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.