This is Tacconelli's Pizzeria.

The reputation of Tacconelli's Pizzeria preceded our visit Saturday afternoon.  My dad's best friend Pat first told me about his favorite pie at least two years ago. "Get this: they have you reserve your dough in advance. They only make a certain amount every day, fire the oven when they open and cook pizza all evening as it cools." Sounded special. Sounded almost too good to be true. And for months it eluded me.


My first attempt to dine at Tacconelli's followed the Army-Navy Game in early-December, 2008. Pat was in town for the game and had met my dad and I there. He threw the idea out there and we were game but it was well into their seating schedule and of course they had sold out of dough. We ended up dining at a fine Italian restaurant in Ardmore.

I tried again not three weeks later. Boxing day. Probably not the smartest time to think you're going to eat a family-run pizza place in a (I think) Catholic neighborhood. Closed for the holidays! No problem. Understandable.  I believe we went to the Reading Terminal Market and gorged ourselves on pork sandwiches.

Occasionally thereafter I would call Tacconelli's to see what's up. I even walked in one afternoon when I happened to be in Port Richmond.  Just to say hi. My sense of wonder was unceasing. Finally, last week, I got my shit together with my friends Brianne and Julie and Sam. We were going to have some pie.

The party quickly grew to seven: my sister Mimi, girlfriend Danielle, bro John, myself and the other three. We set a date: next Saturday. It was on and I wasn't going to fuck it up. I called Tacconelli's Wednesday at 10 when they opened, or so their website said. They decided to close Wednesday too! These people do whatever the hell they want. I love it. I called Thursday, again, late-morning. Four pies, Saturday, four o'clock.

My mom was making fun of how excited I was on the phone with them and I'm sure I did sound like a complete dweeb.

Anyway, after getting really lost where the grid gets all screwed up past the El, we got there. It really does have a nice family-owned feel. Good tables, lots of homey touches and a staff that's probably been working those tables for years. You order two pizzas at a time so for our first round we got a white with spinach and tomato, and a margherita. I really had no idea what to expect. We talked excitedly over a pitcher of water until our waitress brought out the pizzas. They were a treat to look at. The crust is so thin that it looked as if the toppings and sauce had been painted on.

 See what I mean?

I'm a little wary of thin crust. There's very little room to get it right. Pizza that bills itself as thin crust pizza often resembles in taste and texture as pizza toppings on a cracker. Not so at Tacconelli's. Towards the middle the crust is thin but soft and flimsy, the crispiness increasing outward toward the crust. And the crust, while cripsy, somehow retains a nice doughy vacuum when you bite into it. There's a really great sauce to cheese ratio. Sauce is spread thin, so there's not an outrageous amount, but they use toppings sparingly (to a slight disadvantage) allowing for a 2, maybe 2.5:1 sauce to cheese ratio. And the sauce itself: sweet but a sweetness that's (thankfully) held back by some mixture of herbs! That about describes the pizza... Our second two pies were a regular with pepperoni, and a tomato. The pepperoni was SMOTHERED with the salty, circular slices of meat. 

Pepperoni city!

The pepperoni was easily my favorite. It was similar to Grotto or Franzone's wherein the pepperoni begins to take on the flavor and texture of the tomato sauce.

Mimi's eyes are rolling back into her head in ecstasy at her, and the general, favorite: spinach and tomato white. Brianne, too, is enjoying a slice of spinach.

 

John's favorite was also spinach and tomato. He thought it fit in with the general fanciness of the joint. By fancy he meant, sitting down at a clean table in a lowlit room after ordering our dough in advance.

Like me, Danielle's favorite was the pepperoni. Girl is a glutton.

 

Everybody's happy, not everybody's pictured. Julie and Sam what were your favorites? I forget.

Worth the hype? For sure! It's a great system. I think it's another way of elevating the pizza on a pedestal as I discussed in my Elizabeth's post. It's just a different kind of pedestal. Tacconelli's has been doing it this way for years in the same spot. You walk past the place and you can see, it just belongs in a weird way. It's an institution. I doubt it's going anywhere soon, but get in there! It was a great way to spend a cold afternoon.