly took a nap.

While we waited for our pizzas, Gary and I began to wonder. Why the name "Pizzeria Orso"? The word orso means "bear" in Italian, and their logo is a giant bear chowing down on a pizza pie. But why? Do bears like to eat pizza? I am confused.

Anyway, back to the food. Our pizzas came quickly, hot out of the oven. The crust was soft but not too droopy, and had a nice char that typifies pizza from a wood burning stove. The ingredients were fresh and the cheese melted in your mouth. Gary really enjoyed the smoky flavor of the zucchini on his pizza. I'd never had a stuffed pizza before, and I did like it although I probably would have enjoyed a plain old margherita (my fave) better. The ricotta in the stuffed portion of my pizza had a really nice flavor-- I love fresh ricotta, it's so much better than the kind you get in the grocery store!-- but I think it would have been a bit better with some sauce or something else in it. The margherita portion was delicious.

We finished off the meal with some yummy cannoli-- a great end to the weekend.

Suburbanites, you've got yourselves a nice little pizza joint. But can someone explain the bear to me?

Liza and Gary's rating: 3.5 stars

Pupatella-- Arlington, Va.

Liza here...There seems to be a pizza trend hitting the DC area these days-- Neopolitan pizza. 2 Amys set the standard, but recently a whole slew of new Neopolitan pizzerias have popped up. One of these started as a humble pizza cart and is now a full-fledged restaurant in Arlington, Virginia -- Pupatella Neopolitan Pizzeria and Friggitoria.

Now, your first question probably is, "What the frig is a friggitoria?" From Pupatella's website:

Friggitoria translates as “Fry Shop”. In Naples, it is a restaurant that specializes in stuffed fried pizzas (calzone or ripieno), stuffed risotto balls, zeppole (mini-doughnuts), panzarotti (stuffed potato croquettes).

Sounds delicious, but we are a pizza blog, so we will stick to the pies and pass on the fried stuff for this review.

Your next question might be, "What makes a pizza a Neopolitan pizza?"

According to the good folks in Naples, Italy, a Neopolitan pizza has very specific ingredients. The dough is made from flour, water, yeast, and salt. The sauce is made from San Marzano tomatoes, and the cheese is buffalo mozzerella. Bake in a brick oven at high heat, add some basil and a little olive oil, and you have yourself a Neopolitan margherita pizza.

So, on the weekend of our two-year wedding anniversary, Gary, Molly and I ventured out to try out this newest incarnation of Neopolitan pizza. To Arlington we go...

Tag! Gary takes over the review from here...

Pupatella's is situated at the end of a strip mall on busy George Mason Drive in Arlington. We walked in and grabbed a table near the back so that lil' Molly would have plenty of room to soak in her surroundings and fuss if necesary. There were other families with babies, so kudos to Pupatella's for being baby friendly.

Looks like Pupatella's would be a good place for takeout, but on this day they did a good restaurant business as well. The place filled up right as the dinner hour arrived.

Liza wanted a margherita pizza. Again. This is all she ever wants to order. Sigh...

Gary dutifully walked up to the counter and put the order in. The hostess was friendly enough and she was cute wearing a blue fedora hat. We decided on a 12-inch margherita, but the hostess suggested that a 12-incher would not be enough for two people. Suspecting an upsell, I stood my ground.

After about 15 minutes, I picked up our pizza, fresh out of the oven, at the counter and brought it to the table. Molly was falling asleep--she's cute!

The pie proved plenty for two people to share, although it was cut into just four slices. Faithful readers of the blog know that this is another of my pet peeves. No pie should be cut into four slices--six minimum!

The pie was sprinkled with a good amount of sauce and mozzarella cheese, but just two small basil leaves. Liza was nonplussed. Why so skimpy with the basil? Is there a worldwide basil shortage? Hey Liza, better get your vegetable and spice garden growing in the back yard again! (Side note: what's going on with that garden anyway? It's over-run with weeds! We better get to work.)

The pizza sauce had a good tomato flavor and the crust was well-cooked and tasty. There was a little droop, but it wasn't an annoyance.

Overall, there was no wow factor with Pupatella's pizza. It was good, but it was also a bit ordinary. And the skimpiness of the basil suggested not much heart went into making it, either.

Best part of the dinner was the ice cream! Pupatella's has a nice selection of gelato, and Liza and I ordered coconut. (Yes, I wanted mint chocolate chip, but I didn't say anything.) On a hot summer evening, this ice cream hit the spot.

Pupatella's seems like it would be a nice neighborhood pizza joint, and perhaps we would go there more often if we lived closer. Unfortunately we were a little disappointed with their effort on our visit.

Gary's Rating: 2.5 stars
Liza's Rating 2.5 stars

2 Amys -- Cathedral Heights

2 Amys, 3715 Macomb Street NW, is one of our favorite pizza places in DC. It seems like it's everyone else's, too. In fact, we're going to make our first million by opening an ice cream stand right outside of 2 Amy's, so we'll have a built-in customer base of people sitting outside on the steps waiting an hour for a table on any given weeknight. Since we're usually starving by the time we get there, we typically end up across the street at Sushi Sushi rather than waiting for a table. But, on Saturday, September 15, after a long morning of car shopping, we ended up there for a late lunch. In a word-- yummmm. We decided to forgo the delicious fried risotto balls and split a mixed green salad and a pizza. Although the pizzeria is known for its authentic Neopolitan style margharita pizza, on this day we opted for one of the day's specials-- roasted eggplant, peppers, garlic and smoked mozzarella.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Heavenly! (The pizzeria is, of course, only a stone's throw from the National Cathedral. Coincidence? We think not.) The best thing about the pizza at "2 Ames", as Gary calls it, is the crust, which manages to be crispy, smoky, and chewy all at the same time. This is the gold standard of DC pizza!

Gary's grade: 4 stars
Liza's grade: 3.5 stars