Pizzeria del Mercato

There's a new sort-of Italian pizza place at Racine and Fulton--inconspicuous might be a good way of putting it. But the room is spacious, and the rather impressive wood oven takes center stage here; the cool kids in the neighborhood lunch here. Seemed promising.

The namesake is somewhere between tavern-style and neapolitan, without taking on much of the good graces of either. According to a piece in Dish earlier this month (http://www.chicagomag.com/Radar/Dish/Au ... l-Mercato/), the pizzaiolo is intentionally keeping the pizzas in the oven a bit longer than is the norm in order to ensure uniform crispness; the crust was the best part, yes, where it wasn't burnt. Oy, but the sauce: laid on thick, paste-y, and way way too redolent of dried herbs. I mean, it's August: c'mon, man.