Come on! This place is ridiculous!
I used to work at a country club right down the street and spent many an exhausted all-too-short break at the nearby Starbucks. I always thought Lamp's signage was cute and put it on my mental list of places to try.
Last night we decided to try some place new for our *1**year**anniversary* (Aw, a year ago we went on our first date and he thought I hated him the whole time) and Lamp was it. The menu looked tasty...but nothing could prepare me for the ...
CROSTINI. You must get this. You must. Toasty bread (next time I'll ask for a bit more char...I love grill marks on my bread! More flavah!) and onion/cheese-adorned flatbread wedges served along a trio of dips: Herbed Ricotta, White Bean/Roasted Red Pepper and (be still my heart) Rough Chop Pesto. The RCP was a flavor explosion of whole toasted pinenuts, fresh basil (in December? I like AZ), garlic, parm and magic. The herbed ricotta (It looked like a lil scoop of vanilla ice cream!) was a bit bland BUT, when combined with the RCP, it popped! The white bean/roasted red pep stood on it's own as well. This is one of my favorite appetizers of all time, hands down.
But what about the main event, the pizza? Two words: HOLY SAUCE. Both our pies were red sauced (Need to try the white pizza next time!) and it was pretty much a religious experience for me. Sauce was lightly done, as to not overpower anything, but it was SO fresh and homemade tasting. The Grandma had red chiles, onion and provolone (to die) and The Simple was a margherita topped with MOUNDS of arugula and fresh parm shavings with a sprinkling of extra virgin. They were both EXCELLENT.
Our server was sweet and kind of spastic, as we saw her run into about 3-4 tables, chairs, diners, etc. It was kind of funny.
Lamp is absolutely a new go-to! I LOVE LAMP! (Several years late, really cool reference points for me)