Venito's

Original Title: "Back to the Music City"

Review from 2010:

After a fantastic field trip to the homeland it's now time to get back to the mission at hand: conquering Nashville one slice at a time. The next stop was a pre-STALLION dinner at Venito's on Church Street across from the Downtown YMCA. I've passed this place several times while surrendering money to Elecman over the past year or so, but never made the stop. It was now time to explore the unknown. We walked into the small storefront to find 3 of Metro's finest inside dining, which to me was the first good sign. Cops know food. Venito's also has a pretty sweet mural on the wall that stole my attention more than a few times. Venito's actually reminded me a bit of pizza places I've been to in New York, except way bigger of course. I ordered my standard which I got as part of a special they're running right now where you can get a large pizza with up to 3 toppings for $9.99. That plus a 20oz bottle and 12oz can came to somewhere close to $14 or $15. The first thing I noticed about the pizza when it came out was that the slices were really small, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I usually prefer bigger slices, but when it gets to that point towards the end and you want just a little bit more, it's easy to grab another small slice. The crust was good and crispy without being too dry. The pepperoni was pretty spicy, definitely spicier than Picnic Pizza and the sauce wasn't really sweet, it was more tomotaoey if that makes any sense. The pizza wasn't overly greasy either. The whole thing was kind of like Roma Pizza but just a step above. Given the choice, I'd take Venito's for sure. I think it's good pizza and it's pretty cheap, plus it's right downtown so there's no driving out to the 'burbs to get good pizza.
They have pretty standard pizza hours. They're open 11am to 11pm Monday through Friday and 5pm to 2am on Saturday. I heard that they might be open as late as 5am, but these are the hours posted on their website.

Sicily Caesar

Original Title- "Beware the Ides"

Review from 2010:

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

Sometimes when you've decided you're going to eat at every independent pizza place in town, you get a little stuck, especially towards the end of your designated time line. It was last Sunday and I had no idea where to make the next stop. There are places like Davinci's and Mafiaoza's that a lot of people want to hit up with me and there are a lot of places that I wouldn't dare ask of anybody due to geographic location or simply because I know it's going to be bad. There are also some places that are carryout only, which works great on a night where I've got a lot of things going on and there are some places that I just have no idea how to get to and certainly wouldn't be able to help any of my friends make it there. Sicily Caesar in Metrocenter falls into that last category. On GoogleMaps, it's just a dot off the main road and when you do street view, it doesn't show up at all. It's just a picture of random store fronts in the former waterfront mall. So, I head over there not even really expecting this place to still be in existence and not really knowing where exactly I'm going. I pulled into the first entrance I saw and began driving around the building. Just as I was about to give up and head on my way, I saw it on my right behind a small line of trees. Tucked away in the back of the complex next to a BBQ place stood Sicily Caesar. The next question on my list was if they were open or not. I got out of my car and walked towards the dim store front and walked right in. It was totally open for business and we were the only ones there! I think it took a second for the employees to realize that a customer was actually in the store, but they did and I went ahead with my order. Large pepperoni and 2 fountain drinks would do the trick.


I left the counter to get my drink and there was no ice in the machine. I drank a little bit without ice anyways while one of the guys replenished the ice. Surprisingly, while we were waiting, another customer walked in to pick up an order he had called in. That would turn out to be the only other customer we saw the entire time we were there. The pizza arrived at our table in a reasonable amount of time and looked pretty standard. I could almost taste the pizza by looking at it and smelling it. I really wasn't expecting any surprises out of this one. As you can kind of see in the picture, it seemed as though one side of the pizza was cooked a little better than the other side. The crust was pretty thin, really soft and without much flavor. The sauce was your basic tomato pizza sauce, nothing fancy. The cheese and pepperoni both tasted really cheap. This stuff was definitely coming out of a bag in a cooler. I think the worst part, though, was when I took a big bite of seriously undercooked pizza. The cheese was still relatively unmelted and in big strands. This ruined the whole thing for me. I try not to hit these out of the way indie places so hard, but I can't handle uncooked food. I may have ended up with bad luck and maybe all their pizza isn't like this, but I don't think I will ever find out.


