Sometimes you have to dig a little into a menu to find the real gems.
Recent example: Pizzeria Vetri displays a simple chalkboard menu of 8 pizza options, plus 3 house special items, 3 salads and 3 desserts. It also offers a healthy list of draft, canned or bottled beer, wine and cocktails.
Marc Vetri + pizza. What could be better than that?? I'll tell you what's better than that. The house specials. Don't get me wrong, the pizza my friends and I inhaled at Pizzeria Vetri was great. Was it noticeably better than Zavino, Stella, Osteria, Nomad or the plethora of other fancy pizza/wine spots in Philadelphia? Not really. But that's ok, they're all great.
What really knocked our socks off at Pizzeria Vetri were the rotolo and pizza al taglio del giorno. I've described the rotolo to everyone so far as looking like a Cinnabon but with rolled up up pizza dough, mortadella and fresh ricotta and topped with a pistacchio pesto sauce. Holy heck. It was so good we ordered a second. At only $3.50 each, why not??
The pizza al taglio del giorno, or rectangle slice of the day, obviously rotates flavors but if our day was any indication, you have to try one. Ours was a simple thick crust with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and herbs. These are $6 a slice and different enough from the regular pizza to be worth an order on each visit.
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The standard pizzas are around the same size as you see elsewhere. If you're a big eater or really hungry that day, you can probably eat one yourself. Otherwise order a few for the group to share. And leave room for a rotola and a rectangle slice.
The set up at 30-seat Pizzeria Vetri is basically two long communal tables, a handful of smaller tables and a kitchen bar for about 10 people. On a nice day, there are some tables out front, too. Moral of the story is: at a busy time, you might have to wait or go for takeout.
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Pizzeria Vetri is on the ground floor of The Granery, a new luxury apartment building at 20th & Callowhill. The neighborhood definitely seems to be a rising hotspot to live and play (does it have a name?). It was an easy stroll from Fairmount, but from other parts of Philly feels like a new frontier for now. With the latest handiwork of a chef like Marc Vetri behind the budding neighborhood though, we're likely to see additional restaurants pop up soon and find ourselves spending more time over there.
Salsicca sausage and fennel pizza ($16) |
1 comment:
Hmmm. My high school son has off on Monday, but my younger son doesn't (different districts). Maybe I need to bring my son into the city for some pizza and that Rotolo.
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