If a restaurant opened up with a focus on healthy leaning junk foods, would you be willing to support them? Superfood enhanced pizzas, nachos, burgers, and more, all designed between a chef and a nutritionist.

Welcome to FunXion. The concept is a restaurant that caters to the health bent types such as myself, despite all the deliciously trashy things I eat on the weekend for your pleasure, as well as mine. The food here is prepared without oils, salts, or added sugars, a unique take, and requiring considerable  creativity in the kitchen to make things that will still pass as delectable to the majority of diners.

Despite these hurdles, FunXion is able to still come out on top. The chips and guacamole are different from your standard corn chips, but not so significantly that you’d stop more than a momentary pause to recognize the difference, and get back to your regularly scheduled noms. The buffalo nachos, with ground buffalo meat, chili, cheese, and vegetables, doesn’t seem to fare as well, with the chips going soggy far before you’ve gotten through the entire plate.

The sliders are fantastic for being a healthy version of a Krystal/White Castle burger. Definitely try the sirloin sliders, and if you’re feeling like a bit adventurous, try mixing up the meats for a double patty slider, such as the buffalo sirloin or the portabello and sirloin. The point is, get the damn sirloin already.

The pizzas aren’t going to make a run for the best pizzas in town, but if you’re craving a pie without the complete wreaking of havoc of your body, I can’t think of a better place to go out and get one in the area. The music was thumping a bit too loud for me to be positive that I heard it right, but I’m pretty certain that the dough is made with antioxidant rich acai berry, something I’d never consider throwing into the second hottest Italian export known to humankind (the first being, of course, the late Bea Arthur. RAAAAAWR.)

Speaking of the ol’ oontz-oontz-oontz, FunXion turns into a lively place for drinks and dance club beats just around 10pm, so make sure to get your food in early, unless you plan to stick around a mingle after. The service is extremely accommodating and friendly, as our server/night manager not only took down our order without writing a thing, but made sure we had everything we needed during our meal, but also simultaneously handled the transition of the restaurant into night-time lounge.

There’s plenty of wine, beer, liquor, AND health food drinks available, so don’t be afraid to try a couple to help wash down that food. And the photos? Sorry. The decidedly pink and red lights completely ruined my shots, so you’ll have to go and check it out for yourself.

On a final note, the prices here are more than reasonable. Jen and I stuffed as much as we could into ourselves and still didn’t spend as much as you’d expect to pay at any number of other places in the city. A huge plus. I’d definitely like to go back and support this business as much as I can.

See FunXion on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Zone Dieters
• Vegetarians
• First Dates
• Frugalistas
• Lean Cuisine Eating Machines

Not Recommended For:

• Paleoheads
• Pastafarians
• Finicky Feeders
• Chinese Tour Bus Drop Off Destinations

Pizzas are a hotly contested subject, once you’ve grown past the world of big chain pies like Pizza Hut, Domino’s, or Little Caesar’s (Little Caesar’s will ALWAYS hold a special place in my belly). What makes a perfect pizza? Hell, what makes a good pizza? There are endless variations of crust, toppings, and style, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a pretty big pizza floozy, as long it’s good, hot, and it tells me what a bad, bad non-paleo boy I’m being. I’ve been long wanting to get down to Capitol Hill to try out Spike Mendelsohn’s (of Top Chef fame) We, The Pizza ever since it opened last summer. So when Jen suggested we go check it out, I had no other choice but to oblige.

These days, Capitol Hill is a pretty gentrified place to hang out. You won’t find dealers selling crack on every corner like in the days of Marion Barry, but instead, brown flip flops flap-flap-flap down the sidewalks, and local residents have a wide array of family friendly establishments to choose from in the neighborhood.

Once you step inside, you’re immediately greeted by an open display case of all the by-the-slice pizzas available. The variety ranges from classics like the Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella and Roasted Tomato, a Spinach & Artichoke (with bechamel, sauteed spinach, roasted artichokes, aged provolone and parm), Coletti’s Notorious BBQ (slow roasted pulled pork, BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese and crispy onions) or a Buffalo Chicken (jumbo chunks of spicy chicken, creamy blue cheese, mozzarella, and hot sauce). These aren’t weak, floppy pizza crusts, and if you’re a gorger like me, you might be slightly disappointed that you can’t easily fold a slice in half and start shoving it into your face. Instead, patrons are forced to dutifully enjoy each flavorful, well balanced, and hearty bite, one at a time.

