Olio E Farina

This is a concept restaurant from the owner of the former Russo's franchise at this location.  The description--a Brazilian Steakhouse but for pizza--was interesting so we went to try it out.  

The food is a fixed menu for a fixed price, and if you like trying lots of things and have a decent appetite I think it's worth the $24.95 plus the usuals.  You get four appetizers and 13 pizza samples (3 dessert) for that price.  

The appetizers are an Italian salad, a meatball, a truffle-stuffed mushroom, and a cup of tomato basil soup, all sample size.  The salad was kind of disappointing--lettuce and some sliced hard cheese (I think hand cut parmesan but not a lot of flavor) and a light dressing.  The lettuce had been cut too soon and was a bit wilted though not inedible.  The meatball and truffle mushroom were good--pleasantly seasoned with good texture. The truffle mushroom was deep fried with a very nice crust and tasty filling.  The soup was served in a small cup with no spoon, obviously you were to drink it.  The texture was pretty thick for drinking but it had very good flavor.  All in all a good start.

After about 10-15 minutes we started getting pizza.  The chef makes one or two of all 10 pizzas and everyone gets a small slice.  All are on a tasty chewy thin crust.  Some standouts for me:

-  My favorite was the meat lover's, much like chain places
-  The Fig & Pig sauce was actually more like honey.  Still pretty good
-  My favorite dessert pizza was the Smores pizza.  All were decent, and I usually skip dessert pizza
-  The Southwest Chicken had roasted raw jalapeno on it and was very spicy

Some early review mentioned service issues on a busy evening but we went on a Saturday night and all was fine, so I think they have that covered.  The decor is the same as the Russo's, a nice looking place.  Bathroom was clean and ready.  Unfortunately we ended up in a booth that was set up too narrow and we were kind of squeezed in.  Looked like that was the only one with that issue.

Your experience will depend on when you arrive and how much you want to eat.  If you come in the middle of a service you might have a gap in your dining experience while the pizza comes around again.

We had a good time and can recommend it.  I'm not sure I would want to do it again unless I had visitors or friends that wanted that experience.  They may have to keep changing the concept to keep it fresh.

My Yelp Review