Mia's Pizzaria, Bethesda, Md.

After Kevin's paternal grandmother's funeral services yesterday afternoon, he and I went to Bethesda to join his mother and his friend Adam for a late lunch. Adam had read a review in The Washington Post that had intrigued him, so we all went to a new place called Mia's Pizzaria.

Mia's is an interesting place, set back quite a ways from the building line of the other places on the street, allowing them, I suppose, to have a big outdoor patio area in more clement weather. It has a large, fully-functioning bar, and the menu includes salads, pastas, and meat entrees, as well as various types of gourmet pizze. While the place eventually would be packed with a line by the time we left, upon our arrival, the dining room was fairly quiet.

We all started off with various by-the-glass wines, served in stemless wine glasses (ultimately, I think I had three different chiantis), and selections from the appetizer menu. The most interesting appetizer was ordered by Kevin's mother, a quite delicious-looking antipasto platter with an ample serving of very thinly sliced meats with cheeses and olives with a serving of marinated vegetables.



Adam chose the deviled eggs; he got four egg halves, and, while he said they were good, he noted that they were rather basic and could have used a bit more mustard for added zip.



Kevin had three miniature calzones that seemed to be stuffed with chopped mushrooms and cheeses.



I chose a mixed green salad upon the recommendation of the waitress after a little discussion about the virtues of the salad compared to the soup del giorno; I was, therefore, somewhat chagrined that she forgot my salad. So, as she served the other three their appetizers without bringing my salad, I made the comment, "Oh, how fun! I'm having my salad in the traditional French position!" but that got no response from her. Later after eating my entree, I inquired of her about my salad and she (obviously forgetting the discussion) denied that I had ordered it. Oh, well. It was, once it arrived, a nice little salad with a very tasty balsamic vinaigrette dressing.



For main courses, the others all had individual pizzas. Kevin had a salsiccio pizza with mushrooms, peppers, and sausage; Adam a barbequed chicken and red onion ring pizza with a very yellow (fontina??) cheese, and Kevin's mother had the white pizza, featuring mozzarella and fontina cheeses with roasted garlic.





I had the daily pasta special, a baked ziti; it tasted fine, but it had been made in advance, placed in individual serving dishes and refrigerated so it could be reheated when it was time to serve, and, alas, they did not thoroughly reheat the pasta.



Our waitress went on and on about the house speciality cupcakes for dessert, so Adam and I ordered them. They were fine....but they were just cupcakes!



The more interesting desserts were the ginger sorbet and mango sorbet that Kevin's mother and he had.



We got to meet Melissa, the chef-owner (and "Mia") of the place. She seemed like a nice young woman.

Mia's has a large, open-hearth fireplace and pizza oven visible to the dining room, which inspired a lot of macabre humor between Adam and Kevin, given the fact that the dearly departed had been cremated.

Kevin's mother was camera-shy and didn't want to become a celebrity in my blog. Adam, however, was more than happy to do a Kody Pose, and we snapped a picture of Kevin, too.