Cafe Nino - finally! good pizza

New Orleans lacks in four major areas of delicious food: Mexican food, Deli (po boys are not deli food), Chinese food and Italian pizza parlors. As far as Italian goes, the options are limited to shoddy replicas of New York-style pies, "hipster" pizza(which isn't always bad), healthy cardboard crust pizza, and bs American chain restaurant garbage.

Luckily, one place stands above all of that disappointment. Cafe Nino rivals most of my favorite pizza places up north and puts the rest to shame. The marinara makes the parlor, and Nino's has it covered. Nino, an old Italian dude who runs the place and can be found sitting at the counter most afternoons, listening to Louis Prima and watching soccer on TV.

The building looks like an old, converted Subway sandwich shop. You can grab a slice of pizza, order one of the daily entrees and a side of pasta, or order something off of the menu to be made for you. I usually get a cheese calzone, which is always amazing.

Their selection of wine is as follows: "red" or "white." But for 4.50 you get a 20oz styrofoam cup full - which is a great compliment to the food (and a trip to drink with a lid and straw). (If Nino is working, chat with him. Sometimes he'll give you a little free wine (read: about a normal glass size) "for the digestion.")

What else can I say? Go there. You won't be disappointed.