Pizzelii Brick Oven Pizza

Fast casual pizzerias have been popping up across the nation in the last few years. Entrepreneurs are rushing to become the "Chipotle of Pizza". To me, this seems a superb business strategy: Neapolitan pizza can be made in 90 seconds with a sufficiently hot oven, so there's no reason it shouldn't be fast-casual food. Also, this approach seems closer to the actual type of pizzerias you see in Naples than the prevailing higher-end  Neapolitan Pizzeria approach you see in America. At Pizzelii you order at the counter, pick some toppings, pay ($8 per personal-size pizza), and they give you your food in a few minutes. My first exposure to this model of pizzeria was at Smashing Tomato, a small chain in Lexington - A near twin to Pizzelii which broke my previous rule that you can not get good pizza south of 275. 

Pizzelii is Cincinnati's entry into this fast casual market. The restaurant is located on Route 50, directly across the street from 50West Brewery. The "ii" name is partially a reference to Servatii Bakery. Part-owner, Gary Gottenbusch, is also part of the family that owns that bakery. 

Walking in from the parking lot, the restaurant clearly smelled like wood-fired cooking. One of the owners (I think it was Mr. Gottenbusch) was explaining his cooking strategy to eveyone on line at Pizzelii, which is always nice to see. Inside, there were two ovens: one wood-fired and one gas oven that was kinda made up to look like a wood-fired oven. While the wood-fired oven was going at full blast, everything we saw was cooked (including our pizzas) was made in the gas oven. The pizzeria exults the methods it uses to produce a high-quality pizza. Notably, Pizzelii uses a slow rise method with their dough. This longer fermentation period generally does much to enhance the flavor of the crust (and is something I do with homemade pizza). To view the results, we started with a Margherita pizza, which is usually the best type to taste of an excellent crust.

As you can see below, the crust had some light charring. Also, there was a lot of cornmeal on the bottom (not a bad thing). It wasn't a well-done as I usually like my pizza, but maybe I should have asked for them to keep it in another 30 seconds. 

Overall, the crust was pretty good. However, the taste of the crust wasn't strong enough for a plain margherita to be good on it's own (unlike say A Tavola, where the crust carries the pie). It was a tad borring. Pizzelii hit it's stride for us with our second pizza, the Carne. This pizza featured meats that were spicy and delicious.

The sauce was a traditional, understated, ("San Marzano") tomato-heavy sauce without much spice. We found it a little plain. If you want to try to spice the pizza up, Pizzelii offers a form of "chili oil" (Oil with lots of crushed red peppers in it) along with the normal olive oil. While the hot oil looked quite deliciously spicy at first glance, the heat was more understated than it appeared. 

At Pizzelii, I would highly recommend ordering a topping heavy pizza (goetta is an option). The crust, sauce, and cheese are fine on their own, but everything is much better if toppings with a kick are added to the pie. At $8 per pizza, and with 50West Beers on hand, Pizzelii is a fine option for a quick bite after a soccer game, before sand volleyball match (available next door) or for any time of day. It is worth a visit for any fan of pizza (roughly 99% of the population, right?).

Comet's Pizza Madness

Cincinnati Magazine recently held a pizza tournament ("Pizza Madness") mirroring the recent NCAA delirium in March. The winner of this contest was the only pizzeria in the tournament neither of us had tried. Actually, neither of us had heard of the winner, Comet's Pizza in Mason. Indeed, it only had one vote on Urbanspoon (we gave it a second). Setting aside the methodological issues of comparing pizzerias in a tournament-style internet vote, a pizzeria that has that many people voting for it (early and often) likely has some merit. So, when we visited the Monroe outlet mall on a recent rainy day, we decided to go a couple miles off the highway and taste what the Masonites have been raving about. 

Comet's is located on Main Street in Mason and very much has the feel of a small town pizzeria. Everyone there seemed to know each other and it felt like customers had been patronizing this place for generations (in reality, Comet's is twenty years old). The customers and proprietors were all ridiculously friendly to the extent that it would be really tough to give the pizza a bad review. There were about four tables inside and it appears Comet's does most of it's business via pick-up orders. 

