Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana

The coal oven with the extra long pizza peals next to it.

Daniel's a picky eater, but he loves Pepe's!

Jared watched them make the pizzas until we got ours.

Seriously good.....basic cheese.....nothing basic about it.

My sister, my best friend and I, drove to Pepe's in New Haven about 7 years ago because we heard they had the best pizza. The road trip was well worth it. Now there's one in Yonkers, New York, which is a lot closer......and just as good as I remember!

First of all, their oven is coal and is about 2000 degrees!!! That's reallllllllly hot, in case you couldn't figure that out on your own!! They use super long pizza peals to get the pizzas in the 16 foot deep oven for the very short time they stay in there. It doesn't take long to cook once they get in!

When I went to the Pepe's in Yonkers I was with the people who told me about Pepe's in the first place. We all devoured our pizza in blissful silence. Every once in a while, someone would look up with an expression like......'can you believe this?' I mean, this pizza demands respect. No question. The crust is thin and crispy. They call their pies "tomato pies", which tells you that they take pride in their sauce. And then they use high quality cheese and plenty of it....but not overly done. We were all just really happy.

There are a few Pepe's out there now, so go and find one and eat their pizza. If you don't live close to one.........it's time for a road trip.

www.pepespizzeria.com

The Cabin Restaurant

Greg got all sorts of gross stuff on his pizza. I think he didn't want to share.

Basic yummy margherita for me!

I met my friend Greg for lunch as usual when I'm in Westchester. Since starting the blog, we've been only going to pizza places, which is, of course, fine by me! This time we went to the Cabin Restaurant. It looks like it sounds--like a cabin--and I was surprised that it was a pizza restaurant. They have a pretty extensive menu, but the pizza was what we were there for. It's baked in a stone hearth forno oven at around 700 degrees.

As I mentioned, Greg ordered a pizza with seafood and I think he added mushrooms, so I have to take only his word for how good it was. He really liked it, so if that's your thing, feel free to enjoy. Or, if you like normal pizza, the fresh mozzarella brooklyn is the way to go. The crust was crispy and thin and the cheese was evenly spread out over the pizza, which is important to me. They put the sauce on top of the cheese (like Vace in DC) and it was a nice sweet, but not too sweet, sauce.

I can always trust Greg to pick a good restaurant to try! He knows I'm picky and it doesn't even bother him too much. We just ate a quick lunch, but I would go back again and try the goat cheese pizza (minus the truffle oil--which is just a fancy name for mushroom oil).

www.cabinrestaurantny.com

Puppatella

Pupatella's brick oven---it's realllllllly hot.

Arancino---fried risotto ball. yummmm

This was Chris' spicy sausage pizza. Not my first choice, as you know.

There are mushrooms on this one, so I really have nothing to say. I hope he/she enjoyed it.

Kelly and I split the white pizza and margherita.

Kelly taking her first bite of 'the real margherita'

Dave and Jen trying their's.

We all drove out to a brand new pizza place in Ballston, VA called Pupatella on a sweltering Thursday night. Unfortunately, it was also sweltering in the pizza place due to the brick oven that burns oak wood at between 800 and 1000 degrees. However, the heat, the wait and the pizza were worth it. Pupatella had only been open less than 2 weeks when we tried it so there were some ordering kinks to work out, but there were no kinks in the food whatsoever. A few of us started with the Arancino-fried risotto balls and they were just melt in your mouth delicious. The pizzas are individual sized (at least for our group) so we each ordered our own.

Kelly and I split 'the real margherita' and the white pizza with spinach, roasted red pepper, pine nuts and goat cheese. They were both delicious, but I would have liked more cheese (especially the goat cheese). Since it's dropped on in blobs, it wasn't quite even----and I think my sister intentionally took the half with more cheese, but she insists that she didn't mean to. Who would you believe?

The crust was perfectly cooked. Just enough chewy and crispy with the proper blistering occurring. Jessica finished off whatever crust was left over, so she must have really liked it.

