Piazza opened up about 7 weeks ago where Slayton's BBQ used to be. My friend Mark and I finally got around to trying it. I have to admit, my first impression wasn't great. It seemed like they were trying to hard to be elegant, but it came off as pretentious. It seemed like they were trying to be a more upscale version of Il Vicino, but not succeeding. Some of these initial thoughts turned out to be true, but not all of them.

First - Piazza IS a ripoff of Il Vicino. It is a wine bar / gourmet pizza place. It differentiates itself by offering full service dining. The pizzas are slightly pricier than Il Vicino and, unfortunately, more limited. There are only a handful of pizzas on the menu, and none of them seemed particularly adventurous. They do have a lot of spaghetti options, and a few well priced sandwiches, however.

Our waitress defied the atmosphere by being very smiley and friendly - not stuffy at all. Mark ordered a Rustica pizza, and I went with a chicken parmesan sandwich and a bowl of minestrone soup. It took a while to get our order, but just as I was getting antsy, it arrived.

Mark's pizza was huge - it was literally hanging off the sides of the plate. When the waitress put it down, I exclaimed, "Wow, that's big!". Our waitress smiled and said, "It's my favorite. Don't tell anybody, but I can eat a whole one by myself!" I laughed, and told her that I was going to tell everybody. I'll withold her name, since I'm a gentleman. Or something.

The minestrone soup was average. There were lots of ingredients, but nothing stood out - it all kind of melded into the same flavor. Next time I'll try the salad.

My chicken parmesan sandwich was awesome. The bread was delicious, and had been grilled a bit on the inside. The chicken breast was tender and flavorful and slightly breaded and topped with tons of gooey mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. I loved it. My iced tea was well priced, at only $1.25, which is very unusual - usually drinks are a huge profit margin for restaurants.

Overall, I thought it was a good experience. Il Vicino has them beat when it comes to options and quality of pizza, but if you are in the area, you won't be dissappointed by Piazza. The sandwich was fantastic, and the service was good. We paid about twelve dollars each for lunch, which is acceptable.