Annie walked into Pizzeria la Collina on Tuesday with a sidekick.

"I have a problem," she said. I looked at the quiet guy walking in behind her. A boyfriend? A problem? Never.

"I locked my car keys in my house and I have to wait for my roommate to get home and she's in Denver," she said. "... so I had to bring my boyfriend."

Mike was not only an added welcome to our lunch, but he ordered the prime plate of the three of us at the new pizza place in town.

And who were we to know.

He at first insisted he wasn't really hungry. We convinced him to try something. We waited for food at the table as he stood at the order counter asking us, "Do you like pesto?"

Annie said she and Mike had, at times, gotten into big battles over what to eat for lunch, dinner or just about any meal.

"That's what I should have got," Mike said, looking at the sausage sandwich heaped with cheese and sauce served to the gentleman at the next table. Noticing our observant eyes, the man raised his eyebrows: "Wanna trade? Bite for bite?"

But after being served his Pesto Calzone ($5.95), Mike wasn't regretful. And neither were we as we got to try a chunk of the large calzone, which was full of wonderful melted ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, marinated roma tomatoes and a lot of pesto sauce. He also ordered a lemonade. Annie ordered water and the Eggplant Focaccia hot sandwich ($5.95). I ordered a slice of cheese pizza ($1.75), a La Collina Salad ($3.75) and a Dr. Pepper.

The salad was pleasingly large, served with Romaine lettuce, roma tomatoes, black olives, cucumber and carrots -- all artfully placed.

Pizzeria la Collina offers three types of dressing -- balsamic Italin, creamy dreessing and a lemon dressing.

I had asked the lady taking our order which was the best.

"The lemon dressing, but that might just be because I'm a lemony person."

Me too, actually. The lemon cake at high school graduation party was my choice and a popular one as it was almost gone by the time we took the traditional family graduation cake picture. It's the family joke, appearing in the photo albums in crumbles.

The lemon dressing was tasty and different, though not proportionate to the large salad.

"They have really fresh ingredients," Mike said as he dug into his calzone further.

"I thought you said you weren't hungry," Annie chided him.

Annie's eggplant sandwich was on homemade focaccia bread and was served with sundried tomatoes, eggplant and melted provolone cheese. Loving the bread, she heartily finished most of it, save for the extra eggplant that was disproportionately heaped onto one of the slices.

And my pizza brought back memories for all of us.

"It's like that good mall pizza," Annie said, noting the large slice.

I could tell it was made from scratch. It had that individuality to it. A bit greasy, but sparingly. With a good balance between pizza sauce and cheese. There were five different pizzas available for orders by the slice, and more available if we wanted a different type. It was perfect for a lighter, mid-workday lunch. And the restaurant had the right sit-down atmosphere for it.

"Would you come back," Annie asked Mike. "Yeah," he said between calzone bites.

The service was friendly. The décor, reminiscent of a small Tuscan village, with picture books of Tuscany out. And the chef had a thick Italian accent. On the menu: "(Chef) Sadek spent 12 years in Tuscany and the Umbrian hills where he mastered the traditional art of hand crafted pizza and rustic cuisine."

Anna Maria Basquez is arts and entertainment reporter at the Coloradoan. Reach her at AnnaBasquez@coloradoan.com. Most dining columns are based on one visit.