Nashville by the Slice

The Results Show

2010-09-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

So, now down to what everybody really cares about.... What's the best pizza in Nashville? I will get to that in a minute, but first I want to thank a few people who helped me accomplish this moronic task. Obviously I must thank my partner in crime and the one who endured all the terrible pizza in town as well as enjoyed all the good pizza, so, thanks. Also thanks to everybody that ever came to one of these little pizza parties. It was always more fun when there was a strong group of us. Thanks to anybody who suggested places I'd never heard of or thought about like City House and Chicago Italian Beef. Thanks to Banana Buttons for sponsoring the event at Caesar's. And of course thanks to anybody and everybody who actually read this blog, officially followed it and/or commented on it.

The results:
Best New York Style Pizza:
Manny's House of Pizza in the Arcade.
Angelo's Picnic Pizza and Caesar's Bistro (during non-buffet hours) round out the top 3.

Best Traditional or Old World Style:
Porta Via Italian Kitchen
City House is not very far behind.

Best Chicago Style:
Chicago Italian Beef
Obie's is an extremely close 2nd.
Chicago Italian Beef has better sauce, while Obie's has a better crust, but CIB's sauce is so untouchable they get top spot.

Best "Roma" Style (as in the pizza chain, not the city):
1. Picasso
2. Venito's
3. Palermo
4. Little Italy

Most Overrated:
1. Pie in the Sky
2. DaVinci's
3. Castrillo's

Best New Find:
1. Porta Via Italian Kitchen
2. Chicago Italian Beef
3. Sal's

Biggest Shocker:
Palermo

Best Suburb For Pizza:
Antioch

Best Pizza Downtown:
1. Manny's
2. Taste of Italy
3. Venito's

Other places in town that were good, but not necessarily the best in any category:
Mafiaoza's (lived up to the hype)
Sicily (Antioch)
Pizza Perfect

Unfortunately, shortly after I posted the Rudino's entry I learned they are in fact a franchised restaurant based in North Carolina. Rudino's, while pretty good, has been disqualified from the Pizza Summer.

So those are the official results of the Pizza Summer. I know there will be people who disagree with what I've said here and what I've said through the course of this mission, but until they eat 34 pizzas at 34 different restaurants and spend over $500 in pizza and Cokes, then I just won't take the criticism too seriously.

Recently, I've been getting asked a lot about my next move. Contrary to popular belief or the ever turning rumor mill, I will not be doing a different blog about hot dogs or chicken tenders or anything else really. I am going to continue to write about pizza. The summer has not been extended, but with all my silly rules now out the window, the world of pizza is wide open. I'm ready to hit up Joey's in Brentwood and Knead Dough in Hendersonville as well as a few other places in the bordering counties. I'm also ready to go back to some of the places I hit during the summer and get some different pizzas. No more strict diet of pepperoni pizza. No more geographic limitations. Should be fun.

Thanks again. Pizza Summer 2010!!!!

The Final Pizza Party

2010-09-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

The Margherita Pizza

The Mushroom Pizza

The Squash Pizza w/ Breading

This is it! The Pizza Summer has come to a close and this is the final pizza of the summer. For the Grand Finale Pizza Summer Pizza Party, I decided to go to the very highly recommended City House with a fairly large group to help celebrate the completion of a very overwhelming project. City House is a self described "casual upscale" dining experience. They have a limited, yet extremely interesting menu that changes slightly on a daily basis. It's in a nondescript small white brick building in the heart of Germantown, which is just north of downtown. I fully expected a bit of snobbery when I walked into that place and had 8 other people following me for a pizza party. I was met with nothing but really helpful friendly people who made the experience quite enjoyable.

Once seated, I knew I had chosen the right place to end the Pizza Summer. The smell of the food and the sight of everything being delivered to the tables around us was just amazing. Our drink orders were taken rather quickly and I was extremely pleased when the server returned with liter bottles of Mexican Coke. Mexicoke, as some people call it is some of the best stuff in the world when it comes to soft drinks. It was delivered to the table at a cool temperature, not really cold, but cool and remained that way through the entire meal. Must be something about those glass bottles and the Mexican formula. A few people ordered appetizers to start out the night which included boiled peanuts, head cheese and a cornbread dish that I never really figured out. Soon after, the pizzas started coming out one by one and they all looked incredible, even the ones I knew I would never eat in a million years. Based on the limited topping choices and their dedication to traditional style pizza, there was no pepperoni to be had so I went with the basic Margherita pizza, which is just a pizza topped with mozzarella and basil. My pizza was one of the first to come out and I dug right in. One thing I did notice right off the bat is that they caved in to the Americans and cut the pizza into slices. This is of course fine and doesn't affect the taste in any way, but I was a little bummed. I've become quite the snob over the past couple of months, I know. Other pizzas delivered to the table were the Kitchen Pie which was a pizza topped lightly with a dark chili sauce and no cheese. There was the squash and gorgonzola pizza, a different squash pizza that had some sort of breading covering it and there was one with mushrooms and some other stuff that's escaping my mind right now. There may have been more varieties at the table but I don't recall.

The pizza was a little too burnt around the edges for my taste, which may have been due to the cooks trying to shove too many pizzas into the oven and getting some of them too close to the fire. The crust was still really flavorful, however, and was extremely thin. The flavor was reminiscent of the crust on the pizza at Porta Via, but was definitely a lot thinner. The slices, though pretty small in size, were pretty difficult to manage with hands alone. A fork was definitely needed for the first few bites until you got far enough in to where the crust could support itself. The sauce on the pizza might have been the best part overall and was almost like eating a ground up tomato on a pizza crust. It was pretty fantastic. The cheese got cold really quickly and would slide off the slice quite frequently. The flavor of the cheese didn't really stand out either. This may have been the weakest part of the pie. Instead of using ground or chopped basil, they put whole leaf basil on the pizza which was a nice touch and aesthetically pleasing, but you only got the flavor of the herb when you bit into a piece of it. The basil was fresh and did taste great when you got a piece of it, I just wish it was more spread out. Overall the pizza I had was top notch. Any bad part I've described in this paragraph is still several tiers above most places I've visited this summer. The only real comparison is Porta Via and the pizza I ate when I first arrived in Italy last year. I personally don't think that the pizza I had at City House stands up to either of them, but apparently the pizza with the breading and the squash was the best at the table and destroyed all other pizza. Now that my restrictions are lifted, I may have to go back and grab one of those. I also want to go back and try some of their desserts which were a definite hit with the other people in the party.

City House was the perfect place to end the Pizza Summer and they were extremely accommodating to an ever changing sized group on a night when they were booked pretty much solid from open to close. They are located at 1222 4th Avenue North in the Germantown/Salemtown area of Nashville. They are open Monday 5-10, Wednesday through Saturday 5-10 and on Sunday 5-9. Reservations are recommended as this is a very popular restaurant and they are busy every evening. The entire staff at City House were very helpful, quick and super friendly. I look forward to a return visit with no limitations.

Sometimes You Get What You Pay For

2010-09-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

The last time I went to get pizza in the ghetto I was presently surprised, so I was hoping for more of the same with Pizzaville on Trinity Lane. Initially I wanted to get a decent sized group together to dine in, but Pizzaville is located inside of a BP gas station and when I went to scope it earlier I noticed that there was only one 2-person table inside the otherwise normal convenience store. So I made this a last minute end of the summer take out spot, which worked perfectly on a Friday night.

I asked the clerk behind the store counter how long a pizza would take and he told me 4 to 5 minutes which seemed wrong, but I headed over to the pizza counter anyway. The woman working the pizza counter also informed us it would only take 5 minutes. This seemed a little scary but the pizza they had out to sell by the slice actually looked pretty good, so I went with it. She threw together our pizza on a premade dough and put it on the conveyor. In precisely 5 minutes, the pizza was coming out of the other side completely done. During this quick wait time I did get the privilege of watching her refill the make counter with all sorts of frozen bagged toppings. Not a total shocker, but still a little disheartening to see. The pizza was cut, boxed up and handed to me and it was time to go.

When I got home it was time to see what 5 minute pizza really tasted like. I knew it would taste cheap and wouldn't be mind blowing or anything, but I was curious none the less. I bit into it and wasn't immediately turned off. The crust was crispy and had some flavor to it. Nothing amazing, but still more flavorful than Pie in the Sky or Dolce Vita. The sauce tasted like it was Ragu pizza sauce or maybe even spaghetti sauce. It was kind of weird and was a little chunky. The cheese was about as fake as you can get and didn't have really any flavor at all. There were some places on the pizza where the cheese didn't even melt all the way, and that was an otherwise crispy pizza. The pepperoni was crisp in that Pizza Hut kind of way, but not as burnt as theirs tends to get. It wasn't really that spicy, more sweet than anything. The pizza as a whole actually reminded me of one of those rare fresh Hot N Ready's from Little Caesar's. It's wasn't necessarily bad, but it wasn't too good either. It was basically about as good as you can expect gas station pizza to be, but better than that Hunt Brothers stuff that shows up at truck stops. In this case I really got what I paid for, the pizza was huge, but also not really that good. I'd still choose it over some of the other places I've been to this summer that claim to be more legitimate pizza places, though.

Pizzaville is located inside of the BP near the corner of Brick Church Pike and Trinity Lane at 234 West Trinity Lane. Not sure of their hours, it may be an all night thing. They didn't have any posted. They deliver with a $10 minimum and I think they only have one size pizza, which is a pretty huge large. The pizza was cheap, my one topping with tax was $7.65 and they have specials for just about any type of pizza you want. I'm not necessarily recommending Pizzaville, but I'm not really discouraging anyone from trying it if they so choose.

One pizza left!!! The Grand Finale End of the Pizza Summer Party is tonight at City House in Germantown!!! Can't believe it's here.

Sugar Never Tasted So Good

2010-09-03T20:19:00.001-07:00

/photo21/8a/2e/81e5b0dedb77.jpeg
Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

It was time to test the Nashville Theorem once again and hit up the 3rd most hyped pizza place in town, Mafiaoza's in the 12 South District. I purposely avoided their 2 for 1 Tuesday night special so I knew I'd be getting the full experience of the food. Sometimes on nights like that, restaurants work so hard to keep up the pace that the quality slides a little bit. I wanted to give Mafiaoza's a fair shot. When we walked in to the swanky 12 South restaurant, we were greeted instantly by a friendly hostess who took us to our seats. The server arrived at our table within moments to take our drink order. He returned quickly and we placed an order for a Capone sized Associate or a 12" pepperoni pizza if you're unfamiliar with the Mafia jargon. From my vantage point I could look right into the kitchen and see the crew hand tossing dough and putting pizzas in the huge woodfired oven. The kitchen actually has a pretty big open view that makes it look more like a bar than a kitchen.

Our pizza arrived at the table in a minimal amount of time and looked amazing. Our server came by to make sure everything was good and then it was time to dig in. This is where the Theorem could have bitten me in the ass. This pizza was actually quite good, borderline amazing. The crust was pretty soft, but a little crispy around the edges, just the way I like it. When I got to the end of the slice and just crust was left, I noticed it had a very unique taste to it. It tasted buttery, but not like garlic butter. It was more of a croissant type of flavor. A very nice and original touch. The sauce was lightly applied and still stood out as a nice, fresh, real tomato sauce. None of that bland tomato paste stuff here. The cheese was a tasty blend that was definitely unique and not really greasy. It wasn't straight mozzarella or provolone, but maybe a mix of both with something else added in. Hard to tell. The pepperoni actually reminded me of the pepperoni on the pizzas I got at Angelo's, Sal's and Manny's and was pretty spicy. The pizza as a whole was really good, maybe even Top Five good.

