Pizzeria Lola - Review - Armatage - Minneapolis - The Infatuation

"On first brush, Pizzeria Lola can look low-key. There’s a tower of takeout boxes in the crowded dining room. An enormous, gleaming copper pizza oven is the centerpiece of the space, with a disco ball rotating slowly overhead. Tables are set with mismatched vintage china and stoneware, and there’s a photo booth at the back. But although the surroundings are charmingly understated, the pizzas are crafted with a calculated attention to detail. While Lola’s pizza’s crust is a straight-down-the-middle Neapolitan rendition, its toppings are more creative. There’s a Korean BBQ pizza drizzled with a soy-chili vinaigrette, as well as the Lady Zaza, topped with Korean sausage, kimchi, and gochujang. Some menu items lean into bold flavors, like the roasted cauliflower finished with a punchy heat and acid combo of Calabrian chilis and lemon juice. Other items are straight-up comfort food, like the Boise pizza topped with sliced potatoes, a generous dusting of rosemary, and onions caramelized to a nearly dessert-level sweetness. The ranch dressing (for dipping your crusts, in true Midwestern fashion) is made in-house. The restaurant was founded in 2010 as a down-to-earth neighborhood spot named after the owner’s pizza-loving Weimaraner, and that’s what it remains. That owner is now pretty famous in the pizza and restaurant worlds, but Lola’s is still a good place to catch up with friends over a plate of meatballs or make first date small talk, surrounded by bungalows and ramblers instead of the hubbub of nearby 50th and France. RESERVE A TABLE WITH RESERVE A TABLE" - Stacy Brooks