I.Talia Pizzeria

Where: 2505 Fourth W. Unit 108, Olympia, 360.754.3393, ramblinrestaurants.com/italia-pizzeria.html">Web site

Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

Cuisine: Authentic Italian-style pizzas, homemade lasagna and pastas, salads, roasted sandwiches and gelato. Half-price Wine Wednesdays

Scene: Completely casual. Families welcome, very kid friendly

Drinkies: Beer and wine, organic espresso, coffee, hot tea and juice, house-made Italian sodas, bottled and canned specialty sodas

Damage: $4.25-$10.50

ANNOUNCER: Joining the growing river that is the sustainability movement, creators of I.Talia Pizzeria in Olympia proudly use green power. To top it off, I.Talia Pizzeria uses almost 100 percent organic ingredients in many of its dishes, and it shows in the taste and quality of the food. Conscious thought goes into everything - even what is done with the trash. Produce waste goes for compost instead of the landfill. The Capital Mall restaurant serves authentic thin crust Italian style pizzas, enticing organic baked pesto lasagna, creative roasted sandwiches, healthy salads, and Olympic Mountain gelato.

JAKE: I'm starting off with the highlight of my dining experience. Caesar dressing at I.Talia was so good I purchased a bottle for the road. That slight sharpness, that tang of actual anchovy - I love it! That makes two places within a 30-mile radius of home that have dressing the way I like it. The croutons were baked - nicely crunchy, but not too scrape-your-mouth-up-Captain-Crunch style. Shredded Parmesan cheese evenly coated the chopped romaine. Some may say the salad has too much cheese, but I ask you: Can there ever be too much cheese?

JASON: Yes! Can't you hear me screamin', man? When it takes over the dish, when it overshadows all other tastes, when it blocks out the sun - yes, it is too much cheese. I know you're always griping about no anchovy in the Caesar, so I'm glad you shut up about it at this place. You were so prepared to dish out your usual complaints, but after your first bite, you were gushing all over the place. Personally, I could have eaten an entire cardboard box if I had that dressing to dip it in.

JAKE: Uh, cardboard - why? 

JASON: This is like that scene in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves where the Sheriff of Nottingham has to explain why he'd use a spoon to carve out someone's heart versus a knife, and I'm just not going do it. Moving on to I.Talia's signature appetizer - bruscetta. It was so massive we laughed out loud when it arrived. How do you eat something like that and still have an entrée and dessert too?  Six 4-inch long pieces of toasted ciabatta bread were surfboards for thickly sliced Roma tomato, roasted red peppers, garlic olive oil, and chunky slabs of mozzarella drizzled liberally with blackberry vinaigrette. The taste was seriously good. An A+ on the vinaigrette.

JAKE: I didn't like that the bread wasn't grilled, toasted, roasted - or whatever - before the cheese was piled on top, making it soggy and cold. The outside edges, at least, were perfectly done. The bread was slightly crisp, warm and firm - just the way I like it. I stripped tomatoes and peppers off and ate them with bites of al dente penne pasta enveloped by deep green pesto sauce heavy with my beloved fresh garlic and more Parm. Washing it down with a house-made raspberry soda was a real treat.

JASON: The noodles weren't drained as thoroughly as they probably should have been, and the pasta had an odd wetness. Generous portion for the measly $6.99 it cost, though, and roughly cut fresh basil pieces sprinkled across were a bonus. The creamy golden-hued aioli on my sandwich may as well have been liquid gold. That's the stuff I wanted a bottle of to take home. A quarter of a foot high, rosemary ham, turkey and Italian dry-cured sopressata salami stacked between pieces of ciabatta with lettuce and ruby red tomato threatened to fill what space was left in my stomach. 

JAKE: Lastly, I had a pizza that was so gastro-fantastico it should be categorized as a carnivore dessert. The thin crisp crust brushed with olive held caramelized hazelnuts and gooey, melted gorgonzola cheese. Hello! That's magic right there. Then add local sweet pears and mozzarella. It felt seriously good to cradle a slice and know I was supporting my local community through noshing.

JASON: My single scoop of gelato for dessert was exceptional. I do think my wife would be proud of my choice. Yours? Not so much.