Pizza Quixote

Toss Pizzeria & Pub, with two Austin locations, describes its pizza as "New York-style pies with a Texas twist." We visited the Bee Cave location on a warm summer night. There's a large (and noisy) attractive patio dining area, but the Texas heat made us choose inside seating.

It was a large space, modern and uncomplicated, noisy with sporting events on several large screens and plenty of patrons, especially families. The serving staff was especially polite from start to finish, and helpfully turned down the volume on the blaring TV sets.

Pies come in three sizes; the large is 20", medium is 14", and the small personal sized pie is 10". Because we wanted to try more than one pie, we ordered a medium Classic Pepperoni pizza and a small Pulled Pork Carbonara pie. The menu also includes appetizers, salads, chicken wings, a nice selection of cocktails at $8 and craft beers on tap.

The Classic pie featured "cup and char" pepperoni, the small-diameter thick-cut circles that curl up into little saucers while the edges gain some oven charring. The New York pizza analogy is apt, and the crust compares nicely with the best New York pizza, like Denino's, which sports a thin but sturdy crust with little droop. This is not the floppy and foldable type of pizza found in slice shops on the east coast; it's a solid level up.

The thin crust led to a nice puffy cornicione, which was a perfect golden color, sporting little crunchy heat blisters all along the edges. The underside was likewise a pale gold, with more of those tiny crunchy bubbles. The crust had excellent flavor and a satisfying chewiness despite its prominent crunch; it was an ideal platform for the toppings.

Underside of the crust

The conventional mozzarella melded nicely with the marinara to form that familiar orange look on top. While both the sauce and cheese were tasty and good quality, they served as role players to complete the textural mix and complement that wonderful pepperoni.

The Carbonara pizza had an identical crust, but it was a very different experience. When a personal sized pie comes with egg, my expectation is one egg. Here, there were three perfectly-cooked sunnyside-up eggs with bacon riding atop a Romano cream sauce. The Texas element, and the over-the-top factor, was the pulled pork. It was a delightful umami flavor bomb and it made the NY-Texas marriage a resounding success.

I'm anxious to return to try more of these pies, where the quality and texture of the best New York style pizzas are amped up with some southwest flavors. I'm especially intrigued by the Texas BBQ Brisket pie, which features smoked brisket, pickles, onions, mozzarella, and BBQ sauce.

Like every worthy pizza, greatness starts with the crust. Toss pies are a well-balanced mix of ingredients and textures - one more terrific pizza in the Austin region.

As much as any city in America, New Orleans is a foodie's destination. Is the food in NOLA better than NY, LA, Philly, or Chicago? Perhaps not, but there is more consistency. All of my New Orleans experiences have been like Italy - it's hard to get a bad meal even at the simplest food joints.

With all the celebrated gumbo, crawfish, oysters, po-boy sandwiches, beignets, and jambalaya, you wouldn't think first about seeking out pizza in New Orleans. But I can now testify that it would be a mistake to overlook the pizza here.

In the French Quarter

For example, you can't go wrong with the authentic Neapolitans at Domenica, a full-service Italian restaurant that has spawned two pizza-only "Pizza Domenica" spots in town.

On my most recent visit to NOLA, Paladar 511 came across my radar. Located in the Marigny district just two blocks east of the French Quarter, it was an easy walk for me and my fellow travelers staying in the Central Business District, along the river just west of the Quarter.

En route via foot to Paladar 511

We made plans to meet there; our party of eight traveled in three different groups. Upon crossing Frenchmen Street at the edge of the French Quarter, we all had the same reaction as the noise faded and we faced a silent, empty, bleak area of broken sidewalks, chain link fences, cranes, and dumpsters. "The GPS must be wrong" is what each of us was thinking at this point.

Inside Paladar 511

Happily, we all kept going the final two blocks to find a nicely maintained and restored three-story old brick building, formerly home to a sock factory. Housed in a terrific two-story space with 2,100 square feet, the open and airy industrial look is the brainchild of Jack Murphy, Susan Dunn, and Ed Dunn. Murphy hails from San Francisco's Pizetta 211; Ed Dunn has been a chef at Commander's Palace and Emeril's.

Mike Massamino is the tall guy!

As an off-menu bonus, we had a terrific celebrity moment. We were all attending the same conference where, earlier in the day, we had heard an inspiring keynote presentation from Mike Massamino, the NASA astronaut who facilitated a key repair to the Hubble Space Telescope as part of the STS-109 Columbia mission.

Risk management pros eating pizza

As we were seated, we saw Mike was just leaving (with a box of leftover pizza). He graciously greeted us and posed for pictures up in the loft area by our tables.

Charred Okra

There is more on the menu than pizza, and we included some of the appetizers in our group meals (spoiler: the whole experience was so good that I returned the next night with a different group). "Paladar" translates to "palate" in English, and our palates were tempted and treated.

Beef tartare

Over those two nights I sampled the chicken liver mousse, charred okra, shishito peppers, and beef tartare; all were superb. Group dining permits a broad pizza sampling, and I was able to try all five pizzas on the menu:

Each was a generous personal size, and came to the table cut into six slices. Visually, each one was a work of art and instantly conveyed the promise of a well-made pie.

The Margherita

These are Neapolitan hybrids, sporting the traditional leopard spotting and puffy corniciones, but with more crunch and rigidity.

The Farm Egg pizza

The crust, always the crucial element, was beyond reproach. Flavorful on its own, crisp and crunchy yet still chewy, no limp or wet spots despite a generous payload of toppings, delectable all the way through.

Underside of the crust

The toppings matched the quality of the base, too. Across both dining groups, the biggest hit was the pizza made with mascarpone and spicy San Marzano tomatoes.I loved it too, but I was floored by the umami explosion of the roasted mushroom, butter leek, fontina, & rosemary pie.

House was full by the time we left

Even though "white pizza" is decidedly non-traditional, it often works really well on Neapolitan pies because the crust is married to a more manageable moisture load.

The mushroom pizza; slice below

Another pie that really sang to me was the farm egg, bacon, Gruyere, and collard greens combo. The first night, it was magical. I had it again the second night and I felt it was excellent, but that the greens were overpowering the rest of the pie, almost as though kale had been subbed in for the collards.

Lamb with tzatsiki sauce

I applaud the boldness of a pie topped with lamb and tzatsiki, but for me, the sauce overpowered the other terrific elements of this pie. When our group ordered it the second night, we asked for the tzatsiki on the side. But just to show that your mileage may vary, I enjoyed the pie better without the sauce whereas my colleague asked for extra sauce and ate all of it!

Spicy San Marzano pizza

I enjoyed this pizza too much to leave any behind. On both nights, I toted back a few leftover slices to the fridge in my hotel room, and they traveled back to Austin with me, where I enjoyed this great stuff one more time.

Leftover slices, reheated in my oven

This is just remarkably good pizza, an improvement on a traditional Neapolitan. Great setting, great appetizers, and all that good New Orleans mojo.

I went two nights in a row and I'd have gone back again if time allowed. This is a can't-miss pizza place in NOLA, easily one of the best pizzas I've had in 2019.

Even the snobbiest pizza epicures will eat frozen pizza on occasion; there's generally an emergency pizza in my freezer. Some are good - for instance, Trader Giotto(from Trader Joe) and the German imports at ALDI are worth the calories. While none are great, some are even one level better, such as the decent facsimile of a Roberta's Neapolitan pizza that you can get at Whole Foods.

While I've never been to Detroit, I've developed a fondness for Detroit style pizza, which is a thick crusted rectangular pie, baked in a deep pan, featuring an airy crust and cheese that is deliberately spread all the way to and over the edges in order to form a crispy caramelized border all the way around. Toppings like pepperoni are baked on the pizza (riding on top and/or under the cheese) but the sauce is ladled on top in racing stripes post-bake.

I am enthralled with the version of Detroit pizza made at Via 313 in Austin, but the best I've had is the only-on-Tuesday pie at Norma's Pizza in the Roots Farmers Market in Mannheim, PA. It's cool that Via 313 makes an excellent thin-crust bar pie in addition to the Detroit style, while Norma fashions both her Detroit pie and what she calls a "Boardwalk pizza" that is a bit of a New York - Trenton hybrid.

Pre-bake, out of the package

Here in Texas, we're blessed with H-E-B supermarkets, which I'd describe to east coasters as "Wegman's quality at Shop Rite prices." It was in the H-E-B freezer case that I spotted the Motor City Pizza Co."Detroit Style Deep Dish" frozen pizza in three styles: Cheeseburger, Supreme, and Pepperoni. Each costs about $9, and I opted for the pepperoni pizza.

Fresh out of the oven

The pans used by Norma and the iconic Buddy's Pizza in Detroit are (according to legend) fashioned after automotive parts trays. This frozen pizza, about 9" by 9" square, did come with its own baking pan, albeit one made from cardboard that can withstand oven heat.

I probably erred when I scooped up the cheese bits that had fallen off the pizza as I re-arranged the pepperoni slices that had jostled around during handling; there was essentially no cheese able to coat the edges of the crust.

I followed the baking instructions and the pie took on an appetizing color when finished. The crust had a good crunch to it, but it lacked the airy structure at top-line places like Norma's and Via 313.

It was also not as thick, and was a little dry and unmistakably the crust of a frozen pizza. And, unlike any other Detroit pie I've had, the inner cuts were better than the edge cuts because they were less dry.

Underside of the crust

The sauce had a pronounced herbal note, but combined with the cheese added only a very mild amount of flavor; it lacked salt and umami in general. The balance was off, too, because the substantial and dry crust needed a bigger amount on top, especially the cheese.

The pepperoni was perhaps the best part here, and it improved the overall experience. This pizza was just slightly better than average frozen pizza, but probably not as good as my benchmark frozen pizza - DiGiorno's rising crust pizza. Not bad stuff, I certainly enjoyed it, but I'm gonna restock with Roberta's frozen pizza.

Authentic Trenton tomato pie in Wisconsin? Indeed, but first a little background.

Wisconsin's Trenton Tomato Pie

What's the difference between a pizza and a tomato pie? Some folks in the Philly and Jersey region use the words as synonyms, even though in Philadelphia a tomato pie is thick, square, nearly cheeseless, and served at room temperature while in Trenton a tomato pie is round, thin, and topped with cheese and tomato sauce like any conventional pizza.

Salvatore's Tomato Pies, Madison WI

The key, according to the most devout Trenton Tomato Pie enthusiasts (especially those in the Facebook group devoted to making and eating the real thing) is that with a pizza, the sauce goes on first, topped with cheese. For a tomato pie, the cheese goes on the thin crust and then the sauce - often chunky - is added on top.

