Author: Barbara

#75 Pizza Hacker

March 16, 2019

San Fransisco, CA

I love it when I can tie a work trip into a pizza adventure. Since we last visited San Fransisco in September 2016, there have been three new additions to the lists. I was finally making it back out to the west coast for a work visit at UCSF, which seemed like the perfect opportunity to make all of my friends in San Fran eat more pizza with me.

I landed on Saturday around noon, met up with some good friends from grad school who were kindly letting me stay at their apartment for a few days, and then dragged them out to dinner at Pizza Hacker.

Like several other well-known pizza places, Pizza Hacker started out as a mobile enterprise before settling down into a permanent location in Bernal Heights in 2014. We liked the picnic-table vibe with colorful metal chairs and plenty of seating.

The three of us split two pizzas here, the Margherita and the Yo Vinny, which was topped with marinated onions, hot Italian sausage, pickled peppers, and mozzarella. We probably could have had another pizza but we thought that we should probably pace ourselves for the weekend.

It must be really hard to start a new pizzeria in San Fransisco. As I’d confirm later in the weekend, San Fransisco arguably has the best crusted pizzas anywhere in the country (and I’m not just talking about the sourdough). In a city known for its breadmaking, making a pizza stand out is even more difficult. Pizza Hacker makes a good pizza, but there are definitely better pies in the area.

That being said, the crust on these was good. Both pies were nicely charred, but still airy, and the sauce was incredible. It was really the perfect pizza after a long flight and it was a great way to kick off the week in San Fran.

To visit: 

Pizza Hacker
3299 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110

BarbaraLeave a comment

#80 Coalhouse Pizza

March 3rd, 2019

Stamford, CT

To be honest, we wanted to get Pepe’s Pizza this day. We were on our way back from New Haven, and we didn’t feel like waiting at the Pepe’s New Haven location, so we decided that we’d make a stop in Fairfield at the (not-as-good) location there. We were going to be a bit on the early side for dinner, so we thought we’d be OK. It was packed. We didn’t feel like waiting with a tired baby in the car, so we decided to change our plans and drove a few more miles down I-95 to Stamford.

Coalhouse Pizza was a new addition to the list in 2018. We weren’t sure that we were in the right place at first because the restaurant is in a strip mall, but it definitely doesn’t have a “strip mall” vibe when you go in and sit down.

It was opened in 2008 as a place to serve great pizzas and craft beer in a family-friendly environment. Today, they also have the Whisky Bar, which has the largest selection of tap craft beers in Connecticut, and over 250 varieties of whisky. Since we still had over an hour to drive home, we didn’t get to sample any of these, although neither one of us is a big whisky drinker.

The pizzas here are Neapolitan-style, made with the “00” flour and their oven can burn gas, wood, coal, or all of the above. It can apparently cook 20 pizzas at once, in 2-3 minutes (according to their website). Their pizza menu is almost too expansive. We had such a hard time deciding what pizza to go for.

We ended up choosing the ‘Blue Skies’, which was just a regular cheese and tomato. We also tried a sausage, mushroom, and pesto pie. We did end up with leftovers. While the crust was reminiscent of a Neapolitan style (airy and fluffy), the size was definitely larger, even for a small.

James got to nibble on the crust here and seemed to really enjoy it. We’d come back if we end up driving through again and needed a pizza stop. Although we’d ideally be able to make a stop and be able to try one of their unique beers on tap while we’re there.

To visit: 

Coalhouse Pizza
85 High Ridge Rd
Stamford, CT 06905

BarbaraLeave a comment

#89 Dino’s Tomato Pie

February 3rd, 2019

Seattle, Washington

There were two new additions to the 2018 Daily Meal list in Seattle. We only had one night (Sunday) in town before our morning flight on Monday. That meant that we had to eat two dinners. We hit Delancey for an early-ish dinner and then made our way over to Dino’s Tomato Pie.

Dino’s website lists it as “the second best pizza in Seattle”. This would be after Delancey, of course, as the two are owned by the same couple. Dino’s makes a completely different style of pizza than Delancey does and has a very different restaurant-feel as well. Where Delancey is your traditional sit-down, artisan pizzeria, Dino’s is a bar. A bar that also serves round and square pizzas that are more like New Jersey-style pies than Neapolitans.

