DINNER: Zelda's Pizza

The thing I love about Zelda's pizza is the pizza, of course, but also the slow-paced nature of the whole scene. It's funny that a lot of Yelp complaints for this restaurant rail on the slow service, but I think that's all part of the fun of going there! Anyone who knows me, too, knows I'm not all that patient when it comes to waiting. but, here, it's almost like it forces me to slow down and actually enjoy the time and people watch. Also, the $1 bud drafts and other $3.50 beers are quite the deal. The halloween and xmas decor year-round is great, too. Definitely a dive bar with great deep dish pizza. Love the crust.

DINNER: Hot Italian, Wray's Take

Overall, a fun place with good food, if you order the right pizza. I thought the place was a modern spin on a traditional pizzeria that leaves a good impression. I liked the open air feel, large tables, unique menu choices and gelato counter within reach for a cool & creamy dessert. The collection of black plastic forks on the wall was intriguing, but has left me with a secret desire to tape up KFC sporks on my next visit. Overall the pizza was good; thin crust that focused on the toppings. My favorite of the DC selections within reach was the balsamic fig and prosciutto pie. With that said, I definitely thought some pizzas we had were much better than others, and I don't think I would plan a night out revolving around this place. Better than Zeldas? Uh, that's questionable. The fact that I remember the wall-forks more than the pie probably answers that question.

DINNER: Hot Italian, Lisa's Take

Hot Italian's Web site

Funny, we all have slightly different perspectives on the evening. I have to say that I thought the minimalist concept worked! I loved the hanging overhead fan, which appears to be an actual propeller from an airplane. Very cool. I also really enjoyed walking through the motorcycle shop while we waited for our pizzas; it was quasi-museum and quasi-pizza joint! Loved it! I foresee myself bringing out-of-towners here because it is so different. Loved the hand drier in the bathroom! I do think they should have more appetizer options, and when the waitress was asked her opinion on the wines or suggestions, she had none. That's not a good thing, especially when our group is very used to napa/sonoma/amador wines, but not Italian. We would have gone with a suggestion, but instead we had to guess with both bottles. Loved the prosciutto fig pizza. Would not reorder Ray's egg/prosciutto/mushroom pizza. Without the egg, there was barely anything on it! Good thing for the egg! Pistachio gelato - excelente!

DINNER: Hot Italian, Sandra's take

Hot Italian's Web site

Here is my take on Hot Italian. I think the idea of a motorcycle and scooter shop attached to a pizza and calzone restaurant is very weird but who am I to judge? What is even more weird is that when the restaurant is busy, the overflow crowd gets seated at little tables inside the shop. I personally would not want to eat in a motorcycle showroom with a motorcycle on one side of me and the restrooms on the other side but lucky for me we got a table in the main restaurant. The whole space is open and minimalist. The restaurant is all white with black communal tables and black accents. And by accents I really mean black forks stuck onto the whitewashed cement block walls. The menu is mostly pizzas that can be made into calzones with a few salad options as well. The appetizer is a single option of cheese and sliced cured Italian meats. Instead of serving bread they serve cooked pizza dough. I find this slightly strange when I'm guessing most people follow up their pizza dough starter with an actual pizza. Speaking of pizza, mine was actually pretty good. It was a sweet and savory thin crust pizza topped with figs, arugula, gorgonzola and balsamic vinegar that appeared to be reduced. The melted gorgonzola served as the "sauce" for the pizza. Bernadette mentioned the Super Umbria wine we had. The menu shows a map of Italy's regions. The wine by the bottle list is separated into two categories, $38 and $48 category! Once again, I find this somewhat strange but I can go with the flow. Under each "category" is a list of wines each with a symbol to help you locate the region that the wine came from on the map. It's kind of fun in a cutesy way. I should mention they do have a decent selection of wines by the glass and a couple of beer options as well. I chose a bottle of the dolcetto for our second bottle of the evening. I have to say it was a very nice bottle. I would order it again. For dessert I was looking forward to trying a gelato sandwich but they got rid of the sandwich option. Now you get the standard cup or cone options. My caramel salato (salted caramel) gelato was so good that I had to stop by Friday after work for a cone. The gelato is slightly on the icy side instead of creamy but I still really enjoyed the flavor. They got bonus points for playing one of my favorite Italian songs while I enjoyed my cone, Jovanotti's Mi Fido di Te. The service was a bit erratic but we didn't have any problems with our service. About the worst that happened was the late dessert pizza which was taken off our bill and the server not wanting to give each of us a pizza box for our leftovers but he gave us foil. By the way, skip the dessert pizza. It just tasted like soggy pears on soggy pizza dough with some gorgonzola cheese. That's just my opinion though. Overall, I can see they don't take themselves too seriously here, which is good. I was just left feeling like I didn't get the joke.

