Picco 513 Tremont St. South End Boston, MA (617) 927-0066 www.piccoboston.com

This month we have a guest restaurant reviewer, Jack Benjamin. Benjamin has owned and operated four French cafes and an Italian bistro, Café Luna in Boston. He has also served as the Sommelier of his cafes, and has traveled to both France and Italy in his search for the perfect meal. Because we want to cover all points of the globe, we asked Benjamin to pick a new favorite eating- place in Boston.

“Since opening last summer, Picco's owner-chef, Ric Katz has created a positive buzz by serving delicious fire-roasted pizzas in a casually hip atmosphere. Picco is a modern version of the old neighborhood pizza parlor, with additional goodies such as salads, great-tasting soups, and homemade ice cream with wonderfully intense flavors. When we visited Picco’s on a late spring evening, we found both the outside cafe and the booth-lined dining room packed with a diverse crowd of families and young singles. We enjoyed vegan soup of fresh tomato and lemon. The Picco Salad was a nice mixture of greens, olives and roasted red peppers tossed with perfectly balanced red wine vinaigrette. Next came the star of the evening, the Margherita Pizza, a beautiful looking pie with a perfectly crunchy texture that matched the smoke-flavored tomato sauce and blended Romano cheese. This was one of the best pizza eating experiences that we have ever had. We topped off our meal with a fire-roasted gingerbread with strawberries and a medley of homemade ice creams of which the Caramel Nut was the standout.

The staff at Picco is both friendly and accommodating. There is a modest wine list by the glass dominated by Italian Wines. This is a very reasonably priced restaurant that is opened 11:00 am to 11:00 pm -- seven days a week.”