Sicily Caesar is located in a weird back corner of that white and blue building that used to be a mall and now houses the art college in Metrocenter. Their official address is 2200 Rosa L Parks Boulevard. They are open super late through the week which is a major plus. They're open 10:30AM-4:30AM Monday through Saturday and 4:30PM-Midnight on Sundays. They also have a lunch buffet on weekdays. A large pizza with 2 drinks ran us $17.50 which is a little pricey considering the quality and competition around town.

Bellshire Pizza

Original title "Are You Ready for the Country?" Review from 2010: Off to the unknown lands of Dickerson Pike in Madison. From downtown, if you start at the weird buffalo statues and drive through the hookers and dealers, you eventually end up out in Madison where it gets slightly less scary. It's more of a workin' man's area. Co-ops and tool shops surrounded by modest housing with pickups in the drive ways. In this odd little pocket of Davidson county lies a tiny and unassuming little pizza place called Bellshire Pizza. I think it's actually named for the area of town in which it's located, but I'm not positive and I'm really too lazy to GoogleMap it to find out. After sitting in the parking lot for a minute debating on whether or not we were "really gonna do this" we walked on in. We were greeted by 2 really friendly employees, one behind the counter and one on his laptop in the dining area. We were probably the first faces they had seen in a while. It was a Saturday night and all seemed quiet and calm around the place.

We ordered the usual and took a seat in a booth. While sitting, we noticed a patched up bullet hole in the window which was a reminder that no matter how far out we were, it's still Dickerson Pike. The pizza arrived at our table in the standard 10 minutes and I immediately had my doubts. It looked exactly like an overgrown Tony's frozen pizza. The cheese, pepperoni and crust were identical to Tony's. The crust was super thin, crispy and completely flat. The sauce was no more than a tomato paste mixture and the cheese seemed as natural as white folks eating pizza on Dickerson Pike. Thankfully the pizza was fairly cheap and we only got the 12" medium. I think our total bill was right around $13 or $14 dollars. If you've ever eaten a Tony's pizza from your grocer's freezer then there is no need to drive out to Madison for Bellshire. I'd still choose this over Pie in the Sky, however. The difference is with Bellshire I didn't really expect that much, so there was no real disappointment and the people were super nice. At P in the S, the expectation was high and the service was terrible. This puts Bellshire a slot above.

Bellshire is located at 3801 Dickerson Pike in the Madison area. They're open Monday through Saturday 11-9 and according to their menu, sometimes on Sundays. It's got a couple of question marks and says "call???" I guess if you've got a huge party of people that want pizza for the football game they'll open it up for you or something. Overall, the Bellshire experience was as to be expected. A pizza place owned by country white people makes for mediocre food served with a smile.

Danville By The Slice: A Field Trip

Review from 2010:

So last weekend I went to visit family in the bustling metropolis of Danville, VA. Some of you may know Danville as the site of the famous Wreck of the Old 97, or that weird town where Mojo Nixon went to high school or maybe you super nerdy history buffs know it as the last capital of the Confederacy, or maybe you just don't know it at all. Well, whatever the case, I know it as home and the building block for everything I know including good pizza. Yes, that's right, that little Virginia border town nestled between two racetracks at the foot of the hills is home to some of the best pizza I've ever had. Pizza so good, that I traveled well past my Davidson County Pizza Summer Borderline. Currently there are about 4 or 5 really good pizza places there and I visited 2 of them in 2 days.

