Olio E Piú

Things that are amazing about my job.

1.  Eating
2.  Eating
3.  Eating

Did I mention it's amazing and awesome that I get to eat for "work?"  Sure, it gets a little rough.  Like when you end up eating 120 cupcakes over three weeks in pursuit of New York City's greatest cupcake.  Honestly, I think that is one of the most difficult things I've had to make it through.  I'm not kidding.  I thought I was going to ralph more than once.

So, moving on from that last positive note, today's awesomeness came in the form of checking out a new pizza place.  Olio E Piu opened on Sunday in the West Village.  It took over Go Sushi's old locale.  The vivid grass green exterior is hard to miss.  At first glance, I was loving the colors of the interior.  First off, for a New York restaurant, it is rather spacious.  Secondly, the mixture of woods, a few vintage pieces, high ceilings, wood ceiling beams, and bright, creamy walls was visually appealing.  After I'd spent some time there though I reconsidered my original evaluation and felt, perhaps, the place was a bit stark.

Everyone in the restaurant was most certainly friendly and passionate about the subject of pizza.  Giulio Adriani, the owner, is fresh off the boat from Italy.  His oven is as well, straight from Napoli, capital of delicious and fresh pizza.  I enjoyed watching him work the oven while preparing our pizzas.  I also had amazing lunch companionship in the form of Adam Kuban, Ed Levine, and Nick Solares.  Very entertaining lunchmates indeed.

We ordered four different options:

Margherita

Campagnola

Freschezza

Amalfitana

The Margherita was the best which normally is your indicator that the rest will be good as well.  The Amalfitana seemed promising and interesting with "lemon slices."  It seemed the acidity would be a potentially amazing contrast with the mozzarella and Parmesan.  Unfortunately, the lemon slices were much too thick to work.  Because they are so newly opened, I'm going to give some allowance on this one.  Giulio came over to my table to check on me and my companions and sought our opinions.  He said he is using the changes for improvement.  The crust definitely has a decent chew on it and the Margherita will leak yummy sauce all over your plate that you'll have no choice but to sop up with said crust.

So, if your pizzas are more pizzalike than salads with a little crust under them, thank me.  Or if your lemon is shaved super thin.  I'm sure it was all my doing.