Sep 06 2007
Flatbread Pizza Company
Continuing our reviews of our dining excursion with our friend, Sunday evening found us down in Old Port. This is a bit out of order, as Flatbread Company was the last place we tried, but it was the best of the bunch, so I wanted to get a review posted ASAP. Located next to the ferry terminal, right around the corner from Ri Ra’s, Flatbread is very easy to get to, assuming you can find parking in Old Port (anyone who’s tried during the summer knows what I’m talking about).
The dining room is very comfortable, with a very laid back feel. There are lots of children’s hand-drawn pieces of art everywhere (including the menu covers), some couches that you can eat on, and a mostly wooden, old time feel. They don’t take reservations, but I believe you can call ahead to get your name on the list. We went around 6:00 Sunday and were seated within 15 minutes.
If you’ve never had organic, wood-fired pizza before, you’ll be in for a bit of a surprise (a pleasant one) at Flatbread. Being an organic pizza house, many of the “usual” ingredients are available, but almost all of them are homemade and probably a little different than you’d get from Dominos or Pizza Hut. Their pepperoni is homemade and nitrate-free; their sausage is hand-made maple fennel sausage. For one of our pizzas, we got their “Jay’s Heart,” which is their “normal” cheese pizza, with chicken added for some more protein. Being that we’ve enjoyed less-traditional pizzas before, we decided to also try some of their “other” pizzas. Specifically, we picked up a sauceless Flatbread with mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, and their carne special, which was ground beef with corn salsa and a lime creme fresh drizzle. Like I said, “non-traditional.”
All three small pizzas were excellent and we finished them all, and the salad we split (with organic goat cheese and seaweed) to start. I snagged a couple pints of organic nut brown ale, She opted for the ginger beer, and our friend just had Diet Coke. The ginger beer was too spicy for any of our tastes, so She ended up getting a Sarsaparilla instead; it was much more to her liking. In all the check came to about $50, plus tip. This was enough food and drink to sate three adults, though we sadly didn’t get to bring any leftovers home. According to the Flatbread website, there are a number of locations. If you can’t make it to Portland, I highly recommend trying to get to one of the others (there’s even on in Hawaii). We’ll certainly be going here again.