Moving on to the last stop of our evening was not much of a move at all - quite literally we walked next door and within moments were in the crowded foyer of Figlio, the first of three similarly named wood-fired pizzerias in a slow-growing franchise started by Buckeye grads Peter and Laurie Danis as far back as 1991 and the only restaurant on the day's tour with any inklings of "fine dining," as well given their white tablecloths and a proper reservations system.
Greeted by the door first by one hostess and then by another our request for a table of five was first met with some hesitancy - "I'll have to check with the reservationist," then by a suggestion that perhaps they would shuffle some tables, and finally by the most logical suggestion - that they could simply seat us at the attached Vino-Vino Wine bar and serve us from the Figlio menu...a compromise that ended up working perfectly as the wine bar was less than half full and less than one fourth as loud. Seated quickly at a 6 seater booth/table and greeted by our server, a lovely young lady whose smile instantly made me forget about the lack thereof next door at Cowtown, we were presented menus and on declining wine our water glasses were filled (never to reach half empty) while my aunt opted for an iced tea as we weighed our options...and our hunger.
Feeling a bit bad because we weren't planning to drink and given the duration of the day weren't all that hungry (thereby decreasing our total bill and tip despite the restaurant and service being so accommodating) our eventual decision was to go with two pizzas and two desserts and with orders placed the wait would be perhaps 15 minutes before our two pies would arrive simultaneously. Again going the route of one house-special and one do-it-yourself, our first selection was the "Margherita Plus Plus" with a Honey Whole Wheat with Basil, Tomatoes, Avocado, Mozzarella, and Balsamic glaze - it would be my second favorite pizza of the day and #1 for a couple of others. Beginning first with the crust, it was unlike any other on the trip and although sweeter than the standard crust at Figlio both of them performed well with regard to exterior crunch, interior pliability, and heterogeneous airy crumb while unfortunately lacking that woodsy char - it was as close as I've found in Columbus to a California style crust but certainly not on par with that at Harvest in terms of being a true Neapolitan style. Moving on to the ingredients - with this option again leaning towards California style (where the Danis' duo learned much of their pizza making) it certainly was not a traditional pie, but at the same time with the creamy avocados balancing the sweet tomatoes and balsamic glaze it was quite good though all in all the cheese was mostly overwhelmed by the substantial flavor of the entirety of the rest of the pie.
Moving on to the make your own we opted for a Standard Crust with Tomato Sauce, Caramelized Bacon, Artichokes, Cherry Tomatoes, and Mozzarella. With the crust similar but less sweet than the honey whole wheat this was another excellent pie largely because of the quality of both the chokes and the tomatoes and given their restrained nature how they highlighted the more subtle buttery flavors of the cheese. While the bacon was a bit too sweet for some I personally found it to be excellent - particularly as a savory foil to the tomatoes.
With pizzas consumed our server returned with the dessert menu and although some complained that they were "too full" the options were simply too good to pass up leading us to select two options and five forks, the first of which was Figlio's Summer Special Strawberry Shortcake with a tender buttermilk biscuit split, sliced strawberries, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, strawberry sauce - a lovely and light treat with the poignant sours of the buttermilk balancing carefully with the sweet whipped cream and perfectly ripe strawberries. While the nitpicky part of me rather wishes they would have sourced a smoother ice cream (why not Jeni's - right down the block?) as opposed to the icy scoop served this is a small complaint as it melted nicely soaking into the otherwise sturdy biscuit.
For the second dessert - something a bit more heavy - we sslected the Double Chocolate Red Velvet Cake with three layers of housemade chocolate cake, white chocolate filling, and dark chocolate sour cream frosting - a straight up "American" style dessert - big, bold, and intensely chocolate...the sort of cake you'd get at a birthday and need a glass of milk to wash down, yet at the same time entirely satisfying with notes of dark, light, and milk chocolate all contributing to the dense and flavorful slice. read more