Saturday Paul and I ventured out to the newest restaurant in our neighborhood, Arthouse Pizza Bar and Gallery. It seems like eons ago now that this space was on tap to become some sort of cafe and gallery space. The cafe never came to fruition, but the space did eventually open as some sort of gallery that I never went in. This past week it reopened once again dropping most of the gallery stuff (I guess they’re still going to have art for sale on the walls, but that’s really not all that unusual for restaurants these days.) and now becoming a bar and brick oven pizza restaurant.

If you had asked me what kind of restaurant I thought Hampden needed I would not have told you another pizza place. We already have plenty of your typical carry out/delivery pizza places plus Birroteca for fancy pizza. Not to mention the long rumored Paulie Gee’s Pizza that is supposed to be opening in the old Hampden Republican Club space. We’ll see if that ever comes to fruition though. The pizza was really good though, so maybe we did in fact need this pizza place.

The restaurant like many spaces in Baltimore is small. It seats about 40 people split evenly between the bar and tables. The back of the restaurant is brick oven and pizza assembly area, which is completely open the restaurant. Our table happened to be right next to it so I had a good look at the pizza operation. The salads and few other appetizers that round out the menu appear to be assembled in the back. The menu like the restaurant is not very large. There are about 10 pizza choices plus some salads and small appetizers.

I ordered the Roma, which was topped with sausage, a spicy tomato sauce, bell peppers, and mozzarella. My husband ordered the Fun Guy, which was topped with mushrooms, caramelized onions, and brie. They were both delicious. The crust is really good as well. My husband even ate what he calls “the pizza bones”, which is not something he normally does.

The restaurant was already packed at 6:30 on only its 3rd day open, so imagine it will soon be yet another Hampden restaurant that is impossible to get into. With a nice beer list and some delicious pizza I can see it becoming a real neighborhood favorite.