DINNER: Hot Italian, Bernadette's take

Hot Italian's Web site

So ... Dinner Club had its first night out on the town. (We've actually all been out together, but this is the first outing on official Dinner Club business.) That in itself was fun -- a nice change. Our agreed upon restaurant was Hot Italian. First, I love the name. Second, interesting set up with the motorcycles and bikes and related apparel. Third, great pizza. Fourth, service was pretty good except our waitress had no knowledge of the wine list. Fifth, delicious gelato (that you can sample before ordering -- I tasted Ferraro Rocher, Pistachio and Dark Chocolate -- all were yummy). Sixth, the decor -- aside from the bike section -- is pretty sparse and monochromatic. Seventh, well ... that's about it -- there's not much else to Hot Italian. Oh, since no one knew anything about the wine menu, we chose a bottle of red from Super Umbria because we liked that it had "super" in the name. It wasn't bad.

LUNCH: California Pizza Kitchen

CPK's Web site

California Pizza Kitchen is an oldie but a goodie. I don't really like the atmosphere around Arden Mall, so the new CPK on L Street is much welcomed in the downtown parts. I ordered the Thai Chicken pizza, and my colleague ordered the fiesta pizza that came with extras like sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. quite interesting looking! I love that the state requires certain chains to post calories and CPK has done so very nicely right on their menu. I definitely will go back, but I'm going to try something new next time. So far it's been packed, so go early and/or don't expect a short lunch.

DINNER: Masullo Pizza - with the kids

Masullo's Web site

Last night the whole family tried Masullo Pizza on Riverside Blvd. with a friend, her husband and their two year old girl. My friend had raved about this place and had been several times, so we decided to try it with them in order to fulfill a long over due dinner date. It's located in what appears to be a pretty lonely looking strip mall, close to Riverside Clubhouse. It's minimalist looking with concrete floors and long darkwood tables with mostly benches to sit on. The place is small, probably could seat 30 people. Since we had two 2 year-olds with us I wasn't expecting anything fancy and this place certainly met that requirement. They did have hi-chairs available but we opted to let the kids climb around on the benches (and tables). As they were getting squirrelly after a long day of Montessori daycare and waiting for the pizza - my friend and I took the girls over to see the open kitchen: with complete viewing of the pizzas being made and placed into the wood burning oven. This was a plus in keeping them entertained. The menu was simple: a few standard Italian starters, green salads, olive plate, the usual. The pizzas were all individual sized. Probably a good 12 inches but a VERY thin crust. I promised myself that I wouldn't eat the whole thing, but after giving a slice or two to Claire and my husband - my plate was empty. I was impressed by their selections: mine was topped with red onion, goat cheese, oyster mushrooms and mozzarella. However, if you are craving a deep dish or even normal thickness pizza, this is not your place. Overall I enjoyed the experience, but I would not go here to satisfy a heavy pizza craving. As for kid friendly - the open kitchen was a good distraction while waiting for our food to arrive, but all the concrete and openness made it loud when the girls got rambunctious.

DINNER CLUB RECAP: Dough!

I switched my dinner club turn from the traditional Wednesday night to Super Bowl Sunday, so it was obvious I couldn't serve up some pan-crusted frou frou or anything that had a "touch of" or "hint of" anything. Well, I could, but I would then have to turn in my Man Card for at least a year. The Super Bowl means two things: (1) waking up the following day $150 bucks lighter because YOU WERE CERTAIN the Steelers would cover; and (2) eating gastronomically offensive amounts of food that are dipped in or topped with something. Bonus if you can eat the food with your hands. Pizza fit the bill. Having sustained myself on pizza for a good part of my life, I have arrived at a few, simple truths about our flatbread friend. Good pizza means thinly pressed dough and an honest amount of fresh toppings. And less cheese. Please don't start with your story about that deep dish pizza in Chicago that had 14 pounds of mozzarella and was the Best Thing You Ever Ate. Four out of five doctors agree that you are lucky to still be alive. If you make pizza, find a simple dough recipe and follow the recipe EXACTLY. Don't do what I did, which was to make the dough the night before and put it in the fridge to keep it from rising. It didn't stop rising. And, yes, I awoke Sunday morning to a doughball the size of a beach ball inside my humble fridge. I hacked it into six pieces and tried to roll the super-sized dough monster out flat, only to have it shrink again. Cold dough does not roll out quietly. But, 14 naughty words and two beers later, it was flatter than the Kings in the fourth quarter. [Laugh track here.] If you keep dough at room temp, and it should work out better for you. Get yourself a pizza stone. I like to heat the stone first, put the dough on the stone, and then add toppings. It makes for a crispier crust. For toppings, I made a seafood pizza (topped with clams still in their shells because I'm fancy), meat pizza, and a veggie pizza. Make your own sauce or buy some good stuff in a jar. Whatever. After ten minutes in a 475 degree oven, you get pizza, for a crowd. And my Man Card is saved for another day.