&Pizza, DC

There's a new pizza place in town and it ain't your typical pizza joint. Welcome &Pizza to the U Street Corridor! For its second location, &Pizza sure is popular. Located just outside the U Street Metro stop, this quick pizza spot is always packed.

I've visited on numerous occasions at this point and have had very different experiences each time. What's great about &Pizza is that there are tons of vegan options. In fact, all three of the crusts -- traditional, whole wheat, and multigrain are vegan.  Basically, it is like an assembly line ordering style and your pizza is baked in a quick oven on a thin crust so it bakes in just minutes.

You can build your own pizza or choose from a variety of their standard pizzas. The best part is that all toppings are included so there are no extra charges.  I actually liked the way the RedVine sounded -- one of their suggested pizzas. So I ordered the RedVine on a whole wheat crust. Then I swapped out the Classic Tomato sauce for the Spicy Tomato sauce. You have your choice of two tomato sauces, the red chickpea sauce, or garlic puree. This pizza came with Daiya vegan cheese as well as roasted peppers, roasted tomatoes, spinach, and fresh jalapenos. I added artichokes as well.

If you order a la carte, you basically have your choice of a bunch of veggies, but I just decided to start with their standard vegan pizza and change it up from there. You can also add finishes (herbs) and oils or hot sauce on top that get added after the pizza is cooked. So I finished my pizza off with fresh basil and piquin pepper hot sauce.

The only thing they don't have are any vegan protein choices. Hopefully, they'll add some roasted tofu, tempeh, or seitan in the future.

Once baked, the crust came out soft and chewy and even though the "spicy" tomato sauce wasn't really spicy, the hot sauce was so it was really good. The veggies were fresh and the Daiya cheese melted perfectly. For $8.86, this is an easy, quick, cheap meal on the go. It is mostly a take out joint as there isn't much seating. So be prepared to bring it home.

On another occasion, I added mushrooms as well.

As far as my experience, the first time we went, they cleaned the counter and changed their gloves when I told them I was vegan. The second time, they didn't do that. And the third time, the woman prepared the dough with her bare hands -- no gloves. So very different experiences. I was okay with all of them, but generally prefer that they change their gloves. I'll just ask them to do so next time.

Either way, I like &Pizza and am happy to have yet another option for vegan pizza in DC.

&Pizza
1250 U Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 733-1286