With scattered exceptions, of course. There’s a really good place here in Bozeman called Mackenzie River, that serves an excellent pizza. I don’t know enough about the fine points of pizza crust to say what sort it is; it just seemed like “normal pizza crust” to me (though very well-executed).
I don’t entirely agree. New Haven-style pizza, which is a pretty popular style, is pretty similar to Neapolitan pizza.
Edit: on preview I see that others beat me to it.
I lived in NYC for 8 years. I traveled to Italy once, for 12 days. Most likely it was due to my own fault of not seeking out the right restaurants, but IMO the Italian food in NYC (including pizza) was much better than what I ate in Italy. Now, I’m certain there are places all over Italy with amazing food, but I didn’t find many.
Hmmm, maybe there is a difference between proper Neapolitan pizza and what is commonly eaten all over Italy. At any rate it certainly isn’t American tourists who are demanding cracker-thin crusts and knife-and-fork pizzas.
I think a fact-finding mission is in order!
It’s actually a small chain- there’s one in Missoula and I think one in Kalispell, if not more. I just graduated from UM, and visited Bozeman several times, but somehow never managed to eat at a Mackenzie River. Hopefully when I get back to Montana I’ll get to eat at one. Any specific recommendations?
I agree on the scattered exceptions west of the Rockies: There used to be absolutely amazing “gourmet” pizza in Olympia at a place called Jo Mamma’s. We went several times when I was a little kid, and I adored their artichoke heart, roasted garlic, and goat cheese pizzas ever so much. But I can’t remember what their crust was like. They closed by the time I was 10. Bastards.
Olympia still has (besides the chains and the sit-down places) Old School Pizzeria, which I think is sort of a New York style pizza- sold by the slice and foldable without being floppy, and Dirty Dave’s, which has a thin and crispy crust and likes to put cashews and shrimp on pizza- better than you’d think if you haven’t had it that.
I think it may be a difference of tastes. American-Italian food (like the stuff in NYC) is generally much heartier and heavier than continental Italian food (although there is plenty of difference in styles within Italy. America tends to inherit their food from a Southern Italian/Sicilian pedigree.) American versions of Italian dishes tend to be a lot heavier on the sauce, they tend to use a lot more garlic and dried herbs and often intermix garlic and onion in dishes where, traditionally, in Italy one or the other is used. I find Italian food, as practiced in Italy, to be very much a cuisine of simplicity and purity of flavors and ingredients, and it can be rather difficult here to source the ingredients to pull off authentic Italian dishes (try finding guanciale for carbonara or all’amatriciana–there are at least two mail-order purveyors I know of, but it’s hard enough to find that I cure my own.) My own palate leans towards the cleaner tastes of Italian cooking as practiced in Italy, where the quality of ingredients really shines through. They’re both good (who can resist a NY-Italian Sunday gravy?) but there’s a definite stylistic difference between the way the cuisine is represented here and on the Continent.
Maybe more than tastes, it was* expectations*. In NYC, I knew where to go, or read reviews of places to try. In Italy we just tried places that seemed interesting from a glance. I’ve eaten at Mario Batali’s Po and thought it was amazing, but we went there based on a particular reputation. I guess I had an idea that every restaurant in Bologna/Venice/Rome would be fantastic, which is silly, of course.
I will say that we had one spectacular meal at a place called La Giostra in Florence that met our lofty expectations.
I think my favorite is probably the Flathead: Alfredo, chicken, bacon, spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms. The Branding Iron, Stockman, and Thai Pie are also good, though.
Indeed. My Italian grandmother, born in the Eternal City, was always disappointed in all the Italian restaurants she found in America, since they were all <raise nose in the air> Sicilian.
That and , from the standpoint of a pragmatic palette, that’s too much. The pizza isn’t balanced.
Also, after reading this, I am fucking hungry. Detroit has some interesting pizza places as well, including Shield’s, Buddy’s, and Gracie See’s.
Ooh, don’t forget Pizza Papalis.
Aaaaand he mentioned Buddy’s. Good call. Buddy’s is pretty solid pizza.
I’ve travelled very extensively in Italy and never, not even once, had a pizza that was dripping with grease or moisture. Tourist pizza, as with tourist anything in any country, is unlikely to be “the real thing”. One of the best pizzas I ever had anywhere was down some slummy backstreet in a not-great part of Milan. I walked in and asked to see a menu and was given a most bemused look by the guy behind the counter. “No menu. Cheese and tomato,” he said. And my god, it was the most delicious thing I ever put in my mouth. The east coast round Cattolica also has some excellent pizza. And… well, all over. I never met one I didn’t like. I also like American pizza, but it’s not the same thing at all. You really can’t compare them.