new pizza!

Richmond seems to be a never ending pizza garden with new pizza parlors popping up every week.  This time it’s Stuzzi coming in at 1 North Belmont.

“We’re doing something that should make national headlines,” they say on Richmondmagazine.com.  We’ll see about that.  I’m just about sick of these places that think they can make an impeccable neapolitian pie with “homegrown” ingredients and fancy San Marzano tomatoes.  Just make a fucking decent pizza and save the shmucky VPN ingredients for another day.

I hope I get to eat my words.

street view google

Charlottesville at the drop of a hat.

Part 1…Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie

Something becomes a little too official when I get a text at work saying “pizza roadtrip this week,” to which I respond, “Charlottesville when I get out of here.”

I digress.  A good friend of mine, Brendan, dropped us a comment a while back urging us to check out a place called Dr. Ho’s in Charlottesville.  I have also been interested in checking out the hype behind Christian’s pizza, a staple for the UVa kids apparently.  It was an hour drive and I had gas in my tank. I gave Grant a call and we charged.

After about an hour, we took exit 118A and drove 9 miles outside of Downtown Charlottesville. It was dark, in the middle of nowhere and I had Grant convinced he would soon be raped and murdered. That was not the case at all. With snow on the ground keeping our eyes alert, we made a u-turn on Plank Rd. and drove a complete circle around a weird gas station complex that also housed a family chiropractic clinic and our destination, Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie.

This place definitely has character. No uniforms on the staff, a kitchen you can see when you walk in and all kinds of local stuff stuck all over the walls. Dr. Ho’s ‘rules’ included no cell phones. Apparently the rule isn’t so strict. The only other dude in the place picked his up and promptly responded, “nothin man, same shit, different toilet.”  Fucking hilarious.

How about the pie? Not bad at all. $10 for a 14″, we each tried a beer while we waited for a half pepperoni half cheese. We kept an eye on the kitchen from the bar top and it looked like they took care in making sure the pizza cooked how they wanted it. They did a pretty damn good job with the crust. Awesomely crisp outer and a light airy chewiness inside. Some of the best I have had in a while. The cheese was similar to most local shops, nothing stellar but a step above a chain pizza. The sauce? Nothing great. Brendan noted the real good stuff lies on their specialty pies. Their menu did look very promising.

Part 2…Christian’s

We actually had to hit up Brendan to get proper directions to the best Christian’s in town.  You see, Christian’s has exploded into a mini-chain of sorts in Charlottesville and we wanted to make sure we ended up eating at the best one.  We rendezvoused at a Shell gas station in a spot that looked to be our lucky parking space.

The Christian’s we were taken to is one in downtown Charlottesville in a cute little outdoor shopping mall.  I think we were told this is the original location, but I could be wrong.

Anyways, we ordered a large cheese pizza and the price was sick at just ten bucks. 18 inches for ten bucks?  Steal.  This could have easily fed four hungry wahoos.  While the price was right, the pizza was pretty damn mediocre.  The crust was reminiscent of a typical Piccola’s slice; a very thin slice with a droopy wet crust and a very thin, almost non-exsistant cornicione.  The cheese on this guy was pretty buttery smooth, something I personally enjoy.  Sauce was kept to a minimum and took a back seat on the discriminatory flavor bus, and a crust this generic generally has little flavor.

Christian’s definitely has a good following in Charlottesville from what I hear, even friends down here in Richmond have talked about hitting them up for a couple greasy night slices.  We even brought back a few slices to surprise said dudes and they were more than happy to chow down on em.

All in all, twas a good first pizza quest of the year and we definitely need some more suggestions from yous guys so we can pop a stop in your town for some impromptu slices!

pizza, beer and hockey fights

Ok so there weren’t any fights between the actual hockey teams we saw but I’m pretty sure every knucklehead Caps fan in D.C. wanted to push me off the ledge of the Metro this past Christmas weekend.  I am a die hard New Jersey Devils fan and I went with some friends up to the Caps Devils game only to see the Devils fall flat on their face.  While many Caps fans in the Verizon Center mocked our goalie by chanting “MAR-TY, MAR-TY,” Brodeur wasn’t actually the weak link in the team’s performance that night, stopping 36 of 40 shots and foolishly trying to nab a high flying puck that didn’t have a chance at the net only to deflect it down behind him and into the net.

