Down and Out in Denver

I know, I know, I write about pizza often enough that you think I eat nothing else.  Lately, this has been close to true.  I’ve been in the Bay Area again, visiting the Gentleman Friend, and have sampled some of the fine pies that these cities have to offer.

The GF and I went to Marzano on College Street in Oakland with my friends Jason and Erin. Readers may recall that it was Jason who introduced me to the delights of Gioia, “the best pizza west of the Jersey Turnpike.” Well, he swore that this place was pretty good as well.  And Jason knows his pizza. Marzano is part bar, part restaurant, and every night after 10, almost all of their wood-fired Neapolitan pies are $10. Appetizers and drinks are also pretty deeply discounted.  A very enthusiastic hostess got us a few cocktails (in fact, she might have gotten herself one or two as well, so enthusiastic was she) and we perused the menu while we waited for a table.  I asked Jason if we just got one pie for the four of us. I have never heard so many “No”s in such quick succession in my life.  The GF estimated it might have been 14 all told. Jason recommended three, and so that’s what we ordered once we were seated.  But first we tucked into a bowl of fritto misto that Alastair would have loved (he loves him some fritto misto): this was asparagus, cauliflower, and fennel, and served with a spicy aioli it was mighty tasty.  Then our pizzas arrived: a traditional pepperoni; house fennel sausage with provolone, tomato, wild oregano, and broccoli rabe; and the meatball marinara with tomato, pecorino romano, chili flakes, garlic, and arugula.  Um yeah, we like meat.  And the pizza was pretty great: thin and well cooked, great cheese, and all the ingredients were fantastic.  It’s definitely of the fancy variety, but sometimes fancy is just what you want, especially when accompanied by equally fancy cocktails at reduced prices.  Well done, Marzano!

CyBelle's Pizza on 14th Street at Market and Church

The next morning I was meeting friends in the city of San Francisco and decided that, even though I’d had plenty of pizza the night before, I would stop by one of my favorite pizza joints for lunch: CyBelle’s, located on 14th Street, just around the corner from the intersection of Church and Market. CyBelle’s only has two seats at a counter as well as a small table outside so it’s best to either order for delivery or take your slice to go, but I was lucky enough to nab one of the counter seats.  CyBelle’s reminds me more of a New York slice: a little thicker, definitely bigger, and plenty greasy, but with fantastic flavor.  If pretty much any variety of pizza feels slightly unhealthy, this is about twice as bad, and even more delicious for being so.

And, dear reader, it didn’t stop there.  Two days later I went out to dinner with the GF and his sister. We went to Zachary’s Pizza, also on College in Oakland.  While they do have regular thin crust pies, they specialize in Chicago style deep dish.  I sometimes think that deep dish should be given a different name.  I’m not totally sure that it’s the same thing as pizza.  Of course it isn’t the same thing but I actually think it’s so different that calling it pizza is a bit of a misnomer.  While I can get over the enormous crust, what disturbs me most about deep dish is that it seems more like a chunky tomato soup in a bread bowl with occasional signs of cheese.  Too often I also can’t taste the other toppings either. This is not meant to be a bad review of Zachary’s in particular — it certainly has many fans — just of the entire genre of pizza in which they specialize (is that better or worse as an indictment?).  To me melted cheese is probably at least 50% of the point of pizza and so it’s hard for me to get enthusiastic about a type of pizza where the cheese is so very often unlocatable at all.  I’ll take a greasy slice of mediocre thin crust pizza over deep dish any day.

But I didn’t have to, because soon thereafter I went back to Gioia and it was just as good as ever.

Two Slices of Gioia's Cheese Pie