I went to Stowe with my husband and father-in-law for a family wedding the weekend before last. Our first night in town, we decided to get a casual dinner at Piecasso Pizzeria. The place was already busy at 6:30 on a Thursday night. We put our name down and headed to the bar to wait for a table. The bar was vibrant, as was the rest of the restaurant. Fun and casual with plenty of character.
We'd just gotten our drinks when we were invited to join a large table of fellow wedding guests. There were about twenty of them gathered, and I thought they might be in town for the same wedding when we walked in, but worried I was just making rude assumptions about a big group of white people (a gaggle? a posse?). Thankfully, one of them recognized us from the hotel and they somehow found room for us to sit with them.
It turned out this was a cobbled together group of wedding guests, all corralled by the woman who invited us to join, like players in a game of sardines. I wish I could give this woman a Yelp review because she was amazing, not only coordinating an enormous group of people who didn't know each other, but also somehow sorting out the check so that everyone paid their share and walked away happy (it was a little over $20 a head, so even if some people overpaid, how mad could anyone be?). Piecasso's staff was great, too, though they had an understandably hard time keeping up with our monstrously sized party. I always had food and drink when I needed it, so everything was peachy.
I drank a couple of beers with my dinner: the Cousins Brewery Giggles IPA on tap, and my first can of the iconic Alchemist Heady Topper. Both were great, but there's a reason a canned beer is one of the most mentioned terms on the Yelp page of Stowe's most reviewed restaurant (which is, to be clear, Piecasso). This wasn't my last Heady Topper of the trip.
The food was solid. We got several large pizzas for the table, and I enjoyed every one I tried. It was just good, satisfying pizza, the crust nice and chewy, the toppings fun and tasty. My favorite was The Leonardo, which, coincidentally, was the only one I had with meat on it. It was fantastic, a white pie with mozzarella, spicy Italian sausage, spinach, garlic, and basil. Of the vegetarian pizzas, my favorite was The Positive Pie, another white pie, this one with spinach, a little mozzarella, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, and creamy goat cheese. The Tree Hugger was also nice, with mozzarella, spinach, basil, tomatoes, garlic, and red onions. I liked The Vienna too, a pesto based pie with mozzarella, spinach, Kalamata olives, sun-dired tomatoes, and a drizzle of balsamic. Not a pizza I'd ever had before, but I enjoyed it. The only red sauce pizza we got was the Margherita, and this was good and comforting, topped with mozzarella, plum tomatoes, basil, and extra virgin olive oil.
We ordered some non-pizza stuff as well, though I skipped on the salads, since I just didn't feel like eating a twentieth of a salad. Everything else was a variation on dough with cheese and red sauce. The fried four cheese ravioli was the daintiest of these, kind of like fancy mozzarella sticks, fried and served with marinara. The garlic knots were excellent, fresh baked and loaded with garlic, basil, and spices, with some mozzarella and parmesan to boot. They came with a side of red pizza sauce for dipping. Good stuff. Finally, my father-in-law got the stromboli, and it looked like one huge, disgusting mistake, though to be fair, I did not try it. It was exactly what was promised, an enormous roll of pizza dough filled with mozzarella and spices, with a side of red pizza sauce. Basically a football full of cheese. I feel like it should be a food challenge. My father-in-law ate about five bites before admitting defeat.
This ended up being a fun, stress-free dinner with twenty strangers--an unlikely event made possible by a friendly atmosphere, one industrious table boss, and some quality beer and pizza. I see why people love Piecasso. If I were a Stowe regular, I'd probably eat here on every trip. read more