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Best Bargain Restaurants: Faccia Luna

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Faccia Luna
Washington , Clarendon

The original wisconsin avenue faccia luna offers the ultimate proof that you can't transform a very good Italian-American pizza into its Neapolitan counterpart just by cooking it in a wood-fired oven; the Pennsylvania-bred, slow-rise crust earns a few char-marks from its proximity to the glowing logs, but its flavor is hardly different from a pie crisped in the pizzeria's conventional ovens. Make no mistake: This remains one of the area's best Italian-American pizzas. Just don't go to Faccia Luna expecting another Pizzeria Paradiso. As of this writing, the Clarendon location still turns out a stellar Italian-American pie without recourse to firewood.

Over the years, Faccia Luna's pizza has overshadowed the very good oven-toasted "grinders"--hero sandwiches by any other name--that share the menu. This year, thanks to the experimentation of Pennsylvania pizza-master Bill Baney, a sandwich may be as good a reason to go to the original Faccia Luna as a pizza. "Baney's Special" is a crusty, hollow roll baked from his slow-rise pizza dough, packed with paper-thin slices of steak mixed with marinara sauce and pickled hot peppers. Sandwiches don't get any better than this.

Faccia Luna , 2400 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington; 202/337-3132. Open Monday through Thursday 11:30 am to 11 pm, Friday and Saturday 11:30 am to midnight, Sunday 4 to 11 pm. No credit cards. MapIt!

Faccia Luna , 2909 Wilson Boulevard, Clarendon; 703/276-3099. Open Monday through Thursday 11 am to 11 pm, Friday and Saturday 11 am to midnight, Sunday 4 to 11 pm. No credit cards. MapIt!

QUALITY: ****Excellent; *** Superior; **Very Good; * Good
PRICE RANGE: $$$= Very Expensive; $$ Expensive; $=Moderate; ¢=Inexpensive

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