With great, friendly service and superb pizza, Mafiaoza's is for sure a place I'd recommend to anyone looking for a little something different in their pizza. They even pull off the themed restaurant thing quite well with cleverly named pizzas like the Associate and the Fall Guy and using Capone and Don as their sizes. Amazingly, a super hyped restaurant in Nashville actually lived up to their reputation.

Mafiaoza's is located at 2400 12th Avenue South in the 12 South district. They're open 4PM-3AM Tuesday through Friday and 11AM-3AM on Saturday & Sunday. They sell pizza by the slice at all times and have 2-4-1 slices until 9PM on Tuesdays. They're not a cheap place to get food, but the pizza is good enough to support the prices. A medium pepperoni pizza with 2 beers ended up being just $19 before the tip. Not sure I would just go to Mafiaoza's without reason in the future, but it definitely would go onto a list of places to take out-of-towners.

Two pizzas left! Pizzaville on Trinity Lane and City House for the Finale!

They All Changed Their Names to Chicago

2010-09-01T20:52:00.001-07:00

/photo10/b5/18/46469b70599d.jpeg
Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

Acting on a tip I got from a buddy at work I added Chicago Italian Beef to my list of places to hit this summer. I had never even heard of this place before he told me about it, but as I started asking around, it seemed as though anybody who has ever eaten there loved it so I've been excited about this one for a while. As with DaVinci's and Manny's I was still skeptical of it's Nashville quality to actual quality ratio. Add to the fact it's Chicago style in Nashville in a weird part of town and my skepticism was growing bigger by the day. As soon as I had the chance I had to go and see what's happening down there for myself.

We knew what we were getting into with Chicago Style pizza and how long it takes to cook so we made sure to phone ahead. We placed our order for a large pepperoni deep dish and were told 45 minutes to an hour so we slowly made our way towards that part of town. Chicago is located in the same building as that gigantic pet store on Nolensville Rd called the Aquatic Critter so it was pretty easy to find. We arrived right at 45 minutes and when we got inside the girl behind the counter said it would be right out. Just a couple minutes later our pie landed on our table. Pretty good timing. The pizza looked and smelled amazing. I was still skeptical, however, as I have been fooled in the past.

Just looking at it, I knew the crust wasn't as thick as Obie's and actually reminded a bit of what Pizza Done Right was trying to accomplish out there in Joelton. The cheese was barely visible in the pool of sauce and seasoning. I've never seen a pizza that looked anything like this, but I've also never had real traditional Chicago style pizza. I've only had Obie's and a couple of chain versions. Surprisingly, the pieces separated quite easily when it was time to serve it up. We made sure to wait a minute or before digging in to avoid the same mouth scalding that Obie's gave us. When it was finally time to take a bite I did so with great caution and skepticism. I was very quickly turned around. This was the first really good discovery since Sal's which was 15 pizzas ago. It's been a long time coming.

The crust was thinner than you would expect with a Chicago style. Most of us think of them as being super think throughout, but that's not the case here. The crust was still thicker than a lot of pizza, though. The center crust was somewhat crispy but still flexible while the edges were super crispy and hard. No part of the crust appeared burned in any way, however, and full of flavor. It didn't really taste like any crust I've had in the past either, no garlic butter or anything, just really, really good. The cheese was somewhat scarce and didn't really stand out too much. The pepperoni seemed like it was almost mixed in with the sauce. It was pretty spicy and definitely plentiful and tasty. The whole pizza was also blanketed with Italian seasoning which may have been overpowering the cheese. My favorite part of this pizza was the sauce. The sauce was amazing. Probably the best I've had all summer. It was as if they smashed fresh tomatoes to make the sauce just for my pizza. It was really thick, yet not chunky. I'm not exactly sure what they're doing behind the counter there, but I hope they keep it up. The pizza as whole was definitely one of the best in the city, though it felt more like we were eating a baked dish than a pizza, but that's Chicago style for ya. Chicago is definitely among the Top Ten of the summer so far.

Chicago Italian Beef is located at 5017 Nolensville Pike. They're open daily 10AM-11PM. My large pepperoni deep dish pizza, a Coke and a tip came out to just $20. Make sure to allow 45 minutes or more for a deep dish pizza, it will be well worth it. I actually can't wait for the Pizza Summer to draw to a close so I can get back down there and get another pizza. Speaking of the Pizza Summer's end, there are only 3 entries left and 2 stops. We're currently working on the final pizza party event. Details will be posted by tomorrow evening.

We Don't Need Another Gyro

2010-09-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

On a very hectic Monday evening it was time for another take-out pizza. This time I made the drive out to Hermitage to give Gyros Pizza a try. I noticed Gyros when I was on my way to Picasso Pizza after my day in Lebanon. I went into this with no expectations of greatness. I already had in my mind that this would just be a quick necessary stop that I needed to mark off my list.

I rolled into the tiny little storefront and ordered a medium pizza to go. When I got in there I noticed that they did actually have a dining room, but I had already made up my mind for carry out. Plus, I had a busy night ahead of me so dining in wasn't really an option. I put in my order and began to wait. I was expecting to be there for at least the next 15 minutes, but I was in there for exactly 11 minutes. I ordered at 6:43 and was at the door at 6:54. I only noticed this because I had so much to do and time was essential. Usually my wait times are just total estimates.

On the drive home I ran into some pretty sweet Monday Night Football traffic so I had to rack my brain and find an alternate route that would at least get me home a little bit quicker. I rerouted myself through some industrial areas of town that I frequented during past employment and headed towards home. On the drive I ran into some heavy game traffic anyway as I still had to go by the stadium, so I began to get pretty hungry. I went ahead and started in on the pizza even though I hadn’t had a chance to photograph it yet. By the looks of it, I knew the pizza wasn’t going to be very good, but I had no idea how bad it would really be.

This pizza showed its true colors with the first bite. The crust was really thin and flimsy which made for a pretty messy slice that was extra hard to eat in the car. It was also pretty flavorless. The sauce on the pizza was almost stomach turning. It seemed to be a bit acidic I guess from the tomatoes used. Thankfully it was used pretty conservatively. The cheese on the pizza didn’t even seem to be thoroughly cooked, which wasn’t a total surprise given the super short wait time. That was definitely a stomach turner. I don’t do so well with undercooked food, especially when it comes to pizza. The pepperoni on the pizza was extremely cheap tasting. It was like something from a budget grocery store such as Aldi or Sav-A-Lot. All of this combined was making the drive home especially frustrating and stressful. Too many cars, too few detours, and too terrible of a pizza. Maybe this place is better at the first word in their name, but I think they need to go ahead and give up on that second word.

Also on the negative side of things for this place was the price. My tiny little medium pepperoni pizza ran me $11.35, which is way higher than any other place in town that I’ve noticed. I think that even beats out Sir Pizza, which is notorious for high priced “food.” Gyros Pizza is located at 5751 Old Hickory Boulevard, where it crosses Central Pike in Hermitage. They’re open 11-10 daily. Have fun and good luck!

I Like My Bands In Business Suits

2010-08-29T23:20:00.001-07:00

Rudinos
Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

On a stormy Saturday afternoon I gathered up some friends from the neighborhood and we made the long and windy drive down to Antioch to once again test their superiority in the suburb pizza battle. This time around Rudino's on the corner of Bell Rd and Blue Hole Rd would be the testing site. We had a few friends from the area that were at the kick off party join us as well. It ended up being a pretty sizable group for an afternoon pizza party.

Rudino's works like a lot of pizza places in town where you order at the counter, get your own drinks and napkins and then they bring your food out to your table. So I went to the counter to put in my order for the usual while others in the party ordered a few different styles of pizza and one dude (who amazingly doesn't even like pizza) ordered a grinder. After a standard wait time all the food was delivered to the table. The total being 4 pizzas and one grinder. The first thing I noticed about the pizzas is that they were super thin crust pizzas cut into squares like Sir Pizza and Fletcher's. This of course immediately turned me off as I've never had good luck with pizza that looked like this. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but it had to be done, so I dug right in.

I was actually very pleasantly surprised by the pizza before me. The crust was really thin and crispy which wasn't a surprise, but it was very flavorful which was a bit of a shocker. I rarely enjoy thin pizza crust so this was definitely out of the ordinary for me. It tasted like they brush it with a good amount of garlic butter before baking. The sauce was pretty standard and applied rather heavily. The pepperoni and cheese worked out to be a good combination that worked well together. Neither of them really stood out and I doubt they were super fresh, but tasty none the less. The pizza was pretty greasy as well, but a good kind of greasy. One of the other pizzas at the table had sun dried tomatoes on it that didn't really work out so well. They came out completely burnt and apparently just tasted like ash or something. The other toppings on the pizza were said to be good. They need to figure something out with those tomatoes and then they'd be fine. Overall my pizza was pretty solid. Nothing too special, but I would for sure say they are by far the best at the flat, thin, square-cut pizza. Antioch wins again. Not sure I'd ever make the drive out there just to get Rudino's, but if I was in the area and for some reason couldn't get to Angelo's Picnic Pizza, I'd go back to Rudino's for some pizza. They passed the cold pizza test as well. It wasn't a chore at all to finish to whole pizza.

Rudino's is located at 1307 Bell Rd. in Antioch in a strip mall behind a Walgreen's. They're open 11AM-9PM Sunday through Thursday and 11AM-10PM on Friday and Saturday. They offer free WiFi which is a nice touch. Overall a good experience. The staff was decently friendly and the food was pretty good. The prices were pretty standard, not really cheap but not really that expensive either. A medium one topping pizza and one drink ran me just under $13 dollars.

Keeper of Atlantis

2010-08-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

This past weekend marked my tenth anniversary of moving to Tennessee. In these 10 years the one thing I've really learned about this place is that if all of Nashville (or Murfreesboro for that matter) is hyping something and everybody loves it, it probably sucks. There's a name for this, but I don't wanna pick any fights, so we'll just call it the Nashville Theorem. Sticking with this principle has rarely failed me. I think the only thing I've missed out on while sticking to this so religiously is catching the White Stripes at the End for real cheap. I of course thought they must really suck if everyone I know at MTSU loves them. That one bit me in the ass, so I've lightened up a little bit and will try things every once in a while. I mean, everybody was right about Manny's House of Pizza, so maybe they could be right about the other heavily suggested pizza in town, DaVinci's Gourmet Pizza on Hayes Street. It was time to put the Nashville Theorem to the test once again.

Once inside the converted old house, we were instantly greeted and seated. The atmosphere in the place was pretty cool. I liked the overall feel of the dining room. Our server made it to the table rather quickly to take our drink orders and brought them out immediately. We placed an order for a medium pepperoni pizza upon her return and began the wait. While sitting there watching the pizzas get delivered to the tables around us, we began thinking we should have gone with a large. All the pizzas looked amazing. We were both starved so it seemed like we were waiting for an eternity, but in all actuality it was probably more like 15 minutes. When our pizza hit the table it looked no less amazing than all the pies we'd seen delivered to the other tables. My mouth was watering and ready to give it a try. Serving the slices looked like a Pizza Hut commercial or something. The heavy amount of cheese was gripping for dear life to the pizza while I was pulling the slice away. I actually had to cut it with my knife to fully separate the piece from the rest of the pizza. This only made me all the more excited to get this pizza started.