And maybe that sort of eating isn’t such a bad thing.

I order a slice each of the Buffalo Chicken and Coletti’s Notorious BBQ, both excellent choices that I highly recommend. Jen picked the traditional Buffalo Mozzarella, topped with generous chunks of fresh mozzarella and basil leaves big enough to keep you dry from a storm.

Make sure you try at least one of sodas made to order here. While there’s definite your traditional soda machine on tap in the back, the hand made sodas are mind blowingly good. I ordered the Ubet Manhattan Egg Cream soda, starting with chocolate syrup, a large serving of heavy egg cream, soda water, and POW! Instant chocolatey tastiness.

If you’re not entirely sold on having a pizza here, the restaurant also offers a reasonable selection of subs and 7, 14, 20 piece buckets of buffalo wings. Big buffalo wings. What exactly do you call jumbo buffalo wings? There’s no skimping on meat here, and the back bar has you covered with pretty much any kind of sauce you’d want to dip in, including BBQ, hot sauce, ranch, blue cheese, and more.

While the pizzas here aren’t exactly going to win over the Neapolitan crowd, they’re still pretty damn good in my eyes. Thick Sicilian pizzas cooked in a cast-iron pan are also available here, but I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy a slice of anything that suits your hunger. There’s plenty of seating outside for cool summer nights, and ample seating upstairs for everything else. Parking is pretty easy to find, and this is some of the best food you’ll come into near to Capitol after a long day tour.

See We, the Pizza on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Vegetarians
• People Watching
• First Dates
• Frugalistas

Not Recommended For:

• Neapolitan Naysayers
• Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters
• Organic Olivias

Station 4 adds to the small but growing number of establishments at the Southwest Waterfront area of DC, which is to say, maybe the second place that’s open down there, not counting the Arena Stage theatre next door, or the brand-spankin’-new Safeway across the street.

The buildout was clearly ambitious; a gold and black theme runs throughout the 200+ seat restaurant, with a gold painted bar, gold leather chairs, black leather benches, and crystal chandeliers abound. Posh seems to be best adjective to describe what the owners clearly envisioned when they hired a decorator, and I get that from my first step inside. But being far and away from the open wallets of downtown and situated in a much more residential neighborhood, one can’t help but feel that Station 4 is simply trying too hard to be something that it’s not.

The food here is, however, much better than what you’d expect of a neighborhood restaurant. Breadsticks are baked pita bread, sliced, left to go perfectly stale for a bit of crunch and slathered with a reasonable dose of olive tapenade for good measure. One of the more unique types of bread baskets that I’ve seen. We also got a glass of house made corn nuts, although our waitress denied that they were CornNuts, because that’d be ‘a bit too trailer park’.

Hey, I call it like I see it.

There are a wide assortment of cow, sheep, and goat cheeses available, served with macarona almonds and a sweet tomato jam. All in all good cheeses, although the blue cheeses were a bit more off-worldly looking than normal. Vibrant orange rinds and deep blue veins had a negatively visceral effect on me, so I contently took out the cow and sheep cheeses instead.

The Spicy Tuna cubes are sashimi grade tuna, topped off with a yuzu-jalapeno foam, and served in a reflecting pool of lemongrass infused soy sauce, with bamboo skewers keeping them from floating off into the wind. A fantastic dish, but by and far I think the foams would really go under the radar for the majority of the people that eat here, especially the subtle jalapeno flavor that sits on top of each morsel.

The Stuffed Zucchini, filled with goat cheese, toasted almonds, and romanesco sauce, are a nice entry to a meal for any vegetarian with fantastic complementing tastes and textures, but lack the presentation one would expect from the kitchen of a chef trained at el Bulli, which was not too long ago considered the world’s best restaurant…but in the league of competing restaurants, second place isn’t too bad.