The pizzas come in various diameters (8", 12", 14", 16", or 18") of medium crust and there were a tremendous variety of topping options. They offer BLT, BBQ Chicken, Bacon Cheeseburger, White Sauce, and Hawaiian Pizza. There's a theory which states you should order the worst sounding thing on the menu (Since it must be the great taste, not that appetizing name that causes it to stay on the menu). We followed this strategy but ended up with something traditional. Yes, we opted for a "Serious PMS" pizza which is described on the menu as "What? That’s Pepperoni, Mushroom, and Sausage". Bold naming.

Being hungry, we opted for a 14" pizza. It ended up being too much food, which consequently ended up not being a problem. The sauce was refreshingly simple. There was very little spice to it and the basic tomatoey-ness shone through. The crust was of medium thickness, with significant browning around the edges. The bottom was lighter and showed clear signs of having been cooked on a screen. The bottom also had a good crunch to it while the middle was a little bit more bread-like. I thought the crust could used a little more salt, but in general it had a good taste for this type of pizza.

So, Comet's Pizza was not the best pizza in Cincinnati (Hey! if you're looking for the best, I know a good list). Nonetheless, it was good pizza and an above-average example of the medium crust screen-cooked pizza you see a lot throughout Ohio (For other examples, check out Aponte's and Raymond's). We both enjoyed our visit, and would return the next time we're in the area. If you're willing to drive a few miles, it certainly blows away your food choices at the Outlet Mall.

Eli's BBQ

"If God had meant for Cincinnati to have barbecue, He'd a give it to us a long time ago."
- Reverend Deuteronomy Skaggs (Cincinnati Radio Preacher & Gary Burbank Character)

In my younger and more formative years, I was never a tremendous fan of barbecue. This was possibly because most of the barbecue I had tried was the rushed and low-quality variety that one often sees in Cincinnati (not pointing any fingers, but you know who I'm talking about). Historically great barbecue has only be available in some places: Texas, much of the South, Missouri, Illinois, and Hawaii. My eyes have fortunately been opened in recent years and I have gained a new appreciation for quality barbecue. My awakening was partially due to trying some great BBQ places in Chicago, but also partially came from reading Tyler Cowen's An Economist Gets Lunch (Yes, I'm a bookish foodie). Barbecue is perhaps the only American food that largely avoided becoming chain fast food and was resistant to the trends that made American food crappy after World War I (mass production, government interventions, adding to much salt/sugar to appeal to kids, etc). More recently, barbecue has also largely resisted the trend toward pseudo-fancy dining and snobbery.

Excellent slow cooked barbecue takes a long time to master. Great barbecue does not rely on ten different sauces to cover up the taste of the meat. Producing great ribs, pulled pork and brisket is a craft, but also a down-to-Earth one (Cooking great barbecue is more difficult that cooking a great steak). Thus, it is the perfect food for thoughtful down-to-Earth foodies. This is all a round-about way to say, you can get supremely tasty food at Eli's BBQ for a reasonable price.

Eli's is built into a old house on Riverside Drive. There is no name on the sign, only a silhouette of a pig - bold like this barbecue. On this day, the interior was decorated with various Cincinnati Reds pictures, which were also for sale. Tunes were provided by a record player, which was situated across from a box of old vinyl albums. There's only about ten tables inside, but there are more tables outside.

Eli's started out a vendor of pulled pork at Findlay Market. The new sit down location is also a purveyor of dry-rub ribs. There were four (mechanical) smokers located out back for the cooking. We were told the ribs at Eli's are smoked for 6 hours, whereas the pork-shoulder cooks overnight. We went the traditional route with ribs and rib tips.

The consensus was that the ribs were excellent. Some were fattier than others. There was only one barbecue sauce, which was sweet, mild, and delicious. But honestly, the dry-rub ribs and rib tips were great by themselves. If you're looking for a nice summer spot, you can bring a blanket and a cooler and sit outside for a nice picnic.

And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the Mac & Cheese: cheesier than Velveeta and Don Rickles COMBINED. For an extra bonus, ask for a sprinkle of pork cracklings. It's a crowd pleaser.

