I stopped in to a fairly new pizza place here in town. It opened last October. I’d recently overheard a coworker talking about getting a pizza there, and since it is pretty close to my home I tried it.
OMG, I’ve never had pizza like this. It’s a “build your own place” You choose the sauce, the cheese, and one topping. Extra toppings add to the basic price of $5.00, so with tax and the add ons I chose it came out to $7.35
The choice of veggies, meats, sauces, and cheeses are amazing. When I saw what all they had I kind of had a “Greek” pizza. Tzihtki(sp) sauce, thinly sliced lamb, feta cheese, kalamata olive and fresh(!) spinach leaves, with some white cheese. Service was fast. I took the pizza home and my stomach leaped up and started nibbling at my windpipe it was so good. They make their own crusts too.
The only bad thing is that, as the crow flies, this place is about a quarter mile from home. How am I not going to be there all the time?
The place looked busy, but it is Friday night, probably the busiest time. They have tables too, with TV’s. You can get wine or beer, and it’s close to the university. I really, really hope this place makes a go of it.
Have you ever done a “first time visit” to some kind of establishment, food or retail, and known you will be a loyal customer on the spot?
There is a pizza joint in the mall located to our east that puts paid to every pizza place I have found in a 50 mile radius. The best, and the right amount of sauce. They make their own dough. They understand the term ‘Extra Cheese’. And it is REAL cheese. The large 20" pizza feeds the house for days. I have NO objection to opening the wallet for the $22 price. It is worth the 30 mile round trip
How do you keep the pizza hot for the drive home? I work by a great pizza place in Boulder, Abo’s Pizza, but the 20 mile drive home keeps me from bringing home a pie. I get slices for lunch once a week since I discovered them, but the two times I took one home, It was disappointingly cold. reheating, even in the oven, just isn’t the same. The second time, I gobbled up two slices in the car on the highway, but that was a bit awkward!
Ask them about an insulated bag. When I managed a pizza joint, we had some foil re-usable ones we gave nobodies, and my regulars I’d give one of the older ones my guys used for actual deliveries.
You’re so lucky - I don’t eat pizza very often, but when I do, I want a very good pizza, not some mediocre crap. My thing is the sauce - I want a very tasty, thick, skunky sauce, not some bland ketchup-y stuff. Still haven’t found it here.
We have some insulated bags we got from Target. They aren’t as good as the professional delivery bags, but they pretty much do the trick. They also help keep the frozen goods frozen on shopping days.
As for pizza itself, there’s only one small chain with a store not too terribly far from us that has edible pizza. But when I need the real deal (or as close as we can get here), we have Giordano’s mail us some.
America’s Test Kitchen gave me one of the best kitchen hints I ever learned. Don’t worry about keeping your pizza hot for the drive home. Instead, just heat a big skillet until it’s piping hot, adding no oil or anything, and lay the pizza slices in it. They reheat in just a couple of minutes, and the bottom gets recrisped simultaneously.
I buy to-go pizza in downtown San Jose where I work, and it’s a 45-minute commute home. The pizza’s tepid by the time I get home, but reheats/recrisps in the time it takes for me to put grated cheese and red pepper flakes on the table and put away my purse.
Worst pizza for me was in Winnepeg, which was also the second worst meal I’ve ever eaten. The winner was a vegetarian Thanksgiving featuring a “barley loaf”.