Pizzas are in the plenty here at Station 4, and not a single one looks like a bad choice on the menu. We decide to try three of them for a fair sampling to share. The Roasted Vegetable comes packed with eggplants, zucchini, onion, goat cheese, and fresh arugula on top, hearty and laden with enough greens to make any vegetarian happy. On the other side of the spectrum is the Station 4 – a pie topped with pork belly, salsa, caramelized onions, and blue cheese, another example of why pork really is the perfect meat. IT GOES ON EVERYTHING. PERFECTLY.

For the more classically minded diner, the restaurant does offer the traditional Margherita pizza, with fresh buffalo mozzarella, confit cherry tomatoes, and basil.

If pizzas aren’t your thing, there’s also an entire section of entrees such as the Flying Duck, a serving of duck breast with passion fruit-lavender gastrique with caramelized fennel and a foie gras foam, that look plenty tantalizing to read over, and definitely worth a try.

It was nice to get out to one of the other neighborhoods of DC, and the Waterfront area is quickly coming up into its own as a pretty nice little neighborhood to be in. The restaurant is a fantastic addition to the cluster of businesses that meet together at the top of the exit/entrance of the metro, but still feels like it’s trying a bit too hard to be something it’s not. The food is good, very good, mind you, but maybe not quite something I’d call amazingly great.  If you’re in the area to see a show or visit some friends, I recommend stopping by for a bite, but it’s not quite a destination by itself.

See Station 4 on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Neighborhood Noms
• Vegetarians
• Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters

Not Recommended For:

• El Bulli Expectations
• Downtown Dahlias
• Hotspot Hunters
• First Introduction of the Parents to your Boyfriend, Who Finds Seasonal Employment as a Stripmall Santa

There are a number of restaurants in Georgetown that, for whatever reason, I’ve simply never noticed. In fact, a large cluster of restaurants barely a block away from one another, just a few steps south of M street. On a whim, Jen and I decided to give one of the Italian restaurants, il Canale, a go.

This two story restaurant greets you with a host table to your left, and a giant wood burning pizza oven to your right, where pies are cooked to D.O.C. Neapolitan perfection, certainly close to being as good as 2Amy’s but without the hike or the wait.

We were seated on the 2nd floor of the restaurant, which has a private patio for additional seating during warm DC spring and summer months.  Seating is cozy, but not so tight that you have to contend for elbow room at your own table with the people sitting next to you.

So let’s get to brass tacks.

The Frittura Di Calamari E Zucchine, crispy calamari and zucchini with a marinara sauce, is executed in superb fashion. A nice crisp batter on fresh calamari, not too much oil, and the wrapped lemon is nice touch. A highly recommended appetizer.

The Margherita D.O.C. pizza (well done, of course) here is, as I said, about as good as some of the other top Neapolitan pizzeria houses in the District. Buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil to top it off,  This one barely made it on camera before being completely devoured by me the two of us.

But just because you order a pizza, doesn’t mean you can’t still put in an order for some pasta, too. So we did just that, ordering up the Gnocchi Al Filetto Di Pomodoro- ricotta dumplings drowning in a pool of cherry tomato sauce, served with just a hint of buffalo mozzarella and olive oil, topped with a few more leaves of fresh basil. Pow.

There aren’t many reason NOT to like il Canale. The restaurant is contemporary, service is good, and the Italian food is as good and unpretentious as it gets. Prices for everything we ordered were more than fair, and portions sizes, one of my biggest gripes at many supposedly top tier restaurants, is not even remotely an issue.

The one thing that this restaurant does have going against it is that it competes in a sea of Italian establishments all over DC, without many notable exceptions that really make it stand out from the rest, which very realistically, is quite a feat to accomplish. Like dropping your aunt’s heirloom ceramic egg when drunkenly admiring it over Thanksgiving dinner after one too many bourbons and catching it in mid-air from utter destruction.

I don’t know where that was going.

I’d happy go back and try this place again.

See il Canale on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Vatican Visitations
• Vegetarians
• Blind Dates
• Pastafarians

Not Recommended For:

• Papal Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters
• Taking Out the Dalai Lama to Dinner
• Boozy Fourthmeals

2Amy’s neighborhood just isn’t the typical place I’d find myself hanging out in DC. It’s in Northwest, but it’s pretty up there as far as NW DC addresses go. Idaho Ave? I didn’t even know there WAS an Idaho Ave in this city. This all goes out the window, of course, if you’re a student at American University, which is about half a mile from this pizzeria.