Please excuse the horrible lighting of this photo. We ended up getting this pizza to go for two reasons. First, it was getting late and we wanted to check into our hotel because our baby was getting a little sleepy. Second, Dino’s is actually only open to people 21 and older, so we couldn’t bring baby James in to eat, even if we had wanted to.

So, we took this picture right outside of the restaurant, under the neon sign. We think it’s actually a pretty fitting photo to represent the feeling of the place – bar first, pizza second. While we didn’t get to spend any time at the bar, we didn’t waste any time having a slice of this pizza before we packed it up to bring back to the hotel.

We ended up ordering a regular square Sicilian-style pie because that is what they are known for here. We found it to be more similar to Buffalo-style pies (like Bocce Club) than to the NJ pizza that we’ve had. It has a thick crust and LOTS of cheese. The sauce was good, but like with most Sicilian-style thick crust pizzas, you really have to be hungry and in the mood for this. We wouldn’t rank it as high as other Sicilian slices that we’ve had, but perhaps if we had been able to sit at the bar and experience it with a drink it would have made a better impression.

Also, we aren’t quite sure why they call it Dino’s Tomato Pie, if they are famous for a cheesy Sicilian, or even a Sicilian with toppings. NJ tomato pies have cheese, yes, but generally the focus is still on the sauce, which is found on top of the cheese. We do understand that we may be a bit biased as we love a good (Philly- or New Haven-style) tomato pie, but we just don’t see where the “tomato pie” comes into play here.

To visit:

Dino’s Tomato Pie
1524 E Olive Way
Seattle, WA 98122

BarbaraLeave a comment

#76 Delancey

February 3rd, 2019

Seattle, Washington

After our weekend in Portland, we decided to rent a car and drive to Seattle to visit two new pizza places that made the list in 2018. First on the list was Delancey. Delancey is only open for dinner, and we were a little worried about getting a table without having to wait because we’ve heard that the wait here can be hours. Especially because James was getting a bit hungry after sitting the car during the drive.

We shouldn’t have worried. Since it was Superbowl Sunday, the restaurant was pretty empty. We walked right in and were seated. We split the Brussels sprouts appetizer, which was delicious, and the Brooklyn pie. There were so many good looking pizzas on their menu! The pizzas are all wood-fired, so the crust had a nice char. The crust was on the thin side, and it had a nice cheese:sauce ratio. We can see how it made the 2018 list, but we honestly preferred the pizza at Lovely’s Fifty Fifty the night before.

We don’t doubt that this pizza is the best in Seattle. The owner, Brian Pettit, apparently spent a very long time perfecting his crust recipe so that it is similar to a Neapolitan crust, but still holds up stiffly to the unique toppings and sauces.

If you’re interested in reading more about the start and history of this restaurant, which has been operating for the last 10 years, Pettit’s wife, Molly Wizenberg, published a memoir about it back in 2014. Wizenberg has made her own contributions to Delancey, but also has a history as a writer for Bon Appétit and several other foodie outlets. The book also includes recipes – so we’ve now added it to our reading list!

To visit:

Delancey 
1415 NW 70th St.
Seattle, WA 98117

BarbaraLeave a comment

#94 Lovely’s Fifty fifty

February 2nd, 2019

Portland, Oregon

For our second night in Portland, we stopped for dinner at Lovely’s Fifty Fifty, which was another pizza place that made the 2016 list. We were supposed to come here with our friends, but they ended up deciding that they didn’t feel like pizza again (we made them get Apizza Scholls the night before). This ended out working beautifully because Lovely’s is a small restaurant and we snagged one of the last tables for two (or three, if you count James).

We ordered two pies here. One was just a plain with mozzarella, and this one had sundried tomatoes, kale, and calabrian chilis. These pizzas are wood-fired, the dough is naturally levened using Oregon-grown whole grains, and most of their ingredients come straight from local farms.

It’s not your traditional Neapolitan pizza, and it isn’t like a NYC sourdough either. This is a Portland pizza, entirely it’s own. We loved them. The crust is amazing, and we would have ranked it higher than Nostrana, and also made sure that it had a spot on the more recent lists. We even let James nibble on the crust.

Just see how he is eyeing these pizzas! We’re going to have a hard time keeping him away from our pies for much longer.

If you make your way here, you should probably just focus on the specialty seasonal pies, and skip the traditional cheese. And make sure to save room for ice cream, which we didn’t (because we had birthday cake back at our AirBnb). Looking back on it and reading reviews of the ice cream makes us regret our decision to skip dessert.

