#56: Is it a Pizza Place or is it a Bar?

An afternoon on 17th street

Dear friends,

After several weeks inside, this weekend I returned to my roots as a pizza eater. I’ve been unleashed back into society to walk and drive for almost four weeks. It started out quite painfully, but I’ve gotten faster and it’s gotten less painful as the weeks go on. This weekend, I’ve felt the most normal I’ve felt since the accident and it’s such a blessing.

A while ago, I sent Sydney a video review of someone going on a date night at Gemini x Happy Ice Cream and said we must go. A few weeks later when I followed up and said that we should go try the pizza place, she was a little confused. She had interpreted the restaurant as a bar with pizza and I saw it as a pizza place with a bar. The only thing not up for debate was the ice cream cart out front. Once we realized that we were talking about the same place we knew we had to go to see who was correct.

We walked into the store around 4:00pm on Saturday to learn that the kitchen didn’t open until 5:30pm. They offered us the option to get drinks and some snacks or to come back at 5:30pm. We sidebarred for a second, found a different place down the street and decided to kill time with drinks and snacks at a different location before returning to get what we came for. We went two doors down to Duke’s Grocery for onion dip with chips, fries, and catching up on all that happened in the 16 hours since we had last seen each other. Once 5:30pm hit, we went back to Gemini to see who was right. I think we knew on the initial encounter that this place is a wine bar that happens to sell food, and that was confirmed when I saw an extensive menu of wine options and then the 5 pizza options at the bottom of a limited food menu. They also had a wall of wine bottles that you could buy for the table. It was actually really cute, if you ordered a bottle they would bring it to your table in a cooler full of ice. I’ve usually only seen the metal wine cooling buckets, but the plastic cooler was a fun touch.

The thing that confused us was their use of space. The store itself had maybe 4 seats in the entire place and they were against the wall by the door, I’m assuming for people who are waiting in line and can’t stand very long. They had a few high tables that you could stand around and then a few tables out front on the patio. The seating situation was a little chaotic, but the food was amazing. We shared three slices of pizza. They do the granny squares (thick foccacia bread crust with toppings) which I’m realizing I actually really like! We got one with red sauce, barrata, and basil. One with vodka sauce, salami, and pickled chilis. And one with white sauce, meyer lemons, and basil. Sydney got a glass of their wine of the day (I believe it was a rosé from San Luis Obispo) and I got a paloma inspired soda. My favorite slice was the white with meyer lemon, but all three really hit the spot. I love the crispy edge pieces of the focaccia crust.

After a while of sitting, laughing, watching the couple next to us on a date where they could not keep their hands off eachother, and getting lightly rained on, it was time for the second portion of the experience, the ice cream cart. They release a limited menu of options every day on their instagram story. On this particular day the options were:

Sydney and I were both excited about the necartine sorbet. I got a scoop of the sorbet and a scoop of the olive oil and cocoa crumble. Both were so fantastic. The nectarine specifially was a stand out. It tasted exactly like blended nectarines that had been frozen. I was crying inside a little when I saw their pints sell for $15, but I might actually pay that amount for this ice cream. It was genuinely incredible.

At the end of it all Sydney and I were in agreement that the seating was chaotic but the food and ice cream were 11/10. We were also in agreement that it’s most definitely a bar that happens to have food.

I will be back, please come with me.

As always, please have a slice for me 🍕 and enjoy this song that’s been on repeat both in my car and in our office.