Seventh Hill: Italian pizza, French background

Seventh Hill, a new bistro half a block north of the Eastern Market Metro, dishes out authentic Italian pizza — but with a French pedigree. With an array of toppings and striking combinations, its open-faced pies are perfect for an out-of-the-ordinary yet affordable weekday lunch.

At the moment, Seventh Hill’s creators are better known for their popular French restaurant, Montmartre. The two establishments share both a wall and an address — 327 Seventh St. SE — but the pizza place has quickly found an audience all its own.

Seventh Hill is about a 15-minute walk from the House side of the Capitol, offering congressional staffers the opportunity to burn a few calories before partaking of a big pizza spread.

Diners will first notice the open-kitchen atmosphere, with a pizza maker tossing dough in the air or wielding a pizza peel to slide someone’s meal into or out of the wood-fired oven.

Customers order their food at a two-sided bar that encloses the cookery, and four three-person tables fill out the rest of the petite eatery. With 20 stools, guests may wait a few minutes before sitting if they arrive at the height of lunch hour. Once seated, a server will deliver a meal about 10 minutes after it’s been ordered.

Eleven pizzas make up the majority of the menu. The owners looked to the neighborhood for inspiration for their pies’ names. The Union Station, for example, is smothered with a four-cheese blend of pecorino, mozzarella, goat cheese and Gorgonzola and loaded with garlic. There’s also the sausage-based Navy Yard, a margherita-style Capitol Hill and the vegetable-heavy Stanton Park, among others.

The texture of our thin-crust style Union Station pizza was reminiscent of a fresh loaf of bread — soft and chewy, but not undercooked.

My dining companion, Matt Dermody, an intern for Rep. Chris Lee (R-N.Y.), complimented the “tasty” crust.

It’s “not too thick, not too thin,” he said.

Eight-inch pizzas are $11, but don’t plan on sharing one. A single mouth can easily scarf one down. Twelve-inch pizzas are $16 or $17 and sliced into eight pieces.

Oven-baked sandwiches — $6.50 each — are served on a heated wood palette. The one we tried balanced a warm, crispy roll with cool roasted red peppers, provolone, tomatoes, sun-dried tomato pesto and prosciutto — a lively and satisfying combination

In addition to the pizza, Dermody nearly devoured a whole bowl of potato-parmesan soup and the large roll that came with it.

“I’m full,” he said, after also eating half of our 12-inch pie. “That was really good pizza, actually,” he added, reaching for a fifth slice.

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