midyear roundup

So, I'm now more than halfway into this year of pizza eating adventures. It's time to reflect on the good, the bad, and the uh, maybe I should try that again...

The Good

Best DC pizza:

Red Rocks in Columbia Heights. I want to return for their brunch pizza, cos egg on a pizza is one of my favorite things.

runners up:

Comet Ping Pong I would go to Comet all the time if it wasn't so out of the way--good pizza, good beer, and ping pong. What more can a girl ask for? Plus, they offer fresh jalepeno peppers as a topping.

Pete's Apizza in Columbia Heights. Good beer list, Boylan's fountain, and pizza meant for sharing. I like it. I just wish the crust was a touch crisper.


While the Fire and Smoke pizza at Matchbox was very good, Matchbox doesn't make the good list for DC in general cos it's just too soggy to be worth the wait and prices.

Best Baltimore pizza:

Iggies, easily. Pear pizza. Oh sweet Jesus. Look at how happy we all are after eating there for Noah's birthday! Well...happy and or so stuffed we're in agony (see Adam P at the back of the table...)

Best Jumbo Slice:

Who cares? I'm drunk and I need my pizza flavored bedsheet.

Best Chain/Takeout/Delivery:
Mamma Lucia's Actually, this pizza could be better than Pete's Apizza, but Pete's wins in the atmosphere department.

Best NY Slice in the Village: Joe's Pizza. Especially at 11am, just after they've opened, or at 2am, just before catching the PATH to Jersey.

Runner Up:

Pizza Box. But only if I eat it with my brother.

Best Frozen Pizza: Trader Joe's Quattro Formagi
Best "I'm drunk and want frozen pizza but I spent all my money at the bar" pizza: Tony's crispy crust.
Best "Pizzaesque" food: Totino's pizza rolls. I had these for the first time in years the other day. They were surprisingly great. I'm shocked.

BEST PIZZA EVER: Totonno's, Coney Island. They've reopened after the fire, finally. I hope it's still as good as I remember...going back soon.


The Bad

Truly bad pizza is few and far between. But it exists, and I've found it.

Ella's--I was so pissed off by this pizza visit. Was it the worst pizza I've ever had? No. But the experience overall was just awful.

Franklin's--dudes, get yo shizz together.

Domino's--even if the campaign is true and your pizza technically tastes better than it used to, it couldn't have been to difficult to improve on the old stuff, the pizza you delivered looked like it had fallen out of the box onto the floor and put back into the box, and it took like, an hour to get to me, despite your online pizza tracker's claims that my pizza had been successfully delivered.

Runner Up:

What does it mean to be a runner up in the bad pizza category? It means your Ledo pizza. I only ever eat this at workplace quarterly staff meetings. And I eat like, 30 little square pieces of it in a single sitting. But it's not good. Not good at all.

Deserving of a Second Chance?

People keep telling me that my bad pizza experience at Pizzeria Paradiso wasn't typical. Maybe I'll try again and go to the Georgetown location this time. But if that sauce is all nasty and tinny again, you all are officially crazy for loving this place.


Still Need to Visit


In DC, there are several places I've not been to yet.

1: 2Amy's. Guys, I really do want to go, I swear. It's just so far away though. Let's go, k? Just someone else drive.

2: I'm fairly strongly predisposed towards hating We, the Pizza for many reasons, not least of them being their grammatically mind boggling "manifesto" (We is making your head hurts).

3: Radius. I actually may have eaten this pizza already--see the early post about watching "Jennifer's Body" and eating mystery pizza. I'm not sure though. Memories of that evening are very...uh...hazy.

4: That Italian market place out somewhere (maybe suburban?) that supposedly has awesome pizza. Considering I know SOOO much about the place, accomplishing this one might be tricky. (Thanks to Google, I'm thinking it's Vace or the Italian Store)

5: Places you tell me to eat. Isn't there some new joint over on U street?