Pizzaiolo - Top 100? no. Top 1000? Probably

First meal there for two of us.

We shared:
Dirty Girl chichories with crème fraîche, mustard, prosciutto di Parma + fried sage
Meatballs al Pizzaiolo
Pizza - Tomato sauce, housemade sausage, hot pepper + panna

Dinner was perfectly ok. After the last bite, when asked “what did you think about the food,” I responded with an “it was ok,” with an “agreed” reply. We were both disappointed in our completely average meal. Nothing seemed to have much discernible flavor outside of the ordinary.

We did enjoy the wine (a natural rosé) and our service was nice.

The end

We went many years ago ~7 years ago. At the time we really enjoyed our meal. The pizza, pasta and appetizers were all great. Liked the room and reasonably priced.

I haven’t been back since but I believe the owner/chef was caught up in some sexual harassment and is no longer with the restaurant. Wonder if that has any impact or if this place just isn’t as good or if I’m going senile.

I don’t think you’re going senile. Almost everyone I know who has been over the years has loved it.

It has been a few years since I’ve been and I’ve always enjoyed my meals there, but for some reason I’ve preferred Boot and Shoe Service over Pizzaiola. The menus are pretty similar. I recall a really good margherita pizza and clam pizza and an incredible fried rabbit dish at Boot and Shoe. People rave about the squid pizza at Pizzaiolo but it didn’t do it for me.

Charlie Hallowell is no longer involved in day-to-day operations, but I don’t think he was spending much time at Pizzaiolo or Boot & Shoe since he opened Penrose.