I can't wait to go back when the "business" kinks are worked out and maybe the air conditioning is working. But there was gelato to cool us off at the end!! No worries. Read about Pupatella's story on their website, it's really interesting and inspiring!

www.pupatella.com

Piola

Sunday night pizza gang at Piola

Kelly and Erin and a piece of the "all you can eat"

The 'Brooklyn Pizza'

Ryan was double fisting it for a while

Sao Paulo pizza

Diavola on the left, and Marinara on the right

Sarajevo pizza

I've been a bit neglectful of this very important pizza blog because of a kind of major surgery that took a bit to recover from. But before the surgery, we all went to Piola in Rosslyn for Sunday night all you can eat pizza. We didn't know it would be all you can eat, but it was. If we had known, a big portion of us would have eaten less earlier in the day, that's for sure! It wasn't buffet style, the servers brought out the different pizzas as they were made and if you wanted a slice of that kind, they served you. We had a rather large party, so they ended up leaving some of the pies at our table just to make things easier. They give you a list of the 10 pizzas offered that night and you can eat any or all of them. Some were better than others.

We all had varying opinions of the pizzas. Some didn't think they had enough sauce, some thought the smoked mozzarella was too dominant of a taste......but the crust was agreed upon to be the best part. Half of us loved the Sao Paulo, which has carupiry cheese along with mozzarella. I loved it because I love strong cheeses, but those that don't stayed away from it. The ricotta on the Sarajevo, which is: mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, spinach and ricotta, was bland and the smoked mozzarella wasn't my favorite. But it's pizza, so we lived through the tough ones. The marinara, which is similar to the old fashioned pizza from DiCamillo's, was liked best by those that like a lot of sauce, because it's all sauce, garlic and basil with no cheese. We had a really fun night, the servers were great, and I liked the atmosphere...........but there are better places to get pizza. However, in saying that, I would go back and try one of the pies a la carte.

www.piola.it

Stanziato's

Goat cheese on my pizza. Enough said.

Pizza with a lot of different meats.

I'm like, reallllly happy here.

While in Connecticut, I tried a new pizza place called Stanziato's. I had no idea what to expect because the place is brand new with a sandwich board outside advertising "wood fired pizza". Why not? Why not indeed. The restaurant still looks new, they don't have their liquor license yet, but the pizza was the reason we went, and the reason we will go back!

My friend ordered a "meat lovers" pizza that he created himself with meatballs, sausage and pepperoni. It looked good, but he also had mushrooms, so I didn't try it. I ordered the white pizza with spinach, garlic, goat cheese and mozzarella. And seriously, I was blown away. The crust was crispy and salty, but chewy and just wow. The pizza maker guy used a lemon infused olive oil (that he made himself) to add just the perfect tang to the already perfect pizza. Add goat cheese to anything and I'll be happy, but with the lemon and garlic and spinach.........it made me want to move to Connecticut. I might see if they have a room above the shop. Everything's locally grown and organic and the chef, Matt Stanczak, was there making the pizza himself. I just love knowing the owner is the chef and is working on my specific pizza! Go there and see him and eat pizza!

www.stanziatos.com

A'Mangiare

cheesy white pizza

Pesto pizza

My friend, Greg, and I meet for lunch anytime I'm in the NY area. This time we tried a new pizza place that neither of had ever gone to, A'Mangiare. We could smell the garlic while we were parking the car, so we figured it couldn't be that bad!
We order two pizzas to split and it worked out very well. The white pizza was very cheesy and very good. The crust was a perfect combination of crispy and doughy. I was afraid it would get soggy in the middle, but it held up nicely. The Pesto Pizza was different from what I would normally order, but we both enjoyed it. It came with sliced tomatoes, spinach, roasted peppers, pesto sauce and mozzarella (we held the mushrooms for obvious reasons). I love a good pesto, but have never had it on pizza. It added a new dimension to my pizza enjoyment. It's a whole other way to go, which I highly recommend. We didn't have any of the pasta or salads, but other people's looked really good. I would definitely try one the next time.
www.amangiare.com

Ryan's Birthday Pizza from Bertucci's

Kelly and Ryan eating a modified "Bertucc"

Cassie designed the birthday pizzas

Ok, Ok, so I had pizza two nights in a row. It's not like it was my idea! I was forced, well, forced is a strong word. I was.....well, I just ate it and was pretty happy about it. I mean, it was a special occasion. It's not everyday that my little cousin, Ryan, turns 27! So, since he loves Bertucci's so much, and specifically loves "The Bertucci" the most, his girlfriend, Cassie, ordered 4 pizzas to spell out what you see above. Everyone was very impressed. There was even enough blank, I mean, without pepperoni, for me to eat! We all went out after, but the pizza was the perfect start to a very fun night!