Uncategorized | Pittsburgh Pizza Madness

UPSET ALERT!!!!

Posted on March 25, 2017 by jakeabee11

We’re back in action with more results and reviews, albeit, at a slower pace than anticipated. The road to pizza heaven is not devoid of obstacles. First, we have to replace a competitor in the tourney. Despite all of the great things I’ve read about Pasquarelli’s on ye olde internet, it appears that they may no longer be in operation. I don’t really know for sure, but they won’t answer the phone, so they done got bounced. This leaves an open spot that needs to be filled. I’m going to replace ol’ Pasqi’s with Driftwood Oven. This is a mobile pizza oven and it’s pretty darn good. They’ll be in my neighborhood on Sunday at Roundabout Brewery, so that’s when they’ll have their game.

Not all of the impediments can be blamed on external influences. Did you know that you should check to see if the restaurant that you are visiting is going to be open at the time you intend to visit? I found this out the hard way when I went to Ambridge too early in the afternoon for the Frank’s/Police Station battle. I couldn’t bear hanging out in Ambridge for hours without pizza, so I just took off. Don’t worry I’ll go back. Also, did you know some places are closed on Sunday and Monday? How dare they want to spend time with their families and friends?! Don’t they know I have a pointless endeavor to complete? Sarcasm notwithstanding, let’s get the results and the first upset of the tourney.

2 Colangelo’s vs 7 Enrico Biscotti

On the first day of the round of 64 in the NCAA tourney, I hit the strip district for this matchup with a pair of brothers (Jeff and Beau Bridges) and my neighbor friend (Wilson…wait, that would make me Tim Taylor…nevermind, let’s go with Kramer). The first stop was Colangelo’s which I had never visited, despite the fact that I’ve walked past it hundreds of times being that it is next to Pittsburgh Popcorn Company. We all grabbed a slice of pepperoni and ate outside. This pizza is the freakin’ shit. It’s square and slightly thick, but not quite like a Sicilian slice. It has a crispy outside while simultaneously having a pillowy inside.

Enrico Biscotti (top left), Colangelo’s (bottom right). Fake Fact: Leslie Neilsen ate pizza everyday on the set of The Naked Gun, but only under duress from OJ Simpson’s threats.

We then walked the 210 feet to Enrico Biscotti and grabbed a table in the café. The café at Enrico Biscotti is pretty cool, although, there were some over zealous St. Patrick’s Day people wooing more than a douchebag at a Pirate game. We split a pepperoni pie and all parties came to an overwhelming agreement.

Appearance goes to Enrico Biscotti. It’s a pretty pizza. I wouldn’t kick it out of bed, but Components and Overall Flavor went to Colangelo’s. The crust on the Colangelo’s slice was fantastic. I liken it to a stereotypical dream guy. You know, crispy on the exterior (rugged), but still soft on the inside (sensitive). I feel like I’m gilding the lily, here, but I honestly can’t wait to eat this pizza again. That being said, Enrico knows his way around a pizza. For sure, give it a try.

Winner: Colangelo’s

4 Piccolo Forno vs 5 The Pizza Company

After my pointless trip to Ambridge for the aforementioned Frank’s/Police Station match-up that didn’t happen, I headed back to my hood and snagged some pizza from Piccolo Forno and The Pizza Company. I went stag to Piccolo and grabbed a pepperoni, then headed up the hill for a pep slice from Pizza Company. I hadn’t been to Piccolo for a while, so I couldn’t really remember what their pizza was all about, but I did remember that I liked it. This pizza has a super thin crust which is okay, but I kinda feel like it was too thin (something of which I will never be accused). The pepperoni on the Piccolo pie is the good kind. Like crispy little Stanley Cup tops full of roni grease. Super delicious.

The Stanley Cup pepperoni’s of Piccolo Forno.

Pizza Co is one of my neighborhood favorites. The crust is really good and they also have the Stanley Cup pepperonis. This was a tough choice to make. I would give Appearance to Piccolo Forno. The whole atmosphere at Piccolo is great. It’s a excellent place to grab dinner. Pizza Company may lack the aesthetics of Piccolo, but this is more of a utilitarian slice. Components went to Pizza Co for sure. Solid crust, great cheese, and sauce. Overall Flavor was a close call, but Pizza Co edged out Piccolo for the upset. Keep reading, though, because this isn’t the headline related upset.

Winner: The Pizza Company

1 Mineo’s vs 8 Jioio’s

Next up in the bracket is a 1/8 match-up between one of my all-time faves and distant spot that apparently is worth the drive. I met with a hockey playing buddy (aka the Zdeno Chara of men’s league) in Squirrel Hill and we grabbed a slice at Mineo’s. I haven’t had Mineo’s in a long time. Spoiler Alert: I still love this pizza. I’ve heard many argue that there is too much cheese on a Mineo’s pizza, but that was not my experience, at least this time around. There was definitely more cheese than some other pizzas, but not in an overwhelming way.

