The Forum at Roman Market, Willernie, MN
Pizza Margherita at Roman Market, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.
I grew up just northeast from the Mahtomedi and Willernie area and I treated it as a biking gateway to White Bear Lake. I never enjoyed anything about the town other than the 3 Seasons Restaurant now and then. Scott Haraldson emailed me the other day saying that he enjoyed pizza at Roman Market and recommended it. I was surprised that there was even a place in that neighborhood worth going out to so a few coworkers and I gave it a shot.
Roman Market is a nice meat shop and deli. They recently added on to have small restaurant and bar called the Forum. It opened just over a month ago but they have their game down as if they've been open for years. Our service was fast and friendly and got seated wherever we wanted. We were surprised by the decent bar menu but figured it'd be nice to have a few more locals. We didn't drink as we all had work in front of us but Scott wrote there was......big liter mugs of Stella, Hacker Pschorr Alt and Moretti on tap and a nice bottle list as well. I had the Alt and a bottle of Kwak.Yum. Not bad for this area. Then our pizzas arrived. Right off the bat I couldn't stop talking about how beautiful the pizzas were. We got Margherita, Fromaggi and the Vestuviu. The crust is a little bit thicker than you might expect with this style of pizza but they pull it off quite nicely. The tomatoes on my Margherita tasted especially fresh and the cheese was nicely placed and seemed to balance everything quite well. The sauce was minimal, as I'd prefer, and the cornicione was chewy. I tried a slice of the Fromaggi, where they use five italian cheese and the flavors were rich and quite rewarding. I wanted to have more. With both pizzas I tried, everything felt close to perfect for my tastes. I asked around our table and everyone loved the pizza here. A surprise for us all. I don't know how they've pulled off such great pizza with only serving for the last month or so. On the way home we joked that I should have window clings that I give as awards to places I think have fantastic pizza. This place would get one right away. Even though it's small trek from the office we'll find excuses to make our way out here more. Roman Market
460 Stillwater Rd
Willernie, MN 55090
651-653-4733