With only my first bite down, I could already tell that the Nashville Theorem definitely applied here. This pizza is just so hyped, but so not good. The cheese was plentiful and seemed like a nice blend that had a lot of flavor. The pepperoni was definitely of a higher caliber than the stuff I'd bee running into over the past few weeks. I couldn't really pick out the sauce too much, which was probably due to the heavy amount of cheese and all the seasoning they had throughout the pizza. The toppings were definitely top notch, but the crust was astonishingly bad. It was pretty flavorless and was of the same texture and consistency of cornbread. I'm not hating on cornbread or anything, but I wouldn't exactly put sauce, pepperoni and cheese on it either, plus cornbread has way more flavor than this stuff. With every bite, the crust was turning me off more and more. It was crispy and crumbly. It has also become the only crust that I've left on my plate. I always eat the entire slice, crust and all. I just couldn't make that happen this go around. I quickly became glad that I only ordered a medium as the next challenge was to finish this pizza in house so we wouldn't have to take it home and attempt to eat it over the course of the next 24 hours. This turned out to be quite the challenge, but we defeated it and never have to eat that food again. I guess I could understand liking this pizza with tons of extremely flavorful toppings on it, but I think the crust would still ruin it for me.

In the plus column for DaVinci's is quick service, nice atmosphere, friendly staff and great toppings and cheese. In the minus column is the crust for sure, which totally ruins the rest of the pizza in my opinion. The crust is crucial. Also, the price would go in the negative column. They call themselves gourmet, which only means they can jack up the prices on you and totally get away with it. A medium pepperoni pizza and 2 drinks was right around $16.

DaVinici's is located at 1812 Hayes Street. They're open for lunch (11AM-2PM) Monday through Friday and open every evening at 4:30 with seemingly no set closing time. Toppings awesome. Crust terrible. Depending on what's important to you I'd say Nashville's got it wrong once again.

Dolce Vendetta

2010-08-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

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 was definitely some conflicting moments during the meal looking at the remaining pizza while eating a slice. It didn't make much since, 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.

It's A Love That Has No Past

2010-08-24T18:03:00.001-07:00

E. Milanos
Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

Back when I used to live in the wonderful area of Davidson County officially known as Antioch there were a few places I would hit up regularly. Angelo's Picnic Pizza and E. Milano's were both at the top of my list. Picnic Pizza was number one, but if the funds got a little low, then E. Milano's would be my spot. They had a running carryout special that was something like $5 or $6 for a large one-topping pizza and their food was way better than Little Caesar's so they got my business more than a few times that year. When I was living in the area E Milano's was strictly carryout and delivery, with no dining room at all, so I haven't had their food since I moved closer to civilization. That's been a little over 4 years now, but I remembered it being pretty good especially for the price, so I was excited to get back to it this summer.

On our way down to the "Och" we phoned in the order for a large pepperoni and started heading in their direction. About 15 or 20 minutes later we arrive and I walk in to get the pizza. My pizza had just come out of the oven and the guy was cutting it right as I walked in. Perfect timing. While standing there waiting for him to box it up I noticed that they had installed a couple of small tables so you could actually dine in. I had already planned on doing otherwise and had a couple of sodas in the car getting warmer by the minute so I still took mine to go, but it's nice to know that the option is there. So I grabbed my pizza, paid the whopping $7.65 and headed back towards town. Thankfully there wasn't much traffic on the ride home and we actually got here in about 15 minutes, so the pizza was still hot and fresh. I was pretty excited to take a little trip down memory lane and relive some of my not so recent pizza past.

From the looks of the pizza, it didn't seem that anything had really changed. I was fully expecting the awesomeness of 2005 to come right back to me. Upon my first bite I was immediately let down. The pizza wasn't bad, but it just wasn't as good as I remembered it being, which is usually the case with things that hold a nostalgic place in your mind. I had it built up in my head and it just didn't quite measure up. It was right along with all the Roma-esque pizzas I've been encountering lately. Loads better than Sicilian or Dolce Vita, but maybe not as good as Picasso or Venito's. It's probably right on par with Italia when Italia's having a good day. The crust was the standard I've been seeing a lot of lately, pretty "bready" and somewhat crisp around the edges and without a whole lot of flavor. It was a little thicker than places like Palermo or Picasso. The sauce was more plentiful than most places and it was actually good. The sauce had a nice natural tomato flavor to it. I think they may actually make their own sauce or at least spend a few more dollars on a jar than the other guys. The pepperoni was buried under the cheese and sort of blended in flavor wise as well. Nothing was really standing out about the cheese and pepperoni. The pizza wasn't overly greasy either which was nice. Overall still a pretty good pizza at a nice cheap price, but not worth the drive out to Antioch.

E. Milano's is located at 2219 Murfreesboro Pike in a little shopping center behind Jack in the Box. They are primarily a pick-up and delivery type place, but as mentioned earlier they have added a couple of seats. They're open 10-10 daily. While researching the address and hours I just noticed that the 2nd location at Sugar Valley Drive is owned by the guy who started this one and operated it when I lived in the area, but he has since sold the Murfreesboro Rd location. This is probably why it wasn't as good as I remember it, or at least that's what I'm telling myself. The Sugar Valley location may be a future stop on down the road, but not for the summer. It may still taste exactly the same as the original location and therefore would be redundant.

Bits 'n' Bits

2010-08-22T21:34:00.001-07:00

Sicilian Pizza (Donelson)
Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

When I initially put together my list of places to eat pizza there were a few I was going to avoid simply based on my suspicion that they were Roma locations under disguise. I changed my tune when I had Picasso in Hermitage. Since their pizza was significantly superior to that of the Roma chain, I thought maybe places like Sicilian or Dolce Vita would be better as well. I noticed Sicilian on my way back from my stop at Fletcher's in Donelson. It seemed like it would be another Roma clone with nothing special about it, but I had to give it a shot. We walked in without much expectation which has been the going trend lately and ordered the standard large pepperoni and a couple of 20oz Cokes. We took a seat in the tiny dining room and began to wait.

While dining in is certainly an option at Sicilian, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. The noise in there is unbelievable. The whole place is open with just a counter separating you from the kitchen and the table they use to prepare their food is the noisiest table I've ever heard. From working in a kitchen I know that sometimes the table top on those tables bends up a little and will make a noise when you apply pressure, but it sounded like these guys were hammering it down with their rollers and cutters. It was hard to have any sort of conversation while sitting in there. We could barely hear each other over the noise. Thankfully, our pizza came out relatively quickly. The smell and look of the pizza was very familiar and I was already imagining what it would taste like. I figured it was going to be along the same lines as Venito's and Picasso, but knew it wasn't going to be as good as either of those places. I was pretty much expecting it to taste pretty standard and a lot like Roma or Italia.

One bite into it and my companion and fellow taste tester was screaming Kibbles. It apparently tasted like dog food to her. I didn't have the same reaction. My initial few bites weren't that bad. The crust was soft and pretty bland. I doubt there was any seasoning or garlic butter applied here. The sauce was plentiful yet pretty tasteless. The cheese was also plentiful and tasteless. The only thing that seemed to have any flavor at all was the pepperoni which is pretty hard to screw up since places like this are just ordering from a warehouse somewhere that tons of pizza places around the country are ordering from. I didn't think it tasted like dog food at all, actually I didn't think it tasted like anything. It was like chewing on a big ball of soft dough with absolutely no flavor added. It was pretty terrible, but not dog food terrible. Thankfully I spent less than $11 on all this, which is still over-priced considering I've paid less for way better food. Not much else to say about this place. They failed the cold pizza test miserably as well. I had 3 pieces left to take with me to work for lunch the next day and it was a chore to make it through all of it.

Sicilian is located at 2614 Lebanon Pike in Donelson, just before you get to the bowling alley and Fletcher's Pizza. They are open 10AM-1AM Monday through Thursday, 10AM-3AM Friday & Saturday, and 11AM-Midnight on Sundays. If you go to their website you may find some pictures of some fantastic looking pizza along the lines of Porta Via Italian Kitchen, but they are kidding themselves. Their pizzas look nothing like this. We got the "special" which was a large one topping for $8.99 and a couple of drinks. Our total was just under $11. On a positive note, the staff was friendly to us and we got our food pretty quickly, but they also had no problem dropping the "F" bomb a few times quite loudly while we were there. That doesn't really offend me, but how would they know that? Just not good business.

Best of Nashville Voting!

2010-08-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that there is a category for "Best Food Blog" in this year's Best of Nashville Reader's Poll. I would love it if you would think about Nashville by the Slice when filling out your ballots! Here's a direct link to the poll: Best of Nashville 2010

Thanks and happy voting!

Another Hungry Mouth to Feed

2010-08-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

So there's this elusive pizza place in town known as Chanello's. It shows up in any Google search I do for pizza in Nashville. When I look up reviews, all that show up are reviews for Roma. Also when you search the addresses to any of the Chanello's locations you get a mix of results from Roma to Palermo to other random businesses. I decided it was time to check out one of the locations that was not showing up Roma and that was the Haywood Lane location now known as Palermo. Now, I've been a little frightened of Haywood Lane ever since I heard the Kill Devil Hills song "Murder on Haywood Lane." For some reason that always came to mind when I passed the exit on I-24. Maybe because it was the first musical reference to murder in a place I actually knew of and lived somewhat close to in my life. Needless to say my guard was a little up. It didn't help matters much that the parking lot to this place seemed like it hadn't been repaved ever and was filled with people staring at us like we definitely did not belong there. We were on site and there was no turning back so we went in with the worst expectations.

Once inside Palermo, there was a little visible shock on the counter guy's face, but he greeted us with a smile and took our order. It was as if we were the first white people he'd seen in his store in a long time or maybe even ever. We grabbed our Cokes from the cooler and took a seat. There were only 2 or 3 tables in the place and it was clearly more of a take out and delivery place than a dine-in restaurant. All the menus and all the signs in the place were printed in English and Spanish which was nice as given the area, I'm sure a lot of their customers are Spanish-speaking.

Our pizza took a little while to come out, but we had a pretty good view of the oven and their conveyors were full. They seemed quite busy the whole time we were there. They also had one gigantic order. We saw a guy leave with about 7 pizzas in his arms and there were only 3 people in the kitchen to take orders, answer the phones and cook the food. They also had a delivery driver that was in and out a couple of times while we were there. We kept watching the pizzas come out of the oven hoping each pizza would be ours. They all looked amazing from where we were sitting. When ours finally did come out, it looked quite good, though pretty standard in that Roma type of way. I took the picture and dove right in. The pizza ended up being way better than the standard Roma pizza. The crust was really crisp and full of flavor. The sauce was applied extremely lightly yet stood out in the mix. It was a refreshing break from the tomato paste blandness I had been getting lately. The cheese was also applied sparingly which I enjoy on the right type of pizza. Sometimes too much cheese just makes a pizza unnecessarily sloppy and greasy. It's also used to hide lower quality toppings and sauce. The pepperoni on the pizza was just as crisp as the crust without being burnt. The pepperoni was also quite a bit spicy which had been lacking in the last few pies. All in all, I'd say it was a very solid pizza. I'd put it up against Venito's and Picasso and definitely rank it higher than Italia (even discounting the stromboli incedent).