Devils won 3 out of the 4 games in the season series anyway, so fuck the cup-less Caps.

I digress.  This is not a hockey blog, though if you really want to read a Devils hockey blog you can head to In Lou We Trust.  Ovie would say “Sikk blog.”

Before the game I spotted a fairly fitting little place  near Chinatown for us to grab some brews and possibly try some of their pizza.  The sign says it all.

If you can’t tell from the blurry as funk picture it says Pasta Pizza Bar.  Perfect right?  Almost.  The beer is overpriced but thankfully we arrived in the midst of happy hour, where a draft beer (only choices are Peroni and Pilsner Urquell) is only $3.75.

Good man of the evening, Ryan, bought us all a CAPRESE which is mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, basil and tomato sauce.  $9.95 is pretty much what I’d expect to pay for a neapolitan-american pizza in D.C.

The pizza looks good, but I can tell at first glance it’s undercooked.  All the ingredients are there.  The cheese was a pretty mild mozzarella and the sauce a tangy fresh tomato sauce, but the crust was just a floppy, droopy mess, wet with moisture and absolutely not a good base for the cheese to cling on to.  I’m pretty sure everyone’s slices ended up not having cheese on them after we picked our piece.  The cornicione, or end crust, was pretty tasty, but this pie really could have benefited by spending more time in the oven.

The only thing I absolutely didn’t like were the raw, dirty feeling basil leaves on top.  You really couldn’t eat these things as they were as tough as some of the leaves that garnish a plate at a fancy restaurant.  Inedible and almost not meant for eating.

But hell, there’s no better friendly gesture than buying your mates a pizza pie before a hockey game.  Go Devils!

Pizzeria Due, Chicago, IL

After eating nothing but pizza from Friday night until Sunday afternoon (Father and Son’s leftovers) I hardly had the stomach or the drive to get more, but I knew I needed to hit up at least one of the famous places in the heart of downtown Chicago.  Pizzeria Uno, Due, Gino’s East or Giordano’s, I didn’t care.  I felt it was necessary to the trip.

We eventually snail our way downtown around 9 or 10pm, a little later than I wanted but shit happens when you’re wandering around in a new city.  As 10pm came and went, I kind of gave up on finding a place to dine at, I didn’t think any place would still be serving this late on a  Sunday night.  As we make our way to the Signature Lounge at the 96th floor on the John Hancock building, I look left at an intersection.  Far in the distance I spot Pizzeria Due.  I run down the street to check to see if they were open and sure enough they were will serving this late.  Perfect.

image from goplantit.com

Pizzeria Due was opened by the owners of Pizzeria Uno, right across the intersection from eachother in the 40′s after Uno grew to be too popular.  They claim to have created the original deep dish pizza but others claim it was Lou Malnati, which is another pizza joint I wish I had the chance to try out.  You can read all about that crap on wikipedia so lets talk pies.

I was apparently the only one hungry enough to order anything so I got a small pie and tried to split some of it when my friend Katie.  The pie was split up half pepperoni half mushrooms.

The pie we got was a little more typical of a thick crust pizza.  Lots of gooey cheese, well cooked toppings, and a thick, moist crust that would easily fill up a hungry dude.  I don’t remember anything really unique about this stuff, it was just good. Everything was cooked perfectly, the crust had a nice balance of textures with a little oily touch.  Tomato sauce was a little more typical than a place like Burt’s; more on the tangy side than spicy, but it was certainly fresh and very tasty.  One thing I realized about Burt’s is that they don’t go very heavy on the cheese, which is something I don’t mind as much.  Due certainly had the most gooey cheese of them all.

Pizzeria Due is another really cozy pizza joint with friendly service and decent prices.  I typically paid about $15-$17 bucks each pizza on this trip of mine, which was usually enough to feed 4 people on average, though I found myself eating the Father and Son’s leftovers three or four times on the trip.  I can really understand the appeal of deep dish pizza now.  It seems to me that the goal is simple; you take good pizza and just make more of it in one dish.  Bread is something that I love to eat and I also find it to be very delicious, although not as good for your sex appeal in the long run, so it makes sense why this kind of pie is full of flavor.

