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PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA: A place to discuss and debate pizza.

Jug of Green Piss Connor

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I was pontificating earlier on Greek pizza Not a pizza with feta cheese, olives and gyro meat on top but the style of pizza that seems oh so popular in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, AKA places where there aren't many Italian Americans so the Greeks take their place. Best way I could describe it is heavy on the oil, heavy on the cheese, thickass crust, and almost disconcertingly sweet sauce (I've heard a lot of these places pull a Marvin and add cinnamon to the sauce) . I like it mostly because I was raised with it but I don't think I've met anybody outside of the area (except the JN News types I know) who isn't kind of grossed out by it. It's basically what would happen if you tried to make Pizza Hut at your house except even more oily! Hard to believe but true. I'm not going to claim it's best of the best and it's kind of an acquired taste but it's a real guilty pleasure.

Anyways, this is a place to rep, discuss, and debate your favorite and least favorite pies. Which places have gotten or lost their game faces, etc. I guess the people who aren't completely fucking lazy like me can post recipes.
 

CBright7831

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Pizza used to my favorite food of all time. I have so much envy for people who live in NYC, Chicago, or Florida. That is some of the best pizza that I have tasted in my life. Unfortunately, living in TN, there are not many pizza places around here so you're reduced to eating at places like Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, etc. or not eating pizza at all (which I have sadly had to do). There are a few good pizza places though - Big Ed's and Elidios - but they are to far out for me to drive to.

*sigh*
 

Vitamin X

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CBright7831 said:
Pizza used to my favorite food of all time. I have so much envy for people who live in NYC, Chicago, orFlorida. *sigh*
One of these things is not like the other!

Florida doesn't have its own style of pizza, it's just derived from New York style since it's New Yorkers' favorite place to come down when it's cold up north or for retiring.

I'd argue West Coast pizza has its own style as well- It's usually sort of like that "artisan" style where it has a thin crust like New York style, but usually wood baked or something that makes it crispier and almost sort of charred on the bottom. And the use of unusual fruits and vegetables on pizza as well; I'm fairly sure it was a Californian that invented ham and pineapple on pizza, which I know many East Coasters scoff at. Up here in Portland, the battle for best pizza place comes down between two places: Ken's Artisan and Apizza Scholls. The latter was visited by Anthony Bourdain and the Food Network among others have given it all sorts of press, but the former is widely hailed by food critics as the best one in town. I like Apizza Scholls better because they're nuts about the little details with their pizza (they hand mix all the dough which is unheard of and won't allow you to put more than I think 3 toppings on a pizza) and it's generally a better deal than Ken's.

Pizza's tied for my favorite food ever (tied with sushi and a good cuban sandwich or guava/cheese pastelito) but I like variety and I'm definitely not snobby about it. There's another place in town called Rocco's Pizza which everyone in Portland universally hates and yet they're still a thriving business. Their slices are huge, about $2 each, smothered in sauce and cheese and either overcooked or undercooked. Yet there's something that's kind of endearing about a crappy pizza- it's a fucking cheap gutbomb for one thing and they sort of take pride in being the "gutter punk" sort of slice and I can dig that. For $3 you get yourself a bigass slice of pizza and a tallboy of PBR and you can just sit around and hang out or go upstairs to the bar part and watch TV or shoot pool.

Which brings me to something that I sorta miss about pizza places: the "pizza parlor." Anyone remember how Pizza Hut used to be back in the day? The ones I went to were the ones with the big salad bar and the bigass arcade for kids, and they'd bring out that greasy ass pizza in a big metal pan to your family. Nowadays most pizza places are either carryout shops with no tables or anything or they're a super fancy "artisan bakery." I like the idea of merging the pizza parlor idea with bars. I should probably open up a shop like that. I make damn good pizza already (Recipe forthcoming)
 

KOAB

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One thing I've learned since making my own pizzas from scratch a few years ago... it takes a certain talent to be able to fuck up a pizza.
 

Jug of Green Piss Connor

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KOAB said:
One thing I've learned since making my own pizzas from scratch a few years ago... it takes a certain talent to be able to fuck up a pizza.
Heck, even I haven't fucked it up. Honestly, I think 99% of it is in the crust. If you get that right or at least not wrong, then the rest is cream cheese (figuratively of course, all though I might have to remember that idea)

In a way I'm glad I didn't come from one of those pizza hotbeds because then I think I'd be kind of snobby about it. I enjoy pizza of all shapes, styles, and varieties. Even most frozen pizzas. Only shit I can't abide by is that Boboli crap that my dad used to love to make for dinner when I was a kid and this place, Bill's, which is a lot like the place VX described. Just cheap drunk food. Except not really good at all. They used cheap mild cheddar for their cheese. Everybody knows it's supposed to be mozzarella!
 

tonyjaymz03

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Baltimore has shit for pizza. I can't even name one local pizza place that is even decent. They all try for a NYC style pizza and yet still fail. Horrible.
 

KOAB

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There's one place I been to like 30 miles away from here that's so fucking awesome it's become an all day event if I go there with pals. Blunt ride, get 4 or 5 pitchers of beer, get 2 pizzas that cover a table that can seat 8, and catch up with my buds. Problem is always finding the guy who wants to make the drive home after getting blown, drunk, and stuffed.
 

Mattdotcom

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KOAB said:
There's one place I been to like 30 miles away from here that's so fucking awesome it's become an all day event if I go there with pals. Blunt ride, get 4 or 5 pitchers of beer, get 2 pizzas that cover a table that can seat 8, and catch up with my buds. Problem is always finding the guy who wants to make the drive home after getting blown, drunk, and stuffed.

