Has Pizza Fresca Closed in Fulton?

Has Pizza Fresca in Fulton closed? 

The pizza shop has had erratic hours for several months, but Jeremy wrote me about several days when they were closed last week.  Then he wrote back to say it looks cleaned out inside and sent a photo with a printed “closed” sign.

I feel a compassion for anyone trying to run a restaurant.  It seems hard in Maple Lawn, where the office buildings haven't sprouted as quickly as hoped.

The developers of Maple Lawn talked a big game about old-fashioned town planning and creating walkable development.  But sales pitches about "urban life" seem to turn into cookie-cutter shopping centers.  The new strip across from the Harris Teeter couldn’t look more vanilla, and the new plans along Rte 216 dump drawings of city-looking retail blocks for drive-through fast-food.  Literally, drive-through fast food.  

When Greenberg and Rose gives you Taco Bell, you'll miss even Pizza Fresca.

Buying Pizza Dough -- Take Out To Make In

Where can you buy a good pizza dough in Howard County?

I love making pizza, but there isn't time to come home from work, let dough rise for an hour, and then bake dinner. I was driving home Tuesday wishing that my commute ran past Trader Joe's when I decided to just take a chance.

Turns out that Pizza Fresca in Maple Lawn will sell you a pizza dough. It was $4. At first, that seemed steep, but I got a container of dough that made two large calzones. Definitely larger than the refrigerated pizza dough at Trader Joe's. Definitely fresher than Trader Joe's. And a great calzone because I filled it with my own mozzarella, chicken, eggplant and basil. Eggplant from Larriland Farm, basil from my porch. No neighborhood pizza place can compete with that. Next time, I'm going to use sausage from Boarman's.

(For the PizzaBlogger who knows his ovens, I'll report that I baked that calzone in a GE Profile with a ceramic pizza stone that I bought in about 1992.)

This was my first time buying dough from a pizzeria. Maybe it's silly to pay more for dough than I pay for a baguette at Bonaparte or Bon Fresco, but I was very happy with the results -- and $4 is cheaper than takeout. Are there other pizzerias that will sell you dough? Anyone else recommend a place to stop?

(Update: Amy comments below that she buys dough at Roma's Pizza & Subs on Phelps Luck Drive in Columbia. Anyone else?)

If you like pizza, check out my take on pizza in Howard County or peruse the many comments about Coal Fire Pizza in Ellicott City. If you love pizza, check out the PizzaBlogger, who does detailed tastings and writes broadly about making pies.

Pizza Fresca
8180 Maple Lawn Blvd # D
Fulton, MD 20759-2525
(301) 317-8088

NEAR: Pizza Fresca is in the Maple Lawn development on Rte 216 just west of Rte 29. From Rte 29, go west on Rte 216 and then turn right on Maple Lawn Boulevard. Turn left at the first intersection and loop behind the stores to the parking lot.