Passariello’s, Moorestown

Moorestown is a nice little place – probably sort of what Pitman aspires to be, but permanently advanced. Pitman doesn’t have the proximity to population and business centers that’s required to get people living there with enough money to live in these houses and shop in the stores (although I did once drive to Moorestown to go to Carl’s Shoes since they have a better selection of dress shoes than anywhere else). Very pretty town.

And pretty towns need pretty pizza, and pretty calzones, and pretty pasta, and pretty desserts. Passariello’s was one of the first things we came across while driving through town, and from the outside it met all criteria, so we called off the search. Farther down the street there turned out to be some places billing themselves as bistros, which might be entertaining for a return visit…if we lived here. But Passariello’s certainly comes up trumps in the Pretty Pizza Department.

The concept here is semi-self-serve, ‘stations’ Italian. By this I mean that as soon as you walk in you’ll be confronted by the Dessert Station, while to your left will be the Pizza Station (and if you’re us, you won’t ever get past it). If you’re strong enough to move past all this pizzalicious goodness, you may spot a Pasta Station and a Salad Station, in that order toward the back of the store (now that I think about it, it’s laid out perfectly in terms of propensity to consume!). Everything is a bit bright, cheerful and mildly red/black/white retro diner without being explicit about it. You make your purchase and then pick a table, booth, stool, etc. from the selection inside (crowded but still a few options at lunch time) or go to the back deck like us.

Yay, pizza. And baked calzone/stromboli cross-products. I didn’t even realize that these pizza slices were all veg when I ordered them from across the room; they were just the brightest and freshest-looking items. Turned out well, except that they were almost too big to pick up (which is becoming a theme this week). Fortunately these are proper pizza with a healthy crust under them, none of that thin-and-droopy Napoli crap that gets passed off as pizza (I think we can all agree that pizza was perfected in America after centuries of it being close but not quite right in Italy). The baked thingy was sausagey and quite good, and the bread sticks were nice even if they didn’t knock you out with garlic as we prefer them to. The gravy at this place, like at Venice, was very fresh and tomato-tasting. It’s not coming out this way when I make it, which is either due to the meat, the wine or the lengthy cooking time that I’m using. Still, I like the more-cooked taste a little better. Tastes like love, ne?

EOIPwJ can’t resist a good cannoli, and these were just sitting up in the case, waiting for us. They were pre-filled, which isn’t a great sign, but the shells were still light and flaky. The filling also wasn’t quite at the peak of freshness, but on the whole these met the requirement for cannoli product while on vacation to New Jersey.

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