Is this a pizzeria or a biker bar?

Trenton was once rife with tomato pie joints - Joe's, Maruca's, Tony Goes, DeLorenzo's, Pica's, Schuster's, Papa's (arguably the oldest pizzamaker in America), La Roma, Sam's, Frank's. (See mackstruckofwisdom.blogspot.com for this and all sorts of Trenton history.)

Today, there are no tomato pie places remaining in Trenton proper, but DeLorenzo's has three suburban locations and Papa's too has moved to nearby Robbinsville, NJ; Maruca's lives on at the Jersey Shore.

Our shot of the kitchen caught the pizzaiolo in mid-flip

The current pizza renaissance is largely about authentic Neapolitan pizzamakers popping up all over, but it's good to know that the Trenton tomato pie is thriving too. Most of the new places are making superb versions, but all within shouting distance of Jersey. One distant exception, though, has been on my radar for years - Salvatore's Tomato Pies. The first store opened in Sun Prairie Wisconsin, and Salvatore's has since added a Madison location.

The cozy dining room

A business trip took me to Madison, a capital city in the Midwest known best for its fried cheese curds, on a cold week in November. At the close of the conference three of us drove to the downtown isthmus (between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona) to see and taste this Trenton tomato pie. Madison is, along with Seattle, that rare major U.S. city built on an isthmus.

Puffy cornicione on the Fig & Bacon pizza

Chef and owner Patrick DePula grew up in Chambersburg, the Little Italy of Trenton. According to Salvatore's website, Patrick's grandfather immigrated from Casandrino (Naples) Italy and founded a grocery, the Trenton Unity Market. His father was a baker, his uncles and aunts owned restaurants, food supply businesses, and bakeries. "Salvatore" has been a family name since the first DePula came through Ellis Island. (For the record, my own grandfather came to Ellis Island from Naples in 1907 at the age of 7, and he remembered pizza being sold on the street when he was in Italy).

The Woodsman

I began this blog in 2011, the same year that Patrick opened that Sun Prairie restaurant, and it's been on my wish list the whole time. Could it live up to my high expectations? I understand that this pie is so good that there are hour-plus waits on weekends, and the neighboring taproom permits folks to bring their tomato pies in to eat. With about eight tables seating 30 or so, we were lucky to grab a corner table (on a frigid Thursday night) without waiting.

The Trenton Tomato Pie, with Sausage

The space itself is full of old time charm, with a high tin ceiling, glass block windows, and other touches that hint at a rich history. It could easily be your comfortable neighborhood bar or mom and pop restaurant; despite a few modern flourishes, it feels like the 60s or 70s there in all the best ways.

Fig & Bacon slice

The menu has salads, appetizers, and even tacos, but we kept our focus squarely on the pizza. Pies come in 10" and 16" sizes; I was happy to be with two east-coast pizza lovers who eagerly joined in to order Way Too Much tomato pie. In addition to our choices from a solid selection of bottled and draft beer, we chose:

Fig and Bacon (10") - Wine poached mission figs, gorgonzola cheese, balsamic red wine reduction, Jones Farm bacon
Woodsman (10") - Sauteed crimini mushroom, roasted shiitake and oyster mushrooms, leek, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, truffle oil, cracked black pepper, chive.
Build Your Own Tomato Pie (16") - Topped with Berkshire Italian sausage.

Tomato pie with sausage

The two smaller pies arrived first. Despite the exotic toppings, my focus was, of course, the crust. This did not look like a tomato pie; the puffy cornicione was more Neapolitan style in appearance. But unlike a soft and often wet-centered Neapolitan, these pies were crisp and rigid like a true tomato pie would be, and there was no soggy spot in the middle.

Happy east coast pizza experts Tracy and Rich

The fig and bacon pie was a great mix of savory and sweet, and the textures were ideal. Crispy, chewy, and bursting with contrasting flavors. The mushroom pie was a level up from that, with more complex flavors, earthiness, and umami.

Underside of that amazing crust

For both pies, the crust was outstanding - full of crunch, flavor, and an al dente chew. I felt that these were some novel hybrid of Neapolitan and Trenton styles, and I loved it. Of course, with no red sauce, these couldn't be tomato pies!

The real test was the 16" tomato pie. It arrived shortly after the smaller pies and, in the dim light, I did not detect the signature concentric swirl of sauce that Salvatore's applies, much like Maruca's and the superb thin crust pizza at Norma's (Mannheim, PA) which she calls "Boardwalk style."

Salvatore's describes the tomato pie as "the classic - not a pizza, but built in reverse: crust, olive oil, mozzarella/romano, then sauce." I quickly forgot how good the smaller pies were, because this one was transcendent. That beautiful crust is made from wheat that is locally grown and milled by Lonesome Stone Milling. Can you improve on a Trenton tomato pie crust? Apparently!

Even though this is a modern hybrid of two ancient styles, the taste, the smell, the texture of this pie is throwback. Throwback to the times when every pizza was made from scratch by new immigrants and the next generation. The aromas alone were intoxicating here.

I know the sauce and cheese were both top quality, with yet more local sourcing, but I was wolfing down slices with such gusto that I barely paused to notice. This simple sauce and cheese tomato pie was perfectly balanced, all elements in harmony.

When we ordered, I had grilled our server about the sausage, and she assured me that it would be applied raw so that it would cook on the pie, the only proper way. However, the pie arrived with large uniformly sliced chunks of sausage that revealed pre-cooking. Initially dismayed, I quickly got over because this was such flavorful sausage, cut in thick slices that didn't dry out on the second heating. But oh my, how good it would have been if done properly.

From https://www.facebook.com/thetomatopie

In a few months I'll be writing about the 19 top pizzas of 2019. Spoiler: Salvatore's is going to be a top contender. This is spectacularly good stuff, would be just as big a hit in Trenton as it is in Wisconsin. It was so good that I took the leftover slices back, stored them in my hotel mini-fridge, and took them back to Texas with me. In the ultimate act of kindness, I gave the only remaining slice of that sausage pie to my wife, who concurred on just how good it is, even re-heated.

Don't miss this tomato pie if you're in the area; if you're not in the area, it's worth the trip. Absolutely destination pizza.

After six months as a new Texan, some of my expectations in the Austin region have been confounded. Great Mexican food and BBQ are not ubiquitous here. On the other hand, there are three great pizza joints within 5 miles of my suburban neighborhood, and Via 313 is as close to me here as the standard-setting La Porta was in the burbs of Philly.

It's less than two hours to San Antonio, and there is where I finally found great Mexican food. Several visits over the years, though, have shown me that San Antonio, despite being the second largest city in Texas (1.5 million residents - bigger than Dallas - compared to 950,000 for Austin), doesn't have a great, standout pizza joint. I've had good pizza there, but never great. That won't stop me from trying, though!

On my most recent trip, my search turned up Trilogy Pizza, so named because they offer three regional varieties of pizza - New York, Chicago deep dish, and California style pizzas.

Trilogy is located in a modern strip mall on the Northern edge of San Antonio, 17 miles from downtown (The Alamo, The Riverwalk). The interior has a comfortably casual look with a bar and dining rooms, and there were plenty of happy diners there when I arrived at dinner time.

All three pizza choices were intriguing; my server told me that the New York and California styles were similar, except that the west coast version is made with a whole wheat crust. I've had mixed results with whole wheat pizza crusts, but I decided to try the California pie, topped with pepperoni.

What's the issue with whole wheat pizza crusts? According to the Washington Post, "The problem is that the inclusion of the wheat bran and germ can make it problematic when it comes to baking, especially with yeasted breads. The bran, the outermost part of the grain, is sharp, meaning it can hinder rise by cutting into the dough and wreaking havoc on the gluten network. The bran is also extremely thirsty, able to absorb several times its weight in water."

California pizza with pepperoni

As I waited for my pizza, I saw many other orders come out (but none were Chicago style in my view). The New York pies looked thin and crisp at the cornicione.

My California pie arrived, and its whole wheat crust was thin but dense, chewy, and flavorful. However, its texture was limp, not crisp. The pizza was fully cooked, as evidenced by the nice top browning of the cheese. Despite its good flavor, the crust was a disappointment. Much as the Washington Post article suggests, it seemed to have failed to rise and absorbed water, even though it wasn't soggy.

Above the crust, the pie was more successful. The cheese was pretty conventional as it melded with the sauce (which sported a distinct herbal note) into that familiar orange moonlike surface that typically covers a New York style pizza. Despite the limp and dense crust, I enjoyed each slice.

Nice browning underneath

Service was outstanding, and I enjoyed some good craft beer on tap with my pie. Overall, a good experience but I can't endorse the California pizza. There's plenty of good landing spots for whole wheat; pizza may not be one of them. I'd gladly return to try the New York or Chicago varieties.

Let's begin with a clear understanding of this list: These are not the Top Ten Pizzas in America, but simply the Ten Best Pizzas Newly Discovered By Me in 2019.

We found world-class pizza in Wisconsin, Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, Texas, and New York. After many years where deep-dish, Sicilian, or Detroit style dominated the top new discoveries, thin-crust pizza roared back in 2019.

Let's begin with some very worthy runners-up, the Honorable Mentions. Click on any for the full review:

CraigO's Pizza and Pasta - Austin TX. Perhaps my biggest surprise of 2019 was the authentic quality of this NY slice at an Austin mini-chain. Friendliest atmosphere sealed the deal.

LaBriola - Chicago IL.I had a massive "thin crust" slice as well as a delectable mini deep-dish.

Jersey Giant - Bee Cave TX. What, you're 1750 miles from New Jersey but craving a massive slice of strip mall pizza? You can get it right here in Texas Hill Country.

Santucci's - Philadelphia PA. Old-school square pie with red sauce on top! Yes please.

Toss Pizzeria & Pub - Austin TX. Authentic NY style pizza (thin, crisp) with Texas toppings like pulled pork and eggs or beef brisket? It really works.

And now, let's count down the Top Ten pies discovered in 2019. All of these are "Destination Pizza" for which you'd gladly go out of your way to have again.

10. Enzo's of Arthur Avenue - The Bronx NY. Enzo's is a full-menu Italian restaurant in Little Italy, where American-born patrons chatter with American-born staff in Italian. Everything we had was rich and wonderful, and it felt like we were extras in a Scorsese movie. The major pizza discovery we had was how a skilled pizzaiolo can make a great pie using canned tuna as a topping. Molto buona!

Pizza al tonno

9. Pete's New Haven Style Apizza - Arlington VA. It's surprising that there are places making New Haven style pies so far from Connecticut. Some are "New Haven" in name only, but this was - like the wonderful stuff at Basic Urban Kitchen in San Diego - authentically delicious.

