If you’re satisfied with the pizza options in Richmond, you must not be a restaurateur. While it’s true that 8 1/2, JoJo’s, the Pizza Place, Cappricio’s, and Tarrant’s are churning out above average pizzas (considering our southern locale) an army of high-minded pizza artistes are mobilizing to take the crown of Richmond’s best pizza.
I don’t blame you for wondering why this is happening. For a city our size, we probably have plenty of options to debate over. A wide swath of Richmonders choose to look no further than the competent conglomerate of Mary Angela’s outlets (Piccola’s, Maldini’s, Pizza Pronto, Arriana’s – all the same pizzas prepared by the same family owners). Scores of unfortunate rubes head down to Shockoe, considering Bottom’s Up to be pizza perfection, kinda like Fox can be considered a news source. It’s not pizza at all, in my view. Their frozen sponge/dough topped with stir-fry culture clash is neither fair nor balanced, and it’s unfortunately made palate-less Homer Simpsons out of a great many Richmonders.
Even with this tripe in the equation, we endlessly assign superlatives to those places or one of our 5-6 New York style pizzerias. However, there really is so much more that is possible with pizza than Richmond’s current offerings. Crack open American Pie, by baker Peter Reinhart, and he’ll take you on a quest through worlds of pizza approaches, gathering culinary components and pizzaiolo idiosyncrasies in the hopes of figuring who makes the best pizza and how.* Afterwards, you’ll go to that favorite local pizza place of yours and say, “Damn. Not this sorry Richmond shit.” And then you’ll get excited about any new pizzeria that aspires to exceed our established expectations. So, who are these contenders that want to win the hearts of Richmond’s born-again pizza virgins?
Aziza’s: A real wood fired pizza is such a treat (although Americna Pie tells me that coal fired from Providence, Rhode Island, is also amazing). Richmond doesn’t have a true woodfired pizza oven in commercial use, currently. I can’t wait to taste this. Pizza in the hands of a proven baker like Billy, equipped with the ultimate cooking tool, is a pretty exciting idea. Around the corner is Sette. Not a new place, but they have a “wood stove” (as it says on the front piece of their gas augmented appliance). If crust is 80% or better of any pizza evaluation, the rubbery stuff at our local Sette franchise should be easy for Billy to run circles around.
Bellytimber Tavern: The old Border on Main Street is about to become a brick oven sporting bar-type hang-out. It’s a Mezzanine off-shoot, geared at casual dining, leaning toward a lounge environment with live music to boot. Will pizza be the priority? They’re slated to open at the end of March, but that news came with the update that they’re going to have a raw bar, offer grass-fed beef, local/organic stuff, veggie options, and it’ll be affordable. Wrangling all that may be a tall order, but the majestic space should be awesome to behold, with or without sublime pizza.
Bosca Toscana: A conventional Italian restaurant with a conventional Italian menu in the Village Shopping Center at Three Chopt and Patterson. Their pizza looks like one of the Mary Angela’s creations. Not a bad thing. I’m sure they take pride in their product. I had a slice and would prefer to keep quite about it until I have a whole pie. It could be the opposite of my Capriccio’s findings, where the slice bowls me over more than Capriccio’s whole pie. Holly Gordon, at RVANews, has an inside source in her old UofR stomping ground.
Enoteca Sogno: Gary York was on the fence about reopening after a recent debacle ended his Broad Street run when he heard another long-standing muse calling to him: the need for a real Napolitana pizzaria for Richmond. Gary is so passionate about Italy, you almost gotta give him a wide birth, lest you get caught up in it. Even though his Italian wining/dining haven is set to reopen in April, he has grand plans to install a wood burning oven to supercharge his new location with transcontinental pizzas. (Update: Gary says there’s a pizza oven in his new space. He just needs to decide if he’ll use that one or build an oven for Neopolitan pizza.)
Morris St. Pizza: I don’t really know the name of the place, or if they’re really going to open. However, the possibility of yet another pizza place in that two square blocks is pretty intriguing (Piccola’s and Papa Johns are both right there too).Only this one will utilize LAVE ROCKS in the cooking process. Okay, here’s the rumor on pizza where that tea place was on Morris Street.
