Serious Pie

Name: Serious Pie

Location: Seattle, WA

Meal: Pizza with salami, caramelized onions, and sardegna

Type: Pizza

First order of business is to get the cliché out of the way; Serious Pie is seriously good. Now that’s out of the system and we can focus on the more important things about Serious Pie, mainly how tantalizingly good it is. Tom Douglas is Mr.Seattle Restaurant; located mainly all within the same area he currently has five different restaurants. My trip to Seattle had me staying only a few blocks from Serious Pie so I made walk over. For all the strengths of Serious Pie is does have one glaring drawback, it is tiny. The entire place holds a small counter, wood fire oven, prep area, all the baking for Chef Douglas’s other restaurants, and maybe a dozen or so long hightop tables. Guests are sat in a communal style I’ve only really seen in Seattle, at the same table as other parties often in elbow striking distance. The cramped quarters don’t seem to deter too many. More focused on eating and getting some sleep (first night in Seattle) I took advantage of their take out option and got my pie to go.

What awaited me back at my hotel was not the most traditional pizza I’ve ever had but still one of the top pies. Serious Pie was created with the idea of it being a baker’s pizzeria; the bread gets, rightfully so, a lot of attention. The pies are all oblong, creating a nice symmetrical divide of pieces heavy with toppings and others primarily crust. I had gone for the pie with salami, onions, and sardegna (a goat’s milk cheese originally from the Sardinia region of Italy) which instantly converted me to salami on pizza. The sweetness of the onions, tangyness of the salami, and the creaminess of the cheese all combine well. The crust is divine, chewy yet light and airy inside with a sprinkling of Parmesan but more importantly salt around the edge of the crust.

A food trip to Seattle would be too short, no matter how long you stayed but Serious Pie (and likely Tom Douglas’s other restaurants) deserve heavy consideration for the short list. There are two great non-traditional ways to enjoy Serious Pie. First, take advantage of their Happy Hour specials ($5 mini pies) to taste a wider assortment then you’d ever manage off the full menu. Second, Serious Pie has a number of chilled wine to go; call your order a head, pick up a pie or two and a bottle of wine or two (companion optional). Go, you’ll enjoy it, seriously with out a doubt.

Serious Pie with salami, caramelized onions, and sardegna

Amazing crust

Serious Pie

Margherita Pizza

Name: Punch Pizza

Location: Minneapolis/St.Paul, MN

Meal: Italian Salad, Neapolitan Pizza, and a Coke

Type: Pizza

If you would have asked me where I would find great pizza, pizza worthy of note by the Italian government, Minneapolis/St.Paul would have been just about at the bottom of any list I could come up with. As it turns out the Twin Cities is home to a great group of pizzerias called Punch Pizza. Punch is quick to draw attention to themselves as having been designated by the Italian government as Denominazione di Origine Controllata (D.O.C.). The designation means that only certain ingredients are used and it is made to very specific standards.  Having eaten Margherita pizza in Naples, Italy I can say that this is quite authentic pizza and delicious to boot. There are few differences between the Twin Cities and beautiful seaside Naples but the pizza is fairly dead-on, and delicious.

Italian Chop Salad

Half Margherita / Half Salame e Funghi

Punch Pizza crust

Punch Pizza

Jumbo Slice

Name: Pizza Mart, affentionately known to most as Jumbo Slice

Location: Adams Morgan

Meal: Slice of Pepporoni Pizza and a soda

Type: Italian

I had, for a few years, tried to hold to the belief that Washington,D.C. has no one single food. No cheese steak, no chowder, no beef on weck; no one food that was regionally beloved. That belief was first invalidated with my discovery of Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street. Even before that, I had long heard of DC’s second food, Jumbo Slice, but had never had a chance to partake. The idea of a huge slice of pizza certainly peaked my interest but my I’m not much for nightlife so I never found myself in Adams Morgan until recently. Needless to say, I was excited to finally have a chance to experience the Jumbo Slice.

For the uninitiated, Jumbo Slice is a HUGE slice of a pizza. Catering to the late night crowd in Adams Morgan, Pizza Mart was the first restaurant to start offering these huge slices.When I say huge, I mean huge; the pizza it comes from is 30 inches across. A single slice of Jumbo Slice is over a foot across, and close to a foot and half long.

Very few people will admit to loving Jumbo Slice for the taste. Most will say they love Jumbo Slice for same reason they love late night Denny’s or Wendy’s. The slice is greasy, cheesy, warm, and delicious; in short, everything late night food should be. And let’s not forget the scene. One of the best things about Jumbo Slice is the people watching. There will be tears. There will be fights. There will be popped collars and there will be an overly affectionate couple. You need to experience it for yourself, you’ll be glad you did; as I’ve come to find out it is one of those definitive DC experiences (besides telling tourists to move to the right on an escalator).

Slice of Pep

Pizza Mart, aka Jumbo Slice

*The City Paper wrote a great article on Jumbo Slice in 2004.

Pizza with Mushroom and Onion

Name: Haymarket Pizza “The Famous One”

Location: Boston, MA

Meal: Slice of Mushroom and Onion Pizza and a Pepsi

Type: Pizza

People often make the joke that pizza is a lot like something else, even when it is bad it is still pizza. I’ve been to the top of the pizza world, having eaten at a coal-fired pizzeria in Naples, Italy. I’ve also had crappy college delivery pizza at 1:00 in the morning. Haymarket Pizza was definitely on the better half of my pizza scale. The crust is great, the sauce a little strong (heavy on oregano), and the cheese is melted so therefore good. What Haymarket excels at is delivering a tasty meal quickly and at a very decent price. During lunchtime they do such a steady business that any one of their dozen-plus varieties of pizza is served piping hot without any reheating. You can easily be in and out of Haymarket with two slices and a drink in less than 3 minutes and having spent less than $6.00.

Inside Haymarket Pizza

Haymarket Pizza "The Famous One"