Palermo Pizza is located at 3920 Apache Trail just off Haywood Lane in Antioch. They're open 11AM-1AM Monday through Thursday, 11AM-2AM Friday & Saturday, and 11AM-Midnight on Sundays, though I'd hit it during the early afternoon for safety reasons if I were you. The total for a large one topping pizza and 2 Cokes was $9.15. Great deal for some good food. The staff at Palermo were all super friendly and very hospitable. They even brought a fan out from the kitchen when they saw me wipe sweat from my brow. Awesome people, good pizza, terrible neighborhood.

Are You Gonna Cruise the Miracle Mile?

2010-08-20T21:16:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

After a quick afternoon of sweating it out and boozin' it up at the Tomato Fest it was time to explore the faraway lands of Joelton, Tennessee and the fine food offerings they had for us. For those who don't know, Joelton is a tiny suburb of Nashville located in the northwest corner of Davidson County around the area where I-24 and White's Creek Pike meet. There didn't really seem to be much in the area, but we didn't really explore too far and wide. When we got to our destination, Pizza Done Right, we noticed a hand written sign on the door that said they didn't open until 4PM. It was only about 3:15 at this point. We weren't really sure what to do. We were just too far out to go home and come all the way back out here and we didn't know the area at all. So, we just hopped on White's Creek Pike and headed south towards Nashville hoping there would be something along the way that would help us pass the time. After a few minutes on the road, we came to the intersection of Old Hickory Blvd and White's Creek and noticed a couple of little restaurants and some civilization. One of the places was a New Orleans style restaurant called Ri'chard's. We decided to stop on in and maybe grab a drink and an appetizer. We ended up sharing an appetizer platter that had sausage, fried potatoes and grilled mixed vegetables. The platter was amazing and the service was tremendous. Definitely a place to try out a full meal sometime soon.

So it was finally after four o'clock and it was time to head back up towards Joelton and our original destination. We walked into the tiny pizza shop and ordered up the usual. They didn't have fountain drinks, so it was 20oz Coke time again. I think we may have been the only order at this point because our pizza came out really fast and the staff seemed really relaxed. One dude was even doing some homework while we were there. It was a Saturday and I'm sure it got a lot busier later on since they had quite a few people on the clock. When our food came, the first thing I noticed was the odd crust. It almost looked like a deflated Chicago style crust with the way that the edges went up like that. I wonder if they cook the pizza in a deep pan to get that effect. The crust even kind of tasted like the crust I had at Obie's and have had at other Chicago style places like Uno or BJ's. It was pretty good and crispy, but had a weird extra smooth texture to it. The sauce was a pretty basic tomato paste sort of deal along the lines of Bellshire or Sir Pizza. No texture or realness to it. The cheese and pepperoni were also pretty unexciting. I don't think there was a single fresh ingredient used in our pizza at all. The pizza was also one of the greasiest I've had all summer. The over all flavor was nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was truly expecting something terrible given the name, location and even the looks of the pizza. It actually tasted pretty OK. I wasn't disappointed at all really. It's nothing I'd drive way out to Joelton to get again, but I wouldn't really be opposed to eating it if I just happened to be in the area. I'd rather drive the extra few minutes and hit up Ri'chard's down the road, but Pizza Done Right would do the job for sure.

Pizza Done Right is located at 215 Gifford Place in Joelton. It's on the back side of the first building to your left when you get onto Gifford. They're open daily from 4PM to 10 or 11PM. If you're going to try it, I'd call first to make sure they're open. The food was really cheap which is always a plus. Our food and drinks came out to a total of $14. Friendly staff, quick food and cheap prices are definitely strong positives about this place. If they could get the pizza to come up a few notches, they'd be great.

Beware the Ides

2010-08-19T22:02:00.001-07:00

/photo32/99/e7/c14db1fc46ce.jpeg
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.

Next post is Dolce Vita. Next stop is Davinci's tomorrow around 6:30/7:00.

Lend Me Some Sugar...

2010-08-17T21:23:00.001-07:00

/photo27/46/72/72b33f2dac9c.jpeg
Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

After the success of the last East Nashville Pizza Summer Pizza Party, I decided it was time to do it again. I sent out an open call and got a pretty decent-sized group together to hit up another neighborhood pizza place. This time, it was Italia, which is conveniently located on Woodland Street, about 2 blocks from my house. This was the first stop this summer that I got to on foot. The group of us entered the empty store front, pulled some tables together, and took our seats. The nervous guy came out from behind the counter and took our drink orders. They don't have a fountain soda machine and their only other options are 2-Liters and 12oz. drinks, which can quickly add up. So one side of the table ordered a 2 Liter, while the other half asked if they served beer. Well, they don't but they will let you bring in your own. The guy even directed us where to go! So we sent one person on a beer run and proceeded to order our food.

For economy's sake, we ordered an X-Large pepperoni that fed about four of us and there were 3 other pizzas with various toppings ordered as well. Soon after our Bud Ice arrived, so did our pizza and it looked pretty tasty. Now, I've been to Italia on a few occasions in the past and I have never really formed a solid opinion on the food there. The first time I tried it, they were relatively quick, but the food was only so-so. The next time I went, I had an out of town band staying with me and we needed a quick, easy solution to hunger, so we called in a simple 2 pizza pick up order. Forty minutes later, we had our pizzas and they were better than I remembered. I had warned the dudes that it would be pretty terrible, but I actually was wrong this go round. So for this party I was wondering which situation we were heading into. Were we headed for the one where it's quick but pretty terrible, or the one where our pizza takes forever, but is actually pretty damn good. Luckily, this time around we got a decent mix of the two. Our food didn't really take all that long and it was tasty. Italia had seemed to redeem itself.

The crust on the XL pepperoni was really thin and super crispy, but not burnt. The sauce was light, but flavorful. The tomato flavor really stood out. The pepperoni was a little crisp, yet still tasty and spicy. The cheese seemed like the standard mozzarella blend used widely throughout the city and there was quite a bit of it. This made for a pretty greasy pizza. Looking around at the other pizzas on the table, which were larges, not XL's, they seemed to be a little bit thicker in the crust than ours. I'm pretty sure they use the same amount of dough for the 2 sizes and just stretch the XL out an extra couple of inches, which in turn makes it thinner. All in all, after devouring our pizza and downing a few Bud Ices, every one at the table seemed to be happy with their experience, including me. The pizza was a lot better than I remembered it, even the one time it was good before. It looked as though I may have a solid place to grab slice just around the corner from my house. Needless to say I was pretty pumped up about that.

Fast forward to this past Friday, a mere 6 days later and my opinion was yet again flipped upside down. I had a show to do and a last minute practice to get to, so I figured it would be a good idea to get some food from Italia. We called them as soon as I got off work at 5:30 and ordered two strombolis which were to take all of 20-25 minutes to get ready. This should have been perfect. I usually get back to the neighborhood around 5:50 or so. I was expecting to wait for 5 to 10 minutes once I got there, especially since they seemed super busy. After standing at the counter for a few minutes, that same nervous guy who waited on us a week earlier greeted us and asked if we had a take out order. We said "yes" and he ran to the kitchen and back and informed us that it would be a couple minutes on our order. This was fine, because like I said I was expecting to wait a few minutes. FORTY minutes later, we go back up to the counter and ask where our food is and explained that I had somewhere I had to be, and he asked for the name on the order and ran back to the kitchen. He promptly brought our food to the counter and rang us up and we were out of there. Our 20 minute strombolis ended up being an hour long process. We made the hellish 2 block drive back to our house and opened up the boxes and the food was warm, not hot, warm. How long did these things sit on the oven while we were right there waiting??? We waited an hour to have warm mediocre strombolis which of course made me look like a jackass showing up almost an hour late to practice.

So, if you're into gambling I'd say go for it. Roll the dice and hit up Italia once a week. I guess these guys just can't get themselves together. If Tunica is just too far away for you, then you'll love that Italia is located at 1600 Woodland Street at the corner of Woodland and S 16th in East Nashville. They're open from 3-10pm daily. Our XL pepperoni and a 2-Liter was $18. Remember though, if you don't want a 2-Liter, Italia is totally BYOB!

Next post is the mystery that is Sicily Caesar in MetroCenter.

Battle of the 'Burbs

2010-08-09T19:29:00.001-07:00

Mozzarella.jpeg
Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

With Antioch so far being the best bet in suburban pizza, it was time to give Hermitage another shot. Picasso was good, but nowhere near the stuff I've been getting in Antioch. There's a place out in Hermitage called Mozzarella that actually sparked the idea for the whole Pizza Summer. I was riding by it one day and said that I'd like to try that place out when I quickly realized I had been saying that a lot lately when I was in a different part of town. So then began the quest to eat at all those places I'd been wanting to try. Lucky for me Mozzarella was also recommended to me by some friends, so we all met up there last week to give this place a shot.

Mozzarella, like most things in Hermitage, is tucked away in a random strip mall on Lebanon Pike. You'll be able to spot it by the gigantic painting of a pizza on the window that says "I'm only $9.99." We of course jokingly wondered if you really could get a 30" pizza for $9.99. You can't. We walked into the empty dining room and were immediately greeted with a gigantic salad bar/buffet stand in the middle that was somewhat reminiscent of a pontoon boat. It was painted in the standard lake boat green colors including a darker strip that was sparkly. It was even kind of in the shape of a pontoon. I should have taken a picture, it only makes sense when you're sitting right next to it. So anyways, we took our seats and were very quickly greeted by our server who immediately took our drink orders. She brought our drinks shortly thereafter which had something I'd never experienced in a restaurant before. They use the half-circle shaped ice that comes out of a standard home refrigerator ice maker. It actually made the fountain Coke taste a little different than usual. I guess my brain has that ice associated with 2-liter Cokes so it was a little confused. After my brain calmed down, we placed our orders and discussed the ice situation a little longer.

The food arrived at the table relatively quickly and looked great. One person got a medium calzone which was one of those crescent shaped ones that encircle a 12" pizza pan with the sauce container in the middle. A medium pizza with onions and garlic was also ordered in addition to my standard large pepperoni. The pizza had a familiar look and taste that I still can't place. One person said it looked like Chuck E Cheese pizza, but since I've only had that a handful of times in my life, none of which were recent, I doubt that this is what I was thinking about, though I won't disagree with that statement. The crust was pretty crispy, but not burned and was pretty greasy, which I enjoy most of the time. Now that I think about it, the crust had a somewhat similar taste to Pizza Hut's hand tossed crust. The sauce was pretty standard and didn't really stick out too much. The cheese didn't really have a strong flavor either, but was just the right amount. The pepperoni on the pizza was a little crispy and pretty spicy. I think the pepperoni and crust were the two best parts of the pizza. The sauce and cheese weren't bad by any means, they just didn't stand out. Overall I'd say it was a good experience with good food. I'd definitely rank it higher than Pizzereal and Michaelangelo's. I'd be interested in trying their lunch buffet which reportedly has calzones on it, which would also be a first for me. I think this might be another place where you have to get stronger tasting ingredients to kinda make up for the sauce and cheese. I do know that the mushrooms are fresh and not out of a can, so that may be a way to go if you're into that sort of thing.

Mozzarella is located at 3912 Lebanon Pike in Hermitage. They're open Mon-Thurs 10-11, Fri and Sat 10-Midnight, and Sunday Noon-11pm. They have a daily $6.99 lunch buffet 11am-2pm. My large pizza and 2 drinks totaled out at just under $11 not including tip. I did enjoy that their fountain drinks are only $1.49 instead of $2.50 like a lot of places. If you're in Hermitage and want a pizza to pick up or get delivered, I might go to Picasso instead, but if you want to dine in, Mozzarella is a fine choice. It's worth it for the pontoon buffet alone. Also the staff were all really nice and dealt with our stupid humor for a solid hour.

