Promise me pizza (or almost anything else) cooked in a wood burning oven and I’m there.
When Lolita’s opened in the former Crave space, with a shiny new wood-burning oven, producing pizzas and pasta, we needed to check it out.
In nice weather you have your choice of a secluded terrace under the Walkway Bridge, lined with plants, or the lively dining room.
After joking about the pea appetizer, we decided on the cucumbers with ricotta salata, mint and basil in a spicy vinaigrette. The cucumbers were great with the ricotta, and bread crumbs added a nice crunch.
That night’s special was a white pie with clams. For some (unknown) reason, I thought there would be clams in the shell on the pizza, but the clams had already been shucked and were carefully placed on the pie. The creamy white sauce must have had some clam juice in it, because you got a good hit of clam with the lemony sauce. The crust was good—could have been a bit more charred for me, but I like all my bread on the almost burnt side.
We were torn between pastas, and went with our server’s recommendation, the lumache with a spicy tomato sauce with chiles and bread crumbs. The pasta was perfectly al dente and the sauce had a nice, but not overwhelming spice to it.
A couple of months later, I went back with another friend for a second visit.
Once again, we went with some of that night’s specials. Since my friend had never had shishito peppers, I convinced her to give them a try. They were roasted in the wood-burning oven, which gave them a wonderful smoky flavor. The garlic scape aioli with pine nuts and sesame seeds was a great sauce for them.
That night’s pizza was Coppa ham with Gorgonzola, Fontina, Chippolini onions, shaved Brussels sprouts and slivers of Granny Smith apples. It was a surprisingly good combination, although I would have liked a little more ham, but the Gorgonzola made up for it, flavor-wise.
In the interest of research, we were going to go for a dessert, but none of the choices really jumped out at us, so we had some tea and called it a night.
One of these nights, also in the interest of research, I’ll have to go back and try one of their more classic pizzas.
Open for lunch and dinner, closed Mondays.
129 Washington Street,
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
(845) 452-8100
