Teaching Pizza on the Banks of the Schuylkill: Bayou Bar and Grill

My seventh grade reading teacher Mr. Faiss is someone I've kept in touch with all these years for good reason. In a wonderfully un-condescending work miracle of curriculum-designing, Mr. Faiss assigned us 12-and-13-year-olds Childhood's End, Watership Down, 1984, and several O'Henry short stories. It was a pretty affecting class. The guy knew how to get kids excited about heavy-hitting works of fiction. Would he know where to get pizza on an April Fool's afternoon?

Mr. Faiss and I headed to the Northwest, his lifelong home. We somehow missed the Boulevard on the way and had an interesting time finding our way through Germantown to Wayne Avenue and, finally, Manayunk. Bayou Bar and Grill, fun fact, is housed in an old textile mill (surprise!) that Faiss told me he worked in for a time. "Were you tending bar?" "No, it was still a textile mill!" Whoa! I thought this was pretty cool because if you know this city, you know that pretty much everything north of Center City is housed in an old textile mill. Bayou B and G has a pretty nice spot at the end of the canal right up on the Schuylkill. The temperture was pushing 80 and we had no choice but to sit outside and enjoy it.

Great view! The Schuylkill is my favorite river in the entire world for whatever reason. I was pretty amped to eat some slices sitting right on top of it. On Faiss' recommendation we got two pies: one, pancetta, spinach and (get this) corn and the other, three cheese with pepperoni.

I'm always kind of wary of bar and grill pizza. I mean, how often is it really going to be their specialty? The kitchen is probably churning out orders of burgers and fries 90% of the time, which is fine, but how much energy are they going to put into their pizza? These are serious concerns of mine but are slowly falling by the wayside because of above-average bar pie taking me by surprise every few months. This was one of those times!

For one, I could tell Bayou B and G was trying to do something different, something above and beyond with this spinach, pancetta and CORN pizza. Have you ever seen this before? Corn on pizza?  And for those not in the know, pancetta is pretty much this rolled up, Italian take on bacon that is, if you're not getting the point yet, AMAZING. It's up there on the shortlist of all-time greatest salty meats and I wish it showed up on my pizza more often. And corn. I want corn, from now on, to show up on pizza more often because it was... a really cool idea? tasted great? has a texture unlike any other pizza topping? All of these things!

It was, of course, salty and a little creamy which complemented the corn. It was not unlike putting butter and salt on a corncob and then eating a slice of white pizza. A really cool pie.

I liked the pepperoni a lot too. Any red pepper flake fans out there? Speak up. Bayou B and G makes our job a little easier by throwing some on the pizza before it hits the table. A nice touch, a little kick.

The blend included at least mozzarella and cheddar (something else that needs to show up more,) and sat oozingly on a bed of sauce (ratio of 1.5:1) I recall as being on the sweeter side.

So as I said before, this once again defied my low expectations of bar and grill pizzas. Do you think I need to get over this ASAP? Do you have similar expectations? Get over to Bayou Bar and Grill! ASAP!

Bayou Bar and Grill:
4245 Main Street
Manayunk, PA 19127
(215) 482-2560