The Couch Sessions

After having my whistle whet with their house-made mozzarella cheese at the Sound Bites festival a couple of weeks ago, I finally made it to H &pizza. They are located on H Street Northeast, as the name suggests, in the district. The H Street Corridor is an area that is completely new to me, but with lively foot traffic, a ton of new and established restaurants and businesses, and the opening of a streetcar line this year to bring it even closer to downtown than it already is, it is definitely on my radar now.

After ten months in business, as of Wednesday, the 11^th of June, they have officially opened their second location in the U Street Corridor in Northwest DC. I am excited to get there as well, because, if the quality in any way mimics that of the H Street location, or the fresh mozzarella that brought me to them in the first place, it will do well there.

The new U Street location is across the street from the U Street/African American Civil War Metro Station—so you don’t need to brave driving in DC to get some. And I definitely suggest getting some. Now you have to understand why:

When I walked in at about 1:15 pm—slightly after the lunch rush I would have thought—I still waited in a line six people deep to place my order. The concept: individual pizzas where you can pick one of their pre-made pizza or create your own. Think a sandwich shop only with way more awesome toppings available. I was a little dumbstruck when I arrived at the counter and began to pick my cheese they said, “Just one?”

The beauty of the concept is that with the pizza+ which I got, you can pick as many of the toppings and finishers as you want. For me: the classically I want to try it all personality, this is the perfect concept. I chose the whole wheat crust and the mushroom truffle sauce—I probably could have been happy with just those. I love mushrooms and the thin crispy crust was perfect.

However, I went on and got the fresh mozzarella only—although the next time I go back I will indulge in some of their other cheeses—every vegetable they had—I would say check the menu but there were a few things they had that are not on there, and the veal and pork meatballs. I could have gotten every protein if I wanted to, but that seemed too hard for the dough to hold. To finish, I added arugula, fresh basil, garlic oil, and feta. And this was all for just under $9.00. The entire time I was there, the staff was making fresh dough.

The presentation was beautiful and my food was produced super quickly for a pizza place. Not instantaneous like what you get behind the counter at a 7-11—but definitely no longer than any other fast food for lunch fare. Actually, the team was much faster and more pleasant than any caught in the lunch rush hour I have ever seen.

Great work and a great product. I will be frequenting them a lot. I suggest you do the same.