To visit:
Lovely's Fifty Fifty
4039 N Mississippi Ave
Portland, OR 97217

BarbaraLeave a comment

#75 Nostrana

February 1st, 2019
Portland, Oregon

It’s been a while since we posted, but earlier this month we took a birthday trip out to the Pacific Northeast to visit some friends, and to hit a few remaining pizza places from the lists. We started out at Nostrana, which made the list in 2016, although hasn’t done so again since.

We almost didn’t make it here. Our flight from Newark was delayed, and Nostrana is only open until 2 pm for lunch. We had dinner plans with friends, so we were on a very tight schedule. We ran off the plane, grabbed our luggage and the rental car, and made it in the door of the restaurant at 1:55 pm.

While they recommend making reservations for dinner, we had no problem getting seats for lunch with James. We ordered a margherita pie, and one with mushrooms and arugula topped with freshly sliced pecorino. James ate a few mushrooms and some bread.

This was only the second restaurant that we’ve been to that give you scissors to cut your pie. The first being Franny’s, in Brooklyn, which is sadly no longer in operation. We really enjoyed these pizzas. The crust was good and chewy and the margherita was the right ratio of sauce:cheese.

So you may be wondering, is cutting your pizza with scissors really more authentic? Well, we read that in Italy, street pizzerias that made long, Roman-style pies would cut the slices with scissors (or “food shears”) for their customers. They could then customize how big to cut the slices and would charge by how much the slice weighed. Should scissors be used for cutting Neapolitan-style pies, though? We aren’t sure. In some ways, scissors are much better for cutting than a traditional pizza cutter (and definitely better than a knife and fork!). However, the pizza needs to be thin enough and you don’t want too much cheese or topping to cut through. It worked for these.

We’d love to come back here sometime for dinner, although as I said before, reservations are recommended. They are also only open Monday through Friday for lunch.

To visit: 
Nostrana
1401 SE Morrison St Ste. 101
Portland, OR 97214

BarbaraLeave a comment

#98 Pizza Wagon

December 23, 2018

Brooklyn, NY

We decided to take a drive right before Christmas to Pizza Wagon, a new addition to the 2018 list, just barely making it on at number 98. It is definitely an old-school establishment, and I couldn’t even find a website for it. They’ve been around for over 50 years at their location in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

We brought James here, and managed to grab a booth when a nice older couple left. The place was packed for lunch. We ordered a couple of plain slices, and the ricotta slice. The plain cheese slices were your typical NY slice – cheesy with a decent amount of sauce and a decent crust that was on the thinner side.

We aren’t sure that we would put this on our list of best slices in NY, but we did think it was worth trying. We liked that it was only a 45 minute drive from our house in NJ, which makes it one of the closest NY slices that we can get from home without taking a subway.

It is also open late – until 1 am – just in case you are looking for a late night slice.


James is itching to try his first slice of pizza. He gives the biggest eyes whenever we’re eating it. Right now, we’re trying to stick to fruits and vegetables, but we’re thinking that soon we will have to give in. We’re still deciding which slice will be his first. We aren’t taking the decision lightly.

To visit:
Pizza Wagon
8610 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn NY 11209 

BarbaraLeave a comment

#34 Scarr’s Pizza

December 5th, 2018

New York, NY

We don’t get too many opportunities to stay in the city for dinner these days with a baby to be picked up from daycare by 6 pm. So, if we want to get out to try some new pizza, we have to go during our lunch break. With only an hour (or so) it can be hard to huff out to Brooklyn or up to Queens, but Manhattan is generally doable. We’ve been saving Scarr’s Pizza for a lunch date since it isn’t too far from our offices.

We’ve been hearing about the slices at Scarr’s for over a year now, although it’s been open since 2016. It just made the list in 2018, which is one of the fastest debuts that we’ve seen. It looks like your generic slice shop, and it would be easy to walk past it. But the slices are far from your average slice. The owner and chef, Scarr Pimentel, mills his own grains every day by hand in the basement.

He has worked at many of the NY pizza greats – Lombardi’s, Artichoke, Joe’s, before opening Scarr’s. So he knows pizza, and he is determined to use quality ingredients. Milling his own grains makes the pizza more nutritious, also. This article was really interesting.

We tried a bunch of regular slices here. The cheese, pepperoni, and margherita slices were all delicious, and you could really taste the difference in the crust. When we went, they didn’t have any squares, but we hear those would be worth going back for.