Next post is Italia. Next stop is this Wednesday. Not sure where yet. Suggestions welcome and fo sho encouraged! Maybe Mafiaoza's????

The World's Full of Crazy People, Jack... Hoodlums!

2010-08-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what that pizza place behind Bolton's Spicy Chicken was all about or if it was even open for business? Well, yes, it is open for business and they've got some pretty decent food goin' on back there. I ordered from Little Italy about a year ago and really liked it, so I was pretty excited to hit it up again for the Pizza Summer. I did remember that they don't have a dining room, so this would be the perfect spot to hit up on a night where I didn't have much time and just wanted to pick up a pizza from somewhere close and convenient. On my way home from work, I called and placed my order. I got there about 10 minutes or so later and there was my food, boxed up and ready to go. I don't think they are a very busy place because the guy behind the counter didn't even ask for a name. I must have been the only carryout order they had at the moment. He was also pretty eager to sell me on the fact that they also deliver. So anyways, I grabbed my pizza and a menu and headed for home.

When I got home, a whole 3 minutes later, I opened the box to find a pretty good looking pizza. It was a little reminiscent of Venito's or Picasso, but the crust was thinner and definitely crispier. It tasted like they may brush it pretty thoroughly with garlic butter which added a nice touch to the whole thing. It seemed as though they took a page out of Papa John's playbook as well adding a pepper and a cup of garlic butter to dip your crust in. The whole pizza was crispy and maybe slightly overcooked, but that's not really a bad thing. I enjoyed the crispiness. The sauce was slightly thicker than Picasso Pizza's and had a pretty similar taste to theirs. The cheese was not as plentiful, but there was still a good amount. I don't think the mozzarella is hand grated or anything, but it's still pretty good and flavorful. The pepperoni was also pretty similar in style to Picasso and Venito's, but maybe a bit spicier. Overall I'd say it was a solid pizza, nothing special, but so far the best in East Nashville. It's right along the lines of Picasso and Venito's staying just a step up from Roma.

Little Italy is located at 624 Main Street #B, just behind Bolton's. They're open 10-11 Monday through Thursday, 10-Midnight Friday and Saturday and 1-10 on Sundays. Like most places around town they had a carryout special and my pizza was just over $8.00. I'd definitely recommend this place for cheap, quick pizza in East Nashville. The one guy I encountered there was really nice as well.

The Mysterious Is All Around Us...

2010-08-08T10:26:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

After spending a weird stormy afternoon in the antique malls of the Lebanon town square learning about the Creature of Sugar Flat Road I decided what I really needed was a good pizza. Acting on a hot tip I got while at work, I headed for Picasso Pizza in Hermitage. Picasso is a small take out place in the Oakwood Commons shopping center in what I think used to be a Domino's. They were running a special on large one topping pizzas for $6.99, so I placed my order and walked around the shopping center while I waited.

There was only one guy working when I placed the order and he seemed pretty busy so I figured it might take a little while. I returned to the shop about 10 minutes later and my pizza was already boxed up and ready to go. I was pretty impressed with the speed. I took my pizza outside where they did actually have one small table with 2 chairs on the sidewalk directly in front of the store. It was pretty hot and muggy outside so I knew I wasn't going to eat my full meal there, but I wanted to at least get one slice down while it was still fresh and hot. When I first looked at the pizza it seemed dangerously close to pizza you would get from Roma. I thought I had been fooled. I took the picture and grabbed my first slice. The crust was really soft with a little bit of crispiness around the edges and not really that thin. It was a pretty standard thickness and pretty flavorful. The sauce was applied pretty lightly yet still had plenty of flavor. It was your standard pizza sauce with a great deal of seasoning to make the it stand out a little bit. The pepperoni was buried under a pretty thick layer of cheese that was almost the exact same thickness as the crust. The amount of cheese on this pizza was pretty astounding and made for a pretty greasy pizza. The slices still came apart with ease, however, and thankfully weren't too difficult to handle while driving back to the city. The buried pepperoni still stood out a little on it's own with a bit of spiciness that cut through the cheese just enough to let you know it's there. The main problem I've had with Roma and places like it is that you can only tell your toppings are there by texture. The flavor doesn't really come through the grease and cheese. I'd put Picasso above Roma and a lot of places I've hit this summer, but still not quite up to par with places like Caesar's and Sal's. I'd say it's right on the same level as Venito's.

Picasso Pizza is located in the Oakwood Commons Shopping Center (with Publix, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc.) at 4606 Lebanon Pike in Hermitage. I'm not sure of their hours, but I'd guess they're open until at least 10pm most nights and probably a little later on the weekends. Overall, the experience with Picasso was great. The pizza was pretty good and was only $7.65 including tax and the dude working inside was super friendly and cool. It is so far the best pizza on Lebanon Pike/Road by a long shot. They definitely get a thumbs up.

Next entry is Little Italy in East Nashville.

Playin' for Keeps

2010-08-05T10:59:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

After several Bud Ices and a few ciders some friends and I decided that we should do a big Pizza Summer outing at the only pizza place in 5 Points, Pizzereal. So we got a group of eleven together (which happens to be the biggest group yet) on a Friday night to give this place a try. The night started with just six of us which quickly became eight, so we put together some tables on the patio and decided we should go ahead and start ordering food. As far as I could tell they only had one size pizza and that's a large 14". So I ordered my pepperoni while the other parties went for more adventurous pizzas like the Tuscan Garden which has kale, mushrooms and labne (an eastern yogurt cheese) on top of mozzarella. I believe there was a pepperoni and feta pizza and a pizza topped with mushrooms, onions and maybe sausage. I can't quite remember, I mean it wasn't my pizza so who cares?

After we got our orders in and our drinks, the remaining three joined the table and proceeded to order yet another pizza (a 2nd Tuscan Garden). We now had 5 pizzas coming our way. Quite the challenge. It seemed like it took forever for the food to arrive, but that could have been because it was approaching 9:30 and I was starving, plus it was pretty muggy outside on the patio which always adds to perceived wait time. In all actuality it probably only took 15 minutes or so to get the pizzas to the table.

The first four pizzas arrived and we all dug in like we haven't eaten in days. I know I ate well over half of the pepperoni pizza in a very short amount of time. The pizza was surprisingly easy to devour in the muggy weather with just a 16.9oz Coke to wash it down. I also quickly discovered the Jozeph Ash ounces to dollars value of the drinks there. All sodas are $1.50, but regular Cokes are 16.9oz and Diet Cokes are 20oz, so keep that in mind if you pinch pennies. But back to the pizza. The crust was thin and flat but not really crispy. It didn't seem to be that greasy either. The sauce was a little sweet and not so much of the tangy tomato flavor that I've come to love over the course of the summer. The mozzarella cheese tasted pretty fresh and the pepperoni was a little sweet and not really spicy. This pizza actually reminded me of Michaelangelo's a bit. It wasn't necessarily bad, but definitely not on par with the pizza I had at Sal's a few days prior. Apparently, the Tuscan pizza was fantastic. That probably had a lot to do with the fresh produce they use for the toppings. Pizzereal seemed to use great produce for their toppings, but taking all those strong flavors like mushrooms and onions away, you're left with a pretty ok middle of the road pizza. The crust, sauce and cheese definitely cannot stand alone. The pizza is not really in the New York style of things. It's a different style altogether. I think they're going for more of a gourmet type of setting. If you go to Pizzereal I would strongly suggest a vegetable pizza, possibly the Tuscan as all who ate those pizzas were very happy with their food. The pepperoni pizza will work and is pretty good if you're in 5 points and you want to get away from the crowd a bit.

Pizzereal is in the 5 Points area of East Nashville at 203 N. 11th Street. Not completely sure of their hours but I believe they're open 7 days a week from lunch time to pretty late. We were there until about 11 and it seemed like they may have been closing up right about then. Our meal with one pizza and 2 drinks was a little over $16. The Tuscan Garden pizza is around $20 I think, but from what I hear, totally worth it.

Next entry is Picasso Pizza in Hermitage. Next stop is possibly Italia this Saturday around 6:30 or 7. Join if you can! Pizza Summer!

The Summer So Far

2010-08-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

After being asked a lot lately about where I've been and haven't been and what places were the best I decided it's time again for a recap. So here's a list of all the places I've been to so far which is 20. They are in the order I visited them.

1. Angelo's Picnic Pizza
2. Venito's
3. Sicily in Antioch
4. Michaelangelo's
5. New York Cafe
6. Obie's
7. Pizza Perfect
8. Taste of Italy
9. Castrillo's
10. Caesar's Bistro
11. Porta Via Italian Kitchen
12. Pie in the Sky
13. Fletcher's
14. Manny's House of Pizza
15. Bellshire
16. Sal's
17. Pizzereal (next entry)
18. Picasso
19. Little Italy
20. Mozzarella's

Places I still need/want to hit are:
Italia
DaVinci's
Mafiaoza's
City House
Gyro's Pizza in Hermitage
Rudino's
And any other place I don't know about yet.

The best New York style pizzas have been Manny's, Caesar's, Sal's and Angelo's Picnic Pizza.

Three Men Enter, One Man Leaves

2010-08-05T08:48:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

On an eastbound journey to find some more delicious pizza in the Antioch area, I took the Stewart's Ferry exit off I-40. As I remembered it, there were 3 pizza places to choose from on this exit: Sal's, Pizza Pelon, and Big Tony's Pizza Pub. I wasn't exactly sure which of the three I wanted to hit up. First, I drove towards Pizza Pelon and it was no longer there. I'm now down to two choices. I drove by Sal's and thought I might skip it this time. I wasn't sure if I was up for a pizza place attached to a Mapco. So I drove towards Big Tony's only to discover that there was now a Mexican restaurant in it's location. Looks like Sal's is the last man standing. So I headed back to the little red, white and green building in the gas station parking lot.

I entered with little to no expectations. It was moderately busy, I couldn't really see what the cooks were up to and I didn't see any pizzas at the surrounding tables. I really had no idea what I was getting into. I took my seat and was immediately greeted by a server who took our drink orders at that moment. Already a plus in my book. Upon her return I put in an order for the large 16" pepperoni and began to notice the pizzas being delivered to the other tables. They all looked extremely tasty and in the style of Angelo's and Manny's. I started to get pretty excited. It was already looking to be yet another amazing Antioch pizza experience.

After a minimal wait time, with our pizza delivered and drinks refilled I was ready to dive right in. I almost forgot the obligatory pre-consumption picture for the blog! The crust was relatively thin and reminded me a lot of the crust at Angelo's Picnic Pizza. It was full of flavor, yet not really greasy. It was also relatively soft and not really crispy except for a little bit around the edges. The sauce was a very natural tasting tomato flavor. Topped with the right amount of fresh mozzarella and plenty of moderately spicy pepperoni. The overall taste actually reminded me a lot of Angelo's but just slightly different somehow. It might be in the sauce, but it's hard to tell. The pizza was also pretty filling. I think I got through 3 slices and was completely full and down for the count. I really could and should have stopped at 2 slices, but it was too good not to get that third piece.

The staff at Sal's were all extremely friendly as well. We had great service throughout the meal and when it was time to pay at the counter, the guy behind the register, who I think was also the chef seemed really enthusiastic about the food and really wanted to know what we thought of it. It was a great experience all around and Sal's definitely put themselves in a top spot for the Pizza Summer.

