March 2021 | Page 80

rella , $ 13 ) but saves its namesake pizza for freshly sliced cheese and San Marzano sauce ($ 17 ). Most renditions are laden with old school favorites : artichokes , sausage , pepperoni , spinach as well as a stateside amalgam of fried calamari , hot peppers and garlic butter ($ 23 ). But Pomodoro wants every meal to taste as if it came out of a corner cafe with Chianti bottles covered in straw and Frank Sinatra playing in the background .

The menu is rich with burrata ($ 17 ), gargantuan gnocchi coated in vodka sauce ($ 16 ) and large wedges of lasagna ($ 14 ). No wonder it ’ s a perennial favorite tucked away in Bristol . It ’ s a vestige of what we ’ ve lost : a place where your dinner is offered like a gift and gladly accepted . Despite a restrictive year , the Michelettis are still hard at work proving that restaurants are the corners of our world that make us feel most at home — even when we ’ re taking out .

Pomodoro Pizzeria , 271 Wood St ., Bristol , 396-9699 , pomodorobristol . com . Must get : Pomodoro pizza , Mama ’ s lasagna , chicken piccata . Takeout , delivery and dining-in options vary ; call for details .

PIZZA MARVIN

F rom any angle , Pizza Marvin is a badass . Its throwback logo is both hipster and retro ; rock music plays at brain-jiggling levels through the evening ; drinks run the gamut from pepperoni gin to maple-mixed tequila . In addition , owners Robert Andreozzi and Jesse Hedberg marry Italian heritage with Rhody culture in a way that brings everything up a level when it comes to cool .

Image aside , Marvin could readily rest on its pizza laurels : the blackened , bubbled crust of its New Haven pies is chewy and so deeply charred that you ’ ll think you ’ ve finally tasted the essence of fire . Its paperthin base showcases a dozen combinations , from potato and rosemary to pancetta and Brussels sprouts , as well as the heralded pepperoni , hot pepper and honey pie ($ 22 ). Every bite of every version is assertive , but they ’ re often referential as well . Marinara pizza comes with a thick tangy sauce that reinvents the native pizza strip as its chainsmoking , hard-drinking older sister . Turns out , Rhode Island is a source of pure pride in this corner parlor , so much so that Andreozzi has incorporated local clams into every dish he can . They ’ re piled on pizza with pancetta , packed into dip , and chopped into stuffies with plenty of spicy nduja ($ 12 ). The kitchen also serves up a pile of fries doused in meat sauce spices and served with a celery aioli ($ 8 ) — all hail New York System , even in a pizza joint .

But Marvin never forgets its trans-Atlantic roots . It may be a couple of miles from

78 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MARCH 2021