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A friend recently had been raving about this new pizza place in Lawrenceville - "It's got real Italian-style pizza, that reminds me of the kind of pizza I used to get in Brooklyn," he said.
OK, I'm sold. Brooklyn is as much of a pizza mecca as Chicago, or Naples itself. And, since it's slightly inconvenient to take a boat back to the Old Country for a slice or two, we might as well make do with the best of what we've got here.
It turns out that this new Lawrenceville pizza joint is really a new branch of Regina Margherita, a long-time neighborhood favorite in Bellevue. Both pizzerias have prominent wood-fired stone pizza ovens and classy marble countertops. The Lawrenceville shop is long and narrow, with exposed brick walls and a sleek wood and copper-colored design sensibility. The Bellevue version is slightly more rustic, with painted tambourines hanging from the walls and a mural of an old pizza kitchen in the corner.
The pies are indeed fantastic, and most likely deserve even die-hard Brooklynites' acclaim. The original, Neopolitan-style pizza, I'm told, eschews the thick marinara sauces we've come to expect. Instead, the Regina Margherita pie ($10) puts crushed fresh tomatoes on almost wafer-thin crust, and covers it in buffalo mozzarella, olive oil and cherry tomatoes. Buffalo mozzarella, according to the menu, is the original mozzarella, made from buffalo milk.
One thing that you notice immediately about these pies is that they tend to be a bit soggy. The olive oil and juice from the crushed tomatoes quickly seeps into the very thin crust - and the cheese actually seems to be what holds it all together. The flavors are so distinct and perfectly complementary, however, that it doesn't matter much.
Another winner is the Capricciosa ($11), which utilizes crushed tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, artichokes, savory baked Italian ham and mushrooms. The Panino Pizza ($6) is basically the same thing (sans artichokes), except turned into a sandwich between two pieces of flatbread instead of one.
It should be noted that the pies are all fairly small, and each one is about enough for one moderately hungry person. Regina Margherita makes it a particular point to note that all ingredients - tomatoes, olive oil, cheeses, even the flour - are imported from Italy.
For dessert, the brave can try the Pizza Dessert ($4.50), a pizza with an Italian hazelnut chocolate spread.
Pizzeria Regina Margherita is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; noon to 9 p.m. Sundays.
