Messy and Picky

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid: words to live by. And there's nothing simpler than a loaf of bread and some fresh cheese. But you can step it up a bit and go get yourself some really good bread and some fantastic mozzarella (and that's pronounced mutz-a-rell).
I love the bread from Sarcone's down on 9th […]

Messy had read about this vegetarian and vegan friendly Italian restaurant in a free magazine at the gym, so we decided to go one Friday night. We walked in and were greeted by a cheery maitre d' who asked if we had a reservation. We didn't, but it was no problem. He also asked to take our coats. We weren't used to this request and chose to take our coats to our table. He then asked our preference of menus: vegetarian/vegan or regular and we chose one of each. We were lead upstairs to a large dining room which was outfitted with a gas fireplace and disco/party lights which were not in use (it looks like one can rent out that room for parties)…

We went to La Fourno on a particularly cold night, and we were immediately warmed up by a brick oven hard at work. Our friendly hostess lead us past a large counter with tons of pizzas into the rear portion of the dining room which was very cozy — intimate, even! — with barely any lighting aside from candlelight bouncing off of the exposed brick walls…

Although we have had pretty good experiences with Pine Street Pizza, there is one major disappointment: there are no single slices. A small pie, which costs $5.75, is slightly bigger than a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza. They come with six small slices, roughly equal to two and a half "real" slices. The pizza is thick, and Greek-style, with crust that tastes almost like French bread. It's a good balance of mozz and sauce, but still too thick and chewy for Picky's liking…

First off, we gotta say that Lazaro's slices are huuuuge, even by our standards. They're also pretty tasty: our only complaint is that the sauce is way too sweet. But otherwise, the pizza is very good, especially for Philadelphia…

One of very few gourmet [brick oven] pizza places to earn the seal of approval from Picky, a bona fide pizza snob. With assorted toppings to choose from including, but not limited to: anchovies, arugala, goat cheese, kalamata olives, proscuitto and roasted zucchini. After much deliberation, we settled on roma tomatoes, ricotta and spinach. There is surely something to please everyone…

A taste of Italy admist the hustle and bustle of Olde City. Any kind of panini you could want at affordable prices, delivered to your table – indoors or out – by a cute Italian. Like many other restaurants seeking to avoid Philly's archaic liquor-license laws, this one is B.Y.O.B.