This trip rocked and the pizza rocked even harder.  The best pie was definitely at Burt’s, everyone I was with seemed to say the same thing.  Father and Son’s was great but how the fuck did a rock get in my pizza?  Fuck you for that.  Pizzeria Due was also great if you enjoy a less than spicy thick crust pizza but I love the atmosphere there.  Half-basement dining in the heart of downtown Chicago?  I’ll take it any time,it doesn’t get much better.  And the only non deep dish pizza I tried at Piece was pretty damn great too.  Dammit, all of these places were good.  Are there any bad pizza places in Chicago?  Or did I just choose very carefully?  I’d like to think the former, but like everything else, there’s bound to be some shit stinkin’ up someone’s flower garden.

Now if we could only get a decent deep-dish pizza joint here in Richmond…

Thanks to Katie and Laura for showing me around and all the friendly people I met.  Go Blackhawks.

Burt’s Place, Morton Grove, IL

After a fun trip to the Home Alone house in Winnetka, IL. we made a stop at a much talked about pizza place just outside of Chicago called Burt’s Place.  I had read great things about this place on the internet and from Mr. Bourdain’s show, No Reservations, so myself and others were excited to check this place out.  Tucked away in a cozy neighborhood with more than cozy service, this was easily the best pizza I had while I was in Chi-town.

We almost didn’t find it.  Who would have thought such a popular pizza joint would be nestled far away from the main business road, way deep in a neighborhood that I would have no doubt never, ever visited if it hadn’t been for Burt’s Place?  The people inside were more than accommodating.  The joint was small, and about two people were on the floor serving, one of them I recognized as Burt’s lady from the No Reservations episode.

As soon as we realized they didn’t accept credit cards, we told them we had to go find an ATM.  That was no problem for them, they took our order anyway since the pizzas usually took around 45 minutes to cook and let us leave to get money while the pies were in the oven, so they’d be closer to being done by the time we came back.  I can’t imagine any other pizza parlor doing this for total strangers.  Very cool.

We sat down and ordered some beers from a menu that consisted of mostly Great Lakes Brewing Co. beers which were all very much good beers.  I ordered a pale ale with an %8 abv. which is something I’ve never seen done in a pale ale.  I was disappointed in the lack of a beer for the budget minded as every beer on the menu was $4 or more, and thats bottled!  Is it really that hard to keep a small stash of Budweiser?

Anyway, I didn’t come here to drink.  We ordered two small pies, which was more than enough food for 6 of us.  Granted, some of the ladies only ate 1 slice, and one couldn’t eat any due to a Gluten allergy (god bless her soul) but the three slices I ate absolutely annihilated me.  One pie was sausage, one veggie.  The verdict?

Amazing.

This was one of those pizzas where you can tell just how great it is going to taste before it enters your mouth.  You can taste the spices and flavors through your nose right as it’s placed in front of you.  The crust on these pizzas is caramelized which is sort of a defining characteristic of Burt’s and it really sets it on its own pedestal.  Crispy, chewy, full of flavor and plenty of it to go around, the crust is almost one with the cheese that is baked on top of it.  And forget about that dog food sausage that you find on your pizzas around here, this stuff is sliced thick like pepperoni and spiced perfectly.

I forced myself to eat more of this than I should have, but how many times am I gonna get to come here?  If I’m ever in the windy city again, I’ll definitely be making a trip out here.  The pizza is absolutely crushing and the people of Chicago, I consider them lucky to have such a killer place to eat.

What yo drink is?

Way back when we started this blog, we initially talked about pizza and beer together.  Our founding post brushed upon the greatness of these two timeless consumables in which often brings us together to celebrate the freedoms that this great country affords us.

You don’t find us talking about beer on here very often.  Probably because we know what we like and we tend to stick with it.   This blog has also become very defined and specific, but we definitely love having a few beers along with our pizza, though it certainly doesn’t have the be the only thing you can sip on.  I feel like you can drink almost anything with pizza.  Cola, water, beer, juices and even milk, though I’d rather have a tasty brew.

Sierra Nevada has long been one of my favorite breweries .  Its standard pale ale is definitely one of the most delicious, readily available beers in the country.  You can always find that shit in any gas station and 7 Eleven.  My good friend Mike D. let me try some of his Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale the other night while we were at Cous Cous having a few while our friends’ power was out.  This shit has quickly become my beer of choice for this holiday season.

pic courtesy of JustBeer.wordpress.com

I love hoppy beers, so this definitely has my palette stoked and packs a punch at 6.8% abv.  Devils are playing the ‘Canes tonight at 7pm.  Expect to find me chowing down on a 14″ Romanza cheese with a couple of these Ales.

