Yesterday, Matt and I went to the opera. We bought season tickets, and this was our second outing. More on this tomorrow. Today, I want to highlight the great place we went for dinner.
We are big fans of Grand Avenue in St. Paul. The street is home to some of our favorite restaurants (Brasa, most notably). Last night, though, we were in the mood for something new. There's plenty of places on Grand we haven't been yet. We decided on Punch Neapolitan Pizza.
At Punch, you order at the counter and then take a seat. They have a long table all down the center of the restaurant, so you could conceivably sit next to others. We ended up at a little table for two right next to another couple on a date night, which worked out fine for us. The restaurant is popular with little space, so tables are all quite close, but people were good about keeping their conversations private.
The pizza is all thin yet chewy crust, Italian-style. Punch is part of a group that seeks to preserve the Neapolitan style of making pizza in a rounded wood-fired oven. The results spoke for themselves; our pizza was absolutely delicious.
Matt and I shared a starter Caesar salad with foccacia and a small margharita pizza with green olives, garlic, and mushrooms. All was absolutely delicious. Matt was also delighted to have local beer on tap to try.
Since we were dressed up for the opera (Matt in a suit and me in a sweater dress), we were overdressed for the place, but no one batted an eye.
We did find out that Punch is a local chain, with restaurants around the Twin Cities area. More the better, I say. We'll definitely be headed back, and it's worth checking out for a casual but delicious date night.