Pacci's Neapolitan Pizzeria

What do you do when you find yourself in an unknown far away kingdom like, say, Silver Spring, and you need a place to eat in a hurry? You could always go with the safe (if unexciting) bets of Potbelly or Chipotle, or put your fate in the hands of the legion of online reviewers on sites like Yelp or Urbanspoon.

We generally choose the latter option, but this is the sort of situation where my uncanny ability to recall restaurants that I've read about comes in handy. I can't do math, I sometimes forget to pack all of my clothes in my gym bag, but if you need to know the name of that restaurant that Tom Sietsema recommended in Elkridge, Maryland, I'm your gal. B is partly amused by it and partly freaked out. We'll be driving through random towns and he'll ask where we should eat and I'll blurt out the name of some place that I read about in some blog or newspaper 4 years ago.

This rambling back story is provided to convey how we ended up eating at Pacci's Neapolitan Pizzeria in Silver Spring. We needed a place to eat before an Ultimate game, and suddenly I remembered people saying great things about Pacci's.

My sister was visiting from LA and we did not want to waste a single meal of her trip on something average. Luckily, the neopolitan pies at Pacci's enjoyed on their sunny patio were far from a wasted effort.

They weren't the most jump up and down amazing pizzas we've ever had but they were solidly in the upper second tier of DC pizzadom. My sister, always the adventurous one, tried the tronchetti, which is basically a pizza wrap. Very unique and fun to try, but I think the lid fell off the top of the oregano shaker. This baby was completely drowning in the Italian herb, and it sadly overpowered the otherwise very fresh and flavorful ingredients. Swing and a miss for Team Tronchetti.

We're not going to make the trek to Silver Spring just to eat at Pacci's but if you're in the area and want a satisfying lunch, we'd recommend stopping in.

Second Thoughts from B

I married the restaurant Rain Man. "Yeah, Tom liked Pacci. Liked the pizza. Hot oven. 870 degrees. Georgia Ave. 8113." To mix movie references, she is a little scary sometimes. Brilliant... but scary.

Unfortunately, her super power didn't save her sister from the tronchetti. In addition to the oregano explosion, the process of eating it resulted in sauce oozing everywhere and turning an otherwise good idea into a sloppy mess.

However, for those of us that got the pizza, it was similar to many of my favorites. Great dough and quality ingredients. Add a quiet patio and one of the last warm days of the year, and B was a happy boy.