The Little Beast Cafe and Bistro, Chevy Chase, Washington, DC

Little Beast is hugely popular, especially for families with children. There’s a good bit of indoor seating, a tiny bar, and a broad covered deck outside with more tables. It’s delightful in good weather. I’d been there several times, including on the second or third day after they opened, before they quite had their sea legs. The pizza then was overshadowed by a delicious lamb ragu that, alas, is no longer on the menu. I’ve also enjoyed breakfast there, and I went for the Taqueria Xochi pop-up a couple of times. (They now have their own spot at 904 Upshur, which I need to try.)

I’d been meaning to go to Little Beast and try their pizza for a while. The thing that held me back was the size of their pizzas, 12 inches instead of the normal 10 inches. A 12-inch pizza is a bit over 40 percent larger than a 10-inch, and while I can eat a 12-inch pizza, as Les Wexler and I proved at Frank Pepe’s, well, there are a lot of things I can do that I shouldn’t do.

I solved the problem by meeting two friends from my days of prosecuting hate crimes/police brutality/church arson cases with the Justice Department, David Allred

and Jim Oliver.

David is a preternaturally relaxed prosecutor from Alabama who came to Washington to prosecute church arson and slavery cases, and Jim is … Jim Oliver. The plan was to split two pizzas among the three of us. We duly gathered — I had to be reminded — and discussed which pizzas to order. Little Beast has two styles — Brick Oven and Detroit. The latter has a thicker crust, and is also cooked in the brick oven. Jim and I threw out suggestions until David, who was getting hungry, cut the Gordian knot and announced our order–

A Diavola Brick Oven with garlic confit, salami, pepperoni, and pickled banana peppers.

and a Sausage Brick Oven with caramelized onion, roasted red pepper, ricotta cheese, and pepper relish.

As you can see, both pizzas were surrounded by a nice puffy ring of untopped bread. That’s a big plus for me. I’m very pro-bread, and this was very good bread, rich with flavor. Neither pizza had been sliced all the way through the crust. That was a minor annoyance, put to naught by the nutty confit garlic on the diavola pizza, and the flavorful sauce on both pizzas.

The salami on the diavola was excellent, and complemented the pepperoni for a delicious combination. I have to say that fresh peppers would have been better than pickled. The vinegar was a distraction, or it may just have reminded me of the simply awful pickle pizza at Tigerella downtown. The Italian sausage on the second pizza was good quality, and the wedding of sausage and roasted red peppers is another winning combination. I frankly didn’t notice the pepper relish, and the ricotta was a subtle presence.

All in all Little Beast produced two admirable pizzas. Neither was particularly assertive, and I see why they’re popular with families with small children. Their cupcakes may be another factor. It’s just possible. As always, I added lashings of crushed red pepper to my slices of both pizzas to help the flavors blossom, and I doted on the puffy outer crust. Delicious.

If you haven’t been to Little Beast, go give it a try.

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