Here's our final verdict: We wanted to return the next day. The pork ribs, rib tips, and pulled pork were all excellent. Also, we're not overly anxious to order Nathan's Hot Dogs at a barbecue joint, but Eli's version did look rather good. Perhaps on a future trip. We recommend you visit Eli's early, often, and with cash/check only. You needn't only rely on our word: Cincinnati Magazine listed Eli's among it's top 10 Cincinnati Restaurants for 2013. We applaud this inclusion.

Slice Review: Armitage Pizzeria (Chicago)

Armitage Pizzeria is a small, cash only, two-employee operation located at 711 Armitage Avenue in Lincoln Park. If you don't watch out closely for it, Armitage's understated black awning is easy to walk past. The founder and driving force is former Coalfire owner J. Spillane. Despite the fact that Spillane is a Boston-transplant, Armitage is surely the best example of a New York style street pizzeria that I have visited in Chicago (fyi - two and three are Gigio's and Santullo's).

Spillane was the one person in the shop on the afternoon of my visit, and he was kind enough to share his sage pizza-wisdom with a couple other visiting pizza aficionados and me. Armitage's pizzas only come in a 8-slice 14" size, reasonably priced at $11 for a cheese pizza and $2 for a cheese slice. As a general rule, I usually don’t review a pizzeria based on just one slice. Pizza by the slice can have a few disadvantages – most significantly it sometimes sits under a lamp too long. However, I made an exception here because Armitage only kept one fresh cheese pizza for by-the-slice sales. Spillane didn’t even want to do this, but was convinced to do so because of the high customer demand. Although the full pizzas looked great, I'm glad he opted for the by-the-slice business. An often stated belief at this blog has been that if you can't make a great cheese pizza, you simply can't make a great pizza. Crust, sauce, and cheese are the keys; Toppings are a bonus. Well, Armitage can make a great pizza. Here's the cheese slice:

Behind the counter, Spillane's work table and much of the floor was covered in excess King Arthur's flower - a great sign to me. The late-model gas oven is turned all the way up so that pizzas can be cooked at 650 degrees. The crust is key to Spillane and I found the slice to be excellent in that regard. It is thin, but not cracker thin. The bottom of the crust had a little char, with a slight amount of excess flower, and the pie was crisp around the outer edge of crust (the "cornicone"). Yet, the middle of the slice was soft and very foldable, but nowhere soggy. This is the perfect crispy and chewy combo for a New York slice

The pizzas use regular Stella shred mozzarella rather than the fresh buffalo mozzarella you see at Neapolitan joints. This lower moisture variety worked well on the pizza. Also, the thin layer of sauce is composed primarily of Zia Rosa tomatoes (if you order a whole pizza, an empty tomato can is used for the pizza stand). A little bit of Romano cheese is added, giving it a slightly sharper tangy taste. The combined effect is better than the parts, making for a great slice.

While I enjoy the recent wave of Neapolitan places, I find myself more often craving a well-crafted classic New York style pizza. Weighing the quality and the price, I'm not sure I've ever had better pizza. Armitage provides a simple and extremely well executed pie. Indeed, I liked the slice here so much today that I decided  to review it on the Megabus ride back to Cincinnati (and the Wi-Fi gloriously held up today). As mentioned, I broke my typical rule of only reviewing full pizzas (although I hope to return for one in the coming months). I do so because Armitage rivals Joe's in the West Village as one of the best traditional slice joints in America. If you happen to be near Lincoln Park, I highly recommend stopping by for a bite.

Follow Gravy Train On Twitter!

With the shakeout in RSS readers following Google Reader's untimely demise, hoards of Cincinnatians are looking for exciting new ways to follow developments in pizza, burgers, and revelry in the Paris of the Midwest. Amid that backdrop, we have decided to roll-out a blog Twitter feed: @CincyGravy. The feed provides a great way to stay up-to-date on our latest reviews as well as a moderate amount of Twitter only content (mainly Twitter-size restaurants reviews).

Follow us @CincyGravy