As soon as the pie hit the table at Pizzeria Orso, I knew I was in the presence of Edan MacQuaid, the pizzaiolo who has worked the wood-burning ovens at 2Amys, Pizzeria Paradiso, and RedRocks. I'd recognize his margherita pizza anywhere.

It's not just the puffy crust, mottled with char and radiating a wood-smoke aroma as enticing as freshly baked bread. It's the careful arrangement of colors: the rosy splashes of tomato sauce, the white eggshell dollops of fresh mozzarella, the wilted myrtle-colored leaves of basil, and the pale green rivulets of olive oil, which, in turn, tint the exposed crust to the most delectable shade of yellow.

This is pizza-making as art.

The flavors are even more intoxicating than the colors. There's a balance to MacQuaid's margherita that I don't find with many other interpretations. The fresh acid sweetness of the tomatoes, the cool creaminess of the mozz, the salty smokiness of the cornicione, the cleansing licorice of the basil, and the....the incomprehensible sourness of the crust.

I keep thinking that I'm imagining the sourness, so I keep eating more crust to find out, even long after I'm full. The sourness is always present.

It's not until I speak with MacQuaid a few days later that it all makes sense. The pizzaiolo says he puts a little sourdough into his pizza dough, which I think is a great, ballsy move. It not only adds flavor, but it's a small razz to the Neapolitan polizia who want to dictate exactly how their pies should be produced, right down to the hydration level in the pizza dough.

But then I remember that MacQuaid has affixed the letters "DOC" next to his margherita pizza on the menu. The letters stand for "Denominazione di Origine Controllata," and they imply that MacQuaid is following the rules, set down by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture in 2004, for a genuine margherita pizza from Naples.

Now, I'm no authority on these Neapolitan pizza rules. Every time I think I understand them, someone tells me I don't. But from what I've read, I'm pretty damn sure sourdough is not allowed in a DOC margherita pizza. I ask MacQuaid about the addition. He has a ready answer.

Back before the invention of commercial yeasts, MacQuaid tells me, pizza makers used sourdough starters to facilitate fermentation in their dough. There is an strong argument among pizzaioli that such a method doesn't violate the spirit of the Italian government's Neapolitan pizza laws. I floated this theory by the notoriously scrupulous baker and occasional pizza maker, Mark Furstenberg, and he agreed that it makes sense.

So I asked MacQuaid the obvious question: Did he secure official certification from the pizza authorities for his margherita pie?

"All that I'm stating there [with the DOC on his menu] is that the margherita is authentic," MacQuaid tells me. "Is it certified DOC? No....But it meets the standards of the DOC certification."

You know what? I've come to the point where I don't care much about this whole authentic, by-the-book Neapolitan pizza certification puffery. At least not here in the states, where we have a culture of freewheeling experimentation. When I travel to Italy, then I'll care about authentic Neapolitan pizza. Back here, I just want a good, honest, full-flavored pie. If it's merely based on tradition, that's good enough for me.

Here's the bottom line for me: Authentic or not, legal or not by Italian agriculture rules, MacQuaid's margherita pizza is the best pie I've eaten in a long time. 2Amys, you've been officially put on notice.

The storm ain't got nothing on the Philly boys at Taylor Gourmet

I figured I better start compiling this list now before Carrie and I lose our Internet connection (again), our power, and our ability to open the front door and scream for help.

So without further ado, here are the restaurants and bars that plan (at present) to stay open during the storm. I'd highly encourage you to double check before you make the trek to any one of these.

UPDATED at 7:22 p.m.

• Social 14 The Columbia Heights restaurant promises happy hour prices all day long!
• Jaleo Nothing can keep the irrepressible Jose Andres down. This is for the D.C. location only.

