Sauced

Duly Noted: Bambino’s Pizzeria Has a Killer Beer List

Use National Pizza Week as an excuse to investigate some pizza and beer pairings.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Jan 11, 2012 at 09:05AM 0 Comments

A recent beer lineup at Bambino’s. Impressed yet? Photo via Facebook.

Plenty of pizza places are advertising/tweeting/Facebooking the fact that it’s National Pizza Week (honestly, who comes up with these faux food holidays?). Washington Beer Blog’s Kendall Jones uses the occasion as an excuse to investigate the surprisingly excellent beer selections at Bambino’s Pizzeria. He proclaims it “the best beer list you’ve never seen.” If that’s not superlative enough for you, he also deems the Gaius Plenius pizza, served with Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, “one of the best food-beer pairing experiences of my entire life.”

OK, Bambino’s. You have my attention.

If Jones, a major arbiter of Seattle’s beer scene, wasn’t aware of the Belltown restaurant’s beer cred, then I feel better that this stupendous lineup was news to me. It seems that owner Belle Coelho is quite the beer geek. So much so that she went ahead and selected a beer pairing to accompany seven of the Neapolitan pizzeria’s most popular menu items.

A Bambino’s rep says that Coelho actually met with some of the local beer reps to create these beer and pizza (and calzone) combos. The pairings also showcase some new arrivals on the draft list, including Hitachino Nest Ancient Nipponia out of Japan, Port Santa’s Little Helper an imperial stout out of San Diego, and Belgium’s St. Feuillien La Blanche.

Bambino’s has been in Belltown since 2005, quietly developing an impressive list that includes a staggering amount of off-the-beaten-path European beers, and lots of West Coast favorites including Russian River’s Redemption, Salvation, Consecration, and Supplication, as well as several from Portland’s excellent Hair of the Dog brewery. If you need another excuse to get in here, the pizzeria is also offering 15 percent off all pizza orders all week long in honor of National Pizza Week.

Here’s the full list of pairings (all beers are on draft):

Lost Abbey Avante Garde: Benedetto calzone (tomato sauce, mozzarella, spicy Calabrese, sausage, spicy pepper)
Russian River Pliny the Elder: Gaius Plenius pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella, spicy salami, castelvetrano olive, pecorino pepato)
Hitachino Nest Ancient Nipponia: Cheese plate (manchego cheese served with house crostini)
The Bruery Autumn Maple: Primavera pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella, olive, onion, tomato, mushroom, pepper)
Port Santa’s Little Helper: Tropicale pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, pineapple)
St. Fuellien La Blance: Tre Gusti pizza (truffle oil, fontal, potatoes, onion)
Lost Abbey Judgement Day: Mole pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella, Salumi mole salami)

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Tags: Beer, Pizza, Beer and Food Pairing, Bambinos Pizzeria

Pagliacci Gets A Ridiculously Fancy Coke Machine

The Coke Freestyle machine that caused a media uproar last spring arrives on Broadway.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Jan 04, 2012 at 11:25AM 5 Comments

This humble device provides more than 100 drink combinations. Some more palatable than others.

Why am I writing about a soda machine? Because people seem to get inordinately excited about this one, that’s why. As CHS posted yesterday, Pagliacci Pizza’s Broadway location has installed a Coca Cola Freestyle machine. These mind-bending devices dispense caffeinated, carbonated, and often caloric soft drinks in more than 100 combinations. Thanks to an array of push buttons on a screen, soda seekers can create crazy hybrids such as peach-flavored Sprite Zero, or Caffeine-Free Diet Coke with a flavor shot of vanilla. Whether or not such combinations sound appetizing is your call.

Pagliacci owner Matt Galvin says the new machine arrived the week before Christmas, and one member of the pizzeria’s crew has already sampled 57 combinations. Given the positive response from customers, he’s planning to install Freestyles at Pagliacci’s Queen Anne and University District locations in the future.

The Coca Cola Freestyle arrived in the Northwest this past March, via two Taco Time locations. Its debut received a shocking amount of news coverage considering this is, after all, just a fancy soda machine. Burger King even announced it will install Freestyles in all of its US restaurants, and if that’s not enough Freestyle love for you, the things have their own damn Facebook page.

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Tags: Pizza, Pagliacci, Soft Drinks

Caffe Vita Opens New Pioneer Square Location

And there’s pizza. No, not Via Tribunali pizza.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 25, 2010 at 05:44PM 2 Comments

Few things makes me happier than when a successful local business opens up a branch in my beloved Pioneer Square, especially when that business is a cash cow like the ubiquitous Caffe Vita. Vita has taken over the Prefontaine Place S space that formerly belonged to All City Coffee. (The other All City Coffee, in Georgetown, lives on.)