If you ever find yourself in this part of town craving some good pizza, you should make the stop and hit this place up. Sal's is at 710 Stewart's Ferry Pike, just south of I-40, right next to a Mapco and across the street from a Waffle House. The dining room is open 10am-10pm everyday with a lunch buffet from 11am-2pm. They deliver until midnight 7 days a week. They are also one of the few places around town that serves pizza by the slice. My large pizza with 2 drinks and a decent tip came out to just over $19 and once again I got to take quite a bit of it home where it passed the cold pizza test with ease.

Are You Ready for the Country?

2010-07-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

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.

So You Think You Had a Decent Pizza?

2010-07-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

I finally had a day off work in the middle of the week and there was only one thing I could do. It was time to hit up the most suggested pizza place of the entire summer: Manny's House of Pizza in the Arcade downtown. For this outing I enlisted the company of fellow Danville expatriate, Mr. Hi-Dollar himself, Heath Haynes aka DJ Double H of the Friday Night Shakedown.

I arrived first, put the order in for a large pizza and got a Dr. Pepper as it was one of 4 choices (DP, Diet DP, A&W, and water). After ordering, I waited in the tiny little shopfront dreading taking a hot pizza outside to eat in the midday summer heat. In the back of my mind I was thinking "this pizza better be worth it." When Heath showed up and got his Dr. Pepper, we wandered towards the back of the room where the counter ends to give ourselves a little room. When we got over there, we noticed that we could go back a little further up a couple of stairs. At that point we unearthed a pretty sizable dining room that was a total mystery to the both of us. We grabbed a booth and looked around at the artifacts in the room. It was as though they decorated for the US Bicentennial and just left it as is for the past 34 years adding a few things here and there through time. There were a couple of early 80's arcade games unplugged against a wall that also held a pretty sweet framed Tango & Cash movie poster. On the opposite wall they had the obligatory Godfather framed poster. There were also a few broken old pieces of restaurant equipment in the corners and huge wooden 1976 coin replicas on the wall. It all provided for a great atmosphere in my opinion and fit right in with the weirdness of the Arcade in general.

It took a little while for the pizza to be ready, but it was pretty busy in there and it was downtown at lunch time, so I kind of expected that. The cook, who I assume was Manny, pulled the pizza from the oven, placed it in a box, then sprinkled seasoning on it and cut it. Upon first glance, I knew I was in for a treat. The overall look of the pizza reminded me of Angelo's and pizza from home. The pie was gigantic and loaded with pepperoni. The slices were huge but surprisingly easy to manage. The crust was just about the right amount of thickness and was mostly soft, but crispy around the edge. It was a far cry from the bland crusts I'd been encountering at the last few places. The first bite was all I needed to know that I was in the hands of a real contender for the best pizza in town. The sauce was a simple tomato based sauce that tasted as if they just crushed tomatoes and seasoned them to taste. It was a nice accent to the overall flavor. The cheese was a nice mozzarella blend and the pepperoni topped it off nicely. There was so much of it! I like when a pizza place has enough confidence in the ingredients it uses not to smother it with cheese so you can actually taste the sauce, crust and toppings. Heath and I both agreed that this was exactly what we had in mind when we thought about a good New York style pizza. The pizza was really filling as well. I got through 2 slices and I was done. I think Heath may have gotten through 3 before he threw in the towel. I boxed up the rest and we headed our separate ways with huge smiles on our faces.

I usually wait 'til the next day to do the cold pizza test, but I just couldn't wait that long. I ended up having Manny's for dinner as well. They passed the cold pizza test with flying colors. Manny's is just as good cold as it is hot. You get more of the sauce's flavor in the cold pizza than you do when it's hot. The only bummer part about this was not having any left for lunch the next day.

Manny's is located in the Arcade downtown which runs between 4th and 5th Avenues, just south of Union. It's open from 10 to 6 Monday through Saturday. They're one of the few places around town that sells by the slice and I'm pretty sure they have some sort of lunch special worked out. I've found that you're best parking bet is Deaderick Street which has 2 hour metered parking and seems to always have a few spots open. My pizza plus drink was around $16 or $17 dollars and parking for 2 hours is $2.50. You can get a good 3 or 4 amazing meals out of this for under $20. Not a bad deal.

Next post is Bellshire in Madison. Next stop is as yet unplanned.

For an Extra Grand, I'll Let You Take Me Out to Dinner.

2010-07-26T19:28:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

I was alerted to Fletcher's Pizza during an episode of the Get Dressed, You're Going Out podcast my friends were recording at the Foobar. A guest on the show noted that if he were to get a pizza anywhere in town he'd go to Fletcher's. He was big burly dude, so I took his word. I decided last Tuesday that it was time to see what this guy was talking about.

Pulled into the parking lot and it was just about full which was surprising for a Tuesday night. I figured this must be the spot in Donelson. This guy must have been right. When I walked in I was immediately at the end of a pretty sizable line. I peered at the counter and noticed a buffet at the front of the line. I instantly became a little worried that this was just a mom & pop version of a CiCi's. The pizza I could see at other people's tables looked pretty good, but also a little similar to the buffet giant's. The line moved fairly quickly and when I got to the counter to place my order, I was pleased to find out that I could indeed order a single pizza and that they only had a buffet line during lunch hours and Tuesday evenings. The guy working the register was also nice and not in that fake "Hi, welcome to Cici's!!!" kind of way. I placed my order for a large, oddly sized 15" pizza and took a seat in the back of the dining room.

It took a little while for the pizza to be ready, but given the almost capacity dining room filled with people returning to the buffet every couple of minutes to get their $6.50's worth, I won't fault them for that. I've worked buffet nights at a pizza place and I know how hard it is to get to the single orders quickly enough. They called my number and I raced to the counter through a maze of confused, almost zombied buffet diners to grab my food. Upon receipt I noticed the pizza was really flat and cut into squares like Sir Pizza. I got worried once again. I sat down and took a bite and got a huge glob of burning sauce. With the pizza so thin, the sauce seemed to be way too much. However, as it turns out, it varied throughout the pie. On the opposite side, the sauce was really light and that actually made for better pizza. Their sauce is also very reminiscent to that of Sir Pizza's. It's basically just seasoned tomato paste and water. The pizza was in the same basic style of Sir Pizza except for having a small crust around the edge and having round pepperoni instead of the little cubes like the self-knighted pizza. The over all taste was right on par with them as well and surprisingly better than that of the overpriced food of my last visit. The crust is flat and a little crispy, but not flavorless as these types of crusts tend to be. The pepperoni was actually pretty good as well, and if you can order it with light sauce, the pizza might turn out to be pretty good.

Fletcher's is like a mix between CiCi's and Sir Pizza. The price and set up is like CiCi's, but with slightly better food closer to that of Sir Pizza's, but way cheaper. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this place to anybody looking for a really good pizza, but if they need a place to get a decent pizza for super cheap and they're out in Donelson, then this is the place. A large 15" pepperoni pizza and 2 drinks came out to a whopping $12 even. The prices of this place are definitely a positive. The buffet is only $6.50 which includes your drink and they have pizza, pasta, salad and I think a few other things on there.

Fletcher's is at 2715 Old Lebanon Pike in Donelson. They're open from 11-10 every day and have a lunch buffet during the week and an evening buffet on Tuesdays.

Next post is Manny's House of Pizza in the Arcade. Next stop is tomorrow but I have no idea where. It will be a surprise to all of us.

Midtown Meltdown

2010-07-23T18:08:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

Last Friday I was feeling hungry and lazy. I was ready to devour a hefty amount of good pizza, so with a suggestion from a friend I went to a place with a good reputation, Pie in the Sky in Midtown. When I pulled into the parking lot it was pretty much full so I took this as a good sign. Once inside we were seated pretty immediately at a table where you could see the kitchen through a window. It was purposely set up that way so kids could go up to this little counter and watch the cooks make pizzas and actually get a little ball of dough to play with at the table. I'm sure parents enjoy the mealtime distraction.

After sitting for a few minutes and going over the menu I went to the bathroom to wash my hands and when I got back to the table, the server still had not come to even take our drink orders. Now usually if I've been sitting for a couple of minutes then hit the bathroom, when I get back the drinks are on the table. After a few more minutes, now nearing the 10 minute mark, we finally got a server to take our entire order. And wouldn't you know it, two girls who look more like they "belong" in the neighborhood sit at the table next to us just after we gave our order and were immediately served and got their drinks at the same time we did. Could be just a coincidence, but when you're sitting for 10 minutes hungry and waiting for somebody to talk to you and take your drink order, you get a little cranky and less understanding. The group of girls at the table on the other side of us got pretty amazing service as well. I guess my post-work appearance screams "lousy tipper" or something.

We finally get our drinks and not so shortly thereafter we get our appetizer. Since by the time our order was taken, both of us were starving and their "world famous" spiral breadstick which is described on the menu as "outstanding" seemed like a good choice. Yet another let down. This bread spiral was supposed to be topped with garlic butter and Romano cheese and filled with mozzarella which you would think would add some flavor. Even with dipping it into the provided pizza sauce, the breadstick was super bland. It was just like eating an unseasoned ball of mostly cooked dough. We ate the whole thing anyway, mostly cause it cost $6 and we had waited quite a while just to get this far. When our server returned to take our plate he asked if we wanted to keep the remainder of the sauce to dip our pizza crust in. We should have taken that as a sign. We told him no and anxiously awaited the rest of our food as the pizza delivered to the girls next to us looked pretty tasty.

After another little while our pizza finally arrived. It looked amazing and I quickly noticed the cornmeal crust which usually leads to a pretty tasty pizza. Upon first bite, everything seemed fine. The cheese was pretty good and the sauce seemed OK. As I kept eating, however, I really started to notice all the faults of this pizza. The crust turned out to be a little too thick, doughy and really bland. It seemed as though they didn't season or butter it at all. I guess they expected the cornmeal to take care of all that. The sauce was more like spaghetti sauce than pizza sauce. It was a little bit chunky but just not the right consistency or flavor for pizza. I couldn't even taste the pepperoni. The cheese was still OK, but that's pretty hard to screw up unless you're using some really bad stuff. I think I got through about 2 slices before it was time to call it quits. After getting the rest of this huge disappointment boxed up and being handed a $30 bill it was time to get out of there and mark this off the list forever. It took me 3 days to finish off that pizza.

Pie in the Sky was a failed visit for sure. It's pizza made for yuppy white people with no taste buds. I'm sure it's a nice place to go if you want to spend a lot of money to impress a date or to take the kids to some place where they can play with their own piece of pizza dough, but it's not a place to go for solid pizza. Bad food, high prices and terrible service definitely put this place at the bottom of the list.

If you dare, Pie in the Sky has a couple of locations. They are in Cool Springs at 1770 Galleria Blvd. Ste A; Lenox Village at 6917 Lenox Village Drive; and in the Midtown/Vandy area at 110 Lyle Ave. All locations are open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner. The Midtown location is open "LATE" Tuesday through Saturday.

Next entry will be Fletcher's in Donelson and then Manny's in the Arcade!

State of the Pizza Summer

2010-07-20T21:22:00.001-07:00

We have now reached the midway point in the Pizza Summer of 2010. I figure it's time for a ranking of all the pizzas so far and a general update on the plans for the remainder of the Summer. First is the ranking of the pizza.