What do you guys like wit yo pizza?

Bears, Bulls and Deep Dish Pizza

I’ve never had a proper apprectiation for Chicago style pizza or “deep dish” pizza.  I remember exactly my first taste of said pizza was Dominos Deep Dish back in the early 90′s.  The commercial was catchy.  I believe it was tied to college basketball in some way and the song had the beat from Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”  The stadium was stomping and clapping the beat, and the hook was something like “DOMINOS DEEP-DISH!”

this CANT be good

Other than that, I can’t honestly say I’ve had a good Chicago style pizza.  What’s offered around here is what I consider crap.  Bottom’s Up is some of the most overrated pizza I’ve ever eaten and I’ve tried both their thin crust and their gi-normous, grossly thick “slices” (I like to call them “slabs”) of deep dish pizza topped with anything from crab meat to Gulden’s brown mustard.  Overrated and overpriced.   My friend ordered a single pizza one night with 3 or 4 toppings and it ended up being over $30.  If you top your large pie with any kind of seafood, that’ll run you $10.95 per topping.

And none of this stuff even remotely resembles the true deep dish pizza of Chicago that I’ve seen in pictures.  That stuff is HUGE.  So I turn to one of my verbal heroes, the voice I hear in my head when I try to write entertaining shit about pizza or really anything in life, Anthony Bourdain.  I’m going in to the windy city with a very narrow mind.  A pizza racism of sorts.  And if Bourdain, a New Yorker through and through, can find a way to enjoy Chicago’s monstrosity, then surely I can.

I took it upon myself to book a trip to Chicago next weekend as a couple friends will graciously host my pizza-eating ass in the heart of the city.  I will arrive around noon on Friday and will run through the city’s best pizza until Sunday night.  I’m setting my goal at 5 different pizza joints, but I can’t expect my friends to be as pizza-obsessed as I am.  Three will be good enough.

Oh ya.  Go Blackhawks.  Those throwbacks are sick.

Pronto Italian Restaurant…Ristorante? Whatever, they have pizza.

Pronto is a little shopping center Italian restaurant right off of Libbie Avenue in the same area as Barnes and Noble and Target.  I had some pizza from there a couple years ago but I really don’t remember anything about it other than the gross amounts of cheese they put on this thing.  Too much cheese is usually a bad thing I say.

At first glance, I had bad feelings about this pizza.  It actually looked worse when it came out of the oven…

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Cogan's, Norfolk

My pizza addiction has put me on a weeklong pizza binge since last weekend and after pillaging a Digiornio at 3AM this morning, I have decided to put an end to it.  My blog posts this week will most likely not be pizza reviews, but I’ll do my best to bring something to the table and I’ll try not to do the typical re-broadcasting of pizza news linked from other pizza blogs.

This weekend brought me down to my home town, Virginia Beach, for a rock rager at Chicho’s Pizza on 29^th and Pacific.  Our other writer, Mr. Andy, plays guitar in Constrictor and I often find myself singing and air-drumming along to the melodies that get stuck in my head.  They’re rad.

While I didn’t eat pizza at Chicho’s, I think Andy can chime in and tell us how good their pizza is.  I would have definitely grabbed a slice but I had already pounded out a large pizza at Cogan’s an hour earlier with an old friend of mine.  We split the toppings; she opted for straight pineapple on her side and I kept it real.  Just cheese.

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Jo Jo's Pizza, the new King of Richmond's NY Slice

There two different ways to get pizza…GOOD pizza. You can order a nice pizza pie or you can stop off at a local joint and grab a couple slices and a soda.

The latter, is always a painless, quick process, but you often don’t get to experience the restaurant’s best pizza the way it was meant to be consumed. Single slices are often left out up to 20-30 minutes at a time and then thrown back into the oven for a couple minutes to reheat.

Generally, pizza is resilient enough to still retain its best qualities even when served in this manner…especially at Jo Jo’s Pizza on 12th and Main St. The absolute best pizza by the slice in the city.

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