30. 2 Amy's
I’m biased about 2 Amy’s. When everyone was going crazy about teeny tiny Pizzaria Paradiso, I read somewhere about it’s little sister in Cleveland Park. Since I hate to wait for a table more than most things, I tried 2 Amy’s fully expecting it to be good but not as life-changing as if I had been a little more patient and stuck it out at Paradiso. Well needless to say, I fell in love with 2 Amy’s and have never really been back to Paradiso.
Since then, I’ve moved in to the general area of the restaurant and love the fact that I can call it a neighborhood restaurant. It is casual and friendly, you don’t feel the need to be quiet or neat but there aren’t broken crayons on the floor or bottomless salad bowls. If you don’t approach the menu with the idea that you plan to share, you’re missing out. There are so many great things on the menu that it would be a shame to just get the pizza. But, you must get the pizza.
On this occasion, I forced friend Julie to eat like the champion I knew she could be—and she did not disappoint. We ordered three appetizers between us, and a pizza each. For the appetizers, we went with the fava spread, deviled eggs, and roasted olives. If this was an Iron Chef battle, the secret ingredient would be garlic. And the winner? ME. the fava spread was creamy and garlicky with thin parmesan shavings on top. The deviled eggs looked disgusting, but we were eating our words (LITERALLY) because the green sauce served with the eggs was light and fresh and went amazing on the eggs. Last was the roasted olives—a nice little snack, especially for a big group, but were a little too salty for us to finish the whole bowl. For our pizza, we chose the Etna (eggplant confit, black olives and capers) and the squid, red onion and hot pepper pizza. The Etna was salty and zesty and not offensive with it’s eggplant, must have been the confiting. I loved the squid pizza too, the calamari wasn’t going to win any competitions for it’s doneness but the flavors were great. And it was seriously spicy, in a good way. Seriously.
Usually when I’m out at 2 Amy’s, I stick out because I don’t have a kid. Or four kids. If you are not a huge fan of dining al kiddo, I recommend waiting until after 8:30 or 9 to head over there. I hear there is a mysterious 2nd floor dining room that is kid-free, but I’ve never seen it with my own eyeballs so can’t guarantee its existence. The restaurant is also one of the loudest places in town, and so is not really appropriate for intimate moments such as studying for the bar or marriage proposals. But really if you’re doing either of those at a pizza restaurant, you need some help. So in the end if you can handle the occasional kid or a little noise, get thee to 2 Amy’s pronto. But not while I’m there, I hate waiting for a table.