1. Porta Via Italian Kitchen (also most furious Coke so far)
2. Angelo's Picnic Pizza (still #1 in American style thin)
3. Taste of Italy
4. Caesar's Bistro
5. Sicily (Antioch)
6. Obie's (#1 Chicago style so far)
7. Pizza Perfect
8. Venito's
9. Castrillo's
10. Michaelangelo's
11. New York Cafe
Honorable mentions to Frank's and Ciro's in Danville who would both be ranked really high if they qualified.

The next couple of postings will be Pie in the Sky on West End, Fletcher's in Donelson, and Manny's House of Pizza downtown in the Arcade. I've already visited Pie in the Sky and Fletcher's. The posts are in progress. I will be hitting up Manny's this afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing what all the hype is about. Other places I'm hitting soon are Davinci's, Mafiaoza's, Pizzereal, E. Milano's and Mama Mia's. Places I'm ruling out so far due to my suspicion that they are just Roma Pizzas with different names are Dolce Vita on 8th Ave/Franklin Rd and Sicilian in Donelson. Still on the hunt for new places so I'm always open to suggestions.

Also, to those who have been worried about my health during this journey, I've lost 4 pounds so far. Go figure.

Manny's today! Pizza Summer!!!!

A Taste of Old Jersey

2010-07-20T21:01:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

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.

Next entry is Pie in the Sky. Next stop is Manny's House of Pizza in the Arcade downtown this Thursday. It's time to see what the hype is all about.

Great Caesar's Ghost!

2010-07-17T00:13:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

So for this trip I invited along some old roommates and band mates. Unfortunately, due to typical circumstances only a few of the invited were actually in attendance. In tow were Commander and K.I.L.R.O.Y. of the Protomen, Armando Apache Putay of Makeup & Vanity Set fame and the ladies who love them. It was time to hit up an old favorite enjoyed by many on several occasions. Upon our arrival we all became a bit hesitant as we realized that none of us had actually been there for dinner before and the name had changed from Caesar's Ristorante to Caesar's Bistro. I think the whole dinner thing was freaking us out more though. We had been there for the lunch buffet countless times throughout our stint at the mighty Thundercon. Nevertheless, we walked on in and took our seat in the "plaza" area of the dining room. The dining room of Caesar's is designed to look like a tiny Italian village complete with a pathway marked in the floor tile and house numbers for the different sections of the room. Once settled, we ordered our drinks and food and they promptly brought out a plate stacked high with their bread sticks. Now, during the buffet hours, this bread is just pretty much ok, but during dinner, this bread is awesome. We were all pretty stunned with the difference in quality when they're not sitting out for 3 hours under a heat lamp. The bread was a lot softer and just basically better tasting. Commander ingested about 6 of these things before the pizza came out.

When the pizza came we were all pretty excited to try it out. I know I was curious if the quality difference between buffet and fresh order also applied to the pizza. Thankfully, it did. I've always loved Caesar's pizza, but getting a super fresh pie as opposed to one that may have been cooked 15 to 20 minutes ago, was a huge step up. The buffet food is good, but this really upped the ante. Caesar's pizza is known for being super heavy and both Commander and KILROY were out after one slice (though they did tear up those bread sticks beforehand). I somehow managed to eat 3 slices which is so far the most I've eaten in one sitting at Caesar's. When I hit up the buffet I'd get at most 2 slices. It's by far the heaviest pizza around town.

The pizza was a traditional American thin crust, which was soft, but not so thin and soft that it reqiured utensils. The sauce was very flavorful and full of tomato flavor. I don't really recall the pepperoni standing out too much, but that is probably due to the super spicy pepperoni I've had elsewhere in the past couple of stops. The pizza wasn't overly greasy either and it was ready to eat as it hit the table. No burned mouth roofs this time around. The food was also very cheap. Our bill which included the large pizza and 3 soft drinks came out to around $15 or $16, not like it really mattered... this stop was fully sponsored by Banana Buttons. And yes, there are now official Pizza Summer buttons! I've got a pretty much endless supply of these things, so if you want one, just ask me and I'll give you one.

As it stands now Caesar's is in the top 3 or 4 pizza joints in town. A full mid-summer update is coming in the next couple of days with my results so far.

Caesar's Bistro is located at 72 White Bridge Rd. They're open from 11am to 10pm Monday through Thursday and from 11am to 11pm on Friday & Saturday. They are closed on Sunday. They have their lunch buffet 11am to 2pm for $5.99 all six days they are open.

Next entry is Porta Via which is located just across the street from Caesar's.

Quiet on the Eastern Front

2010-07-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

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.

Freedom of Choice

2010-07-07T00:07:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

It's the Friday before USA's birthday, so naturally the best place to go is downtown Nashville. That won't be painful at all, right?

Luckily there is some super solid pizza down there off Broadway. I still haven't made it to Manny's House of Pizza in the Arcade which has so far been the most suggested spot in town, but I did hit up Taste of Italy just down the street on 4th Ave North between Church and Union. The first time I saw this place was while we were walking towards the Christmas parade last year and it was freezing balls and I was starving. It was the first place we came across that looked decent and was actually open. We hopped in and I got an amazing calzone. I have always wanted to go back and try their pizza, but like most Nashvillians, downtown is not the first place I think to go when it comes to getting dinner or anything else. So we chose 4th of July weekend. Go figure.

We walked in, seated ourselves in a booth towards the back and were quickly greeted by our server whom I noticed while placing our order was actually Italian! Imagine that. This place might live up to it's name.

When the pizza came to the table I noticed that the pepperonis were buried but not completely invisible like they were at Sicily in Antioch. There was a little less cheese on this one which came in handy when serving the slices. They actually separated fairly easily which isn't very common around here I've noticed. The sauce was thinly spread as well which prevents the scalding of the mouth like I suffered at Obie's. The sauce had a nice actual tomato taste to it. It wasn't sweet. The pepperoni complemented it well. A Taste of Italy had the spiciest pepperoni I think I've had all summer (yup, beat out Pizza Perfect). That's the flavor really stood out the most. Pizzas weren't meant to be sweet, so the spicier you can get your pepperoni, the better for me. The crust was thick around the edges, but was actually rather thin throughout the pizza. It wasn't super floppy/messy thin, but more standard thin like Picnic Pizza. The crust was also really soft with a few crunchy spots which I love because I like to take the crust and use it to soak up grease left on my plate and eat it. While eating it cold the next day, the crust seemed to have more of a normal bread like texture, like an Italian loaf or something. It made for some good cold pizza.

Over all I'd say it was a great experience. The service was fast and friendly (and Italian!). The food was excellent, and it's not all the way out in Antioch. I'm glad I've discovered good pizza relatively close to home. The pizza's still not quite Picnic Pizza, but it's close. I'd put it above Sicily for the moment. It is so far the best thin pizza in Nashville proper.

Taste of Italy is located in the heart of downtown, just a few blocks north of Broadway on 4th Avenue. They're open til 10 most days and I think 11 or midnight on the weekends. They also have a lunch buffet during the week.

Next up our pals at Banana Buttons are sponsoring an event at Caesar's on White Bridge Road this Thursday. This will be a Thundercon/Protomen family reunion. Caesar's was a staple during my stint at the legendary Thundercon. This will be good.

Pizza Perfect?

2010-06-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

With my tongue still a little burned and a cold coming on I wasn't really in the shape to try out a new place, so I decided to hit up a place I've been to a hundred times, Pizza Perfect on 21st Ave S. I ordered an extra large (16") this time around with a couple of drinks and settled in to watch the Argentina v. Mexico game. The pizza came out fast and was handed over with a smile, something that was a little lacking during my little stint on Elliston.

With my taste buds in the terrible shape they were in on Sunday, some flavor didn't really come through, but a lot of it did. The pizza was the classic New York style thin crust which was slightly hardened and crunchy. The sauce didn't really stand out to me this time around, but I have no complaints from past experience. The cheese seemed like it was just the right amount and didn't make the pizza too greasy. The pepperoni really stood out to me this time as it was the one thing I could taste the most. The pepperoni was the spiciest I've had so far this summer. The pizza at Pizza Perfect isn't necessarily perfect, but so far it is the best New York style in Nashville proper. It also passed the cold pizza test with flying colors. Overall the experience was a nice turnaround from last week and the pizza was good and familiar. Good times.

Pizza Perfect is open til midnight M-F and from noon to 11pm on Sundays. Our meal plus a small tip came out to an even $20, a small price to pay for a smile, soccer and good pizza in Nashville.

Next stop is Taste of Italy downtown on 4th Ave North.

Elliston Week: Obie's, Our 3rd and Final Stop

2010-06-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how good that weird little pizza place next to the End with the tomato helicopter painted on the side was? Well, the answer is: pretty damn good. I hadn't been to Obie's in at least 5 or 6 years and as we got to talking about it, I'm pretty sure the last time was with Chris Eggroll, so it was only fitting that he was along for the ride this time as well. While they do offer an "American Thin" style pizza, their specialty is the Chicago-style deep dish pizza so that's what we went with. On their menu they warn you that it takes a long time to cook the thick crust pizza so you should be prepared to wait at least 20 minutes or so. I ordered a medium pepperoni and Chris ordered a small veggie pizza. We then proceeded to hang out and watch a kid play the controversial airport level on Call of Duty on the only TV in the place. It was a Friday night so we knew the wait would be a little more than normal as they are quite busy on weekends like most pizza places are. They also only had 2 or 3 guys in the kitchen to field all the orders. What we didn't expect, though, was that it would take almost an hour for us to get our food. Time went by pretty quickly for the first half hour or so, but then as our stomachs began to complain and grumble time slowed down and it became a terrible waiting game staring at the conveyor oven convinced our pizza was the next in line as they boxed up delivery orders.

When our pizza finally did come, they were very apologetic about the wait, but by this time I didn't really care I just wanted to eat. Our pepperoni came out first and it was piping hot when delivered to the table. I'm still recovering from burns I got that night from the sauce and cheese. At the moment I didn't really care though. My food was finally there and it was delicious. The crust was super thick and tasty and possibly the best part. The sauce had a more basic tomato flavor and wasn't really sweet at all which worked really well with the crust which seemed to have a little bit of a sweet taste. The cheese and pepperoni also worked really well together and were both very plentiful. This turned out to be quite a messy pizza which is a good sign in most cases and certainly in this one. After we were about halfway through our pie, a pizza was finally given to Mr. Eggroll, who, sadly enough through his own personal life choices could not indulge in our pizza and was forced to wait at least an hour before getting food. Unfortunately, the pizza he got was not at all what he ordered. Instead of his deep dish veggie pizza, he got a thin cheese pizza. I felt pretty bad for him since we had been talking about getting some deep dish together for the whole week and then he had to sit there and wait while we were eating ours. After he went to the counter to explain the mistake, they immediately offered to give him his pizza and drink for free and apologized profusely. They even knocked off a couple of bucks from my order, which I thought was nice. Although we waited a super long time for our food and Chris' order was wrong, I'd still rank them pretty high. They immediately tried to fix Chris' problem and apologized to us both for the long wait. Obie's definitely nabbed a top spot on my list of pizza places to keep in rotation, just maybe not on a Friday night. So if you're thinking about trying this place while you're stuck at the End or Exit/In for sound check or something, I would suggest placing your order then soundchecking and coming back when you're done. The food was great, but the wait can be brutal.

Obie's is open till 2am and delivers until 1:00 or 1:30am. The Chicago style crust pizzas are $2.00 more than the thin crusts, but our food and drinks still came out to around $15 which is seemingly the Nashville standard.

Nashville by the Slice on Nashville's Dead!

