Sooooo.... we're back. Yes, I know that Blogging Boise is a one woman show. I know that you come here for those snazzy reviews of Boise's hottest spots through the eyes of a single young female experiencing them for the first time. Unfortunately for those of you who crave that unique perspective, you will have to expand your blogging palates a bit.
Think of it this way: The old Blogging Boise was like a delicious plate of spaghetti. The new Blogging Boise... it's like a delicious plate of spaghetti with a crapload of parmesan cheese dumped on top. So I want to be DJ Parmy Parm, spinning this record until you just want to get up and dance to the words popping up on your new iPad, adding cool new tracks and mixing in new perspectives that you just couldn't get before with just Miss Marinara.
That being said, we actually are going to try to get a real post out today. The topic du jour..... (drum roll please).... vino, wine, alcoholic fruity drink. Specifically, Project Paso's 2009 Paso Robles Chardonnay. You will quickly find out that the Miss and I know little about wine. There are very few adjectives that we have to describe the stuff, but we will try our best to improve to the point where a few posts down the road you actually care what we have to say.
The review: It's wine... pretty alcoholic, 13.9%. God, we know nothing about wine.
Here's a review of a pizza place to add something of substance to this post.
Flatbread Community Oven- Meridian, ID.
We had a $30 gift card sitting around from this past valentines day, and with growing hunger and a lack of direction we decided to let the card decide for us. The atmosphere itself is pretty nice. It feels like the sort of place that would belong more with the newer developments along Eagle Rd, but the trip into old Meridian isn't too bad.
The building is a somewhat hip little place, with bar seating facing the main kitchen, a fair amount of table and booth seating throughout the floor, and a separate bar section toward the corner. It was fairly crowded for 7PM on a Saturday night, but being relegated to the kitchen bar seating was not necessarily a bad thing for a first-timer. We were able to catch a glimpse of just about everything coming out of the oven and were able to get a good feel for what kind of food we would be ordering.
We ended up going with some sea-salt flatbread, and a pizza with chicken sausage, carmelized onions, green pepper and garlic. I'm not exactly sure what is was called as we thought we could fill a blog with a wine review and were not planning for this sort of stop-gap measure.
Regardless of the lack of nomenclature, the food was above average. We've tried a few neopolitan pizza places throughout Boise, and Flatbread seems to fall in somewhere in the middle with the rest of the pack. It's not a bad pizza... it brings a nice change of pace from the American style pizzas that are usually found in this house. It just fails to provide anything to differentiate itself from other similar joints in the area. They had a few choices for beer on tap, but there are pizza places out there that have more varieties of brew than Boo the Puppy has pictures that will melt your heart.
The toppings seemed nice and fresh, not on a level with The Frontdoor in downtown Boise, but their spicy chicken sausage was great. Their pizzas were a bit challenging to keep together with a very soft thin crust and a cheese layer that had a tendency to slide off. The sauce was of the more tomato-ey variety found at most neopolitan pizza places, but not overly sweet like I have had at some others (this is a good thing).
The service was about average. Our server was friendly, our food was quick to arrive. Nothing much to write home about so I'll move on.
Overall, Flatbread provides a solid experience. Most of the pizzas are affordable at around $15, and they serve sandwiches as well. We probably won't be rushing back now that we've used our gift card, but if you're in the mood for pizza and looking for something new to try, it will provide a solid change of pace. Overall, 7/10.
