Cheri and I went up to Federal Hill this past Thursday for a grilled pizza class at Geppetto’s in Providence.
Geppetto’s Grilled Pizzera
57 Depasquale Square
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
p: (401)270-3003 f: (401)228-8241 Website
We picked this up on a Groupon and it looked like fun. It was. It was also not exactly what we expected , but we had a great time, some good food and met some nice people. Here’s how it went.
Geppetto’s on the hill
The bar area inside Geppetto’s
We arrived a little early and had a nice glass of wine next door at Cafe Dolce Vita. Getting there early is good because, if you are already not aware, Federal Hill is not an easy place to move around in and park during dinner time Thursday thru Sunday. This day was no exception. I dropped Cheri off right at Geppetto’s and got lucky with a good spot two blocks away. When we finally got to Geppetto’s we were the first people there, and found out there were twenty in the class, which led to more wine. It was about 7 PM when we started the class, which was 15 minutes later than the scheduled time.
You don’t go back in the kitchen during this class. They set up twenty stations on tables out front with bowls, ingredients already measured out, and a pizza pan. Everyone stands at a station and the pizza chef goes through the ingredients with you. She was very informative, and actually gives you a lot of information about some little aspects that can make the difference between a successful dough and something less than that. Then you mix your ingredients and knead your dough. Stress relaxation is an unexpected side benefit, because you have to knead it pretty good. Then you split it into four sections (three of which you will take home) and spread one onto your pan. The goal is about an 8-10 inch circle with even thickness. You can’t go too thick because this is going on the grill without a pan to support the bottom.
Not everyone actually makes a complete pizza, some people get to do parts of it. The chef picked two doughs as the best and pulled those forward. Mine happened to be one of them (I believe the word she used was “perfect”). Whoever has their dough picked gets to choose who will top it, so I of course picked Cheri. She made a barbecue chicken pizza with the other dough getting a more traditional marinara and pepperoni treatment. These are the only two pizzas that get grilled from the class, and everyone gets a taste prior to dinner. The chef grills one on an electric grill in front of you and the second goes in the back for gas grill cooking.
Once the pizzas are done everyone moves to the bar area so they can set the tables for dinner, which only took a couple of minutes. Dinner, I must say, was quite tasty. It started with some excellent calamari, fried with banana peppers and very tender. This was followed by penne in a pink vodka sauce that was also excellent. Grilled pizzas in two varieties came next; one was the barbecued chicken flavor we had made and the other was a tomato pesto. Neither Cheri or I was crazy about the pesto pizza, but we’re not generally pesto people. Dessert was excellent Tiramisu. Coffee, tea and all other non-alcoholic beverages are included.
We were there for over two ours and it went by fast. We recommend the experience, but you should realize you won’t be in the kitchen. You will get to take home three dough balls, which we used the following day to make traditional pizza in the oven. They worked great. A recipe card for the dough is also yours to keep, and we will use ours again.
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