January 2008 --- Baba Louie’s
6.5 - 7.5, 7, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6, 6, 6

Weather should not affect a dinner review but a week of balmy January weather had ameliorated the hard edge of winter to find us larking (ok, traipsing) on Warren Street to non-reservation-taking Baba Louie’s, wondering how long it would take to find a table. Thanks, possibly, to Tim’s phone call as we were leaving, we had a one minute wait until we were escorted to the back booth, which tightly fit the eight of us, with Don and Ken finding just enough room to sit on the table’s ends.
             Baba Louie’s (used to be Charleston) is an attractive restaurant, probably better described as an upscale pizzeria, with tables by the large front windows, booths on the right, and a burnished, wood-paneled bar with a half-dozen seats, room-length curtains suspended from the ceiling (sound reduction, I presume), and a view of the kitchen. This evening, it was somewhat noisy and a tad warm, at first, but not overly so.
             The specialty is the wood-fired, sourdough pizza, with a list of a dozen pizzas, with nearly twenty toppings. The table enjoyed a mix of the small (10”) or large (14”) Queen Margherita and Isabella Pizzarella. The Margherita crowd enjoyed a variety of toppings (mushroom, proscuitto, pepperoni, red roasted peppers, and more) while the Isabella sect savored the sweet potato and caramelized onions. The crust is a thin crust – stiff enough to hold by hand and not flop, soft enough to not have to crunch through a tough crust.
            This was preceded by an orgy of salad. We consumed a range of house salad, bruschetta salad, and the special of the evening, small bowls and family bowls, all of which might normally have been a meal. The bruschetta salad was more salad than bruschetta, somewhat unanticipated. The special salad had apricots and pumpkin seeds as accompaniments, a tasty variety for the family bowl threesome. Best of all, every bit of the salads looked and tasted fresh. Part of one salad even made it to a doggy bag.
           Two carafes of the house red (Scarlatta Montepulciano), a glass of pinot grigio and two diet root beers were sufficient and satisfactory.
           The dessert menu was limited but everyone was so full that only the die-hards continued. Kriss and Deb K shared the carrot cake, while Don and Deb T split a berry cobbler. All very satisfactory. (The flourless chocolate cake tantalized one of the diners.)
           Service by Kathleen was always attentive and friendly, with several checks on DP8. Her efforts were commended by all. Carafes of water came immediately and were replaced often, a detail that this group of water drinkers always notice. Paper napkins indicate a level of informality that was fine with us, especially since six of us had been here before and this was a group pick.
           A dinner date more informal than most finished with a bill of $60 per couple, with a tip a little generous, but still one of our least expensive outings. And off we went to the hinterlands of Greene County, pleased with our foray across the river.

Earlier in the evening, we had started preliminaries at the Adamses. ...
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