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Fresh from the oven: Pronto Pizza's "Clackamas" pizza, with pepperoni, sausage, mozzarella and parmesan.

(Courtesy of Pronto Pizza)

In Clackamas, Portland creep is usually something to avoid.

But when that creep looks like a new Clackamas pizzeria with New Haven-meets-Naples-style pies inspired by Portland hot spots Apizza Scholls and Ken's Artisan Pizza? Perhaps its time to lower the drawbridge.

Pronto Pizza, from Linda Shankweiler and Cynthia Cesnalis, took over the former Sunshine Pizza Exchange space earlier this year and slowly started unveiling new pizzas and antipasti. (Disclosure: Shankweiler is the departing design director for The Oregonian's MIX Magazine.)

Working with consulting chef Chris Whaley, a veteran pizzaiolo from San Francisco-area restaurants Picco and Zero Zero, Shankweiler and Cesnalis plan to continue making improvements to the restaurant's menu and the decor. New additions

include polenta fries with spicy aioli, a meatball grinder with house-made chips and a light and lemony Caesar salad.

A pasta extruder should arrive next week. Soon, customers will find a half dozen fresh pastas joining the restaurant's re-imagined pizzas, fresh salads and appetizers (think fried mozzarella balls with basil-walnut pesto). Some Italian ingredients, including olive oil, tomatoes and the fine zero-zero flour for Pronto's pizza dough, come from San Francisco importer Casa de Case.

And the pizza?

"We're using a Neapolitan approach," Whaley says, "but we're cooking in gas ovens, so it's a little slower and crispier than what a Neapolitan might be." The meaty Clackamas pie ($19 for a 16-inch pizza) comes with pepperoni, sausage, mozzarella, basil and parmesan.

Pronto Pizza: 16050 S.E. 82nd Drive, 503-655-5094, prontopizzabar.com

-- Michael Russell