Pizza Maranello

Another pizza review? Yes, guilty as charged :p This time a quick review for Pizza Maranello. This popular Italian restaurant is not far from the candy-cane striped Annunciation Cathedral (although there are other locations around town.) If you're fast enough you can grab a seat in the outdoor seating area along the concrete banks of the Lopan river, otherwise there's usually space available inside the restaurant. Another option would be to grab a pizza to-go and walk over to a park bench.

Here are a couple shots:

Lopan River

The pizza: nothing too fancy, nonetheless tasty!

The average nighttime crowd. Restaurant has since been remodeled and looks a little fancier.

You can order a half pizza for around 20 grivna ($3) or a whole pizza for about 40 grivna ($5). The menu also offers other Italian salads and dishes, but I've stuck with pizza each visit. A 1/2 liter cup of beer will set you back about 10 grivna ($1.50). 777-03-04 is the number...and it looks like they may do delivery. If you want to go there in person, Maranello is a ten-minute walk from either the Central Market or Radiyanska metro stops. Look for a narrow green-roofed building just off Poltavskiy Shlax (highway). And oh, the giant pizza on the roof : )

Today, by the way, must have been under-age drinking day. At Pizza Maranello we watched three kids dare each other to take sips of their moms' beers. The kids were about 8 years old and since the moms were in a long line for the ladies room, the drinking dare eventually ended in a cup of beer tipping over and spilling on the floor. After dinner we took a long walk along Poltavskiy Shlax and passed a group of grown-ups hanging out on the street. A toddler was loitering on the edge of their group, tilting a can up to his mouth and trying to get the last drops out of one of those alcohol/energy drinks. His parents had probably finished the drink and given it to him to play with. For some reason this all reminded me of being back in university and seeing recruitment ads for resident advisors (students who live in the dorms and supervise other students, aka RAs). The ads showed a glass with a golden beverage with the words "beer or apple juice? you decide." If you hadn't already guessed, one of the main responsibilities of an RA is to crack down on underage drinking. One of my friends came from England at age 20 and got busted for drinking in the dorms... and sent to anti-alcohol training as part of her punishment. Kind of silly considering that in England she was already well above legal age to drink. In fact, the whole thing seems kind of silly to me now. I'd love to see what an RA would do if they saw what I saw tonight- an RA who usually busts 18-year-olds drinking beer, what would they do with an 8-year-old?!