Planet Earth (Bread and Brewery) as Narrated by Abe Rosenthal

You ever spend a few days not bathing and then take a shower and have the smells of the last couple of days come out of your hair? It's usually a disgusting experience, but my shower this morning was filled with the delicious aromas of, what I'm convinced is, the best pizzeria (I'm sorry, it's "bread," not pizza) in Philadelphia: Mt. Airy's Earth Bread and Brewery.

Grotto Pizza: The Bianco

There's a lot that can be said about Grotto Pizza. That it's a Delaware thing. That, for a lot of Delawareans, this fact, that many of their families ate no other pizza but Grotto on a weekly basis, has driven them away from the red and white facade. That Grotto is nothing but a myth. For me, though, as a Pennsylvanian that, unfortunately, often finds himself stuck in the Small Wonder on a regular basis, Grotto has always been a treat. Our family used Delaware for its tax free shopping and a trip to the strip-mall corridor (read: Route 202) was never complete without a stop at Grotto's Fairfax location. At school events, if it wasn't Gallucio's then it was Grotto. Readers of this blog KNOW I'm a fan of spiral sauce and three cheese blend. I. Like. Grotto. A lot.

My mom has been out of town for a few days, so of course take-out from Grotto was in the works. My dad decided Friday would be the night. He picked me up at the Wilmington Amtrak station and we made our way through town to Pennsylvania Avenue. He called in an order for one large bianco and sent me inside to pick it up. The place was packed at 6 o'clock; post-sports-practice families in the dining room, 9-5ers in the bar and a constant flow of take-out. It was a good 12+ minute wait but whatever. I was SO hungry.

So what's the bianco? It's Grotto's white: sharp cheese, herbs, garlic out the ass, onions, no sauce. It's a strictly Dad/Joe favorite. A bad-breath-inducing, heart-burn-flaring, olive-oil-begging piece of near-perfection. It's pretty much the only white pie I'll stand by, 100%.

We put the pie in the trunk of the car. It was the only way to resist temptation. You know how the drive home with a pizza goes. The box winds up becoming your plate as you scarf down a piece, second-best after oven-fresh. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM (it's 12:30 in the afternoon and I'm making myself so hungry writing this.)

Even when we got home, I had to wait. I had to run an errand real fast so we threw the pizza in our oven on low. The time finally came to eat and the bianco was just as I remembered. That's probably part of the appeal of Grotto to me. The crust is floury; maybe a veiled attempt at emulating the floury-flop of Mack and Manco. The cheese has an unmatched bond with the surface of the crust. It might be more accurate to call the pizza "bread." It tastes like memories, it tastes like awesome, it tastes like garlic! My dad drowns his in olive oil and red pepper flakes. I skip the olive oil but I do like the extra kick of the red pepper. Without sauce, I think the dough has more opportunities to bubble up through the cheese. Observe:

My only gripe is the price: 17.99 for this large white. What is WITH that! UGH.

Are you a Delaware-native with an opinion about Grotto? How do you like your bianco?


Grotto Pizza
1819 Pennsylvania Avenue
Wilmington, DE 19806
(302) 777-3278‎

This Guy Seriously Loves Pizza

_{(and is that jon bon jovi behind him??? maybe!)}

Jeff Varasano of Varasano's Pizzeria claims to have the best recipe for pizza and compiled this (http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm) astonishing list of awesome pizza shops. Check it out. Definitely worth the perusal for any pizza fan.




Varasano's Pizzeria
Voted Atlanta's Best Pizza
Located at 2171 Peachtree Rd. NE
Atlanta GA 30309
404-352-8216

Dateline: Downington. Nathan Hurst, reporting.

During my spring break adventures of sitting at home, eating fast food, and working my job as Target retail slave, it was my chance to go out and try the three main pizza "hot spots" in Downingtown. I hit the three shops in order of oldest to newest.  

Brick's Big Mistake: Chapter 3

“YESSS I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!”, Brick shouted. It was not Led Zepplin, but it was just as good. The name of the song does not matter. Neither does the band who wrote the song. Just know that it was perfect for the occasion.
Brick was cruisin through town, knowing exactly where to go. Left on Jackson. Left on Dada Ave. Right on 15th. Left on-- “YO Peter!” Brick saw his friend Peter on the corner of 15th and Turkey, waiting for the bus or something. He pulled over immediately. Brick was great, but sometimes he had trouble staying focused on important tasks, like in this case, delivering pizza ON. TIME. Whatever though, Brick lives in the moment.

Pizza Snapshots: Titus Andronicus

I was privileged enough to see a great rock 'n' roll show last night, presented by veritable American heroes, Titus Andronicus. But if you're looking for a recap, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FIND IT HERE. This ain't MUSIC PROSPECTS. However, I did see singer/songwriter/guitarist /great guy Patrick Stickles walking out of the venue with a pizza box and pressed him for a photograph. He was happy to oblige. "I'm always more than willing to support the cause of pizza!"

