Much longer. Opened in Aug 2013, closed in Aug 2015 due to “an underground fire involving Eversource utility wire which left the entire building in a dangerous and altered state, unfit for occupation or business.” A4 only left after many months of waiting for repairs, which apparently was a mess due to poor coordination between the landlord, Eversource, and the city of Somerville.
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Agree that is seriously good pizza. The dining room is a bit spartan, but for takeout, who cares?
The only reason I like to eat in occasionally, is they do not do the spiedini for takeout. Their spiedini is a log of provolone, wrapped in proscuitto, heated in the pizza oven until the ham is crispy and the cheese melty, and served with some Mike’s hot honey on top. I know why they don’t do it for takeout, as if you were traveling more than 5-10 minutes, it would congeal into an unappetizing blob. The dining room IS rather spartan, but given the size of the space, it’s probably the best they can do. They definitely benefitted from outdoor dining, as it gave them another5-6 tables outside.
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As a curiosity, how was the pizza lacking?
I have found the pizza at the original Area Four in Tech Square to be quite inconsistent. This is judging by dine in pies. Sometimes the pies are a bit underdone and limp in the middle. We did have some enjoyable meals at the outdoor tables on the side of the building when our kids were young and could run around in the Courtyard. They were also always cool about letting us bring our dog and letting her sleep next to the table.
I do like the chocolate chip cookies at the A4 Cafe which opened next door.
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I’ve had this problem in the past, on occasion, but our last six orders (over the last 3 1/2 months) have been consistently good.
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It’s been awhile since the last time I ate there (6 months?) but…the service was atrocious. Having to repeatedly chase down the waitstaff to order, to get the drinks (after the appetizers came out!), to get the check, etc was maddening. And the pizza just wasn’t good enough to make up for it. For a place that makes a big deal out of their crusts, I found them very limp (underdone or overtopped?) and fairly tasteless. Toppings were fine as I recall.
response was to fooddabbler’s question
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Welcome @Stiv. If what you say is true there were two parts to the response:
None of this is good, but none of this is pizza.
As I said above in my reply to @uni, I’ve had the limp crust problem occasionally in the past, but not recently. I’ve always found the crust tasty, in a sourdoughy sort of way. The toppings in my experience have always been better than fine.
Original comment above - “experiences” being the key word. Going out for dinner is the whole ball of wax, if you want to separate the service from the food OK, but I don’t.
If you are fine with what you get at Area Four, good for you. For me it hasn’t been worth it - and I am not interested in having a food fight with you.
No food fights being sought at my end either, but to avoid future confusion I assume @Stiv and @stevestroud are the same entity.
