It’s 1 am, I can’t get back to sleep after 2 days of a cold, so I am breaking the silence on my blog with a humble post about pizza.

I respect a “pizza parlor” when:

-from it’s inception, plans sustainability into it’s building
-gets a certification from Italy (!!!) proving the authenticity of its pizza ‘process’
-makes a pizza in less than a minute that tastes VERY VERY good
-keeps the original stain glass windows from the building it took over and remodeled

Tada! La Perla.
Here’s the map.

It’s in that place where Farrel’s ice cream parlor (where my wife ate at back in the days when she was an exchange student DUCK in 82′) used to be. And yes, they kept the original stain glassed windows from that very campy, cool old ice cream eatery. It probably couldn’t keep up with the sweet tooth population split between local favorite Sweet Life (my fav, where they still sell Coconut Bliss by the cone) and other fast food ice cream joints. John Barofsky (of Beppe and Gianni’s fame) jumped on an opportunity.

The trick? A 800 degree wood burning oven–that’s how they make their pizza. It takes just 1 minute per pizza. More pizza sold, more tables turn more quickly. And a ton of (great) wine. I can smell the good ROI. John’s business acumen is palpable.

And it’s authentic Neapolitan style pizza, with a special certification (VeraPizzaNapoletana.org) that basically says their pizza has been inspected, and it is real Neapolitan style pizza. They are the first in the Willamette Valley to have this designation and only 1 of 30 in the USA.

Dough and mozzarella is made daily. San Marzano tomatoes come from Italy.

And they were thinking green from the start: 2×6 and 2×4 stacks make up beams (as opposed to using larger older growth cuts of wood), FSC certified wood used throughout, PV solar panels, improved insulation and lighting management…

I had one of the best date nights I ever had in memory. Deb and I had some Oregon Pinot, generous portioned salad, some Gorgonzola garlic pizza to start…then I forget the rest because it was too much fun. And it was good.

Originally, I held off going to La Perla because I thought “yuppie, trendy, long lines…no way”–and we usually find ourselves at PRI (Pizza Research Institute) over in the Whitaker anyway. But we’ve always liked Beppe and Gianni’s… so we finally took the plunge a week ago.

But this pizza is amazing.

Stop what you’re doing, find a friend or lover (ex- or potential) and go there. You won’t regret it.