Unfortunately, the place that started it all for me, O Sole Mio, was taken over by white people in the late 90's and quickly fell from grace. It no longer stands. The original operators split off into different factions throughout town which include Ciro's and Frank's. Ciro's was the first place I visited this past weekend. Of course the pizza was fantastic and everything I remembered it to be. The crust was really flavorful and super thin. The sauce was just a little sweeter than Picnic Pizza's. I even got a small treat while eating a slice, a huge chunk of tomato slid out from under the cheese like some sort of reminder that they actually make their own sauce in house and it's not just tomato paste and water. Ciro's pizza comes with just a bit more cheese than most places it seems, which is sort of the Danville pizza formula (sweet sauce, thin crust and tons of cheese). Danville is pretty much the only town where I will eat my pizza with a fork and knife. Probably has to do with the thin crust and heavy cheese, but it's almost instinctual these days. Danville pizza also must be served with Pepsi in a big plastic cup with crushed ice. It just tastes better that way. Ciro's did not let me down.

For day 2 we headed to Frank's which seems to be the family favorite and is definitely more popular than Ciro's or the other places in town. Frank's used to have my formula down with the Pepsi and plastic cups and all that but, since their relocation to Memorial Drive they made the switch to Coke and real glasses. Now this doesn't really make the pizza suffer one bit, but Coke just doesn't taste right with their pizza in my opinion. Coke's just a little too harsh and clashes with the flavor of the pie. Frank's pizza is very similar to Ciro's, they probably use the same basic recipes, so needless to say the pizza we had there was great. The only real differences between the two were the crusts and the greasiness. Frank's crust is a lot drier, but also thicker than Ciro's and their pizza is also a little less greasy. Ciro's I think has the better crust, but when I did a cold pizza A & B comparison, I couldn't decide which one I liked better. I was just basically happy that I got to hit them both up while I was in town. So if you ever find yourself lost in Southern Virginia, you should head towards Frank's or Ciro's or Isabella or any number of pizza places, they will all be good to ya.

Dolce Vita

Original title "Dolce Vendetta"

Review from 2010:

As with Sicilian in Donelson, Dolce Vita made it onto my list of places to skip due to my thinking they were Roma locations with different names. People have asked me where I came up with this theory and it all really has to do with the signature Large 2-Topping carryout special. They all have it and they've all gone up from $5.99 to $7.99 in recent times. Judging by the handwritten "7" taped to the window it seems as though Dolce Vita was following this trend as well which lead me to believe it was all connected. After receiving a small tip that they had other things like Mediterranean food there and would put gyro meat on the pizza if asked, I decided that maybe they could be removed from the avoid list and make it into the Pizza Summer.

Dolce Vita is located in a shopping center on 8th Ave South underneath a sign that just says "pizza" in big red letters. I think this is where Pronto Pizza used to be. In fact you wouldn't know the name of the place unless you looked it up online before going or looked at one of the menus sitting on the counter. Dolce Vita doesn't have a dining room at all so I went for a large pepperoni to go and they gave it to me for the price of the 2-topping special which I thought was nice cause that saved me about 4 bucks. While I waited for my pizza to cook I read through the menu a little bit and noticed that they actually have 5 different sizes: 10", 12", 14", 16" and 20"! I don't know of any other 20 inch pizza in Nashville. That got me a little excited. In my head I was thinking that anybody who is willing to make a 20" pizza must make some pretty good pizza. I thought I may have been in for an opposite surprise than the one I got from Sicilian.

The pizza was out of the oven and ready to go in just a little under 15 minutes. I took it to my car and hurriedly snapped a picture to capture the pizza at its freshest. I made it back to the east side ready, willing, and prepared to devour this pizza. After all, it had been a long day at work and I'd already waited about 30 minutes for this food counting cook time and drive time. I opened the box again to find a pretty good looking pizza with the pepperoni buried under the cheese except for one that looks like it may have been added super last minute or maybe even after the pizza had hit the conveyor. The slice it landed it on was immediately named the "Cyclops" piece and was saved for the last slice of the night. I knew this was going to be an interesting meal. I took my first few bites way too quickly to get a real good judgment for the taste. After slowing down a bit, however, I really started to notice things. I began noticing that the crust really had no flavor to it at all and that it was just about as bland as they come. It was pretty crisp, but that's about all it had going for it. I also began to notice that I couldn't taste the sauce they put on this pizza. And, I also noticed that the cheese and pepperoni weren't doing much either, not even when I got to Cyclops later in the evening. I couldn't believe it. The overall taste of this pizza was severely lacking. Unfortunately in my haste, I neglected to check for my memory card, so the picture of this pizza is forever stuck on a camera that hasn't seen its accompanying USB cable in quite some time. But I promise you, the pizza looked great. There were definitely some conflicting moments during the meal looking at the remaining pizza while eating a slice. It didn't make much sense, but I was once again bitten by a faux-Roma. Just like Sicilian it was like eating a big mush of nothing. It was even worse the next day for cold pizza lunch, which has slowly become my least favorite part of Pizza Summer. It used to be a very nice and important part, but now is becoming more of a chore and challenge than anything.

