La Festa Brick & Brew

If you walk around Dover, New Hampshire, you will smell a wood-fired oven and something delicious cooking over it. If you follow your nose you will find yourself in front of a brick building housing La Festa Brick & Brew - which features wood-fired pizzas in their own brick ovens.

This place is hopping in the evening and on weekends. The kitchen is viewable from the restaurant itself, and you can watch the young college-aged staff twirl pizzas as you wait for your order to come up. Their pizza features ingredients beyond the typical pepperoni, sausage, green peppers and onions. Their specialty pizzas are where they excel - featuring pizzas like Shrimp Scampi, 5 cheese, BBQ chicken and many other creative combinations.

My favorite type of pizza that La Festa offers is the White Buffalo Chicken pizza. This pizza is made with a white sauce, cheese, pieces of buffalo chicken and is topped with two swirls of buffalo sauce and blue cheese sauce. It is a perfect mix of heat and flavor, and the swirls of blue cheese sauce are very good. My friends have described it as "the perfect buffalo pizza - ever."

I recently also really enjoyed their Jambalaya pizza. This had pieces of shrimp, jalapeño peppers, sausage and had a lot of spicy kick to it. I was impressed, because New Hampshire as a whole is not usually known for its fondness for spiciness.

My absolute favorites at La Festa (aside from the pizza) are the garlic knots. The garlic knots are soft and usually warm when received, and are abound with garlic, cheese and olive oil. These are the best garlic bread type side I have ever had, and I never go to La Festa without ordering some.

In addition to their great food, they also have a rotating selection of draft beer that goes beyond the typical Bud, Bud Light and Coors. They feature both local and national microbrews and craft beers including Sam Adams, Dogfish Head, Magic Hat, Smuttynose and others. They rotate often, so it is fun to return to see what is on tap this week. They also have a great selection of bottled beers - including hard to find brews. This is probably due to their proximity to Smiley's - a beverage center/convenience store that specializes in craft beer. They also offer sodas, teas and even wine to accompany your dinner.

The restaurant itself has tall bistro tables in the section with the kitchen and the order counter. There is also a more dining-room like section that has booths and larger tables. I regularly come with 4-6 friends and usually don't have trouble finding a table big enough for all of us. The prices are that of a typical pizza restaurant, with some pricier pizzas that contain specialty meats such as shrimp.

At most pizza restaurants that offer single slices of pizza, you are limited to popular choices such as pepperoni or cheese, and they are usually a little dried out or cold. At La Festa, they regularly churn out many of their specialty pizzas, and if you ask nicely, will make up a pizza for the slices of any type on the menu. Imagine being able to stop into a pizza place at lunch and get a Mediterranean pizza slice heaping with feta, tomato and olives.

Dover is a small enough town so that delivery would take longer than driving a mile or so to pick up the pizza, so they don't offer delivery. I would complain about this, but since it takes such little effort to get to La Festa, since it is the center of town, I can't. The only drawback that I can think of is that on Thursday, Friday nights, timing is everything. There is a large dinner rush, and the place can get busy quickly. Your best bet is to come before 7pm or after 8:30 if you want to avoid the crowd.

All and all, if you are in the Dover, NH area and are craving pizza, the La Festa Brick and Brew is the perfect spot.