2 Amy's

No, this post is not about a person or even two people named Amy. Its about a pizza.  A special pizza.  A Neapolitan pizza authenticated by the Italian government. Sounds like a pizza spy movie.  But its not. Its real. Very real and very yummy pizza.

Superking and I decided to head into DC for lunch today since he had the day off for Good Friday. And we were in desperate need of a food adventure. He found this little pizza shop called 2Amys.  Apparently they are well-known for their "pizza d.o.c."  What is this you ask?  2Amys website says this...
       "In 1998 the Italian government formally recognized Neapolitan pizza as a traditional food worthy of preservation and granted it D.O.C (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) status, which specifies the legally permitted ingredients and methods of preparation necessary to produce authentic Neapolitan Pizza."

pizza authentication all in Italian

crazy wine menu

regular menu: simple and yummy

These pizzas can only use very specific ingredients and be cooked in a very specific way, making it, what the Italians believe is, the best way to make pizza.

margherita pizza

One of these d.o.c. pizzas is called the Margherita.  Very simple ingredients...tomato, buffalo mozzarella, basil, with a little sea salt in the dough, and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil on top.  The pizza is just big enough for either one very hungry person or to split between 2 people who also want to share an appetizer.  The crust is light, thin, and almost flaky.  I'm one of those people who generally does not eat the leftover crust. I figure once the cheese is gone, whats the point? However, this crust was worthy of eating, even by me. And the entire pizza just had this fresh, clean essence to it.

beautiful slice with a whole basil leaf

In addition to the pizza, we decided to get a small cheese plate and a small charcuterie/meat plate.  Let's begin with the cheese. You may have remembered I'm a huge cheese-head! Absolutely LOVE cheese of all kinds. I haven't met a cheese I didn't like yet. And today was no exception.  I had never even heard of most of the cheeses on the menu! The two we chose were gorgonzola with chestnut honey and barilotto (a kind of semi-firm, ricotta-style buffalo cheese). Gorgonzola, I've had before. I've even had it with honey. But this was amazing. The entire world stopped on my first bite.  The barilotto was really good too. It had a soft mild flavor similar to fresh mozzarella and was lightly drizzled with olive oil.

Bread, cheese plate with round crusty breadsticks, charcuterie

delectable cheese (gorgonzola on the left, barilotto on right); honey also had pieces of apricot

For the charcuterie plate, we chose lomo, lardo, and boar cacciatorini.  Obviously, we all know what boar is.  This boar cacciatorini was very thinly sliced salami.  Nice salty meaty flavor.  But lomo and lardo? Lardo, you can probably take a good guess.  Its basically pure fat.  Like down in the south people cook their beans with fat-back.  This is kind of like that, but just a strip of fat on a plate.  I have to admit, I wasn't a fan. To me it tasted like I just had a spoonful of Crisco.  But Superking enjoyed it, so good for him! Thats why we call it a food adventure!  Lomo is cured pork loin, sliced paper-thin, you can almost see through it.  Light porky and salty flavor. Delish!

Left: lomo; Middle: boar; Right: lardo

gorgonzola spread on the bread...yummy

The whole atmosphere of the place was adorable. There was this old-world European charm to it, from the wooden tables to the single brick wall and the quaint little bar area with its wall of wine.  Even the bathroom was charming and clean.  Located in an area of DC called Cleveland Park, not far from Georgetown, it was definitely an Italian neighborhood gem.  When you're in DC and have a craving for pizza, this is the place to go!

there was even a hostess with pink hair