Calling 2Amy’s just a pizzeria doesn’t seem to quite do this place justice. You don’t see slabs of pizza perched on stainless steel pedestals, slowly turning to cardboard behind Windexed glass panes. The interior of 2Amy’s is much, much classier, with brick walls, glossy subway tiles, and a large, hungry crowd waiting outside that never quite seems to entirel disperse.

There are an endless array of appetizers to whet your palette before your pizza arrives, so it’s a good idea to show up with a large party.  We were able to try a number of incredibly fresh and tasty plates.

The fried squash blossoms that are popping up all over various DC menus was something I’ve been wanting to try for  a few weeks now.  The taste is not too different from a light, fried okra, and the chefs here know the golden ratio for batter to oil for maximum taste.

The fried risotto balls were also very well done, although not something that I’d order on my own.  Risotto and molten hot magma (could have been cheese, although I swear it’s lava straight from Eyjafjallajokull) in a breaded crust, guaranteed to burn your mouth unless you know to cut these things open and let them cool down a bit prior to consumption.

Consider this your fair warning.

The prosciutto ham here is unbelievable.  I don’t know what sort of people had to get killed in order for this ham to get passed through customs from Italy, but they died for a very, very good cause.  2Amy’s takes it up a notch and pairs the ham with fresh honeydew (the money melon), a dusting of fresh ground pepper, and a quick splash of virgin olive oil.

The pork cheeks mixed with vegetables aren’t for everyone, and naturally only the more adventuresome will get over the sourcing of this meat.  The delicate texture of this meat here, however, seems to be overwhelmed by the mixture of oils and vegetables used to serve as it’s accompaniment.  That very well could be the traditional way of serving it Neapolitan style, but I’ve enjoyed pork cheese in previous experiences, and this dish just wasn’t something I was thrilled about.

The goat cheese served with a fig spread here is excellent in taste, texture, and quality.  Make sure you get the trifecta right and properly shove these two down your gullet on a raft of fresh baked bread.

The pickled sardines are flat out a must if enjoy like sardines.  The pickling process perfects the properties of these pescados for your palette.  The fish like taste is really kept at a minimum, with the strong pickling flavor coming out, giving these tiny fish a wholly unique taste.

The Margherita D.O.C. is most likely the most basic pizza you can order here at 2Amy’s, and that’s not at all a statement of disappointment.  The simple flavors of buffalo mozzarella, tomato sauce, and basil stand strong, playing no supporting role in accompaniment to other pizza accoutrements to this Denominazione di Origine Controllata (D.O.C.) dish, which means that the pizza was prepared using only authentic Italian ingredients and authentic Italian preparation methods to produce what you see above.  The result?  Mostly likely one of the best pizzas, if not THE best pizza you’ll have within 50 miles of DC.

There are, of course, those who feel the need to take their pizzas the extra mile, and order a Margherita pizza with prosciutto, and 2Amy’s amply delivers with class.  My pizza arrived at the table covered in enormous slices of prosciutto, placed atop my pizza after being baked, but only moments before I tore into this dish.  You can also ask for your pizza to be served well done, as I did here.

You can by all accounts, buck the normalcy and order a pizza with buffalo mozzarella, sausage, and cockles, for an equally satisfying pie.  The flavors on this one are decidedly a bit different, but no more or less amazing than the traditional offerings above.

What better way to finish a dinner than with a pair of cannoli?  Fresh cream stuffed into crispy baked shells, this dessert was just enough sweet to finish a meal, without being overly heavy.

If that doesn’t quite suit your tastebuds, you can always perk up with a Foggy senor –  a shot of fresh espresso topped with whipped cream, a much more suitable way to exit a good dinner than doing Jaegerbombs and flipping over the table after you’ve paid your check.

