Pizza Adventuring

The Pluto pizza from Blue Dog Pizza

I am back to blogging (at least a little) after a year's hiatus at Austin Pizza Adventuring.

If you haven't visited it before, my friend Ian and I set out in 2010 to try every pizzeria in the Austin area. Nearly 3 years later and we've been to over 50 (with just a few duplications).  Life got in the way for a year or so, but we're back and covering the Austin pizza scene.

Our latest adventures:

#55 Pinthouse Pizza - a new restaurant capitalizing on the explosion of interest in craft breweries in Austin and pairing it with decent pizza

#56 Blue Dog Pizza - an example of another trend, trailer food

Unofficial Adventure: Luigi's Pizzeria

If you haven't already noticed, when I'm in a new city I like to find a local pizza place and try them out.  Pizza is a comforting anchor when I'm feeling lost in the spaghetti freeway system or dismayed by the number of Outback steakhouses on one street (we counted 4 on FM 1960).  Finding myself (and my beau) in Houston for Owl Con (a tabletop roleplaying convention) and having the evening free, we fired up Yelp and looked for a nearby pizzeria.  Luigi's Pizzeria was what we found and I am happy to say that the pizza was great*.

We got the Caprese pizza which comes with buffalo style mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil.  The crust was soft and had just enough of its own taste to play a supporting role in each bite; the sauce went right to the edge and combined with the fresh tomatoes to make each bite the perfect amalgam of fresh and cooked tomato flavor; the mozzarella was milky and wonderful; and the basil was freshly chopped and liberally applied.  Each bite had a perfect balance of flavors.

The restaurant itself was cozy with rather limited seating (there is a patio as well).  It is BYOB and we saw someone who had brought their own bottle of wine.  The staff was extremely friendly and seemed to act like family.  There was a certain lightheartedness about their interactions that made me happy to be there because they seemed like they were happy to be there.

Before the pizza we had breadsticks that were a wonderful texture.  They were almost like perfectly baked dinner rolls in consistency.  After dinner we took advantage of (what is probably made on site) italian ice cream.  They had a Blue Moon flavor which is the first beer ice cream that clearly tasted like the beer.

If you live in Houston or are traveling there, this place is well worth the effort to get there.

*When officially pizzadventuring we try to use the following scale:
Never Speak of this Again
Ok/Forgettable- won't be going back, wasn't bad but I'm not interested in finding out more
Good - delicious and a place I would go back to for the pizza
Great - the pizza was amazing and not only will I be going back but I will be recommending it

What I've Been Up To

 I have been up to...

 ...making Mac and Cheese from Damon's recipe.  For the second batch we added a couple of drops of hot sauce to the the sauce and it transcended this plane of existence.

...laughing at historical markers.  Just read the last sentence on that one.  It's outside the library in Bandera, Tx.  It was written in 1968, so it's hard to get too offended.

...playing frisbee golf beside the Bandera River.  The frisbee golf was only mildly successful, but the river had just enough water in it to be gorgeous.  It wasn't flowing, but I hear that not too long ago there wasn't even this much water in it.

...adventuring and eating pizza at Goomba's Pizza in Helotes, Tx.  This was their white pizza and the crust was absolutely fabulous.  Unlike the white pizza from Giovanni's, the olive oil and spices gave the crust that perfect buttery flavor.

Unofficial Adventure: Via 313 Pizza

Yesterday I was hanging out on Twitter wondering what I was going to do with the $20 bill that's been burning a hole in my pocket (if you follow me you know that I haven't had two nickels to rub together lately, literally, I spent all of my $5 in change on gas) and I saw that Via 313 Pizza was having a soft opening.

Via 313 Pizza is the new trailer by the guys who do Pizza Hunt.  Besides Pizza Hunt being the apples to Pizzadventuring's oranges, they are super-nice dudes who have an absolute passion for pizza and its simplicity.  They come from Detroit and after trying lots of places in Austin they knew that there's nothing around here anything like Detroit-style pizza (cooked in industrial pans, cheese right up on the crust, thick drizzle of sauce over the top).

I went prepared to be honest.  We're all pizza bloggers here and I knew that if there was something that was off about the pizza they would want to know.  I am glad to say that I could not find a single thing to criticize.  The crust was greasy and heavy and had one of the best crunches that I've ever had on a pizza.  The cheese was a great tasting blend and the sauce was perfect; it was simple with just enough spice to say, "Hey, I'm more than just tomatoes, thought you ought to know, hope you enjoy your slice."

I can't wait to get out for an official pizza adventure and see what Ian thinks, but in the mean time I'll be adding this to the list of pizza that I recommend whenever people talk to me about pizza.

Give a Delivery Guy A Hug

Last Saturday, while hanging out with my gaming group, we decided to order pizza from Papa Johns.  I have often joked (half-joked really) that when I was delivering there were nights where I would have given anything for a hug.  It wasn't just shitty tippers, it was traffic and jerk managers and pouring rain.  So when we ordered pizza I volunteered to do the paying (and yes we tipped him $5) and I offered the delivery guy a hug.  He looked pretty down but I would have offered the hug anyway.  He declined but after explaining that 3 of us in the group were former delivery drivers (our fourth, current delivery driver, wasn't there that night) he agreed and I gave him a hug.

So there is now a driver out there in Austin that has one more interesting story.