8. Backdraft Pizza - Austin TX.In the year that I relocated from Philly suburbs to Austin suburbs, I expected that my world would be full of great Mexican food and BBQ, but that truly great pizza would be hard to find. Backdraft pizza, a food truck that has relocated from Bee Cave to Austin, was the first wonderful sign of how easy it is to eat great pizza in Central Texas.

7. Pizzeria Due - Chicago IL. While Due and many other iconic Chicago pizzerias are known for deep dish, don't overlook the thin-crust Midwestern pies. We chose it because we didn't have 45 minutes to wait for the deep dish, and we were glad! Really well-balanced pizza.

Thin crust pizza at Pizzeria Due, Chicago

6. SkyKing Pizza - Kingston TN. We found this wonderful hipster Neapolitan place serendipitously, because it was near to our stop for the night when driving from Pennsylvania to our new Texas home. This pie was legit on all counts - terrific fresh mozzarella, delectable Neapolitan crust, crisped and curled pepperoni, and harmony of textures and flavors.

5. Cane Rosso - Austin TX. Austin, already blessed with superb pizzerias like Via 313 and Salvation Pizza, now has an outpost of this Dallas mini-chain for Neapolitan pizza, and the pies are flawless. A picture here is indeed worth 1,001 words:

4. The Bakehouse at Chelsea - Norfolk VA. Although Norfolk is known as a military base town, it still has its hipster destinations. The Bakehouse churns out some great breads, and personal Neapolitan pizzas that you can take to the adjacent taproom to enjoy with a draft beer. My top East Coast pie of 2019.

3. Sorellina Pizzeria - Spicewood TX. Not only am I within a reasonable distance from the great pizzas of downtown Austin,but I am 10 minutes from Spicewood, known best for being home to Willie Nelson, iconic roadhouses like Poodies, and BBQ joints like Opie's. Imagine my delight when I was tipped off to world class Neapolitan-hybrid pizza here, too. Sorellina is little sister to Apis, a Top-Ten Austin area restaurant, and it sports a hip casual atmosphere, a short list of good craft beers, incredible appetizers, and this impeccable pizza.

2. Paladar 511 - New Orleans LA.Why would you eat pizza when you're in a town famous for so many great dishes like etouffe, crawfish, muffaletta, gumbo, jambalaya, po-boy sandwiches, and oysters? First, because NOLA is like Italy in that it's hard to get a bad meal anywhere. Second, because NOLA is like Italy, it has great pizza. Paladar 511 has both the hippest vibe and astonishingly delicious Neapolitan hybrid pies - it's a must-visit in New Orleans.

1. Salvatore's Tomato Pies - Madison WI. If you're going to travel to Virginia for a New Haven pizza, why not go to Wisconsin for a Trenton tomato pie? Salvatore's has been on my radar for a decade and I finally got there; it did not disappoint. A funky downtown bar and real Jersey tomato pies coming out the kitchen warmed three Northeastern visitors on a frigid night in Madison. It was pretty easy to give Top Pizza of 2019 to Salvatore's.

What's your Holy Grail of Pizza? A trip to New York City to eat legendary pizza at Lombardi's or Totonno's or Patsy's in East Harlem? Perhaps it's authentic Trenton tomato pie at the oldest continuing pizza operation in America, Papa's Tomato Pies.

"Il Greco" slice from 'Zza

Maybe you want Neapolitan from the star-powered pizzerias that launched legit Naples-style in America, Mozza in Los Angeles or Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. No shame in seeking out deep-dish from the deep bench of pizzaioli in Chicago, like Louisa'sor Pizzeria Due.

'Zza Pizza + Salad, Bee Cave TX

For me, I had two pizza styles to chase down. One was Detroit style, and though I still haven't been to iconic Buddy's in Detroit, I've had superb Detroit style. It's hard to beat the Detroit squares made at Norma's Pizza in rural Mannheim PA, open only on Tuesdays, and I now live close to Austin's Via 313, and their squares are flawless.

Order at the counter - 'Zza Pizza + Salad

My white whale, though, remains St. Louis style pizza. Haven't been to St. Louis in 20 years, and have no relatives or conference locations there. But my curiosity was raging about this peculiar pizza.

The "STL Summer" pizza

What makes St. Louis style unique? Kenji Alt-Lopez, who knows food better than anyone, says that it's not so much pizza as "a big, pizza-flavored nacho." Provel cheese (which is a blend of processed cheeses including cheddar, Swiss, and provolone), oregano-heavy sauce, and a thin, crackery, unleavened crust cut party style into small squares. Many call it an "acquired taste."

The "Il Greco" pizza

Well, if the mountain will not come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain. In this case, St. Louis pizza has come to the Austin Suburbs in the form of 'Zza Pizza + Salad. When I first learned of the imminent arrival of 'Zza, I confused it with Zaza Salad & Pizza of Arkansas, an upscale fast-casual pizza place. But Zaza still has only two Arkansas locations.

'Zza looks very much like a Blaze or Mod or &Pizza type of fast casual chain, but there are only two locations: the original in St. Louis, and the brand new outpost in Bee Cave, TX. I visited on a weeknight to get a couple of pizzas to go, and there was quite a bit of activity both in takeout and families dining in.

A slice of "STL Summer"

The menu is simple: nine kinds of creative "'zzalad" offerings, ten specialty "pi'zza" choices, and opportunity create your own pizza or salad.

I was here, of course, for the St. Louis pizza, so one of my selections was the STL Summer pie ($9) with provel, onion, jalapeno, spicy sausage, and parsley. For the other pizza I chose a white pie Il Greco ($9) with mozzarella, zucchini, sun gold and kumato tomatoes, feta, 'zza-tar, basil, and olive oil.

Underside of crust, cooked on perforated pan

Each pizza looks like a miniature Roman style, elongated ovals, cut into squarish slices. Ian Froeb, food critic at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, says this is "the first fast-casual pizzeria where the crust is more than a ballast for your toppings." While the crust is very thin and shares that characteristic with St. Louis style, it's not crackerlike. It is a dense and chewy flatbread with a crisp exterior. Quite delicious, even if not quite pizza crust.

The STL Summer pie was delightful. I was really stoked about finally trying provel cheese, but it was a subtle ingredient. This processed cheese has extra fat and water added to it to enhance its melting quality (like Velveeta or, as Kenji notes, the creamy glop that comes with nachos). It had a remotely smoky quality, but in general it blended nicely with the herb-y tomato sauce.

Close look at the Il Greco

The white onion and the jalapeno slices added a mild kick, but the wow factor came from the sausage. Plenty of legit pizzerias add pre-cooked sausage in slices, pellets, or crumbles, so it was a special delight to find big chunks of real sausage here. The spicy sausage, the smoky cheese, and herbal sauce played together nicely, riding on that dense, chewy, cornmeal-coated crust.

The Il Greco pie hit all the same highs. Delicious chewy flatbread, and impeccably balanced toppings. I often avoid "veggie" pizzas because the toppings tend to be bland and they add unwanted moisture. But here, I could not resist the mix of two superb tomatoes - the kumato hybrid and the sun gold cherry.

Zucchini could have been ruinous, but it all came together, sublimely seasoned with the "'zzatar" spice that I suppose mimics Lebanese zaatar with thyme, oregano, marjoram, toasted sesame seeds, and salt. It was an ideal combo of flavors and textures.

Photo from https://www.zza-pizza.com/photos

Every pizza here is $9 or $10; other adventurous varieties include the Big Island Musubi with glazed pineapple and Spam and the Thai Dye with sweet-chili chicken, peanut, and cilantro. Salads range from $9 to $11 with familiar offerings like Cobb or Cesar, and exotic choices like a poke bowl or the 'Zza'lafel with felafel and Greek yogurt dressing.

It is pizza? It is flatbread? Is it pizza-flavored nachos? Whatever you call it, it is scrumptious, and easily the best "fast casual" pizza I've had, edging out &Pizza for that distinction. I now have *four* highly worthy pizza joints within ten minutes of my home. Spicewood and Bee Cave are the new Brooklyn and Queens.

Spicewood TX, an unicorporated community with 7,942 residents 22 miles northwest of Austin, may be best known as the home of Willie Nelson's Luck Ranch. The two-room schoolhouse there saw its last graduating class in 1949 when the school system merged with Marble Falls.

TripAdvisor's list of top dining destinations in Spicewood is heavy on BBQ joints, Mexican food, road houses, and diners. As a recent transplant, I get the feeling that people in Spicewood are the real Texans.

The old schoolhouse in Spicewood

With that as background, I'm astonished to report that there are *two* superb pizza places in Spicewood, less than ten minutes from my home - Pizzeria Casa Nostra and Sorellina Pizzeria. Nearby Bee Cave has two fine pizzerias too, the St. Louis flatbread pizza at 'Zzaand the Texas-twist-on-NY pies at Toss.

During my first six months as a suburban Austinite, I often made the 10 minute drive to Sorellina, each time driving past Pizzeria Casa Nostra. My snap judgment was that this might be gimmicky pizza, and I based that on thinking that the name was a play on "cosa nostra." I now very much regret that it took me so long before I finally visited.

I've visited three times, and found great appetizers, pizzas, and service each time. With a large group on my first visit, I was able to sample the caponata (eggplant) appetizer, and it was superb. It's wonderful how eggplant thrives in so many ways in different cuisines - Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Chinese, and more.

Carbonara pizza

The memorable focaccia bread is finished with coarse sea salt, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, and grated Parmigiano Reggiano, but it's basically a pizza crust so it may be a tad redundant if you're here for the pizza. It does give you a preview of how great this pizza can be, because every top grade pizza depends on the crust.

Salsiccia e Funghi pizza

The true measure of any Neapolitan pizzaiolo is the Margherita, and it shines here. The pie man is still so new to America that his English is limited; meanwhile, he's turning out some wonderful pizza from the authentic dome oven.

Every pizza is perfectly cooked, with no wet centers and a well-considered balance of ingredients. The simple Margherita ($11) rides on a delicate and puffy yet crisp crust with a tangy red sauce married to the mozzarella with basil and extra virgin olive oil.

The Salsiccia e Funghi ($13) pie may be my favorite, where the tomato sauce and mozzarella is topped with Italian sausage in real chunks, mushrooms, and onions.

Casa Nostra is only the second place where I've seen pizza ala tonno, rendered here as a white pie with mozzarella, tuna, carmelized onion, Kalmata olives, and pine nuts. I love it, just as I did the red version at Enzo'sin the Bronx.

Imported, just like the pizzaolo

I relish egg on pizza any way I can get it, and the Carbonara pie here is lovely, but its subdued flavors seem best suited to breakfast. What's not to like about mozzarella, bacon, scrambled egg, Parmigiano Reggiano, and parsley riding on this impeccable crust?

