Restaurants: Pizzeria Lola a slice of heaven

Pizzeria Lola has transformed me into a previously unimaginable persona: an early-bird diner.

Not by choice, either. I'm not ready to mimic the Sun City set just yet, but experience dictates that pizza hounds like me are well advised to arrive at 56th and Xerxes as soon as the doors open at 5 p.m., or risk a long wait for a table.

Yes, it's that popular.

Because co-owner Ann Kim prepares all the dough herself, the results are remarkably consistent from day to day, a thin but sturdy crust that has a slight lift, with a crispy outer layer, a tender, air-pocketed interior and a gently sour flavor. It's a fine foundation for a detail-oriented array of toppings that are almost always paired in satisfying combinations.

There are roughly a dozen pizzas on the menu, including a build-your-own option, but why not take advantage of Kim's endless recipe testing and go with the combos she prescribes?

My No. 1 choice is the Sweet Italian, which features a house-made pork shoulder sausage, each hot bite popping with garlic and fennel, the overt spiciness tamed by subtly sweet peppers. It's followed closely by the Xerxes, in which a light touch of mozzarella and feta stands up to nicely bitter sautéed broccoli rabe, salty olives and crushed almonds. If there is a more imaginative and appealing vegetarian pizza in this town, I haven't tasted it.

Leading the Simple Pleasures department is a first-rate Margherita, its splash of red sauce -- a brightly flavored crush of three types of tomatoes -- dotted with creamy Wisconsin-made cow's milk mozzarella, whole basil leaves and a crush of intensely flavorful dried oregano. Even more basic is a straight-up blend of red sauce, roasted garlic, drizzles of olive oil and more of that oregano; it's so good that it's easy to overlook that it's cheese-free.

The beet salad is a beauty, and I love the skillfully prepared meatballs, a spicy combination of veal, pork and beef bolstered by bits of Iowa-made prosciutto and that refreshing red sauce. What really blew me away was the thick slices of succulent olive oil-cured tuna, sharing the plate with toothy, lemon-kissed cannellini beans and a hearty olive tapenade.

Another find: the soft-serve ice cream machine that Kim bought from a Wisconsin cheese shop. Rather than resorting to a commercial -- and fake-tasting -- soft-serve mix, Kim doctors a basic gelato base she imports from Italy, and the combination produces the most luscious soft-serve imaginable.

Would I change a few things? Roughly half the pizzas are $15, and that's pushing the outer limits, price-wise, on what is essentially a single-serving pie. A few variations failed to impress: The La Creme tasted like a pale version of that divine Margherita, and truffled cheese and truffled salt overpowered the woody roasted mushrooms in the Forager. Lola, named for Kim's beloved two-year-old Weimaraner, can be punishingly loud when it's going full tilt.

And wouldn't it be lovely if it were possible to make a reservation? The upcoming patio season will thankfully add some much-needed capacity.