The last stop on my Washington, DC pizza tour was Ella's Pizza with Kim. A couple blocks from Matchbox and right near the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery that I visited a couple days previous.

Their menu are mostly Neapolitan-style and specialty individual pizzas. I decided to try their Quattro Formaggi and it was fantastic. Crust was a bit enough but just crispy enough and burnt just the right amount. Wood fired pizza many times can be victim to too much burnt crust and my pizza at Ella's was just perfect in that regard.

The cheeses were tasty and just the right amount for a cheese pizza. A bit gooey, but that's what you get in Quattro Formaggi. Kim got their Bosco Pizza which she enjoyed.

The space was nice, just roomy enough and our service was friendly. I bet this place gets really packed if there's an event at the Verizon Center though. Their dessert menu was great but we didn't partake, deciding to get tea at Teaism a couple blocks away instead.

I'll definitely be back. If I was in Penn Quarter and had to choose between Ella's and Matchbox, I'd pick Ella's hands down. It was oh so tasty -- one of my favorite pizzas in DC.

Ella's Pizza
901 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
202-638-3434

As I continue my Washington, DC pizza tour, Mike, Donika and I stopped at Matchbox. Showing up at 7:00 on a Thursday without a reservation was a bad idea. Fortunately the weather was nice for waiting outside and Donika was running late anyway. We got seated almost exactly one hour after I put our name on the list.

Matchbox is on three levels and we got seated in the far back corner of the top level. Lots of room for us and it wasn't as cramped as other parts of Matchbox.

The hype around this place seemed to range from "great pizza" to "best pizza in Washington" so my expectations were high. A few people independently told me to "get the mini burgers" but I'm not much of a burger guy. You can get 3, 6, or 9 of them and some of the staff were wearing black shirts that simply read "3.6.9" implying your snack options. They looked fun as wait staff shuffled around serving them as appetizers.

I got the Double Pepperoni which tasted good but didn't live up to the hype. The pizza was really quite sloppy to eat, very greasy and the crust was mushy. The pepperoni pieces were tasty and spicy though but almost literally covered the entire pizza. A bit overboard for me. Donika and Mike seemed to enjoy their pizzas a lot more than I did so I'm hoping to come back the next time I'm in town and try a different pizza to turn around my mediocre opinion.

I finished with cinnamon ice cream which came as a large scoop in a low martini-like glass. Surprisingly and pleasingly strong. Yum.

Less than a block from the Chinatown Metro.

Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro
713 H St NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-289-4441

I met up with Mike Lee in Washington to test out his development XO Laptop.

If you're not familiar with the XO Laptop or the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, from laptopgiving.org:

The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege.

Mike has been testing with a development unit for awhile. The first thing I noticed is that it is very small and confusing to open the first time. Once I knew that the WiFi antennas, or "ears," pop up first (they act as a lock) it opens quite easily.

It boots fairly quickly with 256mb of RAM and opens to a screen where I have what feels like an OS X Dock at the bottom to choose applications. After about 10 minutes I felt really comfortable getting around it and everything worked in a rather simple manner.

Browsing was about as fast as the iPhone on WiFi and there were a few music creation applications that I didn't spend the time to figure out. I tested out the RSS reader on it as well and it was pretty swift.

One of the most interesting things about the XO Laptop to me is in the collaboration features. It creates mesh networks on its own with other XO Laptops and will share a common internet connection, which is very useful in remote areas. In the absence of internet connectivity, it will share resources with the other laptops. Teachers can share information to other laptops live and students can then take them home and share the information and pages with their families and others.

They'll also take a wide and dirty range of power to charge it. You can use things such as a solar panel, a foot pump or hand crank in addition to using a normal power adapter.

I ordered one through the Give One, Get One program a week and a half ago. You order two. One gets shipped to you and one gets donated. I can't wait to play around with it more. UPDATE: On 15 Dec 07 I got my own OLPC XO Laptop. See more photos from my Washingtontrip as well as Mike'sphotos from when we met up.

I'm in Washington, DC for a few days and I'm going around on a pizza tour. Visited 2 Amys Neapolitan Pizzeria with Sara last night and was quite pleased.

From their website:

In 1998 the Italian government formally recognized Neapolitan pizza as a traditional food worthy of preservation and granted it D.O.C (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) status, which specifies the legally permitted ingredients and methods of preparation necessary to produce authentic Neapolitan Pizza.

Although D.O.C. is primarily used for wines, there is quite a list of things under D.O.C. and 2 Amys has three pizzas apparently abiding by this label: Margherita, Marinara and Margherita Extra. While they have a lot of other pizzas on their menu, we ordered only from those selections and we were quite pleased. Felt to be just a bit better balanced than Pizzeria Paradiso less oily than what I'm used to at Punch Pizza or Pizza Nea at home in Minneapolis. The crust was soft, chewy and just crispy enough around the edges. Just the right amount of cheese too -- it wasn't overloaded like a lot of Americanized forms of the Margherita. So yummy.

If you're taking the Metro, the website says to go to Tenleytown-AU but if you don't mind walking through a residential area the Cleveland Park stop seemed to be closer.

2 Amys Neapolitan Pizzeria
3715 Macomb St NW
Washington, DC 20016
202-885-5700

It's hard to sum up a fantastic week in Washington. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a home away from home for me.

Visit my Flickr Set. (Slide Show, Map)

Also: Regan's post, Mike's photos, Mike's post.

Wheaton Metro Station has the longest escalator in the western hemisphere.

Thanks to Donika, Sara, Regan and Mike who have helped me tour around the last couple days off the beaten path and have given me places to sleep. See Mike's and Regan's posts too.

My next-door neighbor growing up, Sara Kloek now works for US Congressman Collin Peterson and my neighbor that used to live three blocks away from me, Tim Schumann, now works for US Senator Amy Klobuchar. Thanks to my old neighbors, I got a fantastic tour of the capital buildings.

Leaving snowy Minneapolis tomorrow for DC for a rather fun tour. Here's the tentative plan so far:

Thursday: Pizzaria Paradiso with Donika. Yum.
Friday: Imee Cambronero's party (I don't actually know her but I guess she's a US Congresswoman Betty McCollum staffer that's moving back to Minnesota) at My Brother's Place with Donika as well as Minnesotans Sara, Staff Assistant for US Congressman Collin Peterson and Jeannette, Staff Assistant (as of Monday) for US Senator Amy Klobuchar with a bunch of other Minnesotans. Point being, I need to brush up on current national politics. Afterwards, perhaps we'll find ourselves at the Wonderland Ballroom.
Saturday: Driving somewhere with Sara. Evening, out and about with Regan, who I know through hiptop Nation but haven't actually gotten around to meeting in person yet. Hopefully we'll find some Strongbow.
Sunday: Probably some photography and whatnot at a TBD location (perhaps Adams Morgan? Old Town Alexandria? The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum?) with Mike. And maybe his family. And hopefully Regan too. It'll be fantastic if it's nice out.
Monday: Smithsonian with Sara and going to sleep early.
Tuesday: Early White House tour at 7:30am. Tuesday evening out with Ernie, Kim and James for debauchery, dirty jokes and low resolution photos.
Wednesday: TBD with Donika.

Thursday: Fly home.

I'll be spending time with Donika and Sara in between and I'll probably see a museum or exhibit or two as well. The weekdays during business hours I'll have free and will be probably wandering alone. I've never done any of the touristy things in Washington before and I have a lot of recommendations of good places to visit. Anything I must see?