Capital Spice

In between last year’s Burger Bracket and this year’s Cupcake Cup, Washingtonian’s Best Bites Blog put together something they called the Pizza Pool.  They pit thirty-two DC-area restaurants who serve up pizza as one of their main menu items against one another.  The goal?  Settle once and for all the question of who’s got the best slice (jumbo or otherwise) in Washington.

As you might expect, their brackets didn’t exactly put the question to bed.  Like always in these online ballots, the establishments with the biggest email lists (usually the most corporate competitors) and the folks with the most rabid following tended to overshadow those who simply turn out quality pizza without the fanfare.  And it’s a pretty safe bet that most people who voted didn’t bother to go out and sample every competitor before picking their winner.

But I digress.  Regardless of who ultimately won the Pizza Pool (it was Flippin’ Pizza, by the way), questions of ultimate pizza mastery remain.  And for those of us in Alexandria, they’re going to get a lot harder to answer in the next year.

After 27 years, Bugsy’s is about to get some real competition on King Street. (more…)

As we mentioned yesterday, Pizzeria Paradiso has made the move.  For months now, we’ve been watching and waiting to see when Ruth Gresser’s temple to wood-fired pizza would shutter their cramped cozy digs at 2029 P Street to make the move into the newly-renovated space at 2003 P.  This Saturday, it was finally go time, and we were some of the first folks to stop in and check the new space out.

The differences between this location and its predecessor begin to make themselves apparent right away.  Big glass windows on two sides allow in a tremendous amount of light, offsetting the exposed brick and wooden tabletops.  The result is a feeling very similar to that of Paradiso’s M Street location.

Perhaps the most noticeable change, though, is the bar that runs along the right-hand wall.  Fans of the original Paradiso will remember that the close quarters left little room for any kind of bar, let alone one of the best-stocked and most knowledgably-serviced bars in the area.  That was what made the addition of Birreria Paradiso, the basement beer bar on M Street, such a welcome addition.  The new expansion has taken that beerphoria and integrated it into the P Street location.

More photos of the interior, some details on what the new space offers for beer-lovers and pizza fans alike, and an old favorite pie from a new oven after the jump. (more…)

It’s a big week for pizza lovers here in Washington.  In case you haven’t heard already, Pizzeria Paradiso has officially made the move from 2029 P Street to 2003 P Street in Dupont Circle.  First announced by the Going Out Gurus on Friday, the news was quickly picked up by Mike at DCBeer.

We swung by to check out the new space and will be putting up our first look tomorrow.  For now, just know that everything you love about the M Street location has been carried over to this newer, larger P Street space…including the Birreria concept that has made Paradiso a destination for beer lovers as well as a pizza afficionados.

But that’s not all!  Wood-fired pizzas seem to be cropping up in restaurants all over town, and the next location is slated to open this week.  SeventhHILL, a concept from the folks who own Montmartre on Seventh Street, SE, is just about ready to start turning out their own version.

Though nothing is ever certain when it comes to final approvals and restaurants’ timelines here in DC, there’s a very good chance that Chef Stephane Lezla’s new restaurant – next door to Montmartre in the space formerly occupied by Ben & Jerry’s – will be open for business on Tuesday, September 1.

I stopped into Hill’s Kitchen one day last week and was rewarded with a bite of a pizza that owner Leah Daniels was sampling.  The vegetables that topped the blistered crust were bright and crisp, with strips of fresh zucchini and sweetly caramelized onions as well as briny Italian olives (like Kalamata olives).

The menu she showed me listed a variety of pre-set topping combinations as well as a ‘top-your-own’ selection.  No word on prices or delivery options yet, as their website (www.seventhhill.com) has not yet gone live.  We’re going to be watching for more information on SeventhHILL as it develops.