Coppi's Organic (DC - U Street)

Monday evening, we decided to stroll down U Street and see what the fuss and fanfare around the "U Street Corridor Revitalization" was all about.

We dropped in on Coppi's Organic, as much out of hunger as out of the fear that if we walked any farther, we would wind up in Ben's Chili Bowl (and neither of us had packed our statins).

Upon crossing the threshold, you are transported to the old country. The dim lighting, cramped banquettes, black and white cycling photos and wood-fired oven centerpiece make you forget about whatever it was that was going on outside this lovely trattoria.

We settled into our table (we had our run of the place - there were only six tables seated at 8:00), and were about to begin counting our blessings that a gem like this had opened close enough to home to become our "local," when we caught a glimpse of the prices on the menu.

The gnocchi entree was $26. I'm sorry, waiter, I just wanted a plate of potato dumplings, I didn't want to buy the entire bushel of potatoes.

Any reader of these pages knows that I am not afraid to pay up for good food. A disproportionate amount of my household income eventually finds its way down my throat. But I know a rip-off when I see one and this smelled just like it.

My wife eventually talked me down.

The waiter came by to take a drink order while we perused the menu. We ordered a bottle of water and two glasses of Primitivo.

Ten minutes later, we ordered two brick oven pizzas and inquired as to the status of our water and wine.

The waiter returned a few minutes later with some focaccia, olive oil and our glasses of wine. Still no water.

We stopped another waiter on his way by and asked for water - whatever he had - the bottle we had ordered or even a glass of tap - no response.

Only after our pizzas arrived did they manage to bring out our water, at which point they brought both the bottle of water and glasses of tap water.

The first pizza was the crimini mushroom, basil and proscuitto pizza. This was quite good. The bite of fresh basil and rich, fatty saltiness of the proscuitto completely drowned out any mushroom flavor, but it was good nonetheless. Perhaps blindly wasting ingredients on dishes where they will not be tasted is part of what is driving up Coppi's food cost and leading to their nosebleed pricing?

The second pizza was a complicated combination of artichoke heart, roasted red pepper, grilled eggplant and crimini mushroom. This "tapenade on a crust" combination was pleasant, but the red peppers dominated everything else. At first bite, you got the salty undertones of the cheese and later the uber-sweet finish of the roasted red peppers, with little room for anything else.

These were passable pizzas. The clumsiness with which the recipes were concocted was more than made up for in the freshness of the ingredients and the quality of the crust. The soft, pillowy crust may well be the best pizza crust I've had in DC. Then again, I prefer my crust barely golden brown - what most would consider underdone.

When the bill came, we had paid $60 for two small pizzas, two glasses of cheap Primitivo and a bottle of water. This is completely ridiculous.

For the record, Coppi's is charging roughly TWICE as much as 2 Amy's for food that is far inferior.

If Coppi's can get away with charging those prices, for that food, on 14th and U Street, I feel much more secure about the value of my real estate, but I won't be back to eat there again.