and we call it bella notte

 I don't know if I've ever hyped up a restaurant in my mind as much as I have Pizzeria Toro.

It took us three tries and a good four weeks of pizza cravings to finally eat here.  This is not including the many months (February is when Ann told me about it I believe) of periodically glancing over the menu to familiarize myself with the ingredients and narrow down my choices.

 Attempt #1: Menu nearly memorized.  Decided on anchovy under red and onion&pistachio under white; leaving final decision to what comes out of my mouth when the waiter takes my order.  Name dropping it to everyone I passed.  Excitement too great to be contained; had been steering clear of free pizza on campus and forewent Mellow Mushroom a couple days beforehand so as not to disrupt PT experience.  

...and then Eric casually throws in that PT was closed due to a chimney fire after telling me what he wanted.

What...

Why?

What?

 Attempt #2: This was after stalking the status of the chimney fire for a couple weeks - a combination of wanting to procrastinate exam-studying and mild obsession.  You know that anxious-hysterical feeling you get at the bottom of your stomach when THE day inches closer?  You've been looking forward to this for soooo long... and it was finally here!  You're nearly bursting and all you want to do is sprint head-on towards said event you've been looking forward to.  Exaggeration?  Probably, but then again probably not.  So on the penultimate day of finals week (not counting Sunday because it's absurd that exams exist on Sunday and I refuse to acknowledge it), we made our way back to PT, open and bustling with people.

One to one and a half hour wait, she says.

Lies.... (oh, I should mention they don't take reservations...stupid).

With half of us starving and the other half itching to get papers written and useless information learned and memorized, we settled on Toast (which has been reduced to somewhat subpar in my mind... which I just realized I haven't blogged about).

Attempt #3: Last ditch effort to get a meal in before summer whisks everyone away.  With all the free time in the world (such a good feeling, wouldn't you agree?), we waited out the hour at next door's Cupcake Bar where the tees are super cute ($15, worth it in my mind because I got my LDOC tee for free) and a kid on a sugar high entertained himself by roaring at us (in a cute way).
Took to photographing everything numerous times... because I had the time to spare between standing around in the bar area to wait for a table and salivating before our food came out.  The pizza kitchen is open to the public, and it was cool watching them crank out pizzas like a factory assembly line.

Alicia started with the duck gizzards with dandelion greens, which were on special, because the ox tongue appetizer was sold out (and apparently no longer on the menu).  Allison put pescatarianism on hold for a bite.  My thoughts - just that it was chewy, good yes but chewy; gizzard is not necessarily my favorite organ.

I had the soup special.  Parmesan soup with asparagus, peas, and arborio rice.  I assumed it was going to be creamy (because she said Parmesan soup), but it was really just a soupy risotto.  No complaints. I loved it.  The broth was very well flavored with parm, and I saved half of it as a dipping "sauce" for my pizza crusts.  The rice was tender, and I forgot how much I missed eating peas.

Anchovies, garlic, chiles, basil
This is what I'd been building up for weeks.  My only complaint is that there was not enough basil.  Seriously, load that shit on there, the more the better please.
The few anchovies were salty enough to flavor the whole pizza, and it was actually the perfect amount of spiciness for me.  In other words, I did not feel the need to ask for a side dish of a bottle of sriracha.

Allison went for one of the other pizzas I was debating between.
Hog island bay clams, hot pepper, grana padano
The best surprise was that the clams came in their shell.  Much better than expected; now it feels fresh.  The cheese.  What is this cheese?  One bite convinced me that I need to go out and buy a block of this cheese.  It was rather pungent, slightly salty, but not as strong as goat cheese.  Definitely a unique flavor (sorry, I can't describe cheeses better).  I want more.

Alicia and Amy matched.
Soft egg, old n Durham oyster mushrooms, arugula
I was most preoccupied with how many eggs would be on it.  Two.  Two lovely, oozy, soft eggs hidden under the handful of fresh arugula that put Pop's to shame.
God, what isn't better with an egg on top?  Tell me.

In all our hunger and excitement, we didn't actually register that maybe we didn't need to each get ourselves an individual pizza.  Because these were full sized (not personal) pizzas.  The four girls next to us were sharing two.  Oops.
Allison ate the entirety of hers, but we basically had a whole pizza left over.  I was full after two, but the need to try each slice overpowered my slow progress of self control.  And Alicia and I ate the rest on the drive up to DC.

I've got a list of people who never made it by the third attempt.
In other words, I have excuses to revisit PT next year.