I was once describing to a friend this fabulous Thai chicken pizza I had eaten (sorry - not available around here), and he got a skeptical look on his face and said: "Gourmet pizza is an oxymoron." By "gourmet" he meant pizza with the kinds of toppings you won't find at Pizza Hut. I'm kind of a foodie myself, so I'm open to trying pretty much anything on a pizza, but I understand where he was coming from. Sometimes you just want the basics.

That's the mood Josh and I were in the last time we went to Lola's, the recently opened restaurant on Bridge Road in the South Hills. After having tried the portabello pesto pizza and creating our own concoctions involving roasted red peppers, carmelized onions, roasted garlic, and other yummy morsels during previous visits, we opted to order a plain old pepperoni pie. It was fantastic.

Pizza is such a simple food, but it's so hard to get just right. The plain pepperoni pizza highlighted how great the sauce and crust are at this quaint little pizza joint. The sauce is bare bones - tomatoes, minced onions, garlic, and a bit of basil. It tastes so fresh that I wonder where she's getting such good tomatoes out of season. (Are they canned?) The crust is perfect - crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Needless to say, we ate the whole thing (and polished off that bottle of Six Hands).

IF YOU GO: Lola's is at 1038 Bridge Rd. Hours are 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursday; 4 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. They do not take reservations. Call 343-5652.