The Pizza Thread

Having moved to a larger town with more options, I've tried a lot of new pizza in the last two years. Some chain, some local. For me, the sauce is the key. I cannot tolerate bland pizza sauce.

My favorite right now is a local chain, Idaho Pizza Co. Dine in or delivery. I like to go there for dinner on Sundays to take a break from my desk shift. I get a personal size and a drink for a few bucks.

But two new places opened in the new shopping center/movie theater/restaurant/bar spot in town. Both have the same type of pizza (brick oven, thin n floppy crust), but they're different enough.

Grimaldi's is a sit-down place with servers. The pizza could easily be $25, plus drinks, and take 20 minutes to get the food. But, they also have calzones.

Blaze is a sit-down place, no servers, pizza big enough for two for under $10. And it's cooked in 3 minutes. No calzones.

I like 'em both, but Blaze is a better option for obvious reasons.

If I want delivery, it's Idaho Pizza. But the wife doesn't like the sauce. Too spicy for her. She always wants Papa John's. I hate the stuff. Bleh sauce. Plus, I worked at one during college, so I know how shit the ingredients are. Frozen dough balls, frozen cheese, sauce straight from a can.

Sometimes, we'll compromise with a Pizza Hutt stuffed crust or a Domino's pan. Neither are great, but they're edible. And I don't know why, but I do love the Domino's stuffed cheesy bread.

But it's hard to just get one pizza and split it with the wife. She always, always wants pineapple. I wouldn't mind doing half-and-half, but the pineapple is never strained and the syrup spreads all over. So my half is always sweet. It's disgusting to me.

 

Also, I worked at a Sbarro when I was in high school. It was shit. Haven't seen one outside of an airport in a long time.

 

I feel like rest stops are the other area I see them a lot.

 

Papa John's sauce is way too sweet, and a bad sauce ruins a pizza for me. Fortunately, that's the only pizza my spouse and daughter order, so I rarely eat more than one slice.

The local institution's pizza is so salty I get a headache immediately after eating it. I like salt, but, shit, it's like they take a shaker, screw off the lid and just dump it on the pizza. If I'm eating there because of a work function or something, I drink a ton of water, which comes with its own complications.

 

So, you're partial to Chicago pizza that doesn't make you feel like you just ate a brick?

 

I'm partial to Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. It's been ages since I was there, but probably the best pizza I've ever had.

 

I lived in NY in 1984 and loved Famous Rays. I had forgotten about that until I just saw the name.

 

The mall up the street from me here in the Toronto 'burbs has a Sbarro. Never seen one anywhere else here. there is no shortage of chain pizza here - we have Domino's, Pizza Hut and the odd Little Caesar's location in addition to local chains, no idea why Sbarro thought coming here was such a good idea.

 

I know people may think that stuffed pizza is simply wrong (Jon Stewart) but we've got Zachary's Pizza out here that has a stuffed pizza that's just awesome.

Our local pizzeria started a special recently with sweet tomatoes that makes the sauce so much tastier.

 

Sbarro is a mall staple. The only one I've ever seen that was not in a mall was with the Fat Boys in Krush Groove. Alll you can eat.

 

Yeah, Sbarro is in pretty much every mall. It's basically NY pizza.

 

Actually like their strobolis, but Sbarro pizza sucks most of the time.