If you want to read more about Scarr’s and what Pimentel is doing to try and change the NY pizza scene, here’s another good interview.

To visit:

Scarr's Pizza
22 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002

BarbaraLeave a comment

#96 Zoli’s NY Pizza

December 1, 2018

Addison, TX

Back at the end of October, I traveled to Atlanta, GA for a work trip. If you remember, I took a late-night ride up north of the city to go to a pizza place on the list, O4W.  It was only fair that when Eric went to Austin, TX for a work trip, he traveled up to try one of the pizza places on the list, too. The only difference was that his trip was a bit of a longer drive – a couple of hours.

Zoli’s NY Pizza is a new addition to the 2018 list, but I talked about it in this post. It wasn’t a huge surprise for us to see it on the list, as we had already heard good things about it. Whereas Cane Rosso is entirely authentic Neapolitan, Zoli’s is everything but. It sells square pies and round pies, as well as sandwiches, salads, and pastas.

We understood a few of the references on the pizza menu and thought they were very clever. For example, there is the “Pizza Loves Emily”, which is topped with honey and roasted mushrooms. There’s Bovino’s buffalo chicken, a nod to Arthur Bovino and his love of the city of Buffalo (and their pizza). Eric ended up ordering the “Lil Troy”, which was topped with mozzarella, vodka sauce, mini meatballs, straciatella, cherry peppers, and garlic breadcrumbs. He also ordered a “Spangler”, or a plain classic cheese round pie to bring home for me!

These pies were great, even when reheated the next day after a flight across the country. The square pie was thicker than a grandma slice, but thinner than a Sicilian. If you order this specific pie, be warned that the cherry peppers are HOT.

The cheese pizza also was good, topped with a sprinkling of fresh basil that would definitely have tasted better fresh, but wasn’t bad reheated.

Speaking of pizza reheating, we finally have come around to the fact that the best way to reheat pizza is on the stove. It definitely takes a little more time, but when your husband carries pizza in his carry on halfway across the US, it’s worth the extra few minutes.

To visit:

Zoli’s NY Pizza
14910 Midway Rd
Addison, TX 75001

BarbaraLeave a comment

#95 Joe Squared

November 4th, 2018

Baltimore, MD

We drove down to Savannah, GA, for the weekend last month. Were we very ambitious to attempt a 13+ hour drive with our not-quite-6-month old? Probably. But I was running a marathon, and we honestly had no idea if driving or flying would be easier. So, we ended up driving. Luckily, we were able to break down the drive to Savannah into two parts and stay overnight with some friends around Washington, D.C. We didn’t have the option on the drive back, so at 4 am Sunday morning (thank you, daylight savings time for the extra hour of sleep!) we were on the road for a long journey back to NJ.

Whenever we take a drive these days, we try to figure out how we can work in a pizza stop. We thought about taking a detour over to Charleston on the way down to Savannah, but then we decided that would be a bit too far out of our way, and we were already worried about pushing our luck with James in the car seat. We realized that we’d be passing through Baltimore right around early-dinner time on the way back home, and right around the time that James (and we) would need a break, so we decided to make a stop for pizza at Joe Squared.

We split a 14″ square pizza here, which was generously topped with tomato sauce, cheese, mushrooms, and ricotta. Generally mushroom pizzas like this don’t have tomato sauce, but we really liked the addition of the sauce to this pie. The crust is a thin sourdough, with the starter brought back from Italy, and the pizza is coal-fired. We thought it was great and really unlike any other pizza that we’ve had recently. After eating so much pizza, it’s nice to try something different that really works.

The restaurant itself is really unique. We didn’t realize it when we were there, but they also host comedy and music events in their basement space. The staff was also really friendly and James was flirting with everyone. He also tried several times to have a bite of our pizza, but he had to be satisfied with some milk instead. Soon enough, James, we’ll let you try pizza.

After a good hour-long break for dinner, we were back in the car and driving the rest of the way back to NJ. James slept the rest of the way while we nibbled on the couple of slices that we had taken in a to-go box.

I’m not sure which day of this weekend was more exhausting – running a PR in the actual marathon on Saturday, or keeping a baby happy in the car for 16 hours (another type of marathon) on Sunday.

To visit:
Joe Squared
33 W North Ave
Baltimore, MD 21201

BarbaraLeave a comment