Perfect char underneath

As the spread of Neapolitan pizza grows deeper into the American suburbs, we can celebrate that many of the new pizzerias make a hybrid Neapolitan, with a crisper crust that can better stand up to the amount and variety of toppings that make American pizza a worthy category all its own. Soupy centers may be hip in Naples or Milan, but a crisp bottom rules in my pizza world.

The bar inside the dining room

Beyond the great food and previously mentioned service, Casa Nostra has a friendly, casual, and very Texan ambiance. The ranch-style interior is open and airy, and curiously was once the home of the Down Under Deli/Draughthouse that for a time offered "Boomerang Pizza."

I genuinely expected that I would need to make the 18 mile trip to Downtown Austin in order to get great pizza, heading for Salvation Pizza, Via 313, orHome Slice. I'll still do that, but there is world class pizza right here in my (and Willie Nelson's) backyard.

H-E-B, a chain of 350 supermarkets in Texas and Mexico, ranks 12th among the largest American private companies. I describe it in east coast terms as "Wegmans quality at ShopRite prices." It has quickly become one of my favorite things about Texas, and so I had some confidence in buying an H-E-B branded frozen pizza.

While the low end of frozen pizza isn't much better than it was 30 years ago, today there are some still-cheap versions that are worth the calories. Some of the best ones are replicas of the pizzas sold at iconic pizzerias like Roberta's (Brooklyn) or Gino's East (Chicago). The other reliable path to a decent frozen pizza is to seek out those that are imported, like the Italian varieties at Trader Joe's or the surprising German imports at ALDI.

Midtown Pizza at H-E-B boasts that the stone-baked crust is imported from Italy, which makes for an interesting hybrid when the toppings are sourced and added in Texas. This particular pie is topped with spicy Italian sausage, red peppers, caramelized onion, tomatoes, provolone, and mozzarella. H-E-B carries several varieties of Midtown Pizza; they clock in at 14-16 ounces and are priced from $5 to $6 (more for pies with meat).

Frozen pizza, before baking at home

It looked promising even before I baked it, but I did need to redistribute the sausage and the red peppers, which had clustered on one side of the pizza surface. It had spent a few months in my freezer and some of the toppings may have come loose on the trip home from the store.

Remarkable texture

The entire pie clocks in at 880 calories, which is pretty modest by frozen pizza standards. Like a typical Neapolitan, this pie was personal-size, but big enough to share for two.

Visually, the crust had the look of a genuine Neapolitan pizza, with a puffy leopard-spotted cornicione. I baked it at 425 degrees for 12 minutes, directly on an oven rack, and sliced it into 8 small pieces.

The flavors of this pizza were spot-on. The mozzarella had a creamy element and the provolone added some nice sharp notes. The sausage was both plentiful and tasty; the tomato sauce was a role player to bring it all together.

The crust itself had an excellent flavor; in fact at some H-E-B stores you can buy a two-pack of these crusts to concoct your own custom pizza. Mine was a little moist in the center and dry at the edges, but I suspect that the imperfect moisture distribution was due to the fact that it had been in my freezer too long.

Authentic Neapolitan style crust

There was remarkable flavor, texture, and balance for a frozen pizza. Imagine you froze leftover slices from a legitimate Neapolitan pizza in your neighborhood; this pizza tastes like that reheated leftover Neapolitan might. Not as good as oven-fresh, but better than the stuff from the big chains.

It's hard to beat a legitimate $6 Neapolitan pizza in your freezer; H-E-B has a winner with Midtown Pizza.

What would happen if an Italian restaurant in Tokyo customized a Detroit-style deep dish pizza to the tastes of its local Japanese customers? Perhaps the result would be something like the pizza on the menu at Tonari, a Washington DC spot for wafu (Japanese-style) Italian noodle dishes and pizza.

Tonari is not Japanese-Italian fusion food, but instead pasta and pizza wafu, meaning "in the Japanese way." Although the pizza was the draw, we made a point to sample the appetizers and two of the pasta dishes.

We had two appetizers, both of them simple, fresh, and uncomplicated. We enjoyed a small dish of warm olives that were adorned with a few cloves of roasted garlic and some mild peppers. Even better was a plate of roasted shishito peppers, enhanced only with salt and olive oil. These small greens served as a backdrop for the complex flavors and textures to follow.

From facebook.com/tonaridc/

Every pasta sounded wonderful; it was hard to turn down the "Napolitan" with onion, piman, kurobuta sausage, button mushroom, tabasco, ham, ketchup sauce, and pecorino over spaghetti. "Ketchup sauce" seems off-putting at first, but Spaghetti Napolitan is the earliest and most basic Japanese attempt at Italian food with its ketchup-based sauce that stays sweet but intensifies in the pan.

Shirasu pasta

We did lean toward the "most Japanese" dishes, which took us to seafood pasta choices. The Shirasu pasta, a dish of tagliatelle noodles, was both umami laden and elegantly simple with olive oil, baby sardines, garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Uni (sea urchin) pasta

Several umami levels up was the Uni pasta, featuring uni (sea urchin), soy, mirin, butter, sake, kombu dashi, and aonori over bigoli noodles. One small bit of that earthy sea creature lent a depth of flavor to the entire dish. It was spectacular.

All of the pizza here is - deliberately or coincidentally - Detroit style. Each pie is baked in a deep pan greased with rice oil that yields a thick, square crust made from Hokkaido wheat flour. The edges are dark brown, crunchy, and caramelized but in the dim light we weren't sure if the edges were brown with overflowing cheese or just the oiled dough.

Despite that formidable crunchy crust, the interior of the dough is white, soft, and pillowy. Texturally, while it resembles some of the best thick and airy pizzas like the ones at Rize in West Chester PA and Via 313 in Austin TX, it was distinctly different from any pizza crust I've ever eaten. The dough is fermented for up to three days to develop a structure that is common to Japanese white bread. Beyond its delectable silky interior and crunchy edges, it had a wonderfully complex flavor even without the toppings.

Like our pasta strategy, we also sought out the "most Japanese" pizza, opting for the Mentaiko & Corn pie that included brick cheese, mentaiko (cod roe) cream, Kewpie (Japanese mayonnaise) corn puree, and scallions. Riding atop this sturdy base was a lavaflow of that creamy concoction. It was quite slathered with this rich topping, but the crust was up to the task, even as it was messy to eat without knife and fork.

This pizza was almost as spectacular as the uni pasta with its wild mix of textures and flavors. We savored every bite, and I'd love to go back to try the clam pie or the simple pepperoni version that includes canned Jersey tomatoes.

We finished with a dessert called grapefruit granite, made with shaved grapefruit ice, campari, vanilla gelato, and shiso (an herb from the mint family). Just as the green appetizers served as a platform to dive into the deep end of the umami pool populated by the pasta and pizza, this cool concoction was the perfect exit ramp, tart and sweet and crunchy and creamy.

We came for the pizza, but this was a transcendant meal from start to finish. Go out of your way to get to Tonari; wafu waiting for?

Pizza may be the perfect pandemic food. Hot from the oven, it's certainly among the safer choices in takeout dining. Moreover, serious pizza eaters always reheat at home if they have to choose takeout over dining in. During covid19, pizza is the only food I've eaten that wasn't prepared in my home.

When I order a takeout pie, I asked for it unsliced. After 5-10 minutes on a middle oven rack, it's ready for consumption, with crispness renewed. I've relied on some local favorites, mostly Casa Nostra in Spicewood and 'Zza in Bee Cave, but for the first time since February, I targeted a new place.

Fetch Food Park, Hamilton Pool Road

Hamilton Pool Road is the only path connecting two of Austin's western suburbs, Bee Cave and Dripping Springs. It's mostly rural, running through plenty of ranches, and it's the route to Hamilton Pool Preserve, an iconic natural swimming pool in a canyon below a 50-ft waterfall, surrounded by a grotto.

Along this scenic road you'll find the eccentric Fetch Food Park, home to a dog park and different trailers including The Original Dog Treat Truck Company, Big Mex BBQ, Leyla's Kitchen (Lebanese food), and Leyla's Pizza. Fetch Food Park is pet friendly and committed to donating a portion of sales to nonprofits making spay/neuter and vet care more affordable and accessible.

West Chester represents!

The name "Leyla" is tagged to a number of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurants in the Austin suburbs, including a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Cedar Park. I'm intrigued to try the Lebanese fare at Leyla's Kitchen, but we came for the pizza, of course.

The white pie

Leyla touts "New York style" pizza, and even features the image of an east coast map spanning Philly-to-New York all over the side of its bright red trailer. Curiously, the map includes my pre-Texas home of West Chester, PA! Good omens. Leyla's also features salads, calzones, and an assortment of "Italian style" sandwiches.

Meat lover's pizza

I called ahead and ordered two large pizzas. One was a white pie with ricotta cheese, spinach, garlic, mozzarella, and Pecorino Romano cheese ($21 for a huge 18" pie); the other was the "Meat Lover's" pizza featuring house-made pizza sauce, mozzarella, sausage, pepperoni, and bacon ($22). After a 15 minute drive home, they got an 8-minute reheat at 350. The pies were so big that they barely fit onto the oven rack.

Even cut into 16 slices, each slice was substantial on these big pies. Visually, they both sported the look of a New York style pizza, with a broad golden cornicione. Texturally, too, it had that "slightly crisp but mostly foldable" character of east coast pie.

Underside reveals the screen markings

Ultimately, the success of any pizza is built on the crust. The crust here was medium thick and pliable, but sturdy enough to support the toppings. The flavor was OK for a supporting player role, but it was not so good that you'd eat it unadorned. For my taste, I'd prefer more salt, oil, and moisture.

Like another nearby east coast style pizzeria, Jersey Giant in Bee Cave, this huge pie was cooked on a screen, with the tell-tale marking on the underside of the crust. Was this New York style? It's really more like Jersey Strip Mall style, and I say that with love and respect. I appreciate that approach to pizza, so ubiquitous in the east, even more now that I'm in Texas. There's no shortage of great pizza in the Austin region, but this stuff is a taste of home.

Hamilton Pool

The white pie was a nice exercise in restraint. The toppings were well balanced and applied in the right proportions. The ricotta, not always a winner on pizza due to its high moisture content, hit the right notes here. The red "meat lovers" pizza was more typical of an east coast pie, featuring a vibrant red sauce melded into the generous amount of mozzarella, with plenty of salty umami coming from the three meats.

I never thought I'd find great pizza in the Austin suburbs, but there's plenty. We have St. Louis style at 'Zza, Detroit style at Via 313, New York style at Toss, and tons of great Neapolitan pie at places like Casa Nostra, Sorellina, and Pieous.