It’s a bit unfortunate to me that 2Amy’s isn’t more accessible from downtown DC, but taking a trip solely for their pizzas is a journey that’s well rewarded.  The pizza here is hands down my choice as the best pizza in the city, and the fact that 2Amy’s is no dive should be given the consideration it deserves.  The staff here is knowledgeable, friendly, and accomodating; the vibe is energetic and happy; the food is going to blow your socks off, assuming you’re not some crunchy hippie rolling up in Birkenstocks and your nevernude denim shorts.

See 2Amy’s Pizza on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Pizza Worshippers
• Neapolitan Expats
• First Dates
• Casual Birthdays
• Vegetarians

Not Recommended For:

• Paleoheads
• Zone Dieters
• Cramming for Your Finals
• The Jumbo Slice Crowd
• Vegans

>

This recipe is a little bit different in that it doesn’t fall into my normal categorization or Paleo or Zone, but Primal. There’s a lot of writing on the Primal Diet out there on the interwebs, but it’s very similar to the Paleo Diet, with the inclusion of some dairy back in.

And guess what? Mozzarella is one of those dairy products. That opens up some interesting cooking techniques, one of which is a grainless pizza dough. I made a few batches of these, testing each one on Jen.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I got the recipe from, but I’ll provide my adapted version for you to enjoy.

Ingredients for Crust:

• 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 cup Cooked Cauliflower
• 1/4 cup Coconut Flour
• 1 Cage Free Egg
• 1 tsp Garlic Salt, Kosher Salt, or Sea Salt
• 1 tsp Oregano
• 1 tsp Basil
• 1/2 tsp Fennel
• 1/2 tsp Black Pepper

Ingredients for Base Toppings:

• 1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese
• 1/2 cup Diced or Chopped Tomatoes

Directions for Crust:

1. Turn on the oven and set to 350°F.
2. Bring 5-6 cups of water and 1/2 tsp of salt to a boil over high heat.
3. Add 2 cups of cauliflower to boiling water, cover, and let cook for 10-15 minutes, until cauliflower becomes slightly translucent and soft.
4. Remove cauliflower from water and drain well.  Move the cauliflower to a large mixing bowl, and proceed to mash cauliflower to smithereens with whatever you’d like.  Potato masher, beer bottle, Playstation 3, or in my case, a large fork will do.  The cauliflower doesn’t have to be mashed smooth like potatoes, but you want it to be mashed to where it’s slightly larger than the size of rice.  Set aside.
5. Add in the egg, coconut flour, and mozzarella cheese.  Mix well.  I found mixing it with my hands was easiest.  Add in fresh basil, garlic salt, oregano, black pepper, and continue to mix.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and flatten the dough on the sheet to about a 1/2″ to 3/4″ crust.  If you don’t have parchment paper, well, better stop here, because this recipe just won’t work.  Just kidding.  You can lightly spray or coat the pan with some olive oil, but parchment paper makes it a lot easier to transfer off the pan later on.
7. Place your flattened crust into the oven, and let it cook for about 17-20 minutes.  The crust should start to have some brown, crispy spots, but not completely cook all the way through.  Remove the baking pan and place it on an oven-safe surface.

Directions for Toppings:

1. While waiting for your crust to cook, you can prep your toppings for your pizza.  Most pizza sauces are loaded with sugar, so I prefer taking crushed tomatoes and mixing in about a tablespoon of coconut flour to give it some thickness.  I also add more oregano and chopped basil to the tomato sauce for that Italian kick (well, after watching the World Cup games this week, I’m not sure the Italians can kick…I kid, I kid!)
2. Top your crust with your tomato sauce, and add a layer of mozzarella.
3. Add any additional toppings you normally like on your pizza.  A couple cloves of fresh chopped garlic, mushrooms, onions, sausage, go nuts!  Just remember if you are adding meat to your pizza to use pre-cooked meat.
4. Place your pizza back into the oven for 5 minutes.
5. Remove pizza and slice.

Makes 1 10″ pizza.

While this doesn’t wholly fit into being Paleo, I’d say the breakout is about 4 blocks of protein, 3 blocks of carbs, and 8 blocks of fat.

