I spent last Thursday’s lunch hour at Bene! Gourmet Pizza and ate a meal with two friends. The restaurant may be unfamiliar to many college students because its two locations — 225 W. Broadway St. and 4 Oakway Center — are a little way from campus.
Along with Cozmic Pizza at 1432 Willamette St., Bene! is the best in town (with Pizza Research Institute at 1328 Lawrence St. coming in a close second). The pizza is stacked with enough ingredients to eat like a hearty meal; the crust is not-too-thick, not-too-thin, tasty and coated with olive oil and garlic. It only took about two slices to fill my stomach for multiple hours. Other eaters’ results may vary.
But before I even tried the pizza, I ate an “Insalate Greca”– a Greek salad. This was close to a meal in itself, and great attention to detail was paid to its presentation.
Next, I had a medium pie with four different varieties of pizza (and eight slices overall). The “Pomodoro Bianci,” is a cheese-less, vegan pizza, but there’s plenty going on here for non-vegans: marinated eggplant, fresh basil and garlic among other things. The “Melanzoe” has many of the same ingredients, but adds cheese and portobello mushrooms. The “Mediterranean,” was a variation I would call “busy” — there are too many ingredients to mention.
Finally, I sampled a specialty — something off the menu, which won’t leave meat eaters in the cold: “Cristobal’s Greca.” This had pepperoni, linguica, three types of cheese, black olives (these are real olives, not the ones out of the can) and fresh tomato. The restaurant also uses locally-grown organic produce in their food whenever possible.
Bene’s! slowest hours are 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. It still serves slices for a reasonable $2.50, and by then, the lunch crowd will be cleared out. Also, during lunch, the aforementioned specialty slices are in their prime. A favorite of mine that pops up frequently is the “Asiantico.”
The only complaint: For food as edgy as Bene! serves, they don’t provide a very diverse music selection. Every time I’ve been, I’ve heard only one type: classic rock.