After taking a whiff of the fresh tomatoes, dough and cheese pies baking in the oven, you'd expect to find a substantial pizzeria decked out in traditional red- and white-checkered tablecloths, yellow plastic cups and hardwood floors. My Pie is hardly that. (If that's what you're looking for, however, try My Pie's sister restaurant on Clark). Follow the intoxicating odor through the open glass doors and find a restaurant hardly large enough to fit a line of hungry pizza hunters. Inside the narrow crevice bound by lemon-color walls, My Pie's large oven pumps out piping hot deep dish, thin crust and white pizzas by the pie or the slice, to be eaten chez vous (or, in ravenous cases, as you walk down Damen).

In addition to the plain cheese, "modern art" (a white pizza with artichokes, tomato, garlic, mozzarella and basil-pesto sauce) and "veggie special" pies, the takeout and delivery joint offers spicy and mozzarella garlic bread, homemade soups and a melange of salads. Varying according to the weekday, the list of relatively heavy soups includes portabella posole, baked potato, shrimp and sweet potato chowder and New England clam chowder. As for the greenery, My Pie offers a healthy-size self-serve salad bar as well as mandarin orange, chef's, Caesar and cobb options.

Centerstage Reviewer: Jessica Herman