Papa’s Pizza: In Manchester. Just open a few weeks, according to Twitter. Jojo’s-esque pizza with Superstars style topping options. Is this accurate? Need to check it out. Asking Twitter for more details.
Pie: The name conjures an image of pizza elevated to high art. I ate one. It wasn’t that. It wasn’t bad, just not significant in any way. No element of the pizza approached perfection. The crust had no snap. There was a too-strong herby smell, like essential oil of oregano. Nothing about this “pie” made me think that the people making this food had found their calling. The salad that came with my special featured lots of wilted brown basil. This is not the pizza Richmond has been waiting for. The fact that they plan to open two locations before proving themselves in the first one reflects a cart before the horse approach. Personally, I think all of Mo Roman’s one-syllable restaurants should be called “turd,” but his shtick just isn’t for me. It wasn’t this guy’s “Style” either.
Stuzzi: Everyone tells me that the idea of Peter Certas from Pasta Luna turning out to-die-for pizza is just plane loony. More specifically, I keep hearing that he has a history of committing fraud. With a track record as a phony, the prospect of authenticity coming out of his pizza ovens seems pretty unlikely. On the other hand, Certas has wrangled a certified Napolitana pizzaiolo to make his pizzas and a woodburning oven will be at his disposal. Regardless, hordes of people will flock to eat in the building they couldn’t previously afford. More on this from Karri at Richmond.com.
PIZZA POLYAMORY
Now that we’ve surveyed the suitors, I don’t think we have any alternative than to try everyone one of them in turn, maybe two or three times before coming… to a determination about which pie gives us the O-face of delight. Seriously, it’s so easy to dismiss a pizza for what it isn’t (see many of my sweeping generalizations above), and miss what it is. As these places roll out in Richmond, there will be a race to pin a blue-ribbon on the best. Resist that. Finding a favorite pizza is like building a relationship. You’re looking for consistency, but if the highs are high enough, it’s okay if they stumble here and there.
The style of pizzas that some of these places are forecasting is relatively new territory for Richmond. Give the artisans some time to practice on you, and give yourself some time to learn to appreciate what they’re attempting. And then, those pizza makers gotta taste each others’ pies and go back into the laboratory to outdo one another. Yes, I think 2010 will be an extremely non-monogamous time for Richmond, in terms of pizza-eating.
*Assuming that few of you will pick up that crucial reading foodie tome, let’s cut to the chase. Perfect pizza is made by control freaks who narrow their focus to that one thing (for the most part), demanding precise product for their ingredients, resist the urge to transfer their craft to temporary help, and their ovens are maintained like altars to the sacred. Plus, there’s perception, a real confounding variable. If you grew up thinking X was pizza perfection, that’s likely to be your paradigm for life. And if X is Pizza Hut pan pizza (my lifelong pet peeve), then you’re basically screwed and should be neutered to prevent any future offspring.
The more the merrier I say, let god, and public opinion, sort ‘em out. This newfound obsession with great pizza can only be good for our appetites. Agree especially on mo roman’s monosyllabic joints though. I’m unfortunate enough to work within walking distance to bank and I’ve never encountered a more inconsistent restaurant. After a few good lunches came a few disasters that made me sorry to return. Haven’t been back in many moons, not with rustica or bouchon or even aurora killing it on a regular basis.
This is why people don’t like self-proclaimed “foodies”.
Ron: Your right. I try to expand the idea of “foodie” with my blog, but this one is a snobby niche piece. I’ve definitely fallen into that stereo-typical pizza obsession (not something I can wholeheartedly recommend) and I wrote this from that perspective and basically for similarly minded people, having fun at the expense of everyone else. Plus, it’s about a restaurant trend that won’t make sense to your average pizza fan (and may not be viable – all those places attempting a similar goal at the same time). So, I feel ya, Ron and I’ll try to do better.
By the way, if I left out any NEW pizza places that need to be mentioned, please speak up.
