Tucked within a residential area in central Phoenix sits La Grande Orange Pizzeria (40th Street and Campbell Avenue). La Grande Orange - or LGO as the restaurateurs abbreviate it - is a chic, urban pizzeria. The gold walls and green trim complement the wooden tables and chairs and the bright red hanging lamps, making LGO look like a place that only that hipster art chick in your English Lit class knows about. But that would be a lie, because even on a Monday night, the restaurant is packed.
Don't let that deter you from visiting LGO - there is plenty to do during your potential hour-long wait. Connected to the restaurant is both a gelato shop and La Grande Orange Grocery, where you can get coffee, wine, cheese, candy and most importantly, pastries.
As a firm believer in dessert before dinner, I visited LGO Grocery while waiting for a table. After admiring the selection and picking up some candy lipsticks and necklaces, my dining companion and I made our way to the pastry case and ordered a mini Boston Creme pie. It was such a perfect balance of chocolate and creme that I thought about skipping dinner altogether and just ordering a couple more pies.
But in honor of this review, I trekked on. I'm glad I did. Once we were seated, we ordered a cheese pizza with egg (plain, considering other menu items included pizza with roasted corn, goat cheese and tomatoes, and the Gladiator -- a combination of sausage and other meats). Due to the high traffic, it took a while to get our food, but it was worth the wait. The sourdough crust topped with layers of melted cheese and a fried egg on top was some of the best pizza I've eaten in the Valley. And it was reasonably priced - all of LGO's pizzas range from $11 to $14 and are big enough for two people to share.
LGO also has a small selection of beers and wines to accompany your meal. I ordered the cheapest glass of Pinot Noir available, and it was quite good. My companion ordered a glass of the white sangria, which she said wasn't as good as the sangria from Caffe Boa because it tasted too much like orange juice without enough wine flavor.
But that definitely didn't ruin the meal. We both ate so much pizza that we couldn't even make it back to the LGO Grocery for another Boston Creme pie.
