Rich’s Quick Picks for Pizza/Beer Pairings at Lola’s:

Prosciutto and Pineapple Pizza:
Ayinger Brau-Weiss hefeweizen
Spicy shrimp and sausage Pizza:
Samuel Smith’s India Pale Ale
Pizza Margherita:
Spaten Oktoberfest
Mushroom pizza with smoked gouda:
Rogue Dead Guy
Sausage and caramelized onion:
Ayinger Altbairisch dunkle

One trip to Lola’s restaurant on Bridge Road and you quickly learn that this not your average pizza joint. The place is very small and stays extremely busy, so you can forget a Domino’s type guarantee of pizza in 30 minutes or less. Owner/chef Cary Huffman and her crew deliver a wide variety of delicious pizza, all made with hand-tossed dough and fresh toppings. You can go for the more standard Margherita-style tomato, cheese and basil pizza, all the way to a pie topped with pineapple and prosciutto.

Lola’s beer cooler won’t let you down either. The tiny bar serves more than 30 different brews; most either craft beers or good imports. (Due to the limited space, draft beer ain’t gonna happen.) Everyone knows either through empirical or anecdotal evidence that pizza and beer supposedly go together. This belief was built on years of eating average pizza along with Bud or other macro-lager. You may have even read in recent news about the homebrewer who patented “pizza-flavored” beer. That is an abomination that I will discuss no further just on principle. That guy should just turn in his mash fork and go make candles or something. This kind of stuff just adds to the pile of negative stereotyping of beer and beer drinkers.

The macro-lager/pizza pairing rates as nothing more than a glorified TV dinner. This should not be your mindset when you visit such place as Lola’s, where you can take the pizza/beer matchmaking to a new and more delicious level. For starters, tomato sauce in abundance on pasta and on many other dishes is always a tricky pairing for beer. It can be done, but is done easier with a good dry red table wine (yes, you read that correctly).

The wonderful toasty crust of pizza, however, rides to beer’s rescue. The cheese and the toppings usually work in beer’s favor also. When paired with pizza Margherita, amber lager tends to do well playing off of the toastiness of the crust. “Heart stopping” toppings like sausage and pepperoni call for a beer that can stand up to the fat, so bring on the bolder English brown ale or even hoppier American brown ale.

Some of Cary’s more creative pizzas will require some beery experimentation, but hey! You get to drink beer all the while! Remember a few basics, like spicier toppings pair better with a hoppier beer. Ultra-hoppy beers should be avoided unless you start piling jalepeno or habanero peppers on your pie. Pizza with sausage, ham or pineapple will work great with hefeweizen or even witbier. Hefeweizen is a natural match to sausage and bread due to its Bavarian heritage. Don’t be afraid of ingredients like broccoli, anchovies or garlic. There are many flavor cues to exploit on the not so typical Lola’s pizza when you are pairing it with beer; so keep your mind and your ‘pie hole’ open!

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