I like all pizza. Pizza is one of my major loves. Pizza Hut to Little Caesar’s to Chanello’s to Mary Angela’s to Sette to Bottom’s Up and on.
Nice piece.
H: I think a lot of people shed that love for all pizzas when they have a really amazing other-worldly pizza. Then, you’re ruined for the middling pizzas until you can get the idea of really stellar pizza out of your head. Check out this video and this list of 25 elite pizzerias in the US. Maybe one of Richmond’s new places will break into that list one day.
Also, totally forgot to mention Richmond’s two pizza bloggers: Pamparius and Pizzalicious.. So, if you all think I’ve gone overboard, you might wanna check these folks out (of if you just love pizza, check them out).
Nobody ever mentions Superstars, yet their slices are unique and yummy
I grew up in NY, and so I’m attached to NY pizza. All kinds, but my favorite is called grandma’s pizza*, which is like a sicilian pie with a thinner crust. I like the big floppy regular slices too. For toppings I like fresh mushrooms and broccoli and spinach. I get my fix when I go up to visit my mom, but Angelo’s near Chesterfield Town Center isn’t a bad substitute in between trips and it’s close to home.
I like all kinds of pizza though, although I haven’t been living here long enough to try much. Any decent pie will do really- a nice chewy or crispy crust, decent sauce, cheese is usually pretty standard. I like “gourmet” pies that combine unusual ingredients- different kinds of pesto, meats that aren’t pepperoni or sausage, seasonal vegetables, different types of cheeses. Is there any place in Richmond that does that well? I’m also not above a few slices of Papa John’s, and I wish Papa Murphy’s (take-and-bake chain) would open up nearby. I’ve made my own pizzas from scratch a few times, and they turn out pretty good, but it’s usually pretty aggravating- no matter how much flour I put down I always get some part that sticks to the peel and it just drives me crazy trying to get it unstuck without ruining the pizza I just assembled.
(*Well, my favorite is really grandma’s pizza, as in the pizza that my grandma made with homemade crust, rolled thin and folded in half over a thin layer of homemade sauce, another thin layer of sauce on top with fresh grated cheese on top. Like most everything she cooked, especially her lasagna, it was a work of art and love and completely amazing and has spoiled me for life. Sausage rolls and honey cakes and broccoli pie and rice balls and cream puffs…)
nice write up. definitely been looking forward to some of these rumored places. Stuzzi rumors are making the rounds quickly.
Then there is St Louis/downstate Illinois “cracker” crust pizza. Extremely thin crust and always square. Great taste, less filling. Like at Gabatoni’s Restaurant.
There’s definitely a problem when your first few pizza-making experiments at home produces results that exceed anything you can get at a restaurant in your home city. Not that every pizza I make is better than MamaZu’s, but a few fresh ingredients, some high heat, and a hot surface will make an instant pizza memory. That kinda eating is missing in Richmond’s pizza options. So, I do agree that the slew of new pizza places are onto something. Just talking about this is making me want to break out the pizza stone tonight (btw: I heard you can do BETTER than a pizza stone with a hot cast iron skillet and your broiler. recipe here. thx paul).
About SuperStars on Patterson: I didn’t mention it because I’m only including new places in this overview. Also, I’m just not impressed by their approach of making a couple dozen cheese pizzas and then adding a circus of toppings at your request and then serving you the stuff reheated by the slice.
I just don’t think Richmond is there yet as a pizza town. New York’s widely praised Motorino (I went there and LOVED IT) just opened in 2008. We are slower to develop here, it happens.
The problem here is that aren’t too many people interested in making artisan pizza here. With NON GAS OVENS. I mean I like 8 1/2 but I made pizza almost exactly like it at home this week (I am serious, and it was freaking delicious too). Imagine how much better their pizza would be in a WOOD STOVE! I think most places would also benefit from fresher ingredients. Canned/cooked down spinach? Minced garlic? I’ve had both of those here.
I would love someone to be passionate about being a pizzaiolo in Richmond and make good artisan pies. To make crust as good as Peter Reinhart’s wheat crust in Pie Town in Charlotte, to use local and organic ingredients like the excellent punk rock pizzeria Lilly’s in Raleigh… But it seems people here aren’t into the art of it yet.
