Il Bolognese does Italian food that everyone knows and loves: fritto misto (B370), salami pizza (B490), spaghetti carbonara (B290), and don’t forget the tiramisu (B290).

If you took your grandmother here and invited along that 14-year-old cousin at NIST, they’d both be happy. They’d be happy that the dining room has black beams on the ceiling and a massive, red-brick pizza oven upfront. They’d be happy that the servers are dressed in white sleeves and waistcoats. They’d be happy about the little nibbles you didn’t even order, like a lemon sorbet palate cleanser or a zucchini mousse bruschetta.

Actually, anyone would be happy on this last point, as they would be on first bite of Il Bolognese’s pizza—wonderfully crisp yet at the same time moist, burnt in all the right places, and with a pillowy crust  that tastes of hugs and happiness. The topping of the margarita (B390) is just as awesome, rich with the zing of a good tomato base, cut with chunky splashes of a surprisingly cheesy mozzarella. This, without question, is upper-crust pizza.

Pasta is also good, if not in the same I-need-to-text-my-buddies-about-this territory. The Bolognese ragu (B290) is exceptional, we just wish the tagliatelle it came recommended with weren’t quite so mushy. Still, NIST kid would find nothing to grumble about with his carbonara (B290), which comes in a generous, unctuous lump scattered in so many shards of deep-fried pancetta you can barely make out the pasta beneath.

Too bad they can’t replicate those crispy, porky heights with the porchetta (B420), whose floppy rind makes conversation turn to the glorious things Appia can do with a rolled pork roast—though we’re not saying we didn’t eat every last bite of the juicy flesh on our last visit. It also hasn’t put off the customers.

On a Friday night the place is packed, offering the kind of buzz that lets so many restaurants down, and crossing cultural boundaries (a well-heeled family, a group of Japanese businessmen, some expat cronies) with its old-school, pretension-free approach to the pizzeria. Neighborhood Italians, take note: this is what people want, taken with a good red at B170/glass or a Peroni draft (B300). Corkage B400