Mike McConnell, who founded both Vita and Neapolitan-pizza chain Via Tribunali, has a partner in the project: Son Chris, it so happens, makes Neapolitan pizzas too. Interesting. His venture is called Pizzeria Napoletana and he is serving his pies out of one corner of the cafe.

The McConnells celebrate the opening on April 1. From 6 to 11am they’re offering free drip coffee, then from 11am to 4pm they’re handing out free pizza. The live bands (Tarantellas, Trent, Thomas Hunter, and Fatal Lucciauno) begin at 6pm. Any and all donations will go towards 4Culture, a neighboring organization that funds local arts and culture programs.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Pizza, Coffee Buzz

Living Large and Eating Cheap: Artisanal Table’s Extended Happy Hour

Every Monday, the pizzeria in the Bravern offers HH through 9pm. Here’s the deal.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 15, 2010 at 01:19PM 1 Comments

Eat for half price every Monday at the Artisanal Table, when happy hour is extended through 9pm.

Everyone needs to go to the Bravern shopping center in Bellevue at least once. It might not be for you, but you need to see it, at least. To know it is there.

If you’re accustomed to squeezing yourself into tight banquettes at the tiny eateries of Queen Anne and Capitol hill, you’ll marvel at the dining rooms that go on forever, at the full moon-sized platters that arrive at your table overflowing with edibles. Everything at the Bravern is huge, crazy huge, and crazy clean. And most things are also, of course, crazy expensive. I mean, you’re not going to get a Tory Burch dress for cheap people, let’s face facts.

But here’s a little something that’s good to know about the Bravern: on Mondays, you can eat cheap there. Because every Monday Artisanal Table’s happy hour, which usually runs from 3 to 6pm, is extended until 9pm. Which means you can eat anything on the entire menu for 50 percent off. All. Night. Long.

The main attraction here is pizza, which at the discounted prices cost between $6 and $9. There are also pastas like papardelle lamb ragu and tagliatelli carbonara, plus salumi plates, salads, etc…. House beers are $3, house wines are $5.

Artisanal Brasserie next door also has a generous happy hour from 3 to 6pm daily, no extension on Mondays, with a dozen oysters on the half shell for $13.50 plus a bunch of wine, beer, and cocktail specials. I like the sound of white-wine sangria ($5)—hey, it may be February, but the sun is out—with St. Germain and peach. The full menu is here.

If, after indulging at the larger-than-life shopping mall, you need to readjust your perspective at a more small-scale venue, I suggest you stop by nearby Naga, the cocktail lounge attached to Chantanee Thai restaurant. It is absolutely a one-of-a-kind sort of place, and it serves very serious cocktails.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Bellevue, Pizza, Deals

Pizza Happy Hours, All Around the Town.

You likah the gourmet pizza? You’ll like these.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jan 28, 2010 at 01:45PM 8 Comments

The happy hour situation is kind of out of control. Did you know that Falafel King in Pike Place Market has a happy hour? Fact. Also, did you know three of our better pizza places do too? Fact, fact, fact. Let’s discuss.

Tutta Bella would prefer that you call its happy hour the Aperitivo Italiano. The highlight of this discount, which is offered at all locations from 2 to 6pm Monday through Fridays, is the $6 Regina Margharita pizza. Tutta Bella’s décor is not so much my style, but the pizza is very, very, very much my style. Other discounts: $2 off all draft beers and wine by the glass and $3 off cocktails at Westlake and Issaquah. The wine comes with wee ramekins of olives. The one thing on the menu I will go ahead and steer you away from is the wood-fired flat bread with pomodoro San Marzano (tomato sauce with San Marzano tomatoes). Basically, it’s a pizza crust with tomato sauce on the side. Who cares about that? Otherwise, you are good to go.

I’ve told you before about the happy hour at Serious Pie, which has seriously sad hours (3 to 5pm weekdays) but if you can get there it’s a thing of magic. Five dollars buys you a mini pie. Order three among two people and call it dinner.

And then there is the happy hour at Via Tribunali, where three different pizzas (Margherita, Napoletana, Salame) are offered for $5. There are also specials on pints of Peroni ($3), and house wine by the half-liter and liter. ($8, $16). Here is where things get complicated: At the Belltown branch in the Croc, HH is 4-6pm and 11-close everyday. On Capitol Hill it starts at 10:30pm Sunday-Thursday, but at 11pm on Friday and Saturday. In Fremont, its 4-6pm and 10-close everyday, same thing in Georgetown. In Queen Anne, its 10pm-close everyday.

Got all that? Go get pizza.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Pizza