This is the first decent pizza I’ve found on the west coast. Hand stretched crust, very little tomato sauce, stringy mozzarella.
What took them so long, I wonder.
They have “New York style” pizza all around here, made from recipes by people who’ve never been there apparently. The “NY style” out here will either be too thick like cake or too hard and thin like saltines, contain cheddar cheese, be swimming in tomato paste, have pepperoni bits instead of slices, and many other tragic missteps. And the fancier the place, the worse it gets. Turkey and avocado and arugula toppings, feta cheese, . .
So now I’ve finally found a source for this comfort food. Take out only in my town, but that’s okay, I’ve got my own red checkered tablecloth.
I hate to tell you this, but little tomato sauce is a BAD thing. The reason I don’t eat much pizza is that it’s hard to find one that has enough sauce.
Eh. Not so much. Too much sauce makes the cheese float on top. It’s also VERY fucking hot and hurts when it hits skin.
I’d rather have too little as opposed to too much.
A couple of weeks ago we saw the commercial on TV. Coupla dudes with wretched attempts at a Brooklyn accent but the pizza looked like it might be the real deal. Awfully cheesy, big ol’ pepperoni slices and it was decided that I must have it.
Generally we don’t order from Domino’s in that the pizza is sub-par on many levels. Crappy cardboard-like crust, flat sauce, ho-hum toppings; definitely not our first choice. And since the commercials never lie we figured what the hell.
Pizza came and it was the same crappy Domi-blow’s pizza, with cardboard crust, sauce that rivals the kind they used in my school’s cafeteria and pepperoni that was indeed a bit smaller than a compact disc but not much different from the ones they ordinarily use.
A wholly disappointing experience.
That pretty much makes this our last order from Domino’s. In the words from W. himself: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, uhhhh….well, uh… don’t fool me again.”
Domino’s used to be my pizza of choice when I was a kid. But they have an obsession with their sauce, so I’d have to ask for light sauce. When they remembered, it was just the right amount. I’m not overly picky about my pizza, really, except I won’t go near Papa John’s. Their sauce is too sweet. Or was last time I ate there.
-Lil
A while back, Pizza Hut had a pizza called the Big New Yorker. The sauce was different, and you could only get it plain or with pepperoni around here. It was actually edible, for all of 2 weeks, until they changed the sauce. Then it disappeared. For good reason.
To me, sauce makes or breaks a pizza; it’s why all the big name pizzas (Domino’s, Little Caesar’s, etc.) all suck. The sauce is an afterthought… just some sort of tomatoey neutral liquid.
A pizza where someone actually pays attention to the sauce and puts enough on that you can actually taste it is absolutely wonderful. I order my pizzas from a local place and ask for extra sauce. What’s even better is going to the semi-local sit-down bar that serves lovely thin crust yummy sauce pizza… they put the sauce on top of the cheese so it’s the major taste and the crust stays crispy. Oh man, now I want pizza.
I was exited to try the Brooklyn style too, but was underwhelmed. The best Brooklyn style I’ve had was a North Carolina family-owned joint called “Brooklyn Pizza” or “Joe’s Brooklyn” or something like that. I’ve never been to Brooklyn, but the friend I went with was born & raised there. He said they got it pretty right. Go in, choose your slice and a can of Pepsi. They reheat the slice in the oven and serve it on a paper plate. Best part is the grease that drips out when you fold the slice on itself. Mmmmaaaagggh, best hangover food ever.
I reheat the Domino’s slice and it’s better than right out of the box, but still not close to the real deal.
For me, what makes or breaks a pizza is the crust. Now, I may be from Chicago, but I’m a fan of thin-crust pizza (and, contrary to what you may think, thin-crust far outsells stuffed pizza in Chicago, and we have an indigenous cracker-crust style that’s similar to St. Louis-style pizza, but is topped with mozzarella, not Provel). This is where New York’s great pizzerias have the rest of the country beat: the best places have a flavorful dough, started with a good poolish, and cooked in a hothothot oven until it’s that perfect balance between crispy and foldable. Beautiful spots of black char. Great stuff.
As for sauce, plain old crushed tomatoes are great. I’m a fan of Neapolitan-style pizzas, and generally they’re just based on plain ol’ crushed Roma tomatoes, with a little bit of olive oil. American pizza styles are generally more spiced, but the sauce isn’t that important for me. And I agree that less sauce is better.
The quality of the toppings would be the important thing for me, after the crust. And don’t go crazy with the cheese. I love cheese, but I shouldn’t be able to peel it off in a single layer off a pizza.
But, yeah, it all starts with the crust, which is why I can’t stand Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, et al.
I meant to say “deep-dish/stuffed,” not simply “stuffed.”
But I also wanted to say I’ve had pizzas that didn’t even have any sauce (like potato rosemary pizza) which were fantastic simply because of the effort put into the crust.
I have to agree that sauce can make or break a pizza. Unfortunately, due to the fact that all the pizza places around me have -terrible- sauce, I always err on sauce-light just to keep from wanting to hurl the pizza out the window.
This being said, I’ve found that trully good pizzas have a certain rarity. I have two pizzas that I’d go out of my way for.
Sadly, I’d -really- have to go out of my way.
One of them is from a place in a suburb of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. They bake their pizzas perfectly. I don’t know how they pull it off, but it always arrives not only piping hot, but -almost- burnt. The cheese is just starting to get crispy, which is a very tasty touch for me.
The other place uses some nice exotic ingredients… And happens to be in Aruba. It’s a bit of a trek.
If by best you mean best NY style, then please email me where it is and when I’m anywhere nearby I’d like to try it.
"And at 790 calories, you may want to add a notch to your belt. That’s without sausage, pepperoni, “pork topping,” or anything else. To your heart, your waistline, and your blood pressure, each slice of the average Big New Yorker Pizza is a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder. The only difference: Most people stop at one burger. "
Good grief! the Brooklyn style stats come in at 330 cal/slice. (And a slice is 1/6 of a pie, not 1/8)
Is there really NO decent pizza on the west coast? Even if they’ve modified their Saltine & Heinz recipe, it’s still Dominos. I can make better pizza than theirs, which means it’s pretty bad.
For pizza delivery I get Big Mama and Papas, it’s quite good. For local I go to a place up the street called Pagliacci’s. California Pizza Kitchen is alright too but I don’t get that very often.
I’m not a big pizza person, mostly because I can’t stand it cold or reheated. I like a meal I can have leftovers from.
