Iggie's Pizza: Dog's best friend
Iggie's is everybody's restaurant. It's great for parties, for dates, for families, and even for pets. After all, who doesn't love pizza? Made fresh before your eyes with even fresher-looking Italian ingredients, Iggie's is like Cheers. Everybody knows your name, except they serve pizza.
Located in the hip Baltimore neighborhood of Mt. Vernon, Iggie's is a perfect environment for its local residents. The students at Peabody and Hopkins appreciate the easy price, while the descendents of F. Scott Fitzgerald and other older money appreciate the use of finer ingredients. Iggie's is a bring-your-own-wine type of place, and provides wine glasses, wine buckets and bottle openers. The restaurant itself is like a cozy rustic European basement-wine-cellar cave with large windows up front and quaint lighting. There's a long bar-height table in the middle and several small tables scattered throughout.
Order pizza and salads at the counter, then wait for your name to be yelled when it's ready. The Alice is one of Iggie's most popular, consisting of pesto, mozzarella, fresh tomato, garlic, spinach and goat cheese. The Funghi comes with, of course, mushrooms, goat cheese, leeks and mozzarella, while the Anatra has roasted duck, blue cheese, asparagus, red onion and mozzarella.
For something different, try the pera saporita: pears, gorgonzola and balsamic reduction. Or choose your own toppings, from leeks to pancetta to mozzarella (made fresh daily). Iggie's salad is a good side complement to the pizza, especially with its pancetta dressing.
Iggie's keeps its pizza costs lower by having its patrons bus their own tables (it's not that unseemly). There is staff who is attentive to your seating needs and will help prepare your table or get something you may need, so it's not like a youth hostel. As a result, fellow customers are often polite and courteous to each other.
Iggie's is a very charitable restaurant which, in lieu of tips, it asks you to donate to the charity of the month. Iggie's loves, LOVES dogs, evident by its wall of photos of dog owners who frequent Iggies, so feel free to bring your pooch for a bite.
Posted by Rin-rin Yu
