Brick Oven
1608 W. 35th, 453-4330 Monday-Friday, 11am-2pm, 5-10pm; Saturday, 5-10pm; Sunday, 5-9pmLike a neighborhood-style pizzeria, Brick Oven on 35th serves home-style, thin-crust pizzas and pastas with a personal touch. Red sauces dominate the pastas, while most pizzas also tend toward the traditional, with the notable exception of Chipotle Pesto Chicken Pizza. Unlike a neighborhood pizzeria, the Brick Oven gives equal time to pasta, with creations like the roasted-red-bell-pepper pesto sauce. Brick Oven still serves some of the best pizza in town
Brick Oven Restaurant
various locationsNot to be confused with Brick Oven on 35th, these three restaurants all put out reasonably priced, competently prepared pizzas, strombolis, and calzones from a wood-fired oven. Traditional toppings still preside, but the Oven does offer such specialty pizzas as spinach and artichoke, portobello and prosciutto, or sun-dried Mediterranean. All three convenient locations offer a full selection of familiar pasta dishes, including lasagna, chicken formaggi, and ravioli.
Ciola’s Italian American Restaurant
1310 Hwy. 620 S., 263-9936 Monday-Thursday, 11am-10pm; Friday, 11am-11pm; Saturday, 4-11pm; Sunday, 4-9pmCiola’s – the sister restaurant of the Virginia-based original – has been pleasing lake dwellers and Hill Country residents with its traditional Italian-American recipes for pastas, salads, chicken, veal, and seafood specialties. Everything about the decor and the service at Ciola’s makes you feel right at home, and according to the menu, the Ciola’s version of the traditional multilayered, creamy confection spumoni is a family heirloom. It was worth a drive to the lake all by itself.
Gino’s Italian Grill
730-A W. Stassney, 326-4466 Daily, 3pm-midnightCozy, traditional-style Italian food is offered at this South Austin neighborhood restaurant. Homemade bread, eggplant and chicken parmigiana, ravioli, and manicotti are featured prominently among chef/owner Greg Lawson’s family recipes. Gino’s has live music starting at 9pm and, if the party’s still going, occasionally stays open past midnight. Call Gino’s or check the music listings for details about acts.
Italian Garden
14611 Burnet #103, 388-1062 Tuesday-Friday, 11am-2pm; Tuesday-Thursday, 5:15-9pm; Friday-Saturday, 5:15-10pm; closed Sundays and MondaysSince 1966, the quirky Italian Garden has been pleasing neighborhood folks with their consistent cuisine and reasonably priced food. Chronicle critics voted it best Brooklyn-style Italian in 1996. Chicken cacciatora, eggplant parmigiana, lasagnas, and other pastas are among the dishes the kitchen prepares fresh every day. The menu offers a new shrimp fettuccini as well as a garlic-butter caper sauce served over spaghetti.
Spaghetti Warehouse
117 W. Fourth, 476-4059 Sunday-Thursday, 11am-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 11am-11pmDon’t feel like cooking? Well, pack the kids in the minivan and head over to Spaghetti Warehouse. Guaranteed to please the little people with plenty of the kitsch they like to look at and plenty of food they like to eat. Entertain them while they sit down to a meal in one of the Warehouse’s old trolley cars. Whether it’s spaghetti with meatballs, fettuccine Alfredo, cannelloni Florentine, or grilled steak, they have it all at this popular downtown family-style restaurant.
Tree House Italian Grill
2201 College, 443-4200 Monday-Thursday, 11am-2pm, 5-10pm; Friday, 11am-2pm, 5-11pm; Saturday-Sunday, 5-11pmThis South Austin establishment tends to run the gamut, mixing Norwegian salmon and steaks with chicken piccata, pasta and scampi, and lasagna in their midrange Italian menu. A reasonably priced wine list and enhanced patio with fresh flowers make this a good choice for casual deckside dining when the weather is not particularly punishing.
Vinny’s Italian Cafe
1003 Barton Springs Rd., 482-8484 Sunday-Thursday, 11am-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 11am-11pmLongtime residents will remember this Barton Springs neighborhood joint as the former Holiday House location. The menu features all the pasta dishes you’d expect from a guy named Vinny, as well as a number of specialty pizzas. They also offer lunch on Saturdays, a choice of wine dinners, and an updated wine list. The happy-hour bellinis are rumored to be a notable bargain.
This article appears in June 11 • 2004.