WHYWOULDYOULETABYSSDRIVEYOURCAR.gif
 

oldskool

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Vitamin X said:
Which brings me to something that I sorta miss about pizza places: the "pizza parlor." Anyone remember how Pizza Hut used to be back in the day? The ones I went to were the ones with the big salad bar and the bigass arcade for kids, and they'd bring out that greasy ass pizza in a big metal pan to your family.
Hells yeah. Our Pizza Huts are still like that...I think one of them ditched the arcade but hopefully the other's going strong with WWF Wrestlefest or something.
 

bps21

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I don't like pizza from anywhere but here. I've had Chicago and NYC pizza and it's just not my taste. Even going up to my mother's in Syracuse (which is only 2 hours away) they don't have anything decent going on. It's like the French Onion Dip conundrum.
 

Jebus

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I live in Los Angeles.
That's all you need to know about the "quality" of our pizzas.
In fact, if it ain't Mexican or Seafood, it sucks balls here.
 

darthtiki

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I actually found a pretty good pie in South Orange County. This small little Sicilian deli in San Clemente makes a thin crust with great sauce, fresh mozzarella.
 

Youth N Asia

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Call Me Mr. Flintstone said:
I come from Michigan, home of Little Caesars and Domino's. I know pizza.

Goddamn skippy-da-do! Alas Domino's started vanishing left and right in Flint
 

Precious Roy

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I haven't seen a Little Caesars in forever

I've got a half dozen Dominos in my area, and 1 Pizza Hut

I'll get Dominos once in a while just because it's so cheap, but I liked their pizza better before they changed their formulas, it always feels undercooked, and the retards who work there are terrible at distribution of toppings. I want toppings mixed in with the cheese, not buried underneath or thrown on top

FWIW I think Unos has the best chain pizza
 

Jug of Green Piss Connor

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My hierarchy of chain pizza places
1. Papa John's
2. Little Caesar's (Pretty much only because of the low, low price. Though half the time I go there, I get the wings for some reason. Crazy Bread FTW.)
3. Pizza Hut (Last few times I went there it's been not good at all. I don't know if they changed the formula or something but the sauce was WAYYYYY too sweet and over powered the taste)
4. Domino's (Hard to rate this since I've only had the new formula once and I was drunk so I could have eaten a piece of cardboard with some string cheese and bits of Slim Jim on it and liked it. I was never crazy about Domino's even as a kid and that's a fairly damning indictment)

Except for Little Caesar's, I only go to these places maybe 1-2 times a year. Kind of weird because I have a Domino's literally right down thestreet. Then again, I also have a servicable Chinese place, a good Thai place, two solid Vietnamese places, Brit-Indian place, and a bombass Mom and Pop burger place down the street too.
 

Youth N Asia

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My rank goes 1) Hungry Howies 2) Dominos 3) Pizza Hut 4) Papa Johns. Ever since Little Cesar's started doing the cheap Hot N Ready pizzas the overall quality has dipped.
 

Jug of Green Piss Connor

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If we're counting local chains, there's a Maine/Vermont pizza place called Leonardo's that's probably neck and neck with Papa John's. They have some great toppings/specialty pizza (I know it's not real traditional pizza but whatev) but the crust is just as bad as most national chains.

Portland Pie Co. is a really good Portland only area chain. My brother used to be a deliveryman for them. Love The Mohegan and The Harbormaster. Mount Katahdin is a hell of a veggie pizza too. It's kind of gone downhill as they've expanded and started selling their dough to local grocery stores though.
 

Vitamin X

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National chain ranking for me goes 1. Papa John's by a country mile, 2. Sbarro (haters gon' hate) 3. Tie between Domino's and Pizza Hut (before Domino's changed their pizza it was better since it was more bread-y now it tastes artificial and greasy and the only good pizza at Pizza Hut is the stuffed crust), 5. Little Caesar's.

I'm not even going to delve into the local places around here because there's so many of them that I like. And usually better than all of the above. The $10 special PJ's is running right now makes it kinda hard for me to avoid them, though.
 

Mickey Massuco

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Call Me Mr. Flintstone said:
I come from Michigan, home of Little Caesars and Domino's. I know pizza.

lol

I don't care if it makes me sound rustic, but I hate "original" style pizza you get in Europe. I like the grease, thickness and symmetry that come with an American-made pie.
 

Jug of Green Piss Connor

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I always forget Sbarro's when I list off national pizza chains for some reason. I never associate it with Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John's but with all of the other restaurants I only find in mall food courts. Unrelated but Panda Express, Amato's Italian Sandwiches (again, another Maine/Vermont chain...hmm maybe a local chain thread might work), and Arby's are the holy triumvirate of the food court of my mall.


Yeah my mall food court kind of sucks now that I think about it!
 

Golgo

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Both our local franchises have the nationwide chains beat. I'm including them. I was a big fan of Papa John's, but for the price, it's not really that much better. Maybe it's the local store, but for the last while they've skimped on everything to where I just stopped ordering from them. Pizza Hut ranks above them now. I wish Little Caesar's delivered. Domino's is still junk.

Pudge Brothers, Black Jack, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, Little Caesar's, Domino's.

I should try a take and bake from Papa Murphy's one of these days. I've just never bothered. We have Sbarro and California Pizza Kitchen here, too, but each location is too far away. I don't feel like I'm missing much anyway.
 

CBright7831

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The only Sbarro's that are around here are in malls (and one in the university where I work). Are they a mall-only chain or do they have stores in other parts of the country?
 

Precious Roy

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I've never seen one that wasn't in some type of foodcourt, be it a mall, rest stop, combo restaurant or whatever
 

Gert

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I'm a pretty fan of Fox's Pizza, which I think is a Michigan-Ohio chain, lots of different specialty pizzas, and somewhat decent prices.
 
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