2010-06-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

Well it's official, the Pizza Summer is hip. Our boyz over at Nashville's Dead caught on and wrote a little piece about my mission. You can check it out here: NASHVILLE'S DEAD.
See you at Obie's!

New York Cafe, Elliston Week Continues

2010-06-23T19:59:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

Stop number 2 for Elliston Week on Nashville by the Slice was the New York Cafe. This tiny little 4 table pizza shop is a few doors down from everyone's favorite pre-rock show bar, the Gold Rush, and right next to Obie's, which will be our 3rd and final stop this week. Of course it's an order at the counter type place, there's no room to do it otherwise. They don't even come out from behind the counter to give you your food. They just call your name and you get up to get it, which isn't that big of a deal since it takes about 10 steps to get from the front door to the back tables.

We ordered a large (14") pizza with two 20oz. drinks as part of a speciall they were running which got you a large 1-topping and 2 drinks for $11.99, not bad. Our food came out fairly quickly and all boxed up. I assume most of their customers take their food to go given the lack of dining space available. The pizza looked tasty and was slightly burned around the edges which provided some pretty choice bits of cheese to be picked and eaten. The pepperoni was also a little burned and crisp which can be a plus in a lot of situations, though somewhat reminiscent of a Totino's Classic Pepperoni when you cook it that extra minute or two directly on the rack. The crust was uniformly thin all around and crispy towards the unraised edges. The pizza was very flat. The sauce was really scarce and I could hardly taste it to be honest. There was plenty of cheese all over the pizza; so much that it actually went a little past the edges. This also made the pizza a bit greasier than the others I've eaten this summer. The cheese had a bit of a strong flavor and was pretty good on it's own when picked off the crispy edges of the pizza, but the rest of the pizza was pretty lacking. As I said the sauce was barely there and pretty tasteless, the pepperoni was slightly burned which can kill a lot of the flavor and the crust was thin and didn't taste like it had been seasoned or brushed with anything to add flavor. Overall I'd say this pizza was mediocre at best. They did attempt to spice up the whole thing with a bit of Italian seasoning across the top of the pizza, but to no avail. It's still a step up from Domino's or Little Caesar's, but I might hit up the Pizza Hut on West End before I rocked into New York Cafe. I even gave it a second chance at lunch today where sometimes a cold pizza test can reverse a previous opinion on a pie. No dice.

Plus: The pizza was relatively cheap and came out quickly. The location is great for people in Midtown or the West Side. They also deliver to 5AM, which is nice after you've had a few beers at a Jeff The Brotherhood show at the End and the late night munchies attack.

Minus: It's just not that good.

Next up for Elliston Week on Nashville by the Slice is Stop #3, Obie's Pizza. We will be hitting this up with my favorite party dude and former roommate/bandmate/40oz drinkng buddy, Chris Eggroll. We will be there Friday evening probably somewhere around 7:30 or so. Join us if you can and remember I love suggestions and pizza dates, d00dz.

Spice Up Your Pizza Summer

2010-06-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's right, Mr. Spiced Justin was there to "Spice Up" the Pizza Summer. He even had his own testing method, which included mushrooms instead of pepperoni. Gotta respect a man and his methods. He summed his pizza up as "damn solid." My pizza was pretty damn solid as well.

Michaelangelo's is in the heart of "Pizza Alley" or as the other 619,768 Davidson County residents know it, Elliston Place. Their immediate competitors are New York Cafe and Obie's which will be visited as part of "Elliston Week" in the coming days. Jet's and Roma are also along the strip but of course will be avoided until after Labor Day. Michaelangelo's is a tiny little place located on 22nd Ave N directly behind the Corner Bar. It's an order at the counter and get your own fountain drink type place which I actually enjoy. Most of the staff there could seem to care less whether or not you're there. They were all very quiet and not really friendly, but who I'm assuming was the owner was really nice when he waited on a table behind us. On the Titans memorabilia wall, he was the one pictured w/ Steve McNair and he seemed to be the oldest dude in the place and also the nicest one, so that would leave me to believe he's the head dude. But anyways, the pizza! The "service" is at least quick. Our medium 12" pizza was silently delivered to our table in a very timely manner. Over all I do think the pizza was pretty "solid" as Mr. Spiced would put it. The crust was flavorful, soft, somewhat thick and not dry at all. The sauce, cheese and pepperoni all tasted a bit sweet. There wasn't a particular flavor that really stood out that I could describe. The pizza wasn't overly greasy either. The slices were average size, bigger than Venito's but smaller than the other places visited so far. I wouldn't really say this pizza stood out as amazing, but I did really like it and it's definitely on par with what I've visited so far. It may be tied with Venito's at the moment, though one person at the table ranked it lower. This was the first pizza of the summer to be completely finished before leaving the restaurant, though so keep that in mind. The total for a 12" pepperoni and 2 fountain drinks was just over $14.

Michaelangelo's is located at 205 22nd Avenue North, just behind the Corner Bar on Elliston. They're open 'til 3:00AM Monday through Saturday and 'til Midnight on Sundays. They had a buffet stand in the middle of the dining room so I guess they have a lunch buffet during the week but I didn't see any info on that while I was there.

This week is ELLISTON WEEK on Nashville by the Slice. We kicked it off last night at Michaelangelo's and will be hitting up Obie's and New York Cafe this week. Exact dates and times will be posted shortly.

(Spiced Up) Pizza Summer!

Way Out. (That's Where the Fun Is)

2010-06-16T23:01:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by thejukeboxlean

Ahhh the first unplanned stop of the summer. After spending the afternoon taking advantage of a friend's apartment pool, I decided a good pizza would hit the spot and since I was way out in the Anti-Och it was time to make it an adventure into the unknown. With the help of satellites we stumbled upon a hidden gem known as Sicily Pizza near the intersection of Anderson and Smith Springs. Sicily is tucked away in a little strip of shops connected to a Mapco out in what seems to be the middle of nowhere. It's a really small place with about 7 or 8 tables and 2 employees (one cook, one cashier/server). Every pizza on the tables around us looked amazing so I knew we'd be in for a treat. While waiting for our food I noticed their posted lunch specials which were about 10 different combos of things like pizza, pasta, salads and subs each priced at $5. For example, they had 2 slices with a drink for $5 and they had manicotti with a drink for $5. We were there well after lunch so we ordered a medium which was 14", the same as a lot of places' large pizzas. When the pizza arrived at the table I was a little worried because as you can tell from the picture, there's no pepperoni to be seen. The server announced it was a pepperoni when she dropped it off so I didn't question her and dug right in. There was actually plenty of pepperoni, it was just completely buried under the cheese. The crust was super thin and soft, so I resorted to the knife and fork method for the first few bites of each slice which was like a little taste of home. The sauce was also thinly applied, but sweet and tasteful, not as much tomato flavor as Venito's. The cheese, as you can probably guess was pretty thick and plentiful. For the first slice I noticed a different taste in the cheese than I'm used to and I couldn't quite pinpoint it. By the end of the second slice, however, I figured it out (or so I think). I'm pretty sure that they spread garlic butter across the top of the pizza after it comes out of the oven. Whatever it is they do, they do it well. Sicily edged out Venito's for the #2 spot in Nashville so far. The only real problem is that now my #1 and #2 spots are both quite a drive from my house, but if you're out by the water in Anti-Och, you should hit them up. Sicily is located at 3610 Anderson Ln. I'm not sure about their hours, but I assume they're open till 10 through the week and probably 11 on the weekends.

The next stop might be tomorrow at the pizza place in the Arcade I've been hearing so much about, but that's not a guarantee. Either way, this Saturday the Nashville by the Slice crew will be hitting up Michaelangelo's Pizza on 22nd Ave N, just off Elliston Place. We'll be there around 7:30 or so.

Back to the Music City

2010-06-15T22:22:00.001-07:00

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.

Danville by the Slice: A Field Trip

2010-06-10T16:28:00.001-07:00

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 (lookin' at you, white people). 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.

Pizza at Frank's. The brown stuff is sausage, not rotten pepperoni.

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.

Next stop for the Pizza Summer is back in Nashville at Venito's Pizza on Church St downtown Friday June 11th 7pm. Join me.

The Kick Off Party

2010-06-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

The Kick Off Party was a success! Picnic Pizza was just as great as I remembered it. I'm glad some friends could make it out and experience the joy that is pizza in the summertime. I of course ordered the pepperoni for consistency's sake while one couple ordered the "New York" pizza and another couple ordered a half eggplant/mushroom/green olive, half cheese which was described by our waitress (pictured above) as "half awesome and half stu-- uhh, cheese." I guess halfway through it she felt bad about calling it stupid. The New York pizza had pesto instead of regular pizza sauce and looked pretty amazing. My pepperoni pizza was of course fantastic. Classic NY style with all good components. The crust was flavorful and not burned, good kinda sweet sauce, the right amount of cheese and quality pepperoni. No Parmesan or peppers needed.

The large pizza plus 2 drinks only came out to about $15. Pretty good deal. They also had an XLG 3 topping for $13.99 tonight and every Tuesday and XLG 1 topping for $9.99 on Mondays. They're open till 9:30 during the week, 10:30 on Friday & Saturday, and are open 4:30-8:30 on Sunday. All the other places I visit this summer have their work cut out for them. I'm glad I chose this as my starting point to compare the rest of my journey to.

I probably won't hit up any more Nashville places this week since I'm headed out of town again, but I will be back with a vengeance next week. I might even do an "Honorary Pizza Summer Stop" while out of town if I get to hit up Frank's in Danville, VA.

Kick Off Event

2010-05-31T18:59:00.000-07:00

It's time to begin the glorious Pizza Summer. The first pizza of the summer will be eaten tomorrow evening at Angelo's Picnic Pizza in Antioch. The party starts around 7pm. Join me. Picnic Pizza is at 2713 Murfreesboro Pike in Antioch, just south of Bell Road. I know it's out of the way for most folks, but it's totally worth it.

Do It.
Pizza Summer.

The Mission: Pizza Summer 2010!

2010-05-24T11:05:00.001-07:00

There is a vicious rumor around town that I only eat pizza and chicken tenders. While some past roommates may attempt to vouch for this, it's simply untrue. However, when you live in a house with 7.5 other dudes, kitchens get nasty and there is rarely a pot to cook with or a clean plate to eat on. Frozed pizzas and chicken tenders can be cooked in nasty kitchens by simply applying a layer of tin foil on a baking sheet. You can also use the pizza box for your plate if needed, especially when your kitchen sink decides it doesn't want to work anymore and you couldn't really do dishes if you wanted to. So through my own laziness and unwillingness to perform a cleaning that will last at maximum 4 hours, I resorted to the frozed pizza/chicken tender diet while at home.

So now to get to the point of all this. I figured that while I will most likely never convince most people that I eat a variety of foods, maybe they would take my advice when it comes to one of my favorites. I'm on a mission to try out every local pizza place in Nashville/Davidson County. For the first time in the last 4 years, I will be in Nashville for the entire summer. No tours planned, no big vacations, just tons of time. So for the entire American Summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day) I'm gonna try to get to at least one or 2 pizza joints a week and blog about it here. I'm going to use the Brendan Sweeney method of testing which means I can only eat pepperoni pizzas wherever I go (sorry, veggies). His theory is that if they mess up one of the most basic of pizzas, then they must not know what they're doing.

I already have some places picked out to hit up when I return from New York next week, but I am definitely open to suggestions and/or pizza dates (especially with hott d00dz).
Pizza Summer.