Corelino's Coal Oven Pizza & Cucina

Michelle and I were ready to try out a new place late on a recent Monday night. It was about 9pm when I rolled into the shopping center where Chris' Taverna is located in Lantana. On our previous visits to Chris' I had eyed a small Italian place on the corner, in the same shopping center, named Corelino's Coal Oven Pizza & Cucina.

I parked the car and we walked up to the windows and we could see that they were already cleaning up to close. There was a gentleman sitting at one of the outside tables underneath the overhang eating his meal. "I think they're still open," he said, "push on the door."

I stepped into the place and as she removed the chairs off of one of the tables, Nicky invited us to sit. We thought it was really nice that they let us in so late even though they were closing and after we tasted the pizza we were really thankful!

We weren't really interested in a full blown dinner and just ordered a pizza once I confirmed that the sausage was crumbled and not sliced. Michelle tried out a few gourmet cookies from the dessert display and we ordered a couple of diet cokes.

As we waited we could smell the aroma of the dough cooking in the oven. After only a short wait the pizza arrived at our table and boy was I surprised. Every other pizza I have ever eaten was built with the sauce under the cheese. This pizza had the sauce on top! I have heard of this before but have never had the occassion to try sauce-on-top pizza.



Cheese on the bottom. Sauce on top.

The first bite gushed with flavor. The crust was cooked exactly as I like it: thin and crispy, and was cooked to the perfect temperature.The crispness made it easy to bite off a piece without having to pull the pizza away from my teeth and tear it apart.The tastes of pepperoni and sauce hit my buds quickly followed by the taste of fresh melted cheese. The pizza did not have the overly sweet taste that many restaurant recipes use both in the sauce and in the dough.

On a scale of one to ten I would definitely give Corelino's a 9.5 which is the highest rating I have given to date and it will get a spot on my
                                                           
favorite pizza list. I spoke with the owner Vince and his lovely wife Nicky afterwards and we will be returning soon to try some of the other dishes.

Corelino's Coal Oven Pizza & Cucina is clean and neat. The waitstaff is friendly and efficient, the prices are reasonable, and they have darn good pizza. What else could you ask for?

Be sure to check them out and tell them you read about it at http://www.whiteplatespecial.com/