Zdeno and I then made the long trek to Greensburg so I could finally try the famous Jioio’s. Fortunately, Zdeno’s company made the long trip seem much shorter. I was aware that Jioio’s had a sweet sauce, but good lord, I had no idea. The sauce was crazy sweet, like a nice old lady that won’t let you say no to food that she is so kindly offering. Zed is a big fan of the sweet sauce, but I am not. I did kind of like the crispy thin crust, though. Don’t get me wrong, the pizza is good, it’s just not my preferred style.

This match-up was a bit of a blowout for me. All three categories go in favor of Mineo’s. I won’t be rushing back to Jioio’s, but if you like a sweet sauce or you live in the east suburbs, you should head to Jioio’s so you can come to your own conclusions.

Winner: Mineo’s

3 Spirit/Slice Island vs 6 Giovanni’s

This is another game featuring two places that I’ve had on more than one occasion. Previous judges T-Boz, Chilli, and Left Eye joined me at Giovanni’s in Dormont (they also have a location downtown). I’ve previously been critical of Giovanni’s despite the fact that they have won best pizza in Pittsburgh in recent years. Not that I didn’t like it, just that the sauce was a little too sweet. “Jesus Christ, we get it, you don’t like a sweet sauce!” Sorry, fake person. I’ll try to lay off the sweet sauce putdowns for a while. Precursory assessments filed away, this pizza was much better than I remembered. The sauce was sweet (hold on…), but not too sweet, at all. In fact, this pizza was pretty amazing and TLC agreed.

Giovanni’s roni slice.

I then rolled solo to Slice Island. Slice Island is located inside Spirit which is a bit of a hipster haven, but not in a bad way. In order to stay as profesh as possible on this trip to Spirit, I avoided the tradition of shotgunning a baby Bud at the bar and went right to Slice Island. Just as I remembered, this pizza is as good as Han Solo is cool. Square cut, great components, superb overall flavor.

I’ll give Appearance to Giovanni’s, although by a slim margin. The Components and Overall Flavor categories were a bit tougher to call. After contemplating on my way home, I decided to give the edge to Spirit/Slice Island.

Winner: Spirit/Slice Island

3 Aiello’s vs 6 La Tavola

Have you figured it out yet? This is the big upset that was teased in the headline. I’ve heard many people declare Aiello’s to be just as good, if not better than Mineo’s. I was hoping to have a Mineo’s Aiello’s showdown in the Elite Eight, but it just ain’t gonna happen. I had never tried Aiello’s because anytime I was on that particular block of Murray Avenue for pizza, I was heading to Mineo’s. That being said, I was super pumped

Much like Hightower, my friend has had to remove the front seat of his car so he can sit in the back and operate the vehicle.

to finally try Aiello’s. A tall friend of mine (the Hightower to my Mahoney) went with me to Squirrel Hill to give Aiello’s it’s time in the sun. Despite my eagerness to give Aiello’s a whirl, I still had to repress my lust for Mineo’s since we were merely 128 feet away. We each grabbed a slice of pepperoni and ate there. I will give the following caveat to this upset: Aiello’s is in the middle of some construction, therefore, that may have played into the following results. Both of us, were quite disappointed with what we expected to be a great piece of pizza. Nothing was spectacular about our experience and all categories went in favor of La Tavola.

Even the pepperoni’s on the Aiello’s slice looked surprised at the outcome.

The slice at Aiello’s wasn’t what we expected, but again, the construction and the fact that we just ordered slices instead of a whole pie could be the reason why we were crestfallen after our visit. I know it seems like I am just straight up bashing Aiello’s, but I feel like this was just a bad performance, much like Duke vs UNLV in 1990. I will certainly go back to Aiello’s to give it another chance and you should not write them off as bad pizza. They can’t be bad for all the hype. This could have all been a fluke. Also, I know I didn’t really review La Tavola, but I’ll get into that in the next round.

Seriously, though, you should still try Aiello’s.

Winner: La Tavola

Okay, enough of the winners and losers. Check out the updated bracket below and keep your eyes peeled on social media for more updates!

How does this work?

Posted on February 18, 2017 by jakeabee11

By now, I’ll assume you’ve read the first post giving you a general idea of the objective of this project. I’ve had this idea in my head for over 7 years and now that it is actually happening, we have to make sure it’s done right. So, we need to figure out who has the best pizza and we know its going to be done tournament style, but we have to lay the foundation of how this will work. We need to know who is going to be entered into the tournament, we need to know how the pizza will be judged, and we need to know how the match-ups will be determined.