More surprising is finding Jersey Strip Mall pizza, but with Leyla's and Jersey Giant, there's two out here in Hill Country. Even when I was in the east, strip mall style was not my first choice, but it's a solid option. When we finally get covid behind us, we'll bring the pooch and dine right there in Fetch Food Park.

Austin is a Texas city of many blessings, geographical and cultural. It's not surprising to find all kinds of great food in town (especially BBQ), but as a new Texan I've been delighted that the pizza is as good as the east coast varieties I know so well.

Austin proper is blessed with Home Slice for NY style slices, Via 313 for astonishing Detroit style and a thin crust bar pie, and Salvation Pizza for a Trenton-style tomato pie. Even 15 miles west in Willie Nelson's Spicewood Texas you can find world-class Neapolitans at Sorellina and Casa Nostra.

Lakeway is a nearby western suburb situated along scenic Lake Travis, which is really just a deep and wide stretch of the Colorado River.

All kinds of food trailers beckon as you drive Route 620 between Round Rock and Bee Cave, with taco trucks being a core theme. Recently, in a small commerce park that includes a Brusster's Ice Cream shop and a massage parlor, Lake Travis Pizza began operation is a small, bright red shack.

The website notes:

"We make pizzas in our Inferno Series revolving brick oven, the only one of its type in Austin. Our dough is prepared on site daily. Lake Travis Pizza’s signature pizza was created as homage to the first pie that originated in Naples, Italy. Our Old-World Pizza is made with fresh, sliced Mozzarella and topped with imported Italian tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, Pecorino Romano, baked at 700 degrees and topped with fresh basil."

The menu includes appetizers and sub sandwiches, but my focus was on the pizza. The pizzas are categorized as "Old World" (made with fresh mozzarella) or "New York" style made with conventional mozzarella.

I opted for a large Old World pizza with pepperoni; I ordered one online and picked it up to bring home, about a 15 minute drive. The aroma in the car was intoxicating; it's a smell that instantly conveys "great pizza ahead." I can remember the same phenomenon at Picco in Boston and at Tony's Place in Philly. You walk in, that bready bouquet wafts over you, and your mood is instantly elevated.

Good char underneath

At home, I gave the pie a light re-heating in the oven at 300 degrees for 8 minutes. It came out looking as good as it smelled, with areas of deep red sauce, saucers of pepperoni, and a dark golden cornicione.

The rotating Inferno oven

Great pizza requires a great crust, a crust that you'd eat even with no sauce and cheese. This crust was a Neapolitan hybrid with some of the textural elements of a conventional soft and puffy Neapolitan, but also plenty of crispness. It had its own rich flavor and was cooked about perfectly, right down to the leopard spotting underneath. The oven is important, but not as important as the skill of the pizzaiolo.

The cheese was very well balanced to the rest of the pizza, but it was a role player here. The sauce, however, was remarkable. Dark, thick, rich, and bursting with flavor. I would have liked more of it on this pie. And of course, the spicy cup pepperoni was about a perfect accent, adding yet one more layer of umami.

Grandma pie available by special order

This is great pizza. Fantastic stuff, and I suspect that the 10" personal pizza is even better. Because of its Neapolitan heritage, the dough is a little soft in the center of a large pie. I'm guessing that the smaller pizza gets a more even cooking in that high tech oven.

It's dangerous territory to rank pizzas, but my take on"The Pizzas of Austin's Western Suburbs" is that Sorellina holds on to the top spot, followed by Lake Travis Pizza, Casa Nostra, Toss, 'Zza, Leyla's, and Jersey Giant. All are worth the calories, and no one ever needs to eat Domino'sagain unless you are trapped at a preschooler's birthday party.

Lake Travis

I'm eager to try the pan-baked square pie, especially the Grandma variety. Lake Travis pizza is superb stuff, and more proof that "it's the water" is a silly myth about great NYC pizza. Water has almost nothing to do with it; it's about quality ingredients and pizzamaking skills. Lake Travis pizza has that in spades. We'll be back often.

Here at Pizza Quixote, we eat a lot of pizza. Most of that pizza comes from single shop pizza joints, which typically have the best and most interesting pizza. But for a few years, ever since the Whole Foods store opened in my previous neighborhood (Exton, PA), I have been intrigued by the pizza. I would walk by, take a look, think "dang that looks legit" and put it on my someday-to-try list.

Whole Foods pizza

Here in Texas Hill Country, the pandemic in general has compelled me to buy more in grocery stores and less in restaurants. Because of Prime discounts and excellent free delivery, I shop Whole Foods more than ever, and when I saw a Friday special with a $6 large cheese pizza (regular price is $14), the day had arrived to finally try it.

Whole Foods, Bee Cave TX

I imagine Whole Foods sells a lot of $6 pizzas on Fridays like that, and one was in the oven at the food service bar when I arrived. When it came out, I took it home in a box unsliced to reheat later (I generally reheat all takeout pizza, and now always during cv19). The pizza sat in its cardboard box for 2-3 hours before dinner time.

16" Pizza

This was a big 16" pizza, and a bit unevenly shaped. I heated it at 325 degrees for about 8 minutes. I wanted to try it plain, the way I ordered it, but I dressed up about 2/3 of its surface with thin slices of fresh garlic and Chinese sausage, because pizza is often best with cured meats on top.

Beautiful cornicione

One glance at the cornicione told me that this would not be a typical supermarket pizza. Leopard spots, crunchy bubbles, and an overall hand-crafted appearance made this look like an authentic old-school pizza. It smelled great even before I reheated it, too.

Underside of crust

I have to report that Whole Foods pizza is not good. No, in fact, it is GREAT. I came in with pretty high expectations; the frozen pizza dough at Whole Foods is my favorite when I'm using a shortcut for homemade pizza. But the crust on this pizza was just stunning.

The hot pizza bar

It reminded me of the ideal mix of chewy and crunchy that I'd found at some of the best pizza joints on the east coast, like Pizza Brain in Philadelphia,Bricco in Westmont NJ, and All-Purpose Pizza in Washington DC. The crust had its own flavor, too, so that the last bite of the cornicione was as satisfying as the first bite of each slice.

The label

The red sauce was bright and vibrant, and blended into the cheese in a very east coast way. The cheese - a blend of part-skim mozzarella and grated parmesan applied in perfect proportion - was tasty but a role player here in complementing the taste of the sauce and texture of the crust. Yes, the slices with my added toppings were better with the added umami of garlic and sausage. (Note - Chinese sausage is hard and narrow, with a sweetness never found in European style cured meats. Works great in fried rice or on pizza.)

Sliced

Great pizzas always begin with a great crust, and Whole Foods has nailed it, and more impressively it can be repeated by whoever is working the hot bar. Some great pizzas have standout cheese, sauce, or toppings, but this one reaches the top level by how well balanced its ingredients are. Terrific pizza and outstanding value.

If you traveled to New Mexico, what kind of food would you seek? For my tastes, New Mexican fare tops both California and Tex-Mex in its approach to Mexican-inspired cuisine. Santa Fe is an epicure's delight as much as any town or city in America. But when you're trying to eat a covid-safe meal in southern New Mexico, takeout pizza or BBQ is an easy choice.

Cracker crust pizza in Alamogordo

During our trip to Carlsbad and Alamogordo, we found that the BBQ pales in comparison to Texas, especially when ranked against stellar offerings like Cooper's in Llano or Opie's in Spicewood. What about the pizza?

Pizza Mill and Sub Factory

Given the proliferation of excellent Neapolitan pizza makers crafting personal-sized pies in 900-1000 degree wood fired dome ovens, I'm pretty confident that it would be easy to find great pizza in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. But much of New Mexico is sparsely populated.

Our mushroom and sausage pizza

Alamogordo is a city in the Chihuahuan Desert with 30,000 residents in southern New Mexico, supporting an Air Force base and tourism mostly related to the surreal and spectacular White Sands National Park.

White Sands National Park

Online reviewers were pretty much unanimous that the best pizza in Alamogordo comes from Pizza Mill and Sub Factory. I had modest expectations, because there are so many storefront joints in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that churn out generic pizzas and hoagies (subs) that are just OK. All other things being equal, I prefer a place that really focuses on the pizza.

Cross section showing thin crust

Another reason for caution was that the menu includes a "Garbage Barge" pizza topped with Canadian bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage, hamburger, mushrooms, onions, black olives, green olives, bell peppers, and green chilies. In my experience, an "everything" pizza or any other pie with an overload of toppings is simply a technique to distract you from a lousy crust or mediocre generic ingredients. We opted for a more balanced pizza topped with mushrooms and Italian sausage.

A party-cut slice

There is a convenient (especially for this covid era) drive-up window to pick up your order, and there you can observe the staff preparing the pies. After a short drive to our lodging, I opened up the pizza box and found a delightful surprise - the pizza was sporting the midwestern "party cut" with small squares instead of the traditional triangle shaped slices.

Pale underneath

During visits to the actual Midwest, I have enjoyed some solid bar-style thin crust pies at legendary pizza joints like Vito & Nick's in Chicago, Lucca Grill in Bloomington IL, Rubino's in Columbus OH, and the regional chain Monical's. After some digging, I learned that the founders had been making pizzas in Michigan before opening this Alamogordo pizzeria in 1972.

Photo from Facebook.com/PizzaMill

Most of these razor-thin pies mentioned here had a bready crust, but this pizza had a true cracker-type crust. Very thin with a crackly crunch, yet somehow still had some al dente chewiness to it. Baked on a metal tray, it was pretty pale on the bottom with just a few golden spots.

Mini square party cut

I can appreciate all kinds of crusts, from the thick and spongey cheese-encrusted corner slices of a Detroit slice at Via 313 in Austin, to a buttery rich grainy deep-dish Chicago style slice at Louisa's in Crestwood IL, to a medium thick classic slice atToss in Bee Cave TX, to a thin and rigid tomato pie at DeLorenzo's in Robbinsville NJ, to any of countless soft and puffy Neapolitans at places like Cane Rosso in Dallas and Austin TX.

Visible edge seam. From Facebook.com/PizzaMill

There's room in my heart and my stomach for a cracker crust, too. It was ideal for this party cut pie. Each perfectly round pie is crafted with fresh dough made daily, sent through an automatic roller, and then cut into perfect circles using the pans themselves as a template.

This thin and crisp wafer was topped with a generous amount of standard mozzarella, but the cheese and sauce did not make the crust soggy or saggy anywhere. The mushrooms were likely canned variety, but they had good color, size, and flavor.