• Matchbox Both locations of the pizza and mini-burger chain will be open for lunch and dinner.
• Pete's Apizza The owners recently opened and have the soup simmering now. You can check their Twitter page for updates.
• Eatonville According to its Twitter feed, the U Street corridor spot will be "sendin out "omg" dining deals every hour all day startin in 10 minutes. Don't miss out!"
• Urbana The Dupont restaurant will be open all night and offering a "Stir Crazy" special: $7 stirred martinis.
• Columbia Firehouse The Alexandria restaurant, home of the watery OJ, is open but with limited service. There are only two servers, so all orders have to go through the bar.
• Poste Modern Brasserie The Penn Quarter spot will be running a "Snow Day Special": Ask for it and get a glass of house wine with dinner.
• CommonWealth Gastropub Chef/owner Jamie Leeds says the Columbia Heights pub will be open all day.
• Hank's Oyster Bar Leeds also notes that the D.C. location of Hank's will be open for dinner.
• Taylor Gourmet The guys behind the Philly hoagie shop are not standing down. According to their Twitter page: "We will be open ALL DAY today!!! This blizzard has nothin on us!!!"
• Firefly The Dupont restaurant is running a happy hour all night long.
• Buzz Bakery The Alexandria sweet shop has plenty of hot chocolate, too. (NOTE: Buzz closed earlier today.)
• Jackson 20 The Old Town restaurant is offering a happy hour all night, along with some menu specials: $5 southern-style appetizers and a $10 combo called the Jackson 5. It's a plate with a ham slider, a barbecue pork slider, three tater tots, two fried green tomatoes, and a deviled egg.
• Neighorhood Restaurant Group beer emporiums You can't keep a good beer bar down, and both NRG suds factories, Rustico and Birch & Barley/ChurchKey, will be open today. (NOTE: Rustico and Birch & Barley have decided to close; ChurchKey will remain open, however.)
• Harry's Tap Room The Clarendon watering hole and grill will be open.
• Brabo Tasting Room Robert Wiedmaier's Old Town spot will be going all night long.
• BlackSalt Fish Market Somehow, someway, the Palisades seafood emporium got a delivery of fresh fish.
• Evening Star Cafe The Del Ray restaurant is open but is offering only lounge service, with a limited, sandwich-heavy menu.
• Bar Dupont The place is reserving its terrace for an "ice bar" from noon to sunset today.
• RedRocks Fire Brick Pizzeria The Columbia Heights spot is fearlessly slinging pies today.
• Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe The Dupont Circle bookstore and cafe is open for normal service. It's also offering a "Snomore," which is equal parts Chambord and Crème de Cacao in hot chocolate.
• L'Enfant Who said the French are wimps? The Adams Morgan bistro is open.
• Three for the Road: Sister restaurants Tryst, Open City, and The Diner are all open during what they have dubbed "Cluster Flake." According to a spokesman, "We are all stocked up and ready to serve our neighborhoods. We've got you covered with hot chocolates, DC's BEST Cappuccinos, fresh baked pastries, a FULL BAR, your favorite comfort foods, and of course breakfast all day & night!"
• Chinatown Coffee Co. The shop is ready for all your caffeine needs.
• Off the Record Bar The Hay Adams Hotel bar will be stirring it up during the storm.
• Cork Market Wine, meats, sammies, breads, and spreads...all available at the 14th Street market.
• DCBrit, the gastronome over at Endless Simmer, has put together a Google map of the restaurants/bars open in the Shaw and U Street neighborhoods. Check it out.
• Andrew Beaujon has a more-extensive run-down of Del Ray restaurants that are staying open.

As always, please add updates in the comments section as you hear about them. And stay safe and warm!

The seriously creamy buffalo mozz at Pizze

Restaurants constantly evolve, which is why I try to revisit as many as possible in between checking out the new ones that come along. I particularly try to revisit the places that I have previously panned, like the trio of pizzerias below.

To be fair here, I didn't really pan any of them —  save, perhaps, RedRocks in Columbia Heights. I think it would be more accurate to say that I expressed reservations about Pizze in Woodley Park and Pizzeria Paradiso near Dupont Circle.

