A Pleasant Lunch at Black Market

It had been a while since I had pizza at Black Market. There were always other attractive items on the menu, and recently, the pizza oven was broken. Plus, I rarely find my way there for lunch, and crave for other items during dinner.

But on this lovely summer day, when I wanted to take a friend of mine away from the worries of work environment for his birthday, I led him to the Black Market (he kept asking as I drove "where are we going?" and I kept it as a secret "you're going to love it"). By the time we pulled in, he was pleasantly surprised "this is soo cute!" - as most of the people I've taken to Black Market...

If it wasn’t for his suit, we would probably sit outside, but with the open windows, it was still very pleasant and airy inside. As he talked on his phone, I let the servers know it was his birthday, and no, we didn't get any special treatment, in terms of service or the bill...

A birthday deserves champagne – even though the only glass of sparkling wine you can get at Black Market is cava. Prosecco would be a better choice, but is offered only in a bottle. The good news is the cava is served in tall flutes, probably in about 1,5 serving of what you’d get anywhere else, so you can enjoy it longer.

My eyes look for my beloved grilled octopus salad as an appetizer, but it is served only as an entrée at lunch, and even though I’ve been here for at least 4-5 times in the past 2 months, the server did not offer to make one as an appetizer, which I find a little disappointing.

My friend picked the lentil soup, and we proceeded with two orders of pizza. The server was now alive, telling us that the pizza kitchen was new, and that they’d like to get our feedback.

My friend was happy with his soup, and we both were very satisfied with the thin, crispy pizzas that were delivered as soon as his soup was cleared. His margherita was a nice lace-like design of thin slices of mozzarella, tomato and basil. My sopressata pizza was a spicy concoction of hot peppers, thin crust, and a perfect sprinkle of cheese. If one must find any fault with those pizzas, it can only be the size. There is no way one can eat a whole pizza alone for lunch, so I would suggest that you share perhaps a salad and a pizza with your companion, especially if you are planning to have dessert.

There is always an ice cream or gelato of the day at Black Market, and a couple other specials. Our mango panna cotta was a good refresher for a summer day, yet was not the classic Italian dessert we were looking for. But on a nice summer day, a fruity milk dessert is the perfect ending to a laid back summer lunch, especially when accompanied by a good Illy coffee. Only if we could have stayed all afternoon and enjoyed the tender light of the sun peeking through the leaves of the mature trees for a walk… But work awaits, and Black Market deserves many more visits…