The Kimpton boutique hotels can be found scattered all over DC and the surrounding suburbs. It’s likely that you might have seen one of their hotels and not known it belongs to the Kimpton empire. Hotel Helix. Hotel Rouge. The Topaz Hotel. Hotel Monaco. Hotel Palomar. I’ve long been impressed with their locations and accommodations after having a great berfday party being thrown for me in the Hotel Monaco in Alexandria a couple of years ago. So it was only natural that my curiosity was piqued when the opportunity to eat at Urbana presented itself. The restaurant is part of the Hotel Palomar in Dupont Circle, easily passable during the day because of its subterranean entrance, but less so in the evenings when luminescent blue lights mark its entrance.

The interior is clean, very modern, and very tastefully done.  Dim lights and wood tables provide a comforting atmosphere, while marble serving tables strewn about loudly speak to the ‘no cost spared’ belief in outfitting the restaurant.  Etched glass and illuminated panels serve as wall panels and decoration everywhere.

To start, I ordered a quartet of raw oysters.  I’m no mollusk aficionado,  but the two varieties that I tried were nothing short of perfect to me.  An entire dozen would have been too much for me to tackle on my own, but something more manageable and recommended for a larger party than two, especially when one’s a vegetarian.

The cheese and charcuterie plate come correct with some strong contenders.  Jen and I sampled Manchego from Spain; the Rosselino from Italy; the Midnight Moon from the US; the Amish Cheddar from the US; and I happily devoured the Mortadella sausage from Italy.  The Manchego was the definitive winner of the lot, but all of the cheeses and meat were equally as appetizing.

Jen also ordered the Smoked Tomato and Cannellini Bean Soup.  The dish comes with a fried goat cheese island in the middle, and defied her expectations, to say the least.  Rather than a full-sized bean soup, the tomatoes and cannellini beans were carefully pureed and strained to produce a creamy and fragrant dish.  Topped with the cheese to mix in and add an extra layer of creaminess, I barely could keep her from licking the bowl.

So being the good boyfriend, I did that for her.

Tough job.

Our entrees arrived shortly thereafter.  Jen’s main course, the Pappardelle, served in a morel mushroom cream sauce with sugar snap peas and pecorino romano shavings to match, this would have been my choice as well if I were a vegetarian, too.

Not a terribly large dish, but the combination of the cream sauce used with the appetizers we had prior to this made up for it.  That’s not to say that Jen didn’t struggle to finish it and call me in as reinforcements to take out the rest, but something to keep in mind.  Still, the ingredients and presentation were well balanced, and nary a complaint from the woman about this place yet.  The noodles were fresh, not over or under cooked, and the small bits of morel mushroom gave this dish a bit of an exotic flair.

My peasant-ish dish, roasted organic chicken with a ragout of gnocchi, english peas and baby carrots, were also equally as good as every other one that been presented thus far.  The gnocchi was a very good accompaniment to the chicken, which in my opinion could have only been improved if it were a free range one.  At least to me, organic does not equate to free range when it comes to chicken.  My english peas were so fresh, they spoke unintelligible Cockney Rhyming to me before I put each to their demise.

“Oi, ‘ats a bit of Jackson Pollocks eatin’ us like that, innit?”

Stupid limey peas.

I probably couldn’t gush anymore about this place.  I’d easily put this as a place I’d like to revisit for dinner, or possibly even brunch.  I felt remiss having not tried the pork belly, roasted lamb loin, or the various pizzas available.  The restaurant also has a very reasonable wine menu, and the service is good enough to leave your redheaded step childen in their care while you’re out busy for a Melvin in the Karsey.

See Urbana on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Anniversaries
• Vegetarians
• Fans of the Mollusk
• Girls Night Out

Not Recommended For:

• Frugalistas
• Zone Dieters
• World Cup Celebration Parties
• Proposing to Your Japanese Body-Pillow Girlfriend

Coppi’s is one of the many restaurants on U St. in DC that has seen a surge in popularity in the past few years.  Their pledge to the environment spans from their locally sourced organic produce, grass-fed/free-range meats, a wood burning oven, wind powered electricity and ultra-low wattage light bulbs.  How low?

