Adventure #72: Pizza Delight

I might have guessed what to expect from their website, but you know me: always hopeful. In honor of Buzzfeed (and in honor of my time), I present you this brief Pizzadventure.

Ian and Karin ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pizza. It didn't look too bad!

But it was. 

The veggie rolls, with spinach, mushroom, black olives, and feta cheese, looked like giant, thin Hot Pockets. They were good!

But again, the pizza was NOT SO GOOD. Here it is, haunting us.

Ian and Karin disagreed about where on the spectrum of NOT SO GREAT this pizza should go, but they did agree that the crust was good.

DOG PICTURE!

Check out 72 Places to Go Eat Pizza!

- Ian

Adventure #71: 360 Uno Trattoria

360 Uno Trattoria wasn't on my radar in the three years that Ian and I have been pizza adventuring and, after adventuring here I know that there is a good reason. It barely warrants a mention as a pizza place. The decor is upscale and the menu is mostly in Italian, but the pizza is far from classic.

The Sfincione, with Italian sausage, mushrooms, onions, peppers, & pepperoncinis, seemed to have too many toppings and none of them were spectacular. The Italian sausage was the best part, but the rest did nothing to highlight it, especially the canned jalapenos.

We agreed that the crust would have been better for a white, pesto, or chicken pizza as it had a very subtle flavor that could have been complimented with the right toppings. Unfortunately I'm not inspired enough to go back and try it until I hit the right pizza.

My official stance is "Meh".

-Karin

Denver Adventures: Brava Pizzeria Della Strada

Ian was on vacation in Colorado last week and ate some pizza. Because he was on vacation, and because this is Austin pizza adventuring, these are going to be short little postcards.

Brava Pizzeria Della Strada - Website

I found this spot because it happens to be the best reviewed spot in Denver on Yelp. Now, we all know Yelp can be a fickle mistress, she can mislead you, she's a temptress. . .

Denver Adventures: Lucky Pie Pizza and Taphouse

Ian was on vacation in Colorado last week and ate some pizza. Because he was on vacation, and because this is Austin pizza adventuring, these are going to be short little postcards. 

Lucky Pie Pizza and Taphouse - Website

I met up at this downtown establishment with my old friend Meagan and her man Steven. We had a good time (beeeeeeerrrr). Now let's get to the point.

San Antonio Adventure: Dough

Labor Day weekend San Antonio was host to WorldCon, also known as the World Science Fiction Convention and LoneStarCon3. While I was there, it wasn't a hard decision to hop on Yelp and find one of San Antonio's top rated pizzerias, Dough.

Adventure #70: Umami Mia

Umami Mia - yet another pizzeria in the 78704. Having revamped the spot where Romeo's used to sit on Barton Springs, they promise to serve up "umami bombs" of flavor. It sure looks good, doesn't it? (The light was just gorgeous in here.)

The "Here Piggy"

Adventure #69: Brooklyn Heights Pizzeria

I promise that will be my only reference to this being #69, but we were adventuring in my old pizza delivery area. I wish that I had nostalgic feelings about how awesome it was, but mostly I remember some assholes that lived in an apartment complex in my delivery area that ordered all the time and always pre-tipped (tipped online so that I knew what they were going to tip ahead of time) me a dollar on their $30 order (I won't get started on my issues with tipping, I'll leave it at the fact that it is a broken system).

Brooklyn Heights Pizzeria is definitely the best thing about the Avery Ranch area (I have complicated feelings about suburbia). In fact, if I were to list my top three things about Avery Ranch it would would be as follows:

Adventure #68: Second

Second, exterior, afternoon

We made our way to one of our snazzy adventures tonight, to a place with $6 Fire Eagle (what?!) and chicken fried stuffed olives. That place was Second, an offshoot of Congress and Bar Congress (they share the same kitchen). So, for the second time in a row, Karin and her gentleman arrived before me, ordered an appetizer of chicken fried olives, and ate it, all before I arrived.

Now how was the pizza?

Adventure #67: Bufalina

The adventure to Bufalina, which doesn't even have a sign on the door it is so new, began with Adam and I enjoying "Today's mozzarella", pictured above. That salad is everything that is right with the Austin pizza scene right now. It seems that recently the newest pizza places have paid a lot of attention to creating the perfect pizza experience. From Pieous with its paper plates, chalk on the walls, inspirational quotes, and the feeling of being with family, to Winflo Osteria with its focus on being an upscale, clean, and an Austin-style way to experience real Italian food. Bufalina falls between them: Cozy and minimal with picnic tables in the center, carafes of water, and the pizza oven jutting out into the dining area.

Adventure #66: Jack Pizza Company (Redux)

We weren't meaning to head back to Jack when we headed out on this adventure. We were downtown, seeking strange new pizza at places like Hoek's Death Metal Pizza and Pizzeria Paparazzi.  Neither were open at 7:30 on a Thursday evening, and hell, I'm not sure if Pizzeria Paparazzi even exists. We found an empty storefront with no hours listed. It's the only place I've ever seen that has a question mark on its Yelp map.

