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Community Corner

Young Life in an Old Town: Family Dining at Red Rocks Pizzeria

Pizza for the most discriminating palates!

My family loves pizza, but we are a bit specific in our tastes. My husband, a Jersey shore native, is somewhat of a pizza snob. He likes a thin, crispy crust and has still not found pizza in the DC area that comes close to his favorite Jersey Shore establishment, Pete and Elda’s.

My five year old, on the other hand, doesn’t like her pizza to be too fancy. Plain cheese from Domino's or Papa Johns is her preference. is our long-standing favorite place to enjoy pizza in Old Town, but the news of opening has been very exciting. We have been trying to get in for dinner on the weekends, and we finally scored a table without a wait on a recent Sunday evening. With fantastic food and a fun ambiance, it’s easy to see why the place is so popular!

Located on Upper King Street where parking tends to be a tad easier (we pulled right into a spot in the little lot adjacent to Pure Prana/Bloomers), RedRocks has a spacious open floor plan with a large bar and as well as an open kitchen. Even on a Sunday night, nearly every table was full and the bar was bustling. The menu – pizza! – and casual feel make RedRocks a perfect contender for family dining, but given its popularity it seems best to arrive early or at off times since I have found it impossible to undergo any sort of wait for a table with a child. Onto the food!

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RedRocks’ beer and wine list is interesting and fun, and the specialty cocktails looked tempting if it were a date night rather than a family dinner. We thoroughly enjoyed the Antipasto platter (Prosciutto di San Daniele, speck, manzanilla olives, roasted cipollini onions, fontina, and aged provolone). I’ve had a lot of antipasto in my life, and the roasted onions were a surprising – and tasty - first.

I ordered the evening’s specialty pizza, which featured smoked mozzarella and mushrooms, which are two of my favorite ingredients. My husband and daughter shared a half plain/half sausage pizza. We had sized up the “individual” pizzas that other patrons were enjoying and concluded that half of an individual pizza would be plenty for the five year old and my husband and I could share the remaining 1.5 individual pizzas between the two of us.

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Beware; the size of the pizza is deceiving. Because this is Neopolitan-style pizza – thin and slightly crispy crust and very thin in the middle - you can eat much more than you think you can. Sophia, who is typically a one-slice-and-done kind of girl, gobbled down her three slices in record time and asked for more. 

Thank goodness for the dessert menu! She was full and happy after a
little vanilla gelato. Smooth, creamy vanilla gelato - I am getting hungry
right now thinking about it! This was a happy end to an easy and happy family meal. We will be back and we’ll be ordering three pizzas next time!

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