Coppi's Interior

The focus here is definitely pizzas, with the highest of quality ingredients.  That’s not to say that’s all the restaurant does, as they also have a solid selection of antipasti (appetizers), insalate (salads), entrate (entrees), and dolci (sweets/desserts).  So, I started with what I can only remember as the Piatto di Carne.  The meat platter itself seemed a bit light on the side, but really, all I was looking for here was my meat fix before splitting a pizza with Jen.  Truth be told, the smoked salmon, the salami, the pancetta, and the smoked ham did just that for me.  A tasty sample of cured meats, but the salami was a bit too “meaty” for me.  Considering that they were all grass-fed meats, I guess that’s just my mis-perception of what high quality food costs, right?

Right.

The pizzas here are off the chain good.  Jen and I split the Al Cinque Formaggi- a white crust topped with ricotta, provolone, mozzarella, pecorino, and romano cheeses.  Do you know what that’s like?  It’s delicious, like having the last unicorn steak in existence.  I’m not sure if it was the organic magic at work here, but this was a damn good pizza.  A perfectly baked crust, lots of gooey, stringy cheese, and just the perfect amount of sauce to hold it all together.

You can always follow up that meal with your choice of dessert, so Jen and I split the bread puddding a la mode.  Your standard fare bread pudding, but well executed and presented for optimal omnomnomnomnomnom.

Here’s a photo of the bread pudding:

Bread Pudding a la mode

All in all, Coppi’s serves up a very tasty and very expensive meal.  The question of price for quality comes to mind again, amongst others.  Will we all one day have to pay more realistic prices for food when our food sources become scarce?  Are you an ardent fan of high quality ingredients (Red Sea sea salt, Micronesia olive oil, Vietnamese Maroon Pygmy cinnamon) when you eat?  Do these pants make me look fat?

The pizzas here are very good and a fairly good value, but I’d skip out on the appetizers and desserts.  The restaurant also holds very generous hours, open even during the blizziest of blizzards that take over DC.  If you’re craving a good pie and you’re in the area, stop in and give Coppi’s a try.

See Coppi’s Organic on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Pizzaholics
• Deep Snow Dining
• Organic Aficionados
• Vegetarians

Not Recommended For:

• Inexpensive Dates
• Zone Dieters
• Paleoheads
• Carbophobes

If you go to Pizza House in Ann Arbor, all you need to do is make sure you order two things. Start it up with one order of Chipati bread with your choice of sauce on the side, and one order of pizza, preferably either the Chicago Deep Dish or the Chicago Stuffed Pizzas. These are what put this place on the map.

Chipati Bread and Chipati Sauce

The Chipati is actually named after an Indian griddle fried flat bread that tastes like something you’d get from a wheat bun and a fresh pita bread doing it on prom night.  TWO TIMES.  I never thought a plain plate of bread could be so satisfying, and likely doubly so on a cold winter Michigan night.  The Chipati sauce tastes like a mix between Thousand Island and Ranch dressing, but I preferred the tart taste of the house Ranch on my bread instead.

Chicago Stuffed Pizza

Jen and I split a small Chicago Stuffed with spinach and onions, half with tomatoes for her, and half with ham for me.  The stuffed pizzas take a while to make, so make sure you’re savoring every bit of that Chipati.  Luckily for us, we caught the restaurant in between dinner and bar closing hours, so the place was empty enough for us to get our food into our mouths quicker than Sally Struthers with a feedbag strapped to her face. 

The pizza has a delicious soft wheat crust, stuffed with the toppings of your choice, coated with fresh Michigan mozzarella cheese and filled with fresh chopped tomato sauce.  It’s then covered with ANOTHER wheat crust and then covered one more time with a layer of fresh chopped tomato sauce.  The ingredients in this deep dish behemoth are nothing but quality.  Jen didn’t care must for the crust after eating the main part of the pizza, but I happily gave them a good home for her. I can honestly say that this was the the best pizza I’ve had in years, if not ever.  Nothing tastes like it comes from a can, a bottle, or as if it was mixed with high fructose corn syrup to save a few pennies for the house. To me, the Chicago Stuffed was almost a little overwhelming, but I’d venture to say that the Chicago Deep Dish is spot on what I’m looking for. Guess there’s only one way to find out.

For me, this makes an absolute must for foodies. View a map of Pizza House here.