Dolce Vita is located in the Melrose Shopping Center at 2613 8th Ave S. They are open 10AM-5AM every day. I think the Basement music venue might also sell slices of their pizza at the bar. I know they used to have Pronto Pizza, so I assume they kept it going with Dolce Vita. If I figure out a way to get the picture off my camera I will post it, but this is currently going in as my first pictureless pizza post.

Castrillo's (Inglewood)

Original title: "Quiet on the Eastern Front"

Review from 2010:

Back to my side of the river, home of the Tennessee Titans, East Nashville. The first place I decided to hit up in my neighborhood was my East Side fave, Castrillo's, in Riverside Village. I've always touted this place as the best in East Nashville, which, admittedly isn't really saying all that much. Last Wednesday I really just wanted something fast and good that I could take home and Castrillo's, not having a proper dining room, definitely fit the bill. Also, for someone who hates calling businesses to order food or anything else, it's the perfect place to order from. Once you've ordered from there once, they've got all your info on file and you don't even have to leave a name or number. You just call, tell them whether you want it delivered or not, and tell them what you want. It's pretty simple and painless. The first thing that caught my attention when I got there to pick up my pizza is that they show you your food before you pay for it. I had never encountered that at any other pizza place. It must eliminate several mix-ups and headaches. After using a Kroger receipt coupon, my total for a large pepperoni was just over $11. Add a couple of gas station Cokes and I was up to about $14.

When I got home I was ready to sit back and have a pretty perfect evening with my favorite East Nashville pizza and my favorite TV show, Criminal Minds, coming together to make this happen. Unfortunately, this was not the case; they both disappointed. Criminal Minds was a rerun and Castrillo's had fallen victim to the incredible challenge that is the Pizza Summer. Until now, I wasn't eating real pizza once or twice a week and critiquing it. I was all about grabbing a crappy $3 Kroger frozen pizza or a Totino's Party Pizza and not even thinking about it, so when I hit up a place like Castrillo's it was always a treat and tasted far superior to anything else I was eating on a regular basis. Now that I've got the taste of places like Angelo's Picnic Pizza and Taste of Italy on my tongue, Castrillo's just can't hang.

The crust has always been so much different than any other pizza around town, but has also had this oddly familiar taste that I haven't been able to place. Until now. I've always thought of it as an interesting crust spread with tons of garlic butter and parmesan cheese, but it's really not interesting at all.... it's Little Caesar's Crazy Bread. That little light bulb pretty much single-handedly destroyed all hope for this pizza. All I could think about were $5 Hot-N-Readys and $2 Crazy Bread that's been sitting out for a good while. The sauce, cheese and pepperoni were all really sweet as well and you dedicated readers might recall from my last post how I feel about sweet pizza. It just isn't supposed to be that way. The Pizza Summer has taken it's first casualty. I'm not necessarily saying that Castrillo's makes bad food, but it's more of a pizza-like treat than a real solid pizza.

Catrillo's is located in the ever-growing Riverside Village at the corner of Riverside Drive and McGavock Pike in Inglewood. They are open for lunch from 11am to 2pm and for dinner from 4pm to 10pm Monday through Thursday. On the weekends they are open from 11am to 10pm.

Next entry is the Protomen/Thundercon family reunion dinner at Caesar's Bistro on White Bridge Pike.