Who’s In?

Since this will be the most important tournament you’ve witnessed since Bloodsport, it is crucial to get the players right. In college basketball, the teams that make it to the big dance are revealed on Selection Sunday. Those decisions are made based on the rankings, conference winners, and overall season performance. We’ll have our own Selection Sunday, but we don’t exactly have rankings, conference winners, and overall season performance for pizza shops. Unless someone tells me that there has been a pizza fight club happening in the city, and if that’s the case, this whole thing can be scrapped since I will be disappearing into the pizza underground.

So who’s gonna make it into the big pizza dance? Hold on, to clarify, by big pizza dance, I mean the tournament, not this video that a seemingly very nice family made. Anyway, I have my ideas of who should be in and have compiled a list of possible competitors that was derived through research, personal experience, and testimonials from friends and family. However, despite the opinion of my mother, I am not perfect (though I AM a precious baby angel). I may have missed a place that you think has to make it, and I leave that up to you to let me know. Based on the comments I’ve read on sites that have declared the best pizza places in the Pittsburgh, people are extremely opinionated about where they think the top pizza resides. You’d be surprised at how many exclamation points people will use if they feel their favorite shop has been slighted.

I already have a list of 43 contenders, but I need to hear from the general public. The list of candidates will be provided in a future post where I explain who is likely in, on the bubble, or most definitely on the outside. Comment here or on social media and let me know who absolutely has to make the tourney.

How will the pizza be judged?

Full disclosure: I am not a professional food critic (Gasp!). While I may not have fancy credentials, this project is not intended to be a snooty display of criticism. I do have some experience in the pizza industry, but my expertise has been honed by eating pizza, probably more than a cardiologist would suggest. While my days of making pizza for money are over, I have always held the opinion that pizza is the supreme food item in all the land. That, itself, is a controversial statement, but let’s just pretend that I’m right.

So, while New York can be considered the pizza Mecca, Pittsburgh is no slouch. Okay, I hear you Chicago, but let’s not pretend that deep dish pizza is actually pizza. While it’s enjoyable, I would be more comfortable calling it a savory cake or crusted lasagna, but I digress. The unique problem in rating/ranking Pittsburgh pizza is that it comes in many different forms. The New York style is in play, but there are also different styles like Roman, Neapolitan, Sicilian, bakery style, Detroit, and even New Haven (known as apizza). This creates a challenge in trying to compare, but luckily I’ve come up with a plan to try to make the evaluations fair.

First of all, I will be eating only pepperoni or cheese pizza. No specialty pizza like Buffalo Chicken or Steak. Those are great, but I want to evaluate each slice in it’s base form. Some of the fancier places may not have just cheese or pepperoni, so I will choose the most comparable option. Second, I will be going to each establishment for every match-up. The higher seeded pizza place will technically be the home team, so I will visit that place first before going to the opponent’s establishment. I will be only eating one slice at each place in each round. If you’re wondering, that means I will be eating 62 slices of pizza during the course of this undertaking. Yeah, that is a lot, so I will be mostly eating salad for my other meals so I can avoid death. Finally, each slice will be judged based on three categories:

Appearance – While this may seem shallow, how the pizza looks is important. Are all of the toppings jammed in the middle with a fat bubbly crust? I sure hope not, because then I will be much less excited to eat said pizza and subconsciously that might influence my opinion. This category won’t hold as much weight as the other two, however, it will factor into my decision.
Components – Cheese, sauce, crust, and toppings. The guts of the pizza, as well as it’s structure will be evaluated in this category. This category will also assess greasiness of the pizza (and my face after eating).
Overall Flavor – The components portion of judging will touch on flavor of individual parts of the pizza, but this category will judge the overall flavor as the title of the category clearly states.

On my quest, I will be joined by various friends and family members, so they will also be judging, however, I will have the final say. That’s not to say I won’t be influenced, but ultimately I will make the call. If you are interested in joining me during any of the “games”, please feel free to hit me up here or on social media (IG: pghpizzamadness or my personal account jakecsikora; Facebook).

How will the match-ups be determined?

This is an important piece of the plan, however, we can’t really figure this out until we know for sure who is in. We can revisit the specifics of this once we’ve finalized the contenders. Basically, the 32 entrants will be broken into four separate regions/brackets and each will be seeded from 1-8 based on popularity, just like the NCAA does (except they seed from 1-16 since their tournament is larger). The four brackets will obviously feed into the Final Four and then the champion. The four brackets will be likely be arranged by geographical zones or will be based on type/style of pizza. More on this after Selection Sunday which for this tournament will be March 1st.

Let me know where to go and mark your calendars!!