For the second time in a year, restaurateur Matty O’Reilly has set up shop in a St. Paul neighborhood.

And for the second time, I’m jealous of the people who can walk to that restaurant.

Delicata (1341 Pascal St., St. Paul; 651-75608123; delicatastp.com), in the old Java Train building smack dab in the middle of the Como Park neighborhood, is just the kind of place you want to walk to, share a pizza, some meatballs and a pitcher of beer on a weeknight, and walk home.

And if you’re lucky, it’s nice out and you can sit on the restaurant’s gorgeous, terraced patio.

As it is, I have to drive there to enjoy it. (It’s worth the drive.)

O’Reilly and executive chef J.D. Fratzke opened Bar Brigade in Mac Groveland this spring. The French tavern has been a hit for its affordable, elegant, simple fare, good cocktails and a killer rosé on tap.

Delicata is a different animal in many ways, but the most obvious difference is that it’s counter-service. That means you order at the counter, take your drinks with you to a seat, and the food is delivered to you.

The nice thing about the counter-service system is that, in a restaurant like Delicata, where the food comes out lightning fast, you have a drink when your pizza arrives. Given that the employees bus your table for you, I can’t really come up with a reason to dislike the way this works.

As for ordering, if you’re starting with an appetizer, and you definitely should, the grilled artichokes ($7) with a bright, nutty romesco sauce are a great way to get your vegetables.

If you’re looking for extra protein, the Italian sausage meatballs ($7) will fill that need in a kicky, delicious way. Honorable mention goes to the fun fontina fondue ($6), served with crisp crostini and puckery giardinera or a hefty portion of creamy gigande beans ($6).

The pizzas are personal size if you’re hungry, sharing size if you get an appetizer and/or dessert. The crust is on the thin side and perfectly crisp, which means it can hold a boatload of toppings without drooping.

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8 ways to make school-at-home lunches easier It’s hard to pick a favorite, but if we must, it would be the delicata squash pizza ($12), with blue cheese, prosciutto and a balsamic drizzle. It strikes the perfect balance between sweet, salty and tangy. That idea is also carried out in the forest mushroom ($13), which counters plenty of earthy mushrooms with nutty fontina, peppery arugula and crisp pickled onions.

Meat lovers will be pleased with the pork sausage ($14), which is loaded with plenty of spicy sausage but mellowed by swipes of creamy ricotta.

Chewy (in a good way) marinated tomatoes almost steal the show from fresh, briny shrimp on the shrimp and pesto pizza ($14), and the artichoke ($13) is loaded with so much spinach, feta and olives that you could almost forget it’s a pizza.

When you order your meal at the counter, you should definitely remember to add dessert, which you can pick up when you’re finished eating. If you are the gelato type, a few scoops of whatever specialty flavor they have from Zia’s Gelato ($5) are definitely a good idea.

If you’re more of a cake person (and even if you’re not), the coconut cake is absolutely chock-full of coconut flavor. Chef and general manager Noah Barton said the team didn’t want to stock milk just to make one cake, so they tried coconut milk instead. Smart move. It’s lick-the-plate good.

The restaurant is open evenings-only during the week, but it recently started brunch service on the weekend, so it’s open from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The brunch menu includes breakfast pizzas, sandwiches, french toast, pizza dough cinnamon rolls and more.

Given the number of people in the Como neighborhood, we have been surprised that the place wasn’t busier when we visited. Maybe the word just hasn’t gotten out yet that there’s a sweet little pizzeria, ready and willing to serve neighbors a quick, tasty meal.