Porta Via Italian Kitchen

Originally titled "A Taste of Old Jersey"

The review from 2010:

Time to get back to places I've never been to. While arriving at Caesar's for the last pizza, I noticed a new place in the old Bellacino's location. This new place, called Porta Via Italian Kitchen, instantly peaked my curiosity. I of course wondered if it had anything to do with the old Pizzeria Porta Via that was on Tennessee Blvd in Murfreesboro while I was in school down there. As soon as I walked through the front door, I could tell that it probably had nothing to do at all with the Murfreesboro Pizzeria.

The interior of this place was really modern, including some swanky chairs that were surprisingly comfortable. They also had a great wine selection with the bottles displayed very neatly on the wall behind the bar. All this seemed appropriate for its location. This end of White Bridge Rd is slowly becoming swallowed by the Belle Meade and West Meade neighborhoods. They've got the brand new Publix in the area and Caesar's has been renamed to a bistro. They've put up walls to hide the trailer park and even cleaned up that dirty little Citgo station on White Bridge. Pretty soon White Bridge won't be our favorite mostly safe but trashy road around town anymore.

Once inside, we were seated almost immediately and our drinks were ordered. While glancing over the menu I quickly noticed that pepperoni was not an option. The closest thing they had was peppered salami. This actually made me a little happy. In Italy and throughout most of Europe pepperoni is not a pizza topping. The only place I found it was during a starved emergency stop at a Pizza Hut somewhere in the Netherlands. I ordered the peppered salami, or Margherita Con Finocchiona pizza and continued to enjoy the most furious Coke I've had all Summer. After a very short wait, and a few pieces of complimentary bread, the pizza was delivered to our table. I was even more excited to find an uncut pizza on my table served with only a knife. This is exactly the way it was first served to me in Old Jersey aka Southern Italy. The 12" uncut pizza with globs of mozzarella was the traditional style of Margherita pizza served over there. I knew I was in for a treat.

The uncut crust was extremely thin and slightly crispy around the edges. They apparently use flour imported directly from Naples in order to achieve the taste of the crust and to conform to strict guidelines as to what makes a Neapolitan pizza. The crust and globs of cheese made for a bit of a messy pizza which called for the use of a knife and fork. After cutting into the pie to serve ourselves a couple of slices, it was time to give it a try. The first flavor that really hit me was the sauce. The sauce on the pizza was sort of sweet, but not like most sweet sauces are in the States. It wasn't sweetened with any sort of seasoning or spice or anything. The small bit of sweetness present was a natural sweetness that comes from the use of grape tomatoes instead of Roma tomatoes like most pizzerias use. The sauce and the spiced salami were the most dominant flavors in the pizza made with all fresh and natural ingredients. You could really taste the difference in their food. You could just tell that nothing was coming out of a can or sitting in a freezer for over a week. This may be the new number one pizza for the Summer. It just reminded me so much of pizza I had in Italy and the ingredients just tasted so fresh and so much like real food as opposed to just another fast food meal.

Not only was the pizza amazing, but the wait staff was super friendly and efficient. It seemed like everyone was just in a constant flow of movement getting so many things done at the same time. It was probably the best team effort I've ever seen. I was getting low on my Coke and my server was busy so another server just walked by and brought out a fresh one without me having to say anything. Then there was a server who dropped and broke a glass by the bar while running food to a table and without hesitation, another server walked over and swept it up. I had never seen anything like this. It usually seems to be an every person for themselves type of situation.

The smallish size of the dining room made for a pretty noisy place, but we were such in our own world with this pizza it didn't really seem to matter. We could also still easily talk to each other across the table without having to raise our voices at all.

Porta Via Italian Kitchen is located at 21 White Bridge Rd #104 and is open Monday through Saturday from 11am to 10pm. Price wise it's right on par with everyone else when it comes to pizza. My pizza was $11 and the total bill was right around $16

The Original Pizza Summer

My original PIZZA SUMMER blog was taken offline a while ago. Now that I'm doing a new PIZZA SUMMER this year, I've decided to repost all my original posts.