I tell you that it is difficult finding places to eat when you have a crowd of grandchildren to keep happy and they often times think that a burger is the only thing to eat.  I am sure that there are plenty of grandparents that would allow themselves to be taken to fast food eateries to placate their grandchildren.  My grandchildren have a pain in the arse for a grandfather, who would only eat like that on occasion.  So, we settled on trying a new pizzeria that opened in the area.  Settebello Pizzeria is a small chain with a couple of locations in California, Nevada and one in Utah and they make a Neapolitan style pie, the kind with the thin chewy crust baked in a wood-fed oven and having the signature char marks on the crust.  Our son had heard about the place, but had not tried it, but it had rave reviews from some of his co-workers.  Settebello is the nickname for the Seven of Gold card in the deck of cards of a classic Napoli card game called “Scopa.”  The game is so popular that there are several apps available for your phone to play the game.

I was ready to try a good pie, as I have to admit that pizza is one of my favorite ideas of fast food from the time that I was a kid, as we never had burgers in a restaurant, but pizza was a treat if we were good.  We started off the meal by ordering some plates of beets, a large antipasto salad and a charcuterie platter, just to get the taste buds warmed up.  I was all set for some beets, until I saw that there was Feta cheese mixed with them, so I passed, but I guess Feta is a popular cheese these days, just not for me, in fact I have the hardest time handling most cheeses, but the others enjoyed it.  Everyone got their own individual pie according to how they wanted it, and I had to try to duplicate a good old-fashioned Detroit style pie with pepperoni, mushrooms and anchovies, and I was impressed that they had anchovies, since so many places seem to have given up on them.

I have to admit that ever since I was a teenager, my beverage of choice with pizza was wine, even though everyone else that I grew up with wanted cold beers, and a lot of my friends still prefer it that way, while everyone looked at me with a cocked-eye and groaned.  We had a couple of wines with the meal.  The first that I will mention was Villa Viva Cotes de Thau IGP Rosé 2016.  The Cotes de Thau IGP is a large part of the Languedoc on the Eastern edge and the vineyards are planted on grounds that were originally formed by fossilized oyster beds, since they are near the water.  The Cotes de Thau IGP actually has six communes and they are mostly known for their white wines, because of the terroir and climate, but this wine was pure Carignan and the terroir was noticeable in this wine as well.  The other wine we had was Cantine Riondo Casa Lunardi Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie 2016.  While this white wine at quick notice looks like it is from the fabled city of canals Venice, the district is actually named for the Three Venices from an old administrative region created in 1866 and continued until 1919.  Cantine Riondo is an Italian wine producer formed of over 2,400 wine growers and founded in 2008.  They have six production facilities and five key brands of which Casa Lunardi is one.  This was just a pleasant and easy drinking wine and perfect for the moment.