La Strada Café & Pizzeria offers wood-fired pizza and a dog-friendly outdoor seating area. Get down there before it gets too cold.
By Linda Felaco
Folks have probably picked up on the fact that my husband and I like to go places where we can bring our dogs along. So when I read on their Facebook page that La Strada Café & Pizzeria is dog friendly, it rose to the top of our list of places to
check out. But what with the hurricane and
writing letters to the town council about the wind energy ban, I hadn't found the time to get over there. Plus we've been looking forward to the end of summer when we can take the dogs to the beach during the
day, but then it rained all week. So when the sun finally came out Friday afternoon, we figured we'd pack up the dogs in the truck, bop down to Johnny Angel's for some lunch, and eat it on the beach.
Except come to find out that Johnny Angel's is already closed for the season. So we headed to La Strada. And it was well worth the trip. La Strada is located in the heart of downtown Matunuck, across from the Ocean Mist, which I realize is not Charlestown. But our neighbor to the east does have establishments worth visiting.
As we pulled into the parking lot of La Strada, I realized that we'd neglected to bring the
dogs' leashes. But co-owner Jenny, who came out to greet us, told us that was no problem and offered the dogs water and treats. So we let the dogs
explore the grounds while we ordered our pizzas.
Their menu features local ingredients, including beef sausage from Carpenter's Farm. The specialty pizzas all sounded so enticing, it was difficult to decide which one to
try, but I eventually settled on the Jennyooooo, which as you might guess is named for co-owner Jenny. It's topped with fresh spinach, yellow roasted
tomatoes, red onion, Narragansett Creamery mozzarella, and garlic.
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| The Jennyooooo. |
And since it was Friday, I decided to indulge in a glass of wine. Jenny extolled the qualities of the various wines in more detail than servers do in
some upscale restaurants and explained that all their wines are specially chosen to pair well with pizza. Makes sense. Since we always drink Italian
wines at home, I decided to try the Beaujolais, which was excellent. They also have a selection of imported Italian soft drinks that are not available
anywhere else in RI; co-owner Nick drives to New York to get them.
My husband, who likes to select his own combinations of pizza toppings, ordered his with prosciutto (which we noted approvingly was actually spelled correctly on the
menu) and mushrooms. The pizzas are thin crust and are supposed to cook very quickly on high heat. Unfortunately, the oven was just a bit too hot when
my husband's pizza went in and he found it to be a bit burnt. Though apparently his pizza absorbed all the excess heat from the oven and mine turned
out just fine.
So when Nick came by to ask how the pizzas were, my husband, who as a former restaurateur himself is never shy about these things, told him what the
problem was. Well, Nick wanted us to be happy, so he redid the pizza, on the house. This despite the fact that my husband had already eaten the entire
burned pizza. And the replacement pizza was absolutely perfect.
Turns out Nick is a fellow Ducatista (an aficionado of Ducati motorcycles). He whipped out his iPhone and started showing us pictures. So next time we
go will have to be dogless so we can go on the bike. Before it gets too cold …
La Strada Café & Pizzeria's winter hours are Monday to Wednesday, 4 p.m. until they run out of dough and Thursday to Sunday, 12 p.m. until they run out of dough. They're
located at 920 Matunuck Beach Road, Matunuck, RI. They deliver to Matunuck, Snug Harbor, and Jerusalem; call 401.284.2253 to order. Their mobile pizza oven is also available for catering.
