I enjoy a five-star meal just as much as the next person and I have been known to mmm and ah appreciatively while I enjoy something different and delightful to the palate like goat cheese profiteroles or pecorino-stuffed risotto balls with a wonderful glass of Joseph Phelps or Stag’s Leap. But while I can clean up well, dress the part and order pretty confidently in most places, I’m still an easy-to-please girl with simple tastes at heart. There’s just something about a great slice of pizza and a Coke from the fountain machine that hits that spot like almost nothing else can. Not all pizza joints are created equal of course, but when you do find a good one (please, no chain restaurants), you know exactly what I mean.
Special K is a pizza fan, too, so when we hear of a particularly good pizza place, we’ll make the effort to check it out. But unfortunately, the pizza gods have not been smiling on us lately. Three times now, we have either heard or read about the “best pizza!” in the city/county/borough/state and three times we have been thwarted in our efforts to test it out for ourselves.
Someone recommended Arturo’s pizza in the Village and we planned an entire New York day around having lunch at Arturo’s and then hanging out the rest of the afternoon in SoHo, doing some shopping. We even skipped breakfast because we were so looking forward to an excellent pizza lunch. Our mouths were practically watering when we stepped off the subway and made our way into daylight and down Houston to Arturo’s… only to find that Arturo’s isn’t open for lunch. They don’t open until late afternoon for the dinner crowd. Now uber-hungry, we settled for another pizza place around the corner and it was just fine. But we still never managed to make it to Arturo’s for even a quick slice of pepperoni.
The second incident was back in Orange County. PJ, JD and Dougie Fresh were staying at the house for the weekend and Special K had ripped out a story from one of the local magazines, touting a pizza parlor in the city of Orange as the best pizza in the county. The boys are all pizza connoisseurs and so we set off merrily (on Saturday around noon) for our latest ‘za quest. As we pulled into the parking lot, we immediately noticed the dearth of cars. And sure enough, when I jumped out to get a closer look at the hastily pasted, hand-written sign in the window, it said that the #1 pizza joint in the county would be closed that day. (We settled for Mexican for lunch, but it wasn’t the same.)
And the latest in the three-strikes-you’re-out series happened as Labor Day weekend approached and we were planning our trip to Phoenix. Co-worker Chris used to live in Scottsdale, so he gave me the low-down on a few good restaurants and then said “Oh, there is also a great pizza place in Phoenix that everyone loves. A guy wrote on Yelp that he drove all the way from LA to Phoenix for it, and it was well worth the trip.” Well then! Done deal, we’d make a point of hitting Pizzeria Bianco for lunch one day and test out its worthiness for ourselves. When I pulled up the web site, we saw the (predictable?) statement “Pizzeria Bianco will be closed for summer break from August 24 to September 15”.
Third time’s a charm? Apparently not in the quest for good pizza. But nice try, pizza gods, we are still NOT going to visit Pizza Hut or Dominoes. Ever.
2 comments:
I too am a pizza girl. Must have been too much time spent in the Den in university...still one of the best slices I've had. May your next attempt for pizza be successful.
ooh, i forgot about The Den's pizza... you're right, that was the good stuff! (Probably just because it was something like 50 cents a slice at the time!)
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