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A few Saturdays ago, Evan and I joined my parents at Flippin' Pizza, the winner of the 2009 Washingtonian pizza contest. Interestingly, Flippin' Pizza first started in California but now boasts several locations in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area. Flippin' Pizza brags that its pies offer diners "a slice of New York," and as a native New Yorker I was interested in (and admittedly a bit skeptical of) this brazen claim.
Although FP occupies a modest location off of Broad Street in Falls Church, VA, the small shop was busy on a Saturday evening with feasting families and hungry customers stopping by for carry-out. Due to FP's ordinary interior, take-out seemed the more popular method for enjoying this store's cheesy pies; however, we chose to absorb the full experience by eating at one of the tables and watching the pizza-makers stretch, flip, and toss balls of dough into thin, eighteen inch rounds.
We decided to order two pies for the four of us: an artichoke white pizza and a margarita pizza with sausage. First up came the artichoke, my favorite of the two pizzas. Generously sized and foldable, the slices were covered with mozzarella cheese and bite-sized, mild artichoke hearts (one of my favorite pizza toppings). The best part of this pie was clearly the dough, which provided a chewy, slightly sweet, and doughy yet crispy base for the toppings. Unfortunately, the sauce on this pizza was all wrong. Instead of sprinkling the pizza with fresh tomatoes or spreading a memorable sauce all over the pie, the pizza-makers at FP decide to top each slice with a salty marinara that tasted like jarred spaghetti sauce. The sauce on the sausage pizza seemed more palatable and was spread out over the pie.
Caitlin: B+
Evan: B
Washington, DC. Usually, you think of presidents and their monolithic memorials. Maybe you think of hogs, whether you find them on the football field, in a half-smoke, or rammed into Congress's most recent midnight bill. But there are more sides to our nation's capital than just politicians and Redskins football, and since you're reading this blog, you can surely guess what's coming - pizza. Whether you favor NY-style thin crust, fantasize about gourmet pizza, or spend your weekend nights feasting on the Adams Morgan specialty jumbo slice, Washington has a well-rounded (unless you partake in Ledo's) pizza scene.
Throughout August, Washingtonian Magazine let readers vote for their favorite metro area pie, and now we're down to two finalists: Neapolitan-style RedRocks Pizzeria and California-based upstart Flippin' Pizza. You have until noon, September 10 to cast your vote.
Sadly the finest pizza cart in all of the DC area, Pupatella, was not included in the tournament brackets, but I wonder if that has something to do with their recent vacation or their two day a week schedule. Pupatella, come back!
For our last vacation post, I wanted to mention Gina's Pizza, a bustling pizzeria off PCH in Laguna. Particularly popular with the younger crowd (what am I, 80 years old?), the physical restaurant is nothing special, but the traditional veggie pizza Evan I picked up to-go one night was definitely satisfying. What was most pleasantly surprising about this pie had to be the whole grain crust, which was neither dry nor heavy and provided the pizza with a nice satiety factor. According to Gina's menu, the traditional veggie is built with a whole grain crust, homemade sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, roasted peppers, fresh roma tomatoes, black olives, and onions.
While my ideal veggie pizza would include a lot more color and variety (definitely artichokes and zucchini), this pie won me over for its tasty sauce and filling crust. Granted, Evan and I could have opted to "create [our] own" pizza by choosing from a comprehensive and unique list of toppings including avocado, bacon, breaded eggplant, and pineapple chunks. We actually left off the mushrooms on our traditional veggie and, not being a fan of olives, I meticulously removed the offensive onyx orbs. Evan and I purchased a small 12 inch pie, and devoured the pizza back at Casa Laguna in about 10 minutes (it had been at least two hours since the Inn's complimentary daily wine and cheese, and we were starving :) ). If you're ever in Laguna Beach, it's worth checking out Gina's Pizza for a quick and good lunch or dinner. 
Caitlin: B
Evan: B+
