Lombardi's

LiLa was in town for the weekend from Philadelphia. It was her beau's birthday and they came to celebrate. I had a wicked hangover Friday and could not meet up with them after their dinner at Dylan Prime, but I promised I would meet her for a lunch brunch the next day before my marathon St. Patty's Day drinking bender.

I think the text messages went something like this:

L: are you going out tonight? would love to see you.

M: aw hayl no. i feel like death.

L: k, lunch tomorrow? around noon?

M: sounds great. time and place.

L: pizza. probably lombardi's on spring.

M: i heart pizza. especially before day-drinking. done and done.

LiLa had tickets to a show at two so it had to be a quickie.

I woke up that morning, got my jog on, showered, put on every item of green clothing I own and hopped in a cab. I wasn't planning on blowing $20 on my ride downtown, but once the clock passed the half hour window before noon I didn't have any other choice.

There was so much traffic on Spring I got out of the cab several blocks away and just started booking it, like I was in the final scene of a romantic comedy trying to stop my lover from getting in a cab to JFK. I'm sure people were thinking, "Look at that girl in the mini skirt and tall boots go!" Forget running for a lover, I wasn't missing a piece of pizza.

The amount of people lingering outside Lombardi's was similar to the crowd milling about Loews Lincoln Center movie theater on a Sunday night. I knew LiLa was already at a table so I made my way in, through all the mayhem, like I was a VIP customer. I didn't say a word to anyone. I just avoided all eye contact and headed straight to the back where I found LiLa, her beau and another one of her friends from graduate school. Thank goodness they were already sitting down. The pizza was good but not worth a long wait.

LiLa and I have known each other since fourth year in college. We met one day through Carebear and the next thing I knew we were drinking five nights a week together and booking our flight to Key West for our last spring break ever, where we partied enough for twenty people. We haven't lived in the same city since Charlottesville, and now I only get to see her a couple of fun weekends every year, if that; but I know, no matter how little we see of each other, we will always keep close tabs on one another.

Nobody makes me laugh quite as hard as LiLa. Put us in a room full of strangers and in no time we will be peeing in our pants, keeling over in a stomach-cramping state, laughing at anything and anyone in the room. We both share the same sarcastic and (mildly) dry sense of humor. As of late, she was the one who informed me over IM that our friend Carebear's baby girl has a two-part first name:

M: i saw baby the other day. so cute!

L: so cute. now can we confirm if she has a double first name or not?

M: i have no idea. i just know she has two middle names.

L: no m-. i think you're wrong.

M: uh. what? i've been calling her j- this whole time.

L: yah. not so much.

M: so you're telling me it's j- h-?

L: yup. you best be starting to call her j- h-. if you get something embroidered with just j- on it, carebear will flip.

M: ha! oh man. i'm such a @#$%& dummy.

I sat down at our table at Lombardi's and LiLa made introductions. During the name exchange she also gave the boys the disclaimer that I would be sneaking pictures of the food and the environs. The company got a kick out this, so much that her beau snapped a photo for me of the back room we were in. Not bad for his first attempt, though he couldn't seem to avoid my big green shoulder. You still get the idea.


We ordered a Caesar salad and a big pie. I'm bummed I'm only just now reading about Lombardi's clam pie, but that means I will have to return for it. Don't judge a salad by its bowl. This Caesar salad was a fabulous mix of dressing, Romaine, croutons and shaved parmesan. The dressing was light enough it didn't overpower the other ingredients.

Our pizza of choice was topped with pepperoni and sweet Italian sausage. I made note of the fresh mozzarella that I assumed was special to that pizza, but I later learned Lombardi's makes all of its pizzas with fresh mozzarella.

I'm not really a pizz-aficianado. Don't get me wrong. I love pizza. It's a very guilty pleasure of mine and I've almost become too good at not eating it. I haven't tried nearly enough pizzas in the city to rate Lombardi's against others. My consumption of pizza is typically at hours that are way past Cinderella's bedtime when my tastebuds are not very selective. If it has a lot of melted cheese, tomato sauce and some meat, I'm good to go.

Lombardi's pizza did the trick. And since I'm half Italian and half Irish, it did me good to celebrate one heritage before the next. The crust was just enough crispy and just enough chewy. The only problem I had was surprisingly with the fresh mozzarella. It melts weird. With grated cheese, the cheese melds all the toppings together, like a sort of sticky web. This doesn't happen with fresh mozzarella and it seemed to fall apart way too easily.

Lunch was a rapidfire catch up on the past year or so of our lives. It went by too quickly but it was better short and sweet than not at all. After hugs goodbye and promises to get together before LiLa up and leaves me for Texas, I headed to my first destination on the Irish drinking tour, Ear Inn. It wasn't exactly the atmosphere I was going for. In the middle of our second beer, my friend and I noticed somebody setting up a microphone in the back room.

Poetry reading?! On St. Patrick's Day? I loved everything about this bar, but you must be kidding. Poor timing, Ear Inn.

We stayed for a few beers, including one on the friendly bartender, and continued on to what turned out to be a very wild and boozy St. Pat's.


Lombardi's
*cash only*
32 Spring St., nr. Mott St.
212-941-7994

Ear Inn
326 Spring St. nr. Greenwich St.