Bierria Paradiso

I went to the original, and in my opinion much better, location of Pizzeria Paradiso and its basement bar Bierria Paradiso tonight in Georgetown. 

Went with a couple of friends and we all got pizza. I got the special, which was a pie with buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto and basil. Awesome. Their pizza is always good, especially for around here, but the ingredients were great on this one. I can never really complain about the pizza there, it’s consistent. Not saying it’s spectacular and out of this world, but for DC it’s one of your better options. I haven’t yet ventured to one of “the” DC pizza places (2 Amys I hear is really great, among others) but in my five months here Paradiso has it down. 

I coupled my pie with a New Holland Golden Cap, which is their seasonal saison. It definitely pulls it off, not too estery but enough, and spicy. It tasted like it was probably pretty simple as far as the ingredients, and it let the yeast do the work on the flavor. There wasn’t the uber compilation of tastes as much as there were a few very refined ones. I liked it is what I’m trying to say.  It was my first New Holland beer and I will definitely be picking up some more. 

I read in the most recent issue of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News that the Dupont Circle location of Paradiso will be moving up P Street to a larger space, a very good move as the current location is on the small side and doesn’t offer near as much beer. They are planning to expand the number of taps and bottles with the new space to (from memory) I think 10 and 300 respectively.

Pizzeria Paradiso, Dupont Circle location

Found out that I’ll be gainfully employed for at least another five months so went out to celebrate. I’ve been to the other location of Paradiso (in Georgetown)  before and really enjoyed myself – probably because I got free booze!

Jenna and I had decided to try said Georgetown place out and went in to find a great beer selection awaiting, which I did not know would be there because I was not familar with DC at the time.  I ordered a St. George IPA, and Jenna, a Coke.  As our server carefully made sure to not spill a drop of my St. George, he lost control of his tray and bathed, yes bathed, Jenna in cola. This, needless to say, is how we ended up getting free drinks. I used it to my advantage and had a bottle of Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, which was like $14 a pop. Momma did not, as they say, raise no fool. (double negative intended)

Last night we went to the Dupont Circle location, a much smaller and very much cheesier venue. The what-looked-like-finger-painted pizzas around the walls and the faux stone ceiling that was painted to look as if it weren’t complete were less than cool, but the pizza was still great.

We ordered a large (12-inch so kind of small compared to other larges) Bosco pizza, which comes with no tomato sauce, but tomato (I prefer it that way), and mushrooms, spinach, red onion and real mozzarella.  They also had a special on DeKoninck so I had one and the malty sweetness went great with the ’za.

Substracting the small – not cozy or atmospheric, just small – space and cheesy decor, the Dupont location still produces the ultimate goal successfully, which is good beer and good pizza.  It’s a little pricey for what you get, but delicious, and the best pizza I’ve had in Dupont since living here. I’ll probably be back, but not every weekend.

Troeg’s Nugget Nectar and Cairo Liquors

Got a hold of a six-pack  of Nugget Nectar from Cairo Liquors here in DC. Cairo is my store of choice, mostly because I live on the third floor above it, and also because it stocks a fine selection.

I recently bought a bomber of Stone Old Guardian that was already aged a year! Not sure if it was because it had been sitting on the shelf the whole time or ordered that way. It was a very dusty bottle. But sure enough, I pick it off the shelf and it says “limited early 2008 release!” I don’t think the word will get out too quickly, as I average about 4 hits per day on this thing, so maybe I’ll have time to go buy them out soon. I haven’t seen it yet, but my brother tells me Cairo is in the latest issue of All About Beer, a fantastic publication out of Durham, N.C. It’s probably one of the three best things that are in Durham, along with The Durham Bulls and Triangle Brewery. Back to the nectar.

It says “Imperial Amber” on the label, but with a name like Nugget Nectar and a fist clutching a huge hop flower as the image, you can imagine it doesn’t quite taste like an amber. More IPAish, but at the same time not as full-bodied as some IPAs with similar IBUs, at least by my tongue. I’m doing this all from memory with no notes so bear with me on the vaugeness. Very interesting take on the amber, and very good. At about 7 percent abv, you could have two or three and not be on the floor, but you’d probably be aware you weren’t drinking a session. I enjoyed it with some frozen garlic chicken pizza and it was a pretty decent pairing because the garlic and hops matched intensity fairly well.

Scranton, Pa.

On my way up to Connecticut for the summer I stopped off for the night in Scranton, Pa., the setting of NBC’s The Office. Beings a bit of a fan, I looked in to some of the places I had heard them mention on the show. One that came to mind was Alfredo’s. In one episode Michael is going to order pizza from Alfredo’s and the office staff insists he make sure it is “Alfredo’s” and not “Pizza by Alfredo,” which is supposedly an unacceptable establishment. I found the real Alfredo’s and was very pleased. I ordered a half tray of pizza and couldn’t finish half of that. J.W. Dundee’s Honey Browns were $1.50 tonight also. 

 

image from nbc.com