Just like it took Richmonders FOREVER to get into the farm-to-table thing. People have been doing it up and down the coast for years, from Dan Barber in NY to lots of places in NC, where the farms are close to the towns and people buy their produce locally.
I will say again, Rivermont Pizza in Lynchburg may be my favorite pizza in the state. Wood burning stove, interesting pizza choices with really good ingredients, excellent beer list and great atmosphere. We need something like THAT first.
But my favorite pizza in Richmond is the white pizza at Tarrant’s. I love their cheese and they load it with garlic and olive oil and it is divine. I will try these places too but so far none are exciting me. I am faintly interested in having a Neapolitan place here so I don’t have to drive to DC for 2Amys but what I hear about the Stuzzi people disappoints me.
I have had my share of good pizza. I have been to Lucali’s and Totonno’s in Brooklyn. I love 2 Amy’s in DC. I have had some fabulous stuff in Siena,Italy. It would take a pretty amazing pizza to be on that list for me. I have no confidence that any of the new places being opened are going to be at the level.
That being said, I am more than willing to give any of them a fair shot. I want there to be a killer pizza in town. Even better would for there to be a rivalry between 2 or more places.
As for calling Peter Caserta a phony, I am not sure that really has anything to do with the product being put out there. Selling a good product and having a checkered past can be mutually exclusive. As you later said, the quality of the product will depend on the pizzaiolo, Giuseppe.
I’m not a big pizza person. I’ve never been much into ethnic cuisine. Bottom’s Up is fine for me. I just love their Chesapeake Pizza with crabmeat and white sauce.
I think there’s a consensus here that when you taste the real thing, all the other pizzas you used to like seem like phonies. The word “phony” comes naturally to the pizza debate because there are so many corporate hucksters out there boasting that their pizza is the best and charming locals into adopting the overhyped product as their mascot food, and yet it doesn’t even approach the simple honest goodness that a true pizza artist offers. We’ll see what Peter Caserta does in the future, but after reading about him shennanigans in Business Week and Time magazine, hearing about his track record with Pasta Luna, and murmurings rippling out from his past employees, I think the word it’s more than appropriate to question this man’s word.
In high school, I heard this band Faith No More and immediately stopped buying glam-metal records (yes, I liked Poison, Slaughter, Warrant and still do ;o). They changed my perspective of what music could be and my tastes went off in various directions from there. Here’s a live performance of their song, “The Real Thing.” At the 2:20 minute mark, the young/warped Mike Patton sings something about “the most basic ingredients.” Anyhow, “the real thing,” be it pizza or music, brings the thunder.
I think one thing that comes into play with the pizza debate is time. what makes defarra’s great is that the same man has been making pizza for years. he is slow is hell but he does a great job and he is a legend and worth the wait. no matter how well any these places do, it should take years for the reputation to be established.
jason,
i think with the faith no more reference, you could write “indian food” and put “Ruchi” and “awesome” in the same sentence at least 100 more times and I wouldn’t be irritated.
i think our only hope for truly superlative pizza in RIC is if someone with few morals goes to a place that dishes the real thing and steals the dough recipe and manages to find funding for a 700 degree-plus oven.
Do you know when Aziza’s oven is operational?
I know Billy wanted to have his new oven cranking out pizzas by now, but it seems like with most things in the restaurant world… there’s a black hole of bureaucracy and unforeseen circumstances that sets everything back. Aziza’s could be selling dreamy pizza right now, for all I know. I’m afraid to call or inquire and put any additional pressure on them, or break the spell of pizza magic that I imagine is building in that space on E. Main Street. Can you tell I’ve got my money on Billy in the great pizza race?
UPDATE: Someone just said on Twitter that the staff is saying the’ll have the pizza oven going by May 1st.
Have you seen this?
http://www.chow.com/stories/11065?tag=rbxcch.2.a.6
why can’t pizza just be pizza? For real?
jason i think Plaza Mexico closed! I tried going there nearly everyday to keep them afloat but i guess they needed a bit more patronage.