Valentine's Day 2013 - Pizzaiolle

So let's rewind to Valentine's Day...I know, I know it's long overdue. Unfortunately, as almost expected these days, I was sick (another darn sinus infection), but I didn't let it get the best of me, even though Alex insisted it was fine if I wanted to stay in. Pshh...Valentine's Day comes once a year, and I was so excited about it and had done lots of prepping.

I went to work in my favorite red peplum dress because I'm festive like that, and I even made Cabernet chocolate truffles for my colleagues (recipe to come).

After work, I met my valentine, and he surprised me with a bouquet of roses and a beautiful set on candles. He was also taking me out to a restaurant that I had been dying to go to.

See...the reason I had been wanting to go this restaurant is less so because of their actual menu, but more so because of their unique infrastructure. Pizzaiolle is a  modern brick-oven pizzeria (in case you didn't make that connection), but here's the catch...it's in a diner car...like an actual train diner car. It's so unique in Montreal because first of all, in that area of the city, it's pretty rare to find a stand-alone building...let alone a cool vintage diner car. So yeah, it was love at first sight. Every time I passed by, I was dying to go in.

The interior did not disappoint. It was so warm and intimate with its mood lighting, close corners and old-school feel. The menu was pretty typical of a pizzeria - pizza, pasta, salad, etc. But their brick oven was what really made it special.

I ordered a minestrone soup, since I was sickly, and the Americana pizza. Alex decided on a Caesar salad and the Charcutiere pizza.
 
The soup wasn't anything spectacular, but I could tell it was made with fresh ingredients and honestly, the way I was feeling, any warm liquid would have sufficed.

 

The pizza on the other hand was quite delicious. The Americana consisted of tomato sauce, Italian sausage, mushrooms, onions (which I added to replace the green peppers) and mozzarella. The crust was perfectly thin and crisp, the cheese was so melty and delicious, and the onions weren't cooked to smithereens (as my mother would say) like a lot of times happens (esp. at your run-of-the-mill pizza joint).

Alex ordered the Charcutiere because he's a man and that's what men do (as if that wasn't one of my top choices..). It consisted of tomato sauce, capicollo, pancetta, pepperoni, Italian sausage and mozzarella, with all the meat laid out on the pizza as if it were literally a plate of charcuterie. It was fantastic, and our favorite meat was the capicollo.

So we paid the bill and headed home to try the dessert I had prepared - a chocolate layer cake that's recipe claimed it to be the "Deepest, Darkest Chocolate Cake" [ever]. I honestly have been on a hunt to find a chocolate cake recipe that is so rich and decadent that you probably might want to get your blood sugar checked after eating it. This cake was really good-we even brought the leftovers over to Alex's house the next day for his family, and they loved it- BUT it didn't have the decadence I so hoped for. So....if any of you lovely people have such a recipe that fits these stringent criteria, do not hesitate to send it my way ;)
 

I decorated it at 2am (don't hate)

 

Until next time! xo

Pizzaiolle

4801 Rue St-Denis

Montréal, QC H@J2L6, Canada

http://www.pizzaiolle.com/#accueil