The pie Patrick is enjoying came from "some place up on Girard Avenue, and it was only $6.50!" I just did some Googling and the $6.50, small plain could have only come from one place: Central Pizza. Patrick's favorite pizza to eat on tour is Hoboken Pie in Austin, Texas, but as he comes from the oft-cited American Pizza Mecca of North Jersey/New York Metropolitan Area, nothing really compares to the real thing.

If you would like a recap of the show, videos and all, please visit my friend Zac and his blog, the Styrofoam Drone. He shot some great video last night of Titus and openers, the Babies (who I have to say, exceeded my expectations by about three thousand miles.)

Central Pizza:
335 East Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19125
(215) 426-8036‎ 

Hoboken Pie:
718 Red River Street. Austin, TX 78701
(512) 477-4256

Pizza-related Internet Meme

I'm sure you, reader, saw this video last week when it popped up on Videogum and, thus, everywhere else on the internet. I could only let it fly under our radar for so long before I actually gave it a listen. This kids LOVE their pit-za! With pepperoni! With tomato (and an awkward long break in the vocals)! They like pit-za, not just in the morning or the evening but EVERY DAY. I'm beginning to doubt my commitment to pit-za eating and I'm currently in touch with their public relations people in an effort to cede command of this blog to Pizza Kids. It's been days since I last had a slice... and I've yet to record a Eurodance song about it!

We sure have a lot of pizza places to cover!

thanks to (http://kaceydilla.tumblr.com/) for the map!

Galactic Pizza in Uptown, Minneapolis

- Excerpt from Galactic Pizza’s “Vision of the Future,” as it appears on the menus:
“At Galactic Pizza we have a positive vision of the future on our planet. We see a world that lacks the greed and self-centeredness that has led us into the chaotic state that we see today. We see a world full of cooperation, sustainability, and harmony with our surroundings."

It goes on longer (you can read the rest here: http://www.galacticpizza.com/vision), but I think that gives you the gist of what Galactic Pizza is all about. They list in specifics how exactly they carry this out, which includes delivery by electronic vehicles, powering the restaurant by purchasing renewable wind energy, getting cheese from cows not injected with rBGH growth hormone, etc. etc. etc.

But, most importantly, they make great pizza. So, if these extra bells/whistles/ethos don’t really mean anything to you, or if words like “free range chicken” and “hemp pesto sauce” sound unappetizing, don’t let that scare you away. For one, most of the pizzas are not vegetarian; they merely come with the option of having meat substitutes, most of which do a good job of replicating the taste of the real thing, along with whatever other prerequisites might be required to make it vegan-friendly.

The recent time I ate Galactic Pizza that spurred this entry took place about an hour after I had eaten an enormous Easter dinner. I had just picked up Lou whom, in contrast, had not eaten anything all day, and thus had Galactic Pizza as a specific destination in mind. We both stumbled upon Galactic Pizza last year when we were searching for another local pizza hotspot, Pizza Luce - which I hope to get around to covering on my next trip back - based on a small blurb I had read about in the newspaper. While it turned out we were searching the entirely wrong direction down Lyndale Avenue, it was exceptionally snowy and windy, and so we compromised our search in favor of refuge in the nearest pizza place we could find. Lo and behold, that place was Galactic Pizza.

Daria

Got some screengrabs of Daria Morgandorfer and Jane Lane eating at their favorite pizza place. Very important information.

Trent Lane shows up.

Greater Philadelphia Student Film and Free Pizza Festival

OK it wasn't exactly GPSFAFPF, just GPSFF, but there was free pizza. Eventually. Explanation and fun photos after the jump.

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?

Saucey

The Pizza in West Chester gets progressively better each time I come home. This time we (My pizza sidekick, Matthew Good, his sister Lauren, and the tallest man on earth, John Bocian) tried out Saucey.

I have had it once before, Mimi and I went on a pizza road trip one night, but I only got a slice of cheese. Saucey being known for its assortment of bizarre pizza concoctions, I felt as though I had to go more in depth with their pizza. We strutted into the tiny shop, and of course out of nowhere Matt instantly knew the man behind the counter. Some bull that he went to high school with all the way out in Harrisburg, and who is now employed at Saucey, and enrolled at Dub C university. The whole time they were conversing I just thought in the back of my head if this bearded gentleman who I shared a mutual friend with was going to hook me up with that chicken bacon ranch pizza I was eyeing up. It never happened.

Major Changes

Did some heavy thinking last night as I was trying to get some sleep. I had gotten lost in a downward spiral of Wikipedia articles, somehow finding myself reading about cattle mutilation and its possible ties to alien abductions. Between that and last night's episode of Man vs. Food, which found host and ubermensch Adam Richman gnawing on a five pound cheesesteak next to Tony Luke Jr., I found myself... reevaluating our focus. Why pizza? Seems like there's so little variety. But sandwiches... there are all sorts of sandwiches!! So stick around. You're going to be seeing some major changes later today!