Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Flatbread Company

In Bedford, nestled behind the Bamboo and Melting Pot, is the Flatbread Company. It is one of their six stores in the New England area, their seventh store being in Hawaii. They advertise themselves as a place for organic food, especially organic pizza. Their website notes that they support local organic farming, are very charitable and want to present a positive experience for their customers.

We chose to have lunch there today, to try their pizzas and experience the restaurant. As I walked into the restaurant, I found the décor rather striking. Some of it almost made me feel like I had traveled back to the 1960s, to the time of Woodstock. There is a lot of original art, mostly of very positive images. It was also very rustic, with a lot of wood and stone. There were actually several stone columns in the restaurant, mostly around the clay oven. The oven is huge and quite beautiful. All of the cooking is done in this oven. There is also an open kitchen area where you can see them preparing all of the food. There is even a small bar area where the wines are kept. Overall, it certainly presents a homey feeling.

I looked at the beverage menu first. They had a small but interesting selection of wines, a number of them being organic. Prices seemed reasonable. They also carry beers and nonalcoholic drinks, many which are natural. We both chose iced tea, which was fresh brewed, unsweetened and tasted very good.

The food menu is small, basically only salads and pizzas. But, there is a nice variety of different style pizzas and you can even make your own combination. They even had two special pizzas that were not on the menu. Flatbread uses spring water, organic flour, kosher salt and real cake yeast to make their pizza dough. They also use organic tomatoes and a dozen other organic ingredients in their tomato sauce. Plus, they use such items as free-range chicken, nitrate-free pepperoni and sausages. There are two sizes for the pizzas, large and small. The small is sufficient for one person. Prices for smalls averaged about $7-8 and double that for the larges.

We ordered a Cheese and Herb pizza, which is made with mozzarella, parmesan, garlic, oil and herbs. This is a white pizza with no tomato sauce. We also ordered a Jay’s Heart, with mozzarella, parmesan, tomato sauce and herbs, and had them add some pepperoni. Once they were cooked in the clay oven, they were delivered hot to the table. They were a good-size for a small and the large pizzas we saw were good-sized as well.

The pizza is thin crusted and the bottom of the pizza was cooked well, nice and crispy, while the rest of the crust was softer and chewier. There was plenty of cheese and toppings on both pizzas. I very much liked the white pizza. It was not greasy or overly oily. The cheese was quite delicious. The pepperoni pizza was equally as good. Their pizza sauce is quite good and the pepperoni were spicy, though with a tinge of sweetness as well. I was impressed with both pizzas and felt they were well worth the price.

Flatbread also serves a few desserts, different types of sundaes. We chose to split a brownie sundae. The brownie is warmed in the clay oven and is then served with vanilla and chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and covered with chocolate sauce. The ice cream is natural and the whipped cream is made with maple syrup, though you do not get a maple flavor. The brownie was awesome, especially when warm. The entire sundae was delicious and definitely worth ordering.

Service was very good. Our waitress was pleasant, courteous and did her job very well.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this restaurant and I will return to try more of their pizzas and sundaes. It makes for a quick and healthy lunch or a more leisurely and causal dinner. The fact that most everything is organic is an added bonus.

Flatbread Company
213 Burlington Rd
Bedford, MA
Phone: (781) 275-8200

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