Skipolini's Skips Nothing for Customers

of Clayton,one of four Bay Area locations, offers a more compact menu than its siblings. It opens at 4 p.m. daily and we showed up not long after that on a recent Saturday.

The restaurant occupies a converted house and several outbuildings. You enter through a side door and step onto Skipolini’s trademark sawdust-covered floors.

I inquired whether the specialty and white-sauce pizzas were available in individual sizes, and our friendly cashier explained that “everything comes in every size.”

I chose the barbecue chicken specialty pizza in the individual size, while my husband opted for the Greek pizza calzone ($12 each). More on these later.

From the selection of beers on tap, my husband chose a pint of Big Daddy IPA. Upon the cashier’s recommendation, I went with the Black Diamond Amber Ale ($4.25 each for these premium pints; $3.25 for domestic ones).

Before ringing up the order, our cashier convinced us to try the Italian house salad ($3.50), which she explained is big enough for two to share. We chose the homemade ranch dressing.

We carried our pints of beer through the small indoor space, looking for a good table. At this early hour we had our pick, so we settled on a table at the rear of the house.

We did notice our tablecloth was quite sticky, probably from ample use. But the charm of the little dining room, which we had to ourselves for the whole meal, made up for it.

Original paintings and artwork hang on every wall and through a window we spotted artwork hanging under an awning.

Our salad and silverware arrived within about 10 minutes. The house salad featured a generous portion of rather boring iceberg lettuce topped with string beets, garbanzo beans, thinly sliced yellow onions and croutons. The homemade ranch served on the side was fantastic — thick, creamy and tart.

Ten minutes after the salad, the pizzas arrived. My barbecue chicken did not disappoint. Generous amounts of tangy barbecue sauce, chicken, onions, smoky crumbled bacon and mild green chiles covered every square inch of this thin-crust concoction.

My husband’s Greek pizza calzone was mammoth. It had a thick, braided edge, and was stuffed with pesto, feta cheese, olives, red onions, mushrooms, red and yellow bell peppers and chicken. The feta and bell peppers were flavor standouts.

We noticed a few other things; the chicken on our pizzas was overshadowed by all the other flavors and textures, and the individual and calzone pizzas are so large that a single one will easily satisfy two smaller appetites.

This was a casual date night for me and my husband, and the artsy indoor dining rooms are perfect for that. Want to eat outside? Heat is provided and there are plenty of tent-covered tables from which to choose. 

The place is also very family- and group-friendly. There’s even a plastic play structure nestled in tanbark out back. Look out McDonald's.

About the only change I’d love to see at this branch of Skipolini's is for it to open earlier on weekends for anyone who wants a great lunchtime pizza.