Pete's New Haven Style Apizza - Ten-Frien

Ten-Frien!  That's Tenleytown-Friendship Heights for the uninitiated.  The newest Pete's outpost is in between the two red line stops, not quite part of the shopping fiasco that is FHeights, but also not the Big Box hubbub at the AU stop.  There appears to be a cute newish coffee shop and pet shop nearby, and an unfortunate Italian/pizza joint across the way. 

Pete's has become our latest "why not?" on nights we don't feel like cooking or we have guests who want some local flavor.  We can walk there, which is convenient, and although there isn't any outside seating yet--likely due to a permit delay--the walk to and from gets enough of that muggy, summer air for this gal.  The food is great, mixing up my own Boylan's soda is fun (because I'm 5), and the pies are huge.  HUGE.  We always have leftover, and it makes my workday lunch that much more interesting. 

New Haven-style apizza (a-BEATS, rhymes with a-TWEETS--not Pete's Apizza = Pizza Pizza) has a super thin crust.  Now, I'm no NH expert.  I only drive through/fly over Connecticut, for the most part.  But the apizza has a nice chewy/doughy end (or as my mom calls it, the bones), and the bottom is impossibly thin and crisp without being burned.  HOW DO THEY DO IT!?  It must be magic.  You can't even really fold this pizza if you try, because it's that crispy.  Nosh nosh.

Shall we look at some dishes?  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it, and luckily I just baked 2 lbs of banana bread. 

Fried goat cheese.  Can you go wrong?  (Answer: no.)

Mmmm fried eggplant (named Edge of the Woods)--we've gotten this pizza TWICE.  And the 2009 World Series Champions!!!

Arugula!  So fresh and tasty, like having a salad (with dough underneath).

Deeeelightful antipasti plate with housemade pickles (so crunchy and fresh and light), roasted corn and tomato salad (I loved this the most), fried risotto balls (dec.a.dent.). 

Solid salad. 

Halfsies--eggplant from earlier (this is a separate occasion, you see) and meatballs on the Boola Boola!

We really like Pete's.  These people are series about their apizza.  Just check out this ride:

Yes, I got permission (in writing...sort of) to use this image.  Because you know, it's shady to take pictures of people's license plates (I'm talking to you, Facebook friends who think those mobile uploads are an Olympic sport).


Pete's New Haven Style Apizza
4940 Wisconsin Ave NW
Metro: Red Line to AU/Tenleytown or Friendship Heights--it's really in between.  Maybe a little closer to FH if you take the Jenifer St exit.

CommonWealth Gastropub

PRE-POST REMINDER!  Top Chef DC (TCDC) starts TOMORROW, and I'll be providing recaps that contain spoilers, guesses, judgments, and flip-flops on the previously mentioned judgments all season long.  Bravo, Wednesdays at 9pm (not 10pm, thank goodness).  They aren't paying me to tell you about it, I just love it that much. 

Back in May, when it wasn't 90 gazillion degrees, people enjoyed eating outside.  We are those people.  We'd been meaning to go to CommonWealth for a while--we love beer, burgers, fish & chips, etc.  It's a good fit.

The beer offerings will suit most palates.  I was feeling summery and wheat-y, so I got a flight reflecting those choices.  Mmmm.  I made it a habit to take tiny sips of each one after another and contemplate aloud about the fruit flavor or floral accents.  Because that's cool! Also: these little glasses are adorable.  That's reason enough to get a flight.

J got one normal beer in a normal sized glass.  Not a teeny tiny cutie patootie one.

LAMBURGER!  Cutest name of a food ever.  And that would be pesto.  DELICIOUS fries (chips).  Well seasoned, perfectly cooked, and delicious.  The bun is more of an English muffin--it didn't bother me, but it seems noteworthy.

Fish and chips!  Very very good.  J says "very high quality, almost as good as Eamonn's."  I agree.

This meal wasn't complicated--we ate outside, pretty quickly, didn't order that much, and I don't even think we saw the inside of the restrooms.  But it happened: we picked a place in which to spend our hard-earned cash.  We had a nice time at CommonWealth.  The service was efficient (if not a little brusque), food was as we expected--piping hot, tasting great.  As it should be.

I'd really like to go back for brunch.  And it looks like they have Saturday brunch!  Happy - it can be hard to find, you know.  Basically, I want to try the popovers.  Has anyone had them?  Are they delicious?

CommonWealth Gastropub
1400 Irving St NW
Metro: Green and Yellow Lines to Columbia Heights

The Heights

The Heights is fun. Also, it's now a stone's throw away from Marshall's, Best Buy, Target, Lane Bryant, and other things that were formerly foreign to Columbia Heights. The Heights is owned by the same peeps as Merkado (never been), Logan Tavern (never been), and Grillfish (been--good but uneventful, a long time ago).

Enough small talk...

I had a burger, and it was large and VERY filling. They reasonably allowed me to substitute any of the side dishes for the french fries--I mean, if you aren't at Beck, what's the point of wasting calories on fries?

Be my shrink for a sec--I have to tell you something. I was disappointed with the roasted butternut squash. Let me tell you what I was expecting, okay? Somewhere in my weird fantastical notions about butternut squash I thought that alongside my burger I'd find large wedge-like slices that were soft (but not mushy), sweet (but not too sweet) and creamy (um...that's all, yep, creamy). Instead I got a small bowl (what?!) of squash diced up to the same size as the tiny tomatoes on my salad. The soft/firm-ness was inconsistent, and despite the appearance of some onion and spices, the flavor didn't wow me. Bland. And it bothers me, because, it's like, my MOM can make some pretty sweet squash quickly in the microwave with some cinnamon and general mom-like pizzazz, so what's with that, Heights?

Now on to the BEST PART OF MY MEAL! No, I didn't have dessert. I purposefully skipped the part about my great salad. I asked our friendly (and patient) server to rank the salads according to his personal preference, and promptly chose his 2nd favorite for my starter. Repeat these words over and over, until you get to The Heights. Grilled. Romaine. Salad.

They take the heart of romaine lettuce (it's all connected, so it's a bunch), and throw it on the grill for what is probably a VERY short period of time, put it on a plate with blue cheese, and finely diced tomatoes and olives that must have been marinating in the AWESOME vinaigrette. I don't even like tomatoes, and I was scraping every bit of the topping off my plate and into the endless receptacle that is my mouth.

I'll be back at The Heights soon, where I will probably make my date buy me one of the delicious-sounding entrees. If you've been paying attention, you probably noticed that I love nut-crusted fish, so the pecan-crusted trout is natural. The salmon special sounded good but there was a lot going on--why did it need to have a lobster cream sauce? How many fish/seafood items really need to be in one dish? Also, I bet if we go, J will have the lamb. Mark my words!

The Heights
3115 14th Street NW
Metro: Green Line to Columbia Heights