Assante's

Assante’s Pizza is near and dear to the hearts of many Richmonders, offering some of the only really late night satisfaction in town.  I have some of the best pizza/friends memories of Richmond involving inhaling a large Assante’s pie with friends after a night of boozing and partying, only to experience an impromptu pizza high and blacking out.

And I actually had a craving for some of the chewy crusted pizza last night…

As much shit that I usually talk on this place, the pizza ain’t half bad.  The pizza is cooked slower, so the crust will never really get the crispy, crunchy edges that I usually require on a typical hand tossed pizza.  But the crust is good.  No, it really is.  It’s not stale at all, and the people there always cook the pizza to a brilliant point of perfection.

Assante’s is cheap and everyone knows it.  The cheese doesn’t taste like very much other than milk and grease, and it almost always congeals together by the time you get it home to eat.  In fact, with the first slice I bit in to last night came the entire layer of cheese, but the crust and sauce combo is good enough to eat alone.  Their sauce at its base is sweet and sugary, typical of a budget pizza, but at least they try. The red, lumpy stuff has a generous amount of spice added to it, so, you know, they care about the stuff a little bit.  Right?

Alas, a large Assante’s pie with one topping will run you around $8 or $9, and at that price you’d be hard pressed not to make your way towards Strawberry St. and get an 8 1/2 pizza, but that puny thing will barely fill myself up, let alone one or two friends.  At 3 A.M., where the hell else are you gonna go?  Certainly not Chanello’s.  Maybe Andy will…

-gRant