Aurelio's

Made it through the first day of training unscathed. I'll skip the geek report for now about all the cool things I learned, and go straight for the OTHER highlight of the day - lunch! Our instructor took a few of us out for pizza at a local place called Aurelio's. It's in an unassuming strip mall that looks like any other, but once you walk in through the carved wood door, you're transported to another time and place. A large mural greets you inside the front door with beaming visages of the Aurelio family (I can only assume). It's a nice, homey touch. There's also a large photograph of a Gulf war soldier in the desert proudly holding up an Aurelio's t-shirt. Several walls are covered with Polaroids and snapshots of various babies, all future customers.

I liked the dining area. It's dark, with dark wood paneling and stained glass placed here and there. The tables are formica, but have a red checkerboard pattern. And red and green Italian umbrella shades - the kind you'd find over a patio table - are suspended from the ceiling everywhere. Roy Orbison played on the stereo. GoodFellas came to mind as I looked around and took it all in. I get the sense that not much has changed since they opened their doors, and I like that.

We all dug into the pizza buffet, which is usually not my favorite way to try new food. But the spinach and cheese pazone (or is that calzone?) was fantastic, and I liked the capers in the pasta salad. Yum! If you're in the neighborhood and you happen to appreciate the charms of local pizzerias, you owe it to yourself to check it out.