From Facebook.com/PizzaMill

The sausage chunks were small but surprisingly spicy. The tomato sauce was a solid role player to bring all the elements together. This was a well balanced and tasty pizza.

White Sands National Park

Pizza Mill and Sub factory is not breaking any new ground, but it's well above the average chain or mom-n-pop shop. It was a welcome surprise to find a reasonably authentic midwestern party cut thin crust pie in the remote reaches of New Mexico. Kudos that they've kept a high quality for 48 years in this location.

Among the enduring food trends of the past decade, two stand out in my mind. One is craft beer. In American history, beer was first local, then regional, then dominated by large national brands. The big beermakers like Miller, Pabst, and Budweiser crowded out the regional brands; iconic beers disappeared (Schmidt's, Ballantine, Piels) or were bought up by the big breweries and rendered into bland brews (Rolling Rock, Lone Star, Olympia, Schaefer).

Beer was in a sad state, and the best stuff you could get was green-bottle imports like Heineken and Molson. The craft beer explosion changed all that beginning in 1979 when Jimmy Carter deregulated the beer market, and it's been a beer drinker's renaissance as the trend accelerated in this century.

Presto Pizzazz Plus Rotating Pizza Oven

There's a good parallel track for pizza in America. Beginning with Shakey's (1954) and Pizza Hut (1958), national chains began to compete with the mom and pop pizzamakers. While they couldn't match the taste, their efficiency allowed them to compete on price. The overall effect was that more pizza was available to more people (not just in Italian-American neighborhoods) and at a lower price. But not only was it bland generic pizza, it degraded the quality of the surviving mom and pop joints, who often turned to mass suppliers like Sysco to trim costs.

But the artisanal pizza movement has exploded in the nine short years that I've been writing this blog, and in almost any town in America you can get a legit Neapolitan pizza to go with your craft beer.

Beyond the ubiquitous Neapolitans coming out of 900 degree dome ovens, You can get wonderful Detroit style pizza at Via 313 in Austin, New Haven style at Basic in San Diego, and "al taglio" Roman style at Rione in Philly.

Beginning to bake my 12" pizza

Beyond the commercial efforts, the artisanal pizza movement has sparked a wave of "make it a home" enthusiasts. I've embraced some basic methods to get around the limitations of a 500-degree home oven, such as using a Baking Steel. Built-in backyard pizza ovens are growing in popularity, but there are also some simpler options for those not so fully committed; that brings us to pizza ovens for home use.

Nearly done

There are "portable" outdoor pizza ovens like the Ooni Fyra, a $250 wood-pellet fueled oven that reaches 900 degrees. You can spend $1,000 on the Breville Pizzaiolo for a countertop pizza oven, and there are plenty of oven boxes that can be heated using your conventional backyard gas grill. At the budget end of the pizza oven spectrum, for $50 you can get the Presto Pizzazz Plus Rotating Pizza Oven. We got one as a Christmas gift and I was eager to try it out.

The Pizzazz is a Jetsons-like device in its form, a rounded triangle slotted body that incorporates heating elements to cook the pizza from both the bottom and the top. The heating triangle covers only a small "slice" of your pizza at any given time, but the slowly rotating cooking tray assures that your pizza will cook evenly. The tray is dimpled and has a nonstick coating.

Golden underneath

One immediate advantage is that, compared to my regular method of cooking homemade pizzas on a Baking Steel at 500-550 degrees, there is no preheating time lag. A second, more valuable advantage is that you don't incur the risk of mishandling the pizza when transferring from peel to oven. You can assemble your pie directly on the cold rotating tray, then put the tray in the oven to cook.

Cornicione was pale and tender

For my first attempt, I made a batch of pizza dough for which the recipe specified just one hour of rise time. The batch was big enough for two 12" pizzas, so I put half in the refrigerator for another time. The tray is a little bigger than 13", so it was ideal for the almost-round 12" crust that I fashioned. I used jarred Marinara sauce (Rao's), raw chunks of fresh mild sausage, and a mix of Parmesan, Asiago, and Romano shaved cheeses.

Pesto pizza, pre-bake

The spindle on which you seat the tray begins to rotate as soon as you plug in the oven, and it's a little hairy to get the tray perched properly on the spindle; even then, it seems wobbly but that did not affect performance. To begin cooking, you rotate the heating control like a timer to set the desired cooking time; there is no temperature control. The feature that transforms this budget machine is a selector switch that allows you to cook from the bottom, the top, or in dual mode.

Perfectly cooked, top and bottom

I cooked this pizza for about 12 minutes in dual mode, and the top appeared well-cooked, including the sausage. But a peek underneath revealed a still-pale crust, so I gave it an extra 4 minutes cooking from the bottom only. This is how you can easily fine-tune your results. Unlike a conventional oven or any enclosed oven, the pizza is right in your field of view, and you can top-cook only for extra crisping or bottom-cook only to firm up a pale crust.

Brilliant sesame studded undercarriage

This first pizza was a hit, taste-wise. The top was perfectly browned, and the crust was properly rigid. No wet spots, no soggy tip, no sag. However, the crust was curiously delicate, especially toward the cornicione. I like an al-dente chewy/crunchy cornicione, but this was pale, tender, and delicate. Still good, but not ideal. I wondered if I could correct that.

About 4 days later, I took out the second half of the dough which had been resting in the fridge, and let it rise for a few hours at room temp. I decided that the pizza might cook differently if I split it into two smaller 7-8" pizzas. Those pies became medium ovals as I rolled the dough pretty thin.

The mini Margherita

I did prepare the dough off the tray, adding flour for handling and putting sesame seeds on the underside of the first mini-pizza (a trick I learned from Rize Pizza in West Chester, PA.) I secured the seeds to the underside with olive oil cooking spray, then I assembled the toppings after the dough was on the tray.

Much better than the original attempt

Mini-pie #1 started with homemade pesto in place of tomato sauce, topped with garden cherry tomatoes and the same sausage and cheese mix used on the previous pizza. I didn't center the pizza on the tray very well, and the tray listed to one side as it rotated, but that did not affect results. Because of the moisture load delivered by the cherry tomatoes, this pie got about 15 minutes of dual cooking.

Tortilla "pizza"

The results were spectacular! This crust was so much better than the previous one made from the same dough. It had all the flavor, plus good hole structure, plus a crispy snap, plus a great chewiness. It will take more experiments to know if the difference was due to more rise time (likely), the underside oil and sesame seeds (maybe), or the smaller size of the pizza (possibly).

Good hole structure on mini Margherita

Mini-pie #2 followed in similar fashion, but without seeds underneath; it was essentially the personal-size version of the original pizza. It was excellent, much better than the original pie, but not quite as magical as mini-pie #1.

Best all-around flour I've found

Between these two pizza events, I used some flour tortillas to make a pizza-ish lunch, topping the tortillas with the same Rao's Marinara, then adding diced leftover prime rib and some white American cheese. It's not pizza, but it was good. And once again, the dual control proved to be a key feature to getting the top cooked without burning the thin tortilla.

The original Pizzazz oven was targeted for heating up frozen pizzas; if you were making your own pizza, it was imperative to cover the entire tray surface. This newer "Plus" model allows you to cook smaller pizzas, things like pizza rolls or chicken wings, and other frozen convenience foods. The instructions warn you that you shouldn't use it to cook raw meats, but it cooked the sausage on my pizzas perfectly.

I was excited to get the Pizzazz Plus as a gift, and it has exceeded my expectations. It does take 15 minutes to cook a pizza, but the overall time is shorter than using an oven because you don't need to pre-heat. If you are making a lot of pizzas (at a party, for example), you could go much faster with a $150 grill insert device or the $250 Ooni wood-pellet outdoor oven. But for a mere $50, this is a superb performer. Given its exposed heating elements, I don't recommend it if you have small kids who might want to participate, but otherwise this is a fairly versatile device that is worth the cabinet space and the tiny price tag.

In a year when I stopped all in-restaurant dining around the end of February, pizza became the go-to food for takeout. You can bring it home, heat it up in the oven, and minimize the risk of covid19 transmission. And I did eat plenty of pizza in 2020, but much of it came from close-to-home favorite pizzerias.

Our annual recap is all about the discovery of new pizzerias, often prompted by travel, so we have a pretty compact list this time (unlike 2017, which featured 21 different pizza places). The quantity is reduced, but not the quality!

Let's begin with a clear understanding of this list: These are not the Top Five Pizzas in America, or my own favorite five, but simply the Five Best Pizzas Newly Discovered By Me in 2020.

5. 'Zza Pizza & Salad - Bee Cave, TX. The year began with this delightful surprise, when a St. Louis-style pizzamaker opened this location only minutes from my home. The long oval flatbreads (some under $10) are offered with a range of inventive toppings, and the salads were terrific too.

We said "It is pizza? It is flatbread? Is it pizza-flavored nachos? Whatever you call it, it is scrumptious, and easily the best 'fast casual' pizza I've had, edging out &Pizza for that distinction."

4. Whole Foods Fresh Pizza. If any national supermarket chain could crack a list of best pizzas, Whole Foods is the best candidate. I may never have tried it in a normal year, but tweaked grocery habits took me to Whole Foods and I was intrigued by the look of the pizza. The Friday special offering a whole large pizza for $6 was all the incentive needed.

I reported that "the crust on this pizza was just stunning" and "it reminded me of the ideal mix of chewy and crunchy that I'd found at some of the best pizza joints on the east coast." With a vibrant red sauce, this pie was wonderful.

3. Tonari Japanese Deep-Dish, Washington DC. My only air travel of 2020 took me to Philly and DC in late February. We visited Tonari, a restaurant offering pasta and pizza "wafu" style, which means "in the Japanese way." Of course, we had to try the deep-dish pizza, and it was like nothing I've had before or since.

It shared much with Detroit-style pizzas, and we noted it had a "formidable crunchy crust" but "the interior of the dough is white, soft, and pillowy." Texturally, while it resembles some of the best thick and airy pizzas like the ones at Rize in West Chester PA and Via 313 in Austin TX, it was distinctly different from any pizza crust I've ever eaten. The dough is fermented for up to three days to develop a structure that is common to Japanese white bread. Beyond its delectable silky interior and crunchy edges, it had a wonderfully complex flavor even without the toppings.

We sought out the "most Japanese" pizza, opting for the Mentaiko & Corn pie that included brick cheese, mentaiko (cod roe) cream, Kewpie (Japanese mayonnaise) corn puree, and scallions. The toppings flowed like lava over this pie but the crust did not become soggy. Weird and spectacular stuff!

