Tag: san francisco

#73 Arizmendi Bakery

March 20, 2019

San Fransisco, CA

I was really looking forward to pizza at Arizmendi Bakery, mostly because I LOVED the pizza that we got the last time we were in San Francisco at the Cheeseboard in Berkeley. Since I was staying downtown in SF on this trip, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to make it out to Berkeley for another Cheeseboard pizza, but Arizmendi works the same way and it part of the same cooperative. Even better, while the Cheeseboard only has one location, Arizmendi Bakery has expanded to four locations around the city. I was lucky enough to have one right near my work meetings!

When we went to the Cheeseboard, Eric and I ordered a whole pizza, which was a lot. Here, my friend and I decided to just get a couple of slices (it was our third pizza of the trip). Arizmendi serves one “pizza of the day”, and they change the selection each day depending on what is available. You can check out their pizza schedule on their website each month.

The day that we stopped for lunch, the pizza was tomato, ricotta, garlic oil, basil, and parm cheese. It wasn’t their most creative option, but it seemed to be a good “classic” to gauge the style and taste of the pizza. I ended up getting two slices, but probably could have gotten more. These slices weren’t as big as the slices from the Cheeseboard. It wasn’t really an issue, though, since I also ordered a delicious homemade scone.

The slices were nicely crispy. I don’t really want to compare it to a frozen pizza, but you know how those frozen pizzas crisp up in the oven and are stick straight when you pick them up? That’s what this was like. Although the flavors on this were much better – perfect amount of parm cheese and basil. You don’t really get that on one of those frozen pies.

The seating in here is tight, especially right around the lunch rush. We were lucky enough to grab a spot by the window. They don’t have any outdoor seating either, so you probably would have to count on taking your slices to go.

I just looked at their schedule for April, and they have listed a pizza with cauliflower, baby kale, masala curry, and garlic oil. Would love to try that! Actually, it’s probably a good thing that I don’t work near one of these places in SF because I would have to grab a slice every day. And also probably would grab more scones, and bread, and rolls….

To visit:

Arizmendi Bakery
1331 9th Ave
San Francisco, CA 94122

BarbaraLeave a comment

#81 Del Popolo

March 17th, 2019

San Francisco, CA

After a full day of walking around San Francisco with friends, we were ready for some dinner. Next on the list was a new addition to the 2017 list, Del Popolo. Just like Pizza Hacker, Del Popolo began as a mobile pizzeria. In fact, it started out in a shipping container! In 2015, they opened their shop serving wood-fired pizzas in Nob Hill, although they keep their mobile pizza business going as well.

We decided that we needed to split three pies here between the three of us. We ordered a margherita, a Bianca with mozzarella, ricotta, basil, and garlic, and the potato pie (we’re from New Haven, after all!). It’s hard to get a potato pizza right, but the guys at Del Popolo did it. There was just enough rosemary and the prosciutto was a nice change from the bacon that we’re use to getting at BAR.

We really liked the crust on these. They had a nice char from the oven and were soft and doughy. The sauce on the margherita was also slightly tangy, and the pizzas weren’t soggy in the middle like some Neapolitan style pies that you can get.

We also tried some orange wine. No, that isn’t wine made from oranges! It’s actually a white wine that has some of the skins left on, giving it an orange color. The wine didn’t taste much like a white wine, though, which according to this website, is normal. Our waitress did mention this to us and made sure that we knew what we were ordering, which was very helpful. Could orange wine be the next rosé? We’d order it again.

These were probably my favorite pizzas from this trip to San Francisco. It’s hard to say if they are better than the ones that we previously got at Flour+Water because they seemed very similar and equally as good. We’d have to go again and test them back-to-back to say for sure. Either place is worth a stop for dinner.

To visit:

Del Popolo
855 Bush St
San Francisco, CA 94108

BarbaraLeave a comment

#34 Pizzeria Delfina and #62 Pizzaiolo

September 19th, 2016

San Francisco and Oakland, CA

This is Part III of our San Francisco trip. To see Part II and Part I, click on the links.

After a short walk through Muir Woods, we headed over to the first pizza of our final day in San Francisco, which was back in the Mission district. Pizzeria Delfina is a neighborhood restaurant that is “inspired by” Neapolitan and NYC pizza. We got there right when lunch was starting, and grabbed a great table right near the window.

