Boston?s The Gourmet Pizza (Restaurant Review)

Boston’s The Gourmet Pizza is named neither for the city nor the mountains on which it rests, but the gourmet label isn’t as contrived.

We took advantage of a rare chance to sit down for a get-acquainted lunch with a representative from the communications office of a certain well-known retailer in Bentonville at the newly opened restaurant that shares a roof with the Clarion Inn on Rainbow Curve.

We were seated in the sports bar area, which offers an impressive array of high-definition televisions and a video game area that can attract a horde of screaming kids on a weekend but was pleasantly rugrat-free on a Tuesday.

The bar area is a decibel or ten noisier than the bustling dining room, which is fine for an informal lunch among co-workers but forced us to sit side-by-side rather than across the table to make ourselves heard.

We had a more leisurely lunch than the average business meeting, lasting about 90 minutes, and our server seemed to sense our less-than harried pace. He didn’t hover or interrupt but was easily accessible once we were ready to order or needed a refill.

We began with an appetizer of mozzarella sticks ($5), which may sound like an ordinary starter, but these sticks are breaded with a pretzel mix that is unique and tasty and anchored by the traditional marinara sauce for dipping.

For our entrees we sampled the baked ravioli ($12) and our guest ordered one of their gourmet pizzas ($9) along with a side of fries. With the lunch hour winding down, our food arrived promptly.

However, our guest’s french fries never made it to the table. Perhaps unaccustomed to such a side item with a pizza order, our server forgot to punch them in.

We told him not to worry about it, but he soon returned with a gift certificate from the manager for a pizza and drink on the house, which we agreed was more than adequate to make up for the flub.

The ravioli was quite filling with a large portion of pasta, mushrooms and sausage, but the quantity of food seemed an effort to make up for an ordinary sauce.

The toppings for our guest were the usual suspects of meats and cheeses, but the sauce at Boston’s is quite distinct to the discerning pizza palette. We ran some theories by our server, who sought out the answer in the kitchen and returned with the answer: celery.

Any pizza lover would do well to give this new twist on sauce a try, and there is also a wide range of American standards from burgers to ribs.

Clearly Boston’s wasn’t built with the business lunch in mind, but that didn’t keep ours from being a pleasant and productive one. w