2. Casa Nostra, Spicewood, TX. Spicewood is home to Willie Nelson's Luck Ranch, and it's just five minutes down the highway from my suburban Austin home. To an east coaster like me, Spicewood is where residential Texas begins to yield to ranch Texas. I expect good BBQ, but not pizza. However, in 2019 I found that Pizzeria Sorrelina in Spicewood was spectacular. On each trip to Sorrelina, I drove past Casa Nostra thinking "that can't be very good."

I'm here to report that I was wrong. Every pizza is perfectly cooked, with no wet centers and a well-considered balance of ingredients. The simple Margherita ($11) rides on a delicate and puffy yet crisp crust with a tangy red sauce married to the mozzarella with basil and extra virgin olive oil. And Casa Nostra offers pizza ala tonno, (a white pie with mozzarella, tuna, carmelized onion, Kalmata olives, and pine nuts), which I had previously seen on on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

Casa Nostra was a lifeline in 2020. Great pizza, efficient curbside service, and during the terrible spring when grocery stores had shortages, Casa Nostra set up an online system from which we could order staples like red sauce, pizza flour, and beer! In fact, yesterday I made pizza at home with the excellent flour I bought at Casa Nostra.

1. Lake Travis Pizza, Lakeway TX. Given the travel constraints of 2020, it's no wonder that three of the top five are driving distance for Austin suburbanites, but all three of these Texas pizzerias would be on my list in any year. Operating out of a tiny red shack on Route 620 in Lakeway, Lake Travis Pizza was getting a lot of buzz. I avoid 620 when possible, because it's the most congested artery in the region and folks around here don't drive so much as they mosey. But when I knew I'd be passing by on a journey home from Round Rock, I called ahead for a takeout pizza.

On the 15 minute ride home, I noted that the aroma in the car was intoxicating; it's a smell that instantly conveys "great pizza ahead." The taste measured up; the crust was a Neapolitan hybrid with some of the textural elements of a conventional soft and puffy Neapolitan, but also plenty of crispness. It had its own rich flavor and was cooked about perfectly, right down to the leopard spotting underneath.

On our pepperoni pie, the cheese was very well balanced to the rest of the pizza, but it was a role player. The sauce, however, was remarkable; dark, thick, rich, and bursting with flavor. The spicy cup pepperoni was about a perfect accent, adding yet one more layer of umami. Overall, a nearly perfect pizza.

The folks at Lake Travis Pizza know what it takes to make terrific pie. The superb Lake Travis pizza is more proof that "it's the water" is a silly myth about great NYC pizza. Any non-native Texan knows that the water here is lousy. I drank tap water all of my life in NY, NJ, PA - but not here. Water has almost nothing to do with it; it's about quality ingredients and pizzamaking skills. Lake Travis pizza has that in spades.

On a personal note, I love the Texas climate, the Austin vibe, the hill country, and the BBQ. I thought I'd be giving up some things to gain all that Texas offers, like great pizza and watching the Eagles every Sunday in the fall. But the pizza here is better than in my old neighborhood: Sorrelina, Casa Nostra, and 'Zza are all within 10 minutes, the terrific Toss and Lake Travis Pizza are within 15 minutes, and Via 313 is perhaps 25 minutes away. And bonus, because they are in the NFC East with the Cowboys, the Eagles are broadcast right to my home most Sundays.

Let's hope that 2021 gives you and me the chance for more travel, more pizza, and a return to normal. And for the Eagles, a return to the playoffs!

What is Detroit style pizza? Begin with a rectangular thick crust, baked in a pan, much like a Sicilian style pizza. But then apply the cheese all the way to the edge, even to the point where some of the cheese gets caramelized on the sides where the crust meets the pan. Bake it with toppings (any of the usual candidates, but especially with two kinds of pepperoni), but without any red sauce. After the pizza is baked, ladle two broad racing stripes of tomato sauce over the top.

Once a rarity outside of the Detroit region, this style of pizza is finally getting the national recognition it deserves. The iconic Detroit pizza comes from Buddy's Pizza, which now has 19 Michigan locations.

I've never been to Detroit, but I got a feel for this kind of pizza in rural Mannheim Pennsylvania, where Norma Knepp baked superlative Jersey Boardwalk style and Detroit style pizzas (only on Tuesdays) before her 2020 retirement.

Norma's Detroit style

Norma's Detroit style pizza was a revelation. Beautiful crunch underneath, an impossibly airy body to the crust, with all the good stuff riding on top. The point of adding the sauce after baking is to keep it from making the crust soggy at any point. Bonus, you won't burn the roof of your mouth as easily when you can't wait for the pie to cool a bit.

Via 313 pizza

I also happen to live about 25 minutes from the best-known Detroit-style pizza purveyor outside of Michigan -- Via 313 in Austin, Texas. Another unlikely location for Detroit pizza, but this stuff is fully authentic even down to the name, chosen from the Detroit metro area code.

In our review of Via 313, we said this: "The crust was properly thick, but somehow puffy and light without being insubstantial or white-bready. Golden crisp on the bottom, tender and chew in the middle. The sauce and cheese were wonderful role players, and there was a magical mix of textures from the crispy bottom, soft middle, and chewy layer of browned cheese on top. Add in the crispy brown edges of cheese for one more dimension of flavor and texture."

All this is table-setting for the biggest-yet national platform for Detroit style pizza, because here in January of 2021, Pizza Hut (headquartered in Plano, TX) has launched its own version of Detroit pizza. I was instantly intrigued.

I have mixed feelings about the big national pizzamakers, explored in detail in my post about chain pizzas. Among the giants, the only thing worse than Papa John's lousy pizza is its founder, John Schnatter; Domino's is better than no pizza at all; and Pizza Hut is generally better than you'd expect. None are as good as some of the excellent regional chains, like Grotto Pizza, Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza, Monical's, or Bertucci's.

Pizza Hut Detroit style

What the big chains have done is introduce pizza to a wider audience, and bring down the price point to make it a viable commodity purchase for ravenous college kids and anybody on a budget. Let's see how Pizza Hut did in its attempt to introduce Detroit style pizza to all of America.

Unsliced, before re-heat

It's about 20 minutes from my home to the closest Pizza Hut in Dripping Springs, Texas. Too far for delivery, so I made the trip to place a carryout order for the new Detroit pizza configured in the most iconic way with two types of pepperoni ($11.99). I added an order of "spicy garlic" chicken wings (6 wings for $8.99). I rarely order food from a smartphone, but I was impressed with the Pizza Hut app and the ease of use.

Did you ever experience a food product where the actual dish looked better than the product portrayed in ads? This pizza appeared more appetizing than the picture that I had seen in the mail flyer. A promising sign, even though the two red stripes of sauce were applied a bit off center.

I ordered this pizza (and asked that it not be cut) about two hours before we consumed it; it sat in its cardboard box at room temperature until I reheated it on a perforated pan at 375 for 12 minutes. After I did that, which was the ideal time and temperature, I saw reheating instructions on the box calling for 5-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Minor point, my technique was clearly better for getting not just warm pizza but crisp pizza.

At Via 313, the double pepperoni pizza includes flat pepperoni buried under the cheese, and spicy cup pepperoni riding on top. This pizza, which claims to have 80 pieces of pepperoni, had both on top, with the cups placed atop the the flat rounds.

My impression on the first bite was "yup, chain pizza, tastes fine but clearly inferior to artisan pizza." My focus was on the crust, which was airy enough with a good golden crunch on the bottom, but seem to be lacking texturally. It's hard to articulate, but there was little detectable chew to the crust.

Nice golden color underneath

The cheese was perfectly cooked, with nice brown spotting all over, and the use of spicy cup pepperoni was a high-end touch. The shocker of this pizza was the red sauce. Deep red, thick, surprisingly zesty. The ingredients all worked together to make this very satisfying despite my vague qualms about the texture of the crust.

I had cut the pizza into 8 slices, and two or three of these rectangles should satisfy most appetites. I often add salt to pizza, but not here. This was intensely salty, especially that thick red sauce. After we had finished, I thought about the nature of that crust and found the perfect analogy.

Imagine an order of cheesy breadsticks, but they are all fused into one large rectangle. Add more cheese and a lot of pepperoni, bake it some more, then add red sauce stripes. Boom, Pizza Hut Detroit style! As someone who would rarely waste calories on puffy white "breadsticks" from Pizza Hut or Domino's or Olive Garden, I'm surprised that breadstick dough makes a workable base for a Detroit style pizza.

This pizza won't make you forget Buddy's in Detroit, Via 313 in Austin, or the remarkable pizza at Norma's, but I agree with some reviews that say it's the best thing from Pizza Hut in many years. I'd probably eat it again, and gladly, but on the other hand I need to travel only 5 minutes further to get Via 313 pizza.

By any account, this is a genuine winner and a nice surprise. Kudos to the Hut. If you're stuck at a kid's birthday party and the hosts are ready to call in the pizza order to Domino's, step up and pitch a switch to Pizza Hut and an order that includes at least one of these Detroit pizzas.

Side note -- just as with the pizza, I had modest expectations for the wings. I ate one when I got home, after it had spent just 20 minutes in the takeout container. It was warm, but most of the sauce was swimming at the bottom of the container. When I reheated the pizza, I put the remaining wings on a small tray and poured the sauce over them. They got the same 12 minutes at 375 as the pizza did, and it was transformative. They were hot, of course, but the sticky sauce developed a nice crispy coating too. Much like the pizza, these wings were better than I would have expected.

From its inception ten years ago, the purpose of this blog has been finding "destination pizza," especially in areas where you wouldn't expect it. Destination pizza is pie good enough to make the trip, whether that means across town or across the country. But two fundamental truths remain, even for pizza snobs. First, even bad pizza is better than no pizza at all. Second, the pizza you ate most as a kid remains stuck in your mind and your heart.

For many of us, commercially packaged pizza baked at home conjures up some memories. We ate some truly wretched Chef Boy-Ar-Dee kit pizzas at home; soggy thin dough covered with watery ketchup sauce and scant cheese. Much better were the short-lived "Poppins" mini-pizzas made to be heated in a toaster. When Elio's frozen rectangles became available, I couldn't get enough.

Most frozen pizza is pretty forgettable, but it's come a long way since Chef Boy-Ar-Dee. There's probably a pizza in your freezer right now. In my experience, many of the best ones are imported from Italy (available at Trader Joe's) or from Germany (at ALDI).

My criteria for any pizza restaurant is asking "is it better than DiGiorno?" The frozen "rising crust" DiGiorno pizzas set the benchmark for national-brand frozen pizza. It is better than many mom-n-pop pizzerias that are using low-grade mass produced ingredients. It is better than Domino's or Papa John's.