So let me start with the best of the re-evals:

• My most recent pie at RedRocks was just last night, and the joint's Margherita was nearly perfect. The cornicione, or crust's edge, was puffy and charred, which are good signs of excellent dough-making and baking. Better yet, these crispy-chewy crusts were full-flavored, balancing salt and yeast with the unique bitter-sweet qualities of char. It was the best-tasting crust I've had since my visit to Lombardi's in NYC a month or so ago. The sauce itself mellowed out the tomato's more acidic qualities while maintaining its essential fruitiness. Only the buffalo mozzarella could be improved, I thought. I would have preferred a creamier version.
• The buffalo mozz at Pizze, however, was spectacular. It was rich and creamy and generously applied to my recent order of Margherita at the pizzeria below Petits Plats. In fact, I thought every single ingredient on this pie, from the sweet sauce to the flavorful crust, was far superior to the first time I tried this round. My lone complaint had to do with the baking time. The pizza-maker, clearly under pressure during a lunch-time rush, did not allow the pie to fully cook, which shortchanged his creation in terms of both texture and flavor.
• The crust on my Margherita at the new suds-drenched Paradiso off Dupont was more cracker-y than I remembered with previous pies at Ruth Gresser's place. It was also lighter in density and chew than I recall. But I discovered an interesting thing about Gresser's crusts: If you sprinkle them with just the smallest amount of olive oil, they are transformed into a full-bodied bite, as if they're thirsty for a little more moisture and fat. It's as if her crusts were made for dipping, like a good crusty Italian bread served with a plate of fruity, extra-virgin olive oil. Try it and see if you don't agree.

I was semi-outraged — not angry, but not mock outraged, so maybe just surprised actually — at not only his her ranking order but also two glaring omissions: Pete's Apizza and new kid Room 11. I'm going to give Spud a break and assume it was an oversight and not a lapse in judgment, as she went so far as to bend his own rules and allow Tonic to sneak over from Mount Pleasant. Listless drinkers, I present to you my Columbia Heights top 5:

1. Pete's Apizza – Pete's four drafts rotate often, and as of yesterday included beers from Bell's, Lagunitas, and Stone. (The fourth is Moretti, a crappy Italian lager owned by Heineken.) Add 8 to 10 American micros in bottles, and you've got a sizable menu for a place the size of the Five Guys next door. (beer list)
   

2. RedRocks – Six drafts and only one a dud (Peroni; what is it with these pizza places?). The bottle list can be painfully patronizing with beers like Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat, Miller's answer to Coors' Blue Moon, but there's plenty of better options. (beer list)
3. Room 11 – Taps right now are Brooklyn's Pilsner and East India Pale Ale. Their diverse bottle list includes gems such as Old Rasputin Imperial Stout and Orval (wild yeast!). (beer list)
4. CommonWealth – I have a soft spot for cask beer, and as long as their two casks are pumping Victory, I'll indulge. But their British draft list is as mainstream as it gets — you can get Newcastle, Guinness, Harp, and Smithwicks at Bennigan's. British beer is unfortunately expensive to import, but even an occasional rare keg from England, as Birreria Paradiso and Rustico are wont to do, would be a welcome treat for the neighborhood. (beer list)
5. Red Derby – Come for the Dale's Pale Ale, stay for the Schlitz. When it comes to beers, they do good and cheap and mostly skip the mediocre. And what $4 light beers they do sell, as a commenter mentions, subsidize the rest. I'd love some draft beers too, but I'll settle for a blurry round of Connect Four at 1 a.m. (beer list)

What do you think? If you don't comment, I'll assume you agree 100 percent.

"It was a dream of mine to do pizza," Darricarrere tells me in a phone chat.

A dream?

The Frenchman laughs, an acknowledgment of the years of deep-seated tensions between the French and Italian cooking communities. "Well, I had it in my mind for years," the owner says about his pie ambitions.

Darricarrere has installed a Wood Stone wood-and-gas oven in the basement space, and he's already turning out thin, Neapolitan-style pies that no doubt carry the MacQuaid stamp of approval. "I would never have done this without him," the owner says.

The owner fully admits that the poor economy was part of the reason he adopted an Italian accent. He expects that his fellow countrymen might not like the idea. "The only ones who are going to criticize me are the French," Darricarrere says. "But I don't care."

The gentrified-within-an-inch of its life neighborhood is already home to two fine pie joints, RedRocks and Pete's Apizza, but Gresser tells the Journal that she's still bullish on the 'hood. "I feel like it's a different neighborhood from Dupont Circle, and with all the commercial and residential growth happening there, it seems like there could be an uptick of people who would be interested in us," she tells the paper.

Before possibly opening the third location, however, Gresser says she needs to focus her energies on moving her Dupont Circle eatery to the former Bike Shop-District Hardware space at 2003 P St. NW, just behind the Blaine Mansion.