Last night I took the girls to one of my favorite restaurants, Il Pizzaiolo. It’s tiny, but so incredibly charming. When you enter you are greeted immediately by the wine bar… not THE wine bar, but a smaller version that serves the main dining area. Behind the restaurant, across a path, up some stairs into a separate building houses the new wine bar, which most weekends is so packed that even walking from one side to the other seems like an obstacle course meant for basic training.
The main dining area is inviting, the tables are close together so you feel as if you are sitting down to dinner with every single person in the room. The wood burning oven is in the dining room where all of the delicious pizzas are made. However, pizza is not what I normally order there. I am a devoted fan of their homemade gnocchi’s with marinara sauce. To die for! The house salads are delicious with the house balsamic dressing. To prepare for the wonderful meal, you start off with fresh bread and olive oil with some mystery cheese in it that is unbelievably savory. I asked once what the cheese is and they told me, but I can’t remember. I just know it’s not something that you can’t get at the grocery store. The ONLY negative thing I have to say about this place is about the noise level. Due to the extreme close quarters in the main dining area and the ceramic tiled floors with the high ceilings, every sound reverberates off the walls and is magnified. However, once you taste the food and have a glass of wine, the noise is barely noticeable.
Before dinner we stopped across the street at Avalon Exchange. Holy thrifter! We had a blast rummaging through rack after rack of second hand, vintage and new-but-vintage-looking clothing/accessories. We all, except Lindi, managed to score a few desirables for hardly any cost at all. We could have been in there for hours had our hunger not gotten the best of us.
Here are some more natural pics from the evening that I’m sure the girls aren’t going to be too happy with me for posting, but oh well!!
svenanzio