We weren't going to go adventuring without getting pizza, so we went on a clarification mission to Jack. A clarification mission is an adventure meant to clear up disagreement or lingering questions about a pizzeria. Sometimes we're just trying to see if the quality has changed over time. In this case, we'd both had different experiences after our initial visit to Jack in 2010. I'd been a time or two and felt about the same as I ever did. Karin had been back and had a not-so-great pie. It was time to reconcile our opinions! [Disclaimer: these pictures are terrible due to dive bar lighting]

Adventure #65: Pieous

Pieous delivers what it promises, a religious experience through food. From the mozzarella that is made in-house to the perfect sour-dough crust to the chocolate pecan pie that made Ian's toes literally curl up at just a single bite, this place must be tasted to be believed.

Adventure #64: Roppolo's

It's not as good as it looks, folks.

And yet, it's not as bad as it sounds. At least, that's what I found myself thinking as I dove headfirst into these pies. You see, Karin had been dreading this visit for ages. Back in the salad days of 2010, I was new to the Austin pizza scene, but Karin had been around. She was aware of the wares of Roppolo's and had warned me to beware.

Adventure #63: Backspace

This is not our first adventure to Backspace and the absence of that post is really the story of our year off. Life happened and for a while we drifted in our individual emotional oceans. We went to Backspace when we thought we were ready to start back up, but we just weren't there yet. I sat on the post for so long and accidentally deleted the photos and my depression sent me off drifting again. However our pizza passion and friendship brought us through, so it is fitting that now that we are back up and have some momentum that we visit Backspace again.

Bianca - a terrifically photogenic pizza

Adventure #62: Winflo Osteria

Folks, we have a contender. Let me introduce you to Winflo Osteria.

Now that I have your attention, let me tell you a story. We went here on my birthday, not to celebrate, but because adventuring needed to be done and we were in a tight spot. Our first option, Pieous, failed us. We made the trip out to far southwest Austin to take a crack at Pieous, arrived nearly two hours before they closed, and were told that they were about to run out of pizza! That revelation really harshed my birthday mellow, and I grew despondent. By the time we secured a table at Winflo, off of west 6th, I was a sourpuss.

Adventure to Chicago

The view from my hotel room.

Last week I went to Chicago for C2E2 and, since Chicago is home to one of the big city-named styles of pizza, I had pizza...a lot of pizza. Instead of trying to piece this together into a narrative, I'll let my pictures speak (with a little help).

Sunrise on my way into Chicago as seen from an airplane window

Adventure #61: Conans Pizza (Redux)

We were supposed to head on a new adventure to Pieous in Dripping Springs, but we're not the most well-prepared pizzadventurers. The place was closed! What does an intrepid adventurer do? Head to the nearest Conan's.

Adventure #60: The Pizza Bistro

 

Expectations.

It is impossible to go into a pizza adventure without them and hard to turn the ship around once they haven't been met. I think we managed to make this a good adventure, one where we are ready, eager even, to go back and give The Pizza Bistro another try. So that you don't get the wrong impression, I'm going to work each bit of it as a compliment stuffed pizza (like a compliment sandwich but more apropos to the situation).

Adventure #59: Spartan Pizza (Redux)

Spartan Pizza, how long it has been! We visited Spartan when they were one location, far down south next to the Red Shed tavern. They remain there, but have also expanded into a food trailer court on East Sixth. How does their fare fare these days?

Adventure #58: Hill Country Ranch Pizzeria

Hill Country Ranch Pizzeria looks small from the outside, but occupies a deceptively large corner spot in the HEB shopping center.  The beer comes in jars and the pizza menu is full of interesting combinations.

Mmmm, Shiner

Adventure #57: Mercury Pizza

Welcome to Mercury Pizza, where the pizzas are big, the sides are a mixed bag, and the seating is scarce. Tucked off of South Lamar in a small bungalow with a large front yard, they offer pizza in one size: huge.  So how did this spot treat us?

Adventure #56: Blue Dog Pizza

In a stark contrast to last week's adventure, the food trailer court where Blue Dog Pizza sits was deserted on a Tuesday evening. We suspect that Tuesday nights during the winter are the "off season". The proprietor, who was very nice and made us feel welcome, had his book out and after browsing the menu, I sat at one of the picnic tables to wait for Ian and read my own book. The weather was cool and the lighting was perfect, so it was a wonderfully low-key start to the night.

Once Ian arrived we sat about picking out pizzas. This was a little more difficult than one would expect as they were out of several things (including breadsticks and their signature Blue Dog), but we settled on the Cerberus and the Pluto.

We're Back!

After a nearly year-long hiatus, Karin and I have returned to the blog that brought us together. We've had some personal challenges and tragedies, but the pizza landscape in Austin is ever-changing and we've got to get back out there and do our civic pizza duty!

We're going to get some new features on the blog in the next month, but until then, enjoy our most recent adventure: Pinthouse Pizza, a place that didn't exist when we rode the pizza horse into the twilight last year.

Adventure #55: Pinthouse Pizza

Do you like beer? Then you're in luck when you visit Pinthouse Pizza. Their tap list is long and delectable. They brew their own beer. They're hopheads. They had a fantastic mole stout that tasted like abuela herself brewed it. The ambiance even reflects a classic German beer hall style, with long benches throughout the open space. . .wait a second. . .this place is a bar!