ANDERSONVILLE — Bar Ombra has a new wood-fired oven, and the Venetian-style Andersonville restaurant hopes its new pizza deal will draw some younger customers: kids.
The restaurant and bar, located at 5308 N. Clark St., if offering up two pizzas for the price of one Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 6 p.m. through the end of the summer.
Ombra owners Marty Fosse and Tim Rasmussen also own two other popular Andersonville haunts — acclaimed Italian destination Anteprima and American farm-to-table restaurant Acre, which shares a space with Ombra.
The two-for-one promotion primarily targets families, Rasmussen said. He anticipates parents picking up kids from summer camp and heading over to Ombra to share a few pies.
The owners bought a massive 4,000-pound wood-fired cast iron oven and installed it at the restaurant in the late spring. The oven provides a more authentic taste with crust that's crispy on the outside but "nice and chewy on the inside," Rasmussen said.
Ombra also slimmed down an expansive menu that included at least 75 small plates, keeping about 20 customer favorites, and decided on pizza as a new culinary focus.
The current menu features 10 pies of both the red sauce and white sauce variety. Before its wood-fired redux, Ombra's menu held a glut of Italian bar bites, cichetti, which Rasmussen said proved impractical.
"What we found was that about 40 percent of that we sold, and then there was 60 percent of it that we didn't sell any of or sold just one item," Rasmussen said. "Our menu was much too large."
Here's what's on Ombra's wood-fired pizza menu:
Red Pizza
- Margherita: tomato, mozzarella, basil.
- PAT: pancetta, arugula, tomato.
- Salciccia: house made sausage, greens, smoked mozzarella.
- Boscaiola, roasted mushrooms, tomato, prosciutto, arugula, shaved parmigiano.
- Diavola: spicy sopressatta, spinach, calabrian chiils, ricotta.
- Calamari: roasted garlic, chili, tomato, capers, parsley.
White Pizza
- Ortolano: roasted garlic, asiago, mixed greens, shaved parmigiano, balsamic.
- Genovese: grilled vegetables, ricotta, basil pesto.
- Quattro Formaggi: mozzarella, pecorino romano, provolone, gorgonzola.
- Piccante: spicy rapini, smoked mozzarella, pine nuts, calabrian chilli vinaigrette.
- Carbornara: pancetta, roasted garlic, farm egg, black pepper, mozzarella, pecorino romano.