Comet Ping Pong, Chevy Chase, Washington, DC

Left to my own devices as Nancy went off to her college reunion, I headed to Comet Ping Pong for an early (5:45 pm) dinner. I hadn’t been there in ages. We rarely eat pizza, largely because I absorb so many calories eating meat and bread that I need to avoid other snares. But when I’m without adult supervision …

Comet is a big place, a very long narrow space with a spare, industrial feel mixed with whimsey. If you look, you’ll see that the tables carry the ping pong motif of green with white borders. Oh, and there’s a small outdoor area in back that wasn’t open when I went.

The restaurant has been a magnet for controversy, first over the ping pong table set up on the broad sidewalk out front, and next over live music and, for the neighborhood, late hours. Comet Ping Pong controversies entered the Twilight Zone with the conjuring of a theory that the basement was being used for the worst sort of human trafficking and just about everything else except pizza, live music, and ping pong. People will believe anything, and Edgar Welch, whose credulity level must have made the Guinness Book of World Records, came to investigate and shot up the ceiling.

Today, things are calm. The outside now is for seating rather than ping pong tables, the ping pong tables are in the very back, by the still-active bandstand. The tables are filled with families with young children (their own) and young people, with a leavening of … mature citizens. The only mystery left is the location of the bathrooms, which are bare of any markings, and the doors are bereft of knobs, handles, or even frames. Stay tuned for a hint.

Comet’s menu offers various salads and appetizers, 16 specialty pizzas, and build-your-own pizzas with (1) three bases (red, white, and pesto) and 44 separate toppings. It’s mathematically possible with that information to calculate the number of pizza combinations you could create at Comet Ping Pong, but when Nancy started this blog for me, she promised there would be no math. Maybe one of you can tell us.

I ordered a beer and was toying with various combinations when the server came by. I focused my dithering to a choice between the Time Out (garlic oil, gorgonzola, merguez sausage, potato, melted onions, and parsley) and the Ca-Lamb-Ity J’s (garlic oil, spiced lamb, feta, tzatziki, za’atar). The server urged the Time Out “because of the parsley.” I was struck by that. In my decades of eating, I have never been urged to make a selection based on the parsley. So I went with the Time Out.

Whoa! As soon as the server set the pizza down I was struck by the aroma. The garlic and the potatoes and the gorgonzola were positively seductive. This pizza was a triumph. The very potatoes were full of potato flavor, and the fresh parsley sprinkled on the pizza after it left the oven really did add some … pow! Oddly, the one thing that wasn’t packed with flavor was the merguez. I’d expected the merguez to be the boldest element, but it turned out to be bland.

The bread was a very thin on the bottom, making the pieces a bit floppy, but the outer crust ring contrasted the good chewy center, and it had that savory edge of Italian bread.

This was an excellent pizza. You have to pay for it. The pizzas run $16 and up for what amounts to a personal pizza. I guess it may be a 10-inch pizza for the same price as a 14-inch pizza from, say, Mama Lucia, and the person who’s calculating how many different pizza combinations Comet offers can tell you exactly how much larger a 14-inch pizza is than a 10-inch. I’d say about twice as large. At Comet, you’re paying for a craft pizza.

You should go to Comet Ping Pong, at least if you’re feeling flush. And if you have to go when you go, don’t bother looking for signs or even doors to a restroom. Go into the storage space on the right before you get to the bandstand area, and push on the broad horizontal boards with the rough finish. If you push on the right spot a door will open. Or I suppose you could just ask an employee. But do go. This is very good pizza.

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