Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Ricciuti's - Olney, MD

This place reminds me of high school homecoming dinners. My high school buddies and I decided to get together near our old high school (Go Blake Bengals!) for a long overdue dinner. Ricciuti's serves Italian food with many of the ingredients coming from MD, VA and PA farms.

The restaurant is inside of a historic house with a quaint outdoor patio. Sorry I don't have any pics of the interior...it was too nice to eat inside! There is parking around the house with Glenmont as the closest metro station on the red line.


New Rule: If you want to eat with me, you must bring along a cute baby!

They pride themselves on using locally grown and raised ingredients. Their signature menu item is the brick oven pizza, while other Italian items like calzones, pastas, etc make up most of the menu. However, there are some random dishes like spring rolls and stir-fry if you somehow don't like Italian food (impossible!)

We started off with an order of Calamari Fritti (house made tomato sauce) for $8. Sadly, it was obviously frozen and lacked seasoning or a good marinara sauce. We were not fans.

We ordered two small pizzas to share. We wanted to order a more traditional one and a "weirder" one. I happened to find the non-traditional Apple & Gorgonzola Pizza (walnuts, apples, caramelized onions, gorgonzola, evoo) for $13 to be my favorite of the night. The pungent cheese went well with the sweetness of the apples and caramelized onions.

The Pizza Napoli (garlic, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, mozzarella, tomato sauce) for $13 had large pieces of artichoke on it, which was nice. I didn't think this was special, but it tasted like fresh toppings. The crust on both pizzas had characteristics of being brick oven cooked; however, I didn't find it to be a magical recipe.

The highlights of this place is the beautiful building, outdoor seating and warm neighborhood. So many friendly families live in Olney and I was reminded of it when our little one was attracting baby lovers left and right. The downside included the staff of high schoolers who weren't the best at serving. I think it's good they are supporting local farms and providing a cute place where Northern MoCo families can dine.

3308 Olney Sandy Spring Rd
Olney, MD 20832
(301) 570-3388
www.ricciutis.com
Ricciuti's Restaurant on Urbanspoon

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