American Flatbread

I can't imagine calling Pizza Hut and ordering a "Meat Lovers" pizza, asking them to hold the meat on one side and expect to pay anything less than the cost of a "Meat Lovers" pizza. Maybe that's just me. Or how about splitting a Caesar salad, asking for chicken on only half and expect to pay somewhere between the cost of a plain Caesar and a chicken Caesar. Is that any different?

 

$2.50 seems reasonable to me. Scotto's in Brambleton charged us $5.00 to make a pizza half and half and both sides were speciality pizzas that were the same price so a $16 dollar pizza became $21. That is really painful. Expecially considering their pizza quality isn't that great.

 

In the case where one pizza is $14 and the other $19, I wonder to which base price the $5 would be applied.

 

Did anyone else see the front page of the Post on Sunday? Our very own American Flatbread was featured in an article about buying locally. Check it out online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/28/AR2007072801255.html

 

Joy, I did read the article and found it interesting.

First, that it referred to support for Loudoun's "dwindling" agriculture. I have never seen the rural economy referenced that way in a front page article before.

Second, after having followed it to the inside page, to see that about six paragraphs from the end of a wonderful article outlining the restaurant's policy of gearing their menu to fresh, locally produced items the remarkable statement that "not all" the menu items are produced locally--"the dough, sauce and cheese" are produced elsewhere. This struck me as humorous, given that those would seem to be staples of a pizza parlor!

Third, the article closed with a fine section on the crates of items purchased by the chef from farmer Chester Hess at the Purcellville market. I buy from Mr. Hess at the South Riding Market. He farms in West Virginia.

I do think the overall article was very good though, and a good recommendation for trying the restaurant. As any indicator of the scope of the Loudoun rural economy and its perceived scope in the larger economy , I got somewhat mixed signals from it.

 

I guess it depends on what your definition of "local" is. It's not too far of a stretch to consider West Virginia grown products sold at a Loudoun Farmer's Market to be considered local.

 

Oh Cliff,

You know enough about Barbara's rants to know she only considers South Riding local. Everything else is of no concern to her.

 

I agree, West Virginia is pretty local. For the county markets, I do like to know what is produced in-county, though. The boundaries used to be a 200-mile radius of Loudoun, which seemed to me quite broad, particularly when it came back to bite a Leesburg vendor a few years ago who had customers clamoring for a particular cheese from Pennsylvania that happened to be from a part of that state just beyond the limit. That seemed to me to be an uneccessary hair-split, if the product had a market here and the venue had such broad boundaries. They have been reduced though, to either 150 or 175--can't remember what Mr. Howell told me.

 

GM, you're a pip as always. If that's what you think I said, can't help you. Why don't you and Ben have one of those beers you recommended to me and chill out?

 

Back on topic -

Stopped by AF last night and had the most eccentric flatbread (pizza) I've ever heard of. It was shrimp, spinach pesto stuff, cheese, corn, old bay, and some other things I can't remember. (I think it was shrimp - sure looked and tasted like shrimp, but the bartender said something about domestically caught fish...)

I likened it to a Bonefish meal on pizza - really really tasty. Oh, and the bartender said the Post article had an immediate effect, as they were slammed Sunday night (the day the article came out), and Mon./Tues. Our little shopping area is getting some good attention, let's hope we can keep all these great restaurants.

 

We tried the shrimp flatbread about 2 weeks ago and it was AMAZING. We were not to sure about it with the amount of ingredients listed but when we finally started into it WOW. Something else.

 

I posted a somewhat negative review of American Flatbread earlier in this thread - we had gone on their opening night and had difficulties getting served after being seated so we walked out.

Gave it another try on Friday, and I'm glad I did. It wasn't that crowded, but I got a seat at the bar, ordered a beer and a "punctuated equilibrium" to go. My pizza came pretty quickly, and the bartender (who I believe was the owner) gave me the beer on the house. And the pizza was top notch!! For those thinking of going, don't expect a "pizza joint" - I see why they are calling themselves American Flatbreads - this is really different, and really good food. I only wish they would expand the menu somewhat. But for those who haven't tried it, give this place a try!! You will be pleasantly surprised.

 

we've gone there a few times, love the food, but I too wish they would expand thier menu a litte. Especially in the appetizers and salad area.

 

The Washington Post has a review online now, and boy howdy it's a good one. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=cityguide/profile&id=1139198&nm=0#editorialReview
Looks like it's going to be printed in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine. Loudoun hardly EVER gets in there (let alone Ashburn). An excerpt: "some of the best pizza in the region"

 

But at the bottom of that article I read words that make me wonder if things are changing for the worse.

 

We LOVED their cesar salad but it's off the menu now..not a big pizza fan so not sure we'll go back unless the salad comes back & they add a few more things besides pizza

 

...and the last I checked, the owner was doing "the cooking" but I am not sure if that really means anything. Our flatbreads have all been great.

 

Yanno... we were there a few days ago and I gotta say, our crust wasn't as good as it had been, and the salad didn't have quite as much flavor. I thought maybe since I was recovering from a cold my taste buds were still off. Didn't realize until I read this thread that John was gone. I DID notice he wasn't there that last time, though, because I was going to talk to him!