January 14 and 15th, 2016
Atlanta, GA
We went on our first pizza road trip last January, when we drove down to visit Eric’s brother in West Palm Beach, FL. We went a couple of hours out of our way to make a stop in Atlanta, which had two pizza places on the list.
We left our house at 5:30 in the morning to begin our drive. Luckily, the drive was uneventful. We didn’t hit much traffic, except for a little bit around Washington, D.C. We listened toa lot of podcasts. As the day went on, we had to keep the stops to a minimum because we were really trying to get to Atlanta in time for dinner at Varasano’s.
We parked at the restaurant right at 9 pm, just about an hour before closing. We were two of the only people in the restaurant. After over 13 hours in the car, we were starving. We ordered the Nana (on the right – the traditional margherita) and the Chica Bella, which had arugula, ricotta, and a pinch of lemon juice. Both were very good, and you can see that the crust on these was chewy and slightly charred. You could really taste the sourdough. We could have used a glass of wine or two, but we still had to find our way to our hotel.
After a good night’s sleep, we got up and headed over for lunch at Antico. We were almost the first ones in line here (are you surprised?). We ordered one of the House Special pies. It was a white pie with mozzarella, caramelized onions, and roasted mushrooms topped with a drizzle of truffle oil. While the pizzas here all looked fantastic, it’s a very no-frills type of restaurant. You can’t get any half-toppings, only full pies, and you sit at family-style picnic tables in a back room. We heard later that the back room didn’t even used to have seating, and everyone would have to squeeze into the front. It is definitely not a big restaurant.
We certainly aren’t complaining about this, though. We liked the picnic-style seating because we had a great view of the pizza oven and the dough room. The pizza was amazing, and ends up pretty high on our personal lists (#22 on Barb’s and #39 on Eric’s). We also liked that it was served on a baking sheet, just like the New Haven pies that we are used to.
We were pleasantly surprised by how good Atlanta’s pizzas are. We’d go back to Antico anytime. It almost makes us want to drive down to Florida again, just so we could stop there. Although it would probably be easier to convince Eric to fly there after all the road tripping that we’ve done this year.
The 2016 list does have one new Georgia pizza place listed in Duluth. So who knows, maybe we will just have to go back!
To visit:
Varasano’s
2171 Peachtree Road
Atlanta, GA 30309
Antico Pizza
1093 Hemphill Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30318
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