As soon as we walked into Martino's, we had the feeling that they must be doing something right, packed as it was with families on a weeknight. This feeling was confirmed when the globe-trotting friends who brought us confessed to carrying a Martino's menu in their car, just in case they might need to call in a pizza from the road.

We had a fair idea that this pasta bar/pizzeria was going to be a friendly, upbeat eatery from the moment we spied the vibrant fantasy paintings of mega-vegetables covering one wall, spilling out of three huge frames to become murals. Fat white garlic bulbs, tilted mushroom caps, plump tomatoes and their vines, a sumptuous eggplant. The motif is picked up over the open kitchen and in other spots around the room. All of this made us quickly forget that we were in a small commercial plaza anchored by a Wal-Mart.

As did the food. Owner Brendan O'Neil and his cooks, Jamie Correiro and Walter Slater, are turning out some of the finest pizzas and pasta dishes south of the Washington County border. Their humongous salads, delicious soups, and generous sandwiches are also contenders.

O'Neil began his restaurant work in New York City, cooking pizza in coal-fired ovens at Lombardi's, one of the oldest pizzerias in the country. He tries to approximate the taste of those pizzas in a brick oven that reaches 780 degrees, and he offers more than two dozen extra toppings, including goat cheese, Gorgonzola, roasted garlic, and caramelized onions (a 12-inch pie is $6, with toppings $1 each; 16-inch is $10, with toppings $2 each). There are also "specialty pizzas" with specified toppings ($9.95-$16.95).

Martino's solves that oft-encountered dilemma of how to crowd a large pizza onto a tight table by serving them on pedestal trays, with a foot only about as big as a saucer. We did an end-run around this problem by ordering one of the smaller grilled pizzas ($9.95). The meatless one we chose -- with portobello mushrooms, caramelized Bermuda onions, and dollops of Gorgonzola and roasted garlic cream cheese -- was amazingly good.

Bill and I shared a bowl of tomato soup with spinach, basil, and roasted chicken ($4.95), that made me look like a Campbell's Kid with my speedy spooning. Alas, those kids didn't have Martino's terrific focaccia for an accompaniment.

Although we were quite sated by these openers, our duties beckoned us on to the pastas. From a list of 14, plus two specials that evening, our friend Peter and I settled on two cappellini dishes, one with shrimp and clams ($15.95), the other with portobellos ($11.95). Ever the hedonist, Bill opted for penne with roasted eggplant and add-on shrimp ($11.95, plus $4 for the shrimp). His pasta also included zucchini, kalamata olives, and roasted red peppers, in a light oven-dried tomato sauce dotted with goat cheese. Flavors popped out individually, but also melded wonderfully here and there. In a valiant attempt at restraint, the other member of our quartet, Cynthia, got a Creole shrimp salad ($10.95), which turned out to be every bit as voluminous as our pasta meals, but with fewer carbs.

Meanwhile, Peter and I were twirling our cappellini. His "hand-shucked native clams" and shrimp had been tossed with garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and chopped plum tomatoes in a roasted tomato seafood sauce, and he was quite pleased, though I found it a smidgen too fiery. On the other end of the spectrum, however, my cappellini -- tossed with spinach, roasted garlic, broccoli, and chopped tomatoes in the aforementioned oven-dried tomato sauce -- needed more herbs, something to spark the veggies.

Cynthia's salad was certainly a winner, with eight shrimp perched at the foot of a mountain of greens, plus roasted red peppers, grated Parmesan, and what seemed like a half-jar of artichokes. With a lemon vinaigrette, this salad had a hint of Caesar about it, with the spicy shrimp standing in for anchovies.

House-made desserts at Martino's are tiramisu, crème brûlée, and chocolate mousse ($4.95 each). On the recommendation of our friends, we ordered the crème brûlée, and for good measure, the chocolate mousse as well. Although I found the brûlée's sugar crust a bit too thick, the crème beneath it was just fine. As was the light-chocolate mousse, layered with whipped cream.

Martino's has a short list of California reds and whites, by the glass and bottle, plus four drafts among their brews. The waitstaff is cheerful and energetic. If only we could get the restaurant to move closer to our home, we wouldn't have to envy our friends' their wonderful neighborhood pizza shop.

Issue Date: April 19 - 25, 2002