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We ended up ordering two pies. The first was the 4 Formaggi (in the back of the photo to the left) and the second was the Panna, with shaved parmesan. We liked both, mostly because the cheese was so fresh.

We loved the feel of this place, and we probably would be regulars if we lived here. It has a really cute farm-to-table feel, and the rotating specials all looked delicious.

 

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After heading back to Dan’s for a Netflix break, we all went out for the final pizza in San Francisco. We made last minute reservations, but it turned out that we didn’t really need them. Pizzaiolo is located in Oakland, so wasn’t too far away from where we were staying.

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Since we were the first ones in (no surprise there!), our pizzas were some of the first to arrive. We were glad there were three of us, because all of the pizzas sounded great.

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Barb was a little tired of cheese at this point (yes, it really is possible to be tired of cheese), so she went with the marinara pizza.   We also tried the clam, which seems to be seasonal, because we are from New Haven, after all. We also tried the sausage and rapini, which was recommended by our waitress, as well as by the Daily Meal.

 

 

Like Pizzeria Delfina, the atmosphere here was really cute and farm-to-table. I guess this is the trend these days. It also had a nice outdoor seating area, which made it much less crowded than we thought it would be.

We thought the pies here were good, but a little pricey. For anyone familiar with Pepe’s clam pie, we wouldn’t recommend giving this one a try. But the topping combos were good and the crust was nice and fluffy. We give them bonus points for buying local with their toppings and meats.

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To visit:

Pizzeria Delfina
3621 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

Pizzaiolo
5008 Telegraph Ave
Oakland, CA 94609

BarbaraLeave a comment

#20 Tony’s Pizza Napoletana and #6 Flour + Water (and a bonus)

September 18th, 2016

San Francisco, CA

This is Part II of our San Francisco trip. To see Part I, click here.

On Saturday, we took a break from eating pizza to head to Napa and drink wine. On Sunday we were right back at it, though! Dan was our tour guide for the day, and we walked all around town, hitting all the touristy spots (Lombard Street, Chinatown, the sea lions on the pier). We worked up an appetite for our first pizza stop, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana.

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We got here right before noon, when it opened, and there was already a line out the door! We got seated quickly, though, and got a nice table outside.

 

The menu here is expansive. They have almost every style of pizza from across the country, including Detroit style, St. Louis style, and New York style. We settled on the award-winning traditional Neapolitan Margherita, since they only make 73 per day, and the California style Sausage and Stout, which they only make 23 of!img_20160918_124158416_hdr

Overall, we really liked the Margherita. It was probably Barb’s favorite Neapolitan of the trip, but the Sausage and Stout pizza really stole the show. It was a lot of crust, but we all agreed that the stout reduction that was drizzled on top made this pizza our favorite of the entire weekend.

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We decided to walk down to the Golden Gate Bridge after this, which ended up being a pretty far (and hilly) walk. By the time we got down there and relaxed a bit by the beach, we were ready to head up to the Mission district for our second stop of the day, and our (first) dinner at Flour + Water.

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We were the first ones in line here (as usual) because we didn’t have reservations, and we really wanted to make sure we had a seat early. Flour + Water serves Neapolitan pies, so we got the Margherita, of course, and the Salsiccia, which had kale, sausage, and mushroom.

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We heard that the pasta here is also amazing, but we had to save that for our next trip. The pizza was good, but we wouldn’t have ranked it at #6. We did like the char on the crust, though, and the crispy kale on the Salsiccia.

We finished these pies, and then headed out of the Mission district to meet our friend Dave again for Dinner #2.

Dinner #2 was a bonus from the 2016 Best Pizzas in America list. Capo’s is rated at #76 on this year’s list, and since it was right down the street, we had to try it.

 

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Capo’s is known for their deep dish, but since we were so full at this point, we opted for a cast iron pie, the Crown Point. According to their menu, this pizza won the World’s Best of the Best at the International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas this year, so we thought it would be a safe bet.

It was a salad pizza, on a deep dish-like crust. Cheddar, mozzarella, broccolini, arugula, basil, red onion, peppadew peppers, balsamic reduction, and shaved parmesan. Barb loved it. Everyone else wished we got a regular deep dish.

 

 

To visit:

Tony’s Pizza Napoletana
1570 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

Flour + Water
2401 Harrison Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

Capo’s
641 Vallejo Street
San Francisco, CA  94133

BarbaraLeave a comment