Right out of the box

Naturally, I was intrigued when I saw that DiGiorno had introduced a pizza with a croissant crust. I'm skeptical of most novelty pizzas (ahem, cauliflower crust), but also very open to bread varieties for a pizza base, such as English muffins, French bread, and flatbreads. I was very keen to try this croissant pizza, and made the leap when my local H-E-B Supermarket had a coupon deal for this $5.95 frozen pizza.

The DiGiorno croissant curst pizza is offered in three varieties: pepperoni, "three meat," or "four cheese," which is the pie I bought. I don't often select a plain pie, but this seemed like the fairest way to evaluate the crust and I resisted my instinct to add my own toppings.

Fresh from the oven before slicing

The four cheeses are mozzarella, parmesan, asiago, and romano. In fact, it's really only a one cheese pizza, because all of the cheeses except the mozzarella are so far down the ingredient list that they are listed after the yeast.

Although the pizza is only 10" in diameter, it has 1850 calories and 150% of your daily sodium, which you may want to know if you are tempted to eat the whole thing. Spoiler: you might indeed be tempted.

Out of the box, it showed no evidence of its croissant crust; it appeared to be a medium thick pizza on which the cheese went all the way to the edges, with the sauce buried deep underneath so that it looked almost like a white pie.

I followed the package directions, baking it directly on a center oven rack at 400 degrees for 24-25 minutes. The edges puffed up in baking to take on the appearance of a puffy Neapolitan's cornicione. I cut it into 8 smallish slices and we dug in.

Because the sauce was entirely beneath the cheese, it was particularly easy to burn the roof of your mouth, and it required a little extra cooling time. The first bite revealed a pleasantly pillowy/spongy bite with a touch of crisp on the golden bottom. I could sense that this croissant crust was laden with fat (the first fat listed in the ingredients is margarine), but it was an appropriate level of greasiness.

Golden brown underneath

The cheese was tasty but mild, and the sauce was just a red presence with a remote tomato flavor. Nonetheless, the texture overall was surprisingly good and the ingredients played together in a harmonious way. The more I ate, the more I enjoyed it.

The best part was toward the cornicione, where the crust was thicker and you could really sense the layers of the croissant. It was crispy, flaky, chewy, still greasy, but damn good. I'd really enjoy this kind of a crust on a breakfast pizza, with the red sauce supplanted by bacon and eggs.

I stopped myself at four slices - half a pizza - clocking in at 925 calories and only 75% of my daily sodium. But I could have easily eaten more. In this way, it was kind of like Costco pizza (the kind sold by the slice in store) in that it was thick, greasy, pillowy, and loaded with fat, salt, and calories. A guilty indulgence.

If you're going to have a frozen pizza by choice, or if you keep some frozen pie around for the kids and you want a variety where you'd enjoy a slice yourself, this is a fun variant and surprisingly tasty. DiGiorno keeps its crown as King of the National Brand Frozen Pizzas. Leave a comment if your go-to frozen pie is something else!

Recently, given the growing popularity of Detroit style pizza across America, I took the opportunity to try Little Caesars version. You can read the full story and review here. Before I visited the Austin location to pick up the Detroit pizza, I ordered on the LC app and noted that the menu had a "Pretzel Crust" pizza for just $6. Since I'm fond of the concept of the pretzel crust, I added one to my order.

I didn't know what to expect, but this was a substantial pie, about 14" round. Little Caesars introduced this pizza in 2014, but it's never been a full-time regular menu item. The Pretzel Crust pizza is topped with muenster and mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni. It has no tomato component, instead sporting a creamy cheddar cheese sauce.

I doubt if the crust is any different than other large round LC pies, other than how it appears to have a buttery glaze to which copious amounts of coarse salt are applied. So the cornicione is more "salty bread stick" than pretzel - but as a guy who likes a salty pizza, I have no problem with that approach.

This proved to be one very tasty combo, and much like the Detroit pizza, it was just way better than what any of the big chains (Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa John's, LC) were making 10 years ago. The popularity of artisan pizzas has pushed the big chains to make better pizza, and that's a win for everybody.

The problem with mass-produced pizza has usually been a soft, floppy crust that lacked flavor, character, and crunch. This pizza, however, had a good snap as well as a toothy chew, some flavor of its own, and a good golden brown underneath.

Some corn meal and good browning underneath

In short - a wonderful value for $6. What Little Caesars has done here is not break new ground, but execute at a surprisingly high level for this price point. I'm going back to my favorite local artisanal pies, but there's no shame in enjoying this damn decent chain pizza.

The purpose of this blog, since its inception ten years ago, is to find the exceptional pizza. "Destination pizza" that is worth the trip because it stands out above the ordinary. Ten years ago, finding such pizza was often a challenge, but we were in the early stages of the ongoing Pizza Renaissance.

Before the Pizza Renaissance, mass produced pizza was crowding out the best local shops and competing hard on price. The surviving mom and pop shops often had to cut corners on quality to compete with giants like Domino's and Pizza Hut. They bought cheap ingredients from Sysco and it seemed like every storefront pizzeria was churning out a similar product. Soft, floppy, greasy, tasty, but nothing like the artisanal pizzas from an earlier time.

In a way that parallels the craft beer movement, the new artisans came to the world of pizza. Pizza geeks may argue where it began, but it was driven in large part by a return to Neapolitan pizza. At the head of that movement wasChris Bianco, who was celebrated as making not only the best pizza in Phoenix, but the best in America. While Neapolitan was and remains the biggest wave in the Pizza Renaissance, the renewed interest in pizza as more than cheap commodity fare opened up interest in other regional styles, like Roman, New Haven, and Detroit.

One side effect of the artisanal pizza makers was the attempt to franchise and mass produce these great pies. It has succeeded far more than I might have thought, with places like Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza, Mod, and Blaze. One more and totally surprising side effect is that the behemoths have upped their game. Not long ago, we tried and liked (almost loved!) the Detroit style pizza from Pizza Hut.

8 slices for $8.99

All of this takes me full circle to Little Caesars. I haven't had it for a long time, decades before this blog. I remember excitement when one opened in my neighborhood, and general disappointment at the crust, which seemed like Wonder Bread with some thin sauce and cheese on it. I don't think I had it a second time.

For all the intervening years, there was never a Little Caesars in my neighborhood and no chance to give it another try. I've been intrigued lately by Little Caesars ads, especially knowing that their "DEEP! DEEP!" square pie is essentially a Detroit style pizza. Once I had tried and approved the Pizza Hut version, I decided that Little Caesars deserved a fresh evaluation, even though I still don't live near a location.

It was Covid19 that gave me the opportunity, because I needed to drive from my suburban location to a downtown Austin CVS for my vaccine. Nearby was the wonderful El Pollo Rico min-chain chicken restaurant, which was a no-brainer for my post-vaccination lunch. Across the street was Little Caesars, where I ordered the pizza for dinner later that day.

I tempered my expectations because, well, it's a big chain, and this is really cheap pizza. Naturally, I order the DEEP! DEEP! pie with pepperoni, and it was $8.99. Just to compare prices (not quality), a similar sized Detroit pizza from Austin's acclaimed Via 313costs $22 and that's a great price for such ethereal pie.

I couldn't resist ordering another pizza, especially because the very appealing Pretzel Crust pizza was just $6.00. Who doesn't want a salty cornicione? (The Pretzel Crust pizza can be found in a separate review here.) So, for a little over $16.00 including the tax, I was taking home two substantial pizzas.

Little Caesar's Pretzel Crust Pizza

I will jump ahead here to my reaction after eating a slice: this pizza was astonishing. No, nothing nearly as perfect as the Detroit pies at Via 313 or the magical version that Norma Kneppused to make at her rural PA farmer’s market stand.

The crust was shockingly good. It sported a light golden crispy bottom, with evidence of some oil that helped crisp it. It was thick but relatively light, and not in a white-bread kind of way that has traditionally plagued mass-market chain pizzas. And it tasted like real pizza crust, too.

The cheese was pretty ordinary, but it was applied generously enough except at the critical edges, where it needed more to get maximum caramelization over the sides. The sauce was thick, rich, and more salty than sweet. Given the thickness of the crust and the generous amount of cheese, it would have been better with more sauce. It's important to note that a more authentic Detroit pizza has two racing stripes of red sauce added after the bake; here the scant red sauce was mostly underneath the cheese.

Underside of the crust

The pepperoni was big circles of thinly sliced standard grade stuff, but can you really expect spicy cup pepperoni on a $9 pizza? Four circles of pepperoni on each of the eight slices was enough, but it didn't quite match the obscene pepperoni overload on the Pizza Hut version we tried not long ago.

For comparison, the Pizza Hut version

It's almost embarrassing to confess how much I enjoyed both the Pizza Hut and the Little Caesars version of a Detroit pizza. Given a choice, would I prefer to spend $9 on the LC version, $12 for the Hut, or $22 for Via 313? Hands down, the Via 313 version wins despite its higher cost, and it's not a close comparison. And as surprised as I was by how much I enjoyed this LC Detroiter, I'd recommend the extra $3 to get the Pizza Hut version over LC due to the more & better pepperoni and the generous post-bake application of deep red sauce.

Good airy structure

This comes back around again to the point that the big chains are responding to the artisanal Pizza Renaissance by making better quality pizzas. I had been thinking that the future of chain pizza was in newer places like Mod and Blaze, and they have certainly carved out an important niche for fast casual Neapolitan. But after decades of peddling lousy soft floppy pizza that was little more than a bready vehicle for show-off toppings and stuffed crusts, the big chains seem to have found a way to make good imitations of Detroit pizza and still be a price leader.

Review: Toss Pizzeria & Pub - Austin, TX

Review: Paladar 511 - New Orleans LA

Review: Motor City Pizza Co. - Detroit Deep Dish

Review: Salvatore's Tomato Pies - Madison WI

Review: Trilogy Pizza - San Antonio, TX

Pizza Quixote: Top Ten Breakout Pizzas from 2019

Review: 'Zza Pizza + Salad - Bee Cave (Austin), TX

Review: Pizzeria Casa Nostra - Spicewood, TX

Review: Midtown Pizza (by H-E-B)

Review: Tonari Japanese Deep-Dish Pizza

Review: Leyla's Pizza - Austin, TX

Review: Lake Travis Pizza - Lakeway (Austin) TX

Review: Whole Foods Fresh Pizza

Review: Pizza Mill and Sub Factory - Alamogordo, NM

Review: Presto Pizzazz Plus Rotating Pizza Oven

Pizza Quixote's Top Five Breakout Pizzas of 2020

Review: Pizza Hut Detroit Style Pizza

Review: DiGiorno Croissant Crust Pizza

Review: Little Caesars Pretzel Crust Pizza

Review: Little Caesars Detroit Style Pizza