Ellington

Description

Boston's, The Gourmet Pizza Restaurant & Sports Bar, opened around the end of November as part of the Holiday Inn Airport-East's face-lift. It's a bright, cheerful and inviting spot to dine. The dining room features banquette seating in muted shades of purple, blue and green, and dark wood chairs with seats covered in a lovely shade of plum. In most of the dining areas, you wouldn't ever guess that Boston's is partly a sports bar, although the bathroom doors have baseball bats for handles. The menu is substantial, offering appetizers, salads, pastas, pizzas, entrees and sandwiches. We ordered the Deluxe Spinach & Artichoke Dip ($6.99), a gooey mixture of cheese, spinach and artichoke accompanied by corn tortilla chips. Other appetizers are Boneless Buffalo Wings, Pretzel Encrusted Mozzarella Sticks, Thai Chicken Bites, Classic Potato Skins and Parmesan Pizza Bread. A large Mama Meata ($17.99) was a delicious pie made with smoked ham, pepperoni, ground beef, mozzarella cheese and spicy Italian sausage, with a spicy Bolognese sauce. We also tried a flavorful Extreme Mushroom Neopolitan Pizza ($9.99), made with sliced mushrooms, mozzarella, garlic parmesan bread crumbs and Boston's signature pesto sauce made with portobello, shiitake and crimini mushrooms. Beyond pizza, the restaurant serves other entrees that come with a choice of two sides: fries, roasted vegetables, coleslaw, garlic rice or pasta. The Slow Roasted Danish Baby-Back Ribs (half rack $12.29, whole $18.29) were tender, but lacked the delicious smoky flavor we're used to in the South. - Rosemary Boggs