Serious Pie

Serious Pie
A Tom Douglas restaurant featuring pizza variations

The first time we saw "Serious Pie," we thought it was, y'know, pie. Blueberry, blackberry; blackberry, boysenberry; boysenberry, huckleberry; huckleberry, raspberry; raspberry, strawberry; strawberry, cranberry...peach. But no, these are pizza pies, baked with the same craft and enthusiasm we've come to expect from Tom Douglas's restaurants.

The space is tucked behind the Dahlia Lounge, up Virginia Street from 4th. It's a small, intimate setting, with high tables, stools, and dim lighting that give it a bar feel. The staff is friendly and casual, knowledgeable and attentive: perfect for an upscale pizza place. And the menu is simple: a few appetizers, pizza, desserts.

The appetizers have a few interesting items, but we opted to go right for the pizza. After all, it's a pizza place, and we love our pizza, so we preferred to share a couple pizzas than share one and get some other appetizer. The two we ordered were a margherita pizza (tomato, buffalo mozzarella, basil) and a wild mushroom pizza.

Now, we both prefer thin crust pizza, though we'll enjoy any kind of flat bread with sauce, cheese, and toppings. Serious Pie's pizza reminded us most of San Diego's Basic Kitchen: good, crisp, thin crust and fresh sauce and toppings. We were especially impressed with the tomatoes on the margherita pizza, and I'm not generally a fan of tomatoes (though I love tomato sauce). The wild mushroom pizza brought out the great earthy flavor of the mushrooms along with the crisp, chewy bread, the cheese adding a nice complement to the whole.

We were fortunate enough to interview Tom Douglas a little while back (we hope to post it soon), and we asked him specifically about Serious Pie. He told us that his favorite part of the restaurant was focusing in on pizza, really being able to dig in and figure out how each of the different parts worked: the bread, the sauce, the cheese. The way he puts it, they have a "theory of pizza" now. His joy and boundless interest in food really shows through in the fabulous results.

We thought we'd have some pieces of pizza to take home--usually we only split one. But the crust was thin, the pizza not too filling, and we each ate a whole one. The tables are so close together that as we were eating, we were eyeing the pizzas our neighbors had ordered and seriously contemplating whether to ask if they'd swap a slice to try one of ours. In the end, we decided to enjoy what we had and make sure we return to keep trying the pizza. Serious Pie has another benefit going for it: it's open 'til eleven most nights, making it a great place for a late-night snack.

Original Buffalo Wings

Original Buffalo Wings, in San Carlos
Pizza, burgers, cheesesteaks, and, of course, buffalo wings

The oddity of Original Buffalo Wings, located on Holly Street between 101 and El Camino (just before El Camino, on the left as you're coming from 101), is that it serves exclusively American food in what appears to be the living room of a Thai family(*). There are Thai-themed decorations all over, a bookshelf with pictures, a corner that appears to be a child's activity area, and the doorway back to the restrooms is surmounted by a wooden relief that wouldn't look out of place in a Thai restaurant.

The decor notwithstanding. OBW turns out to be a pretty good pizza/burger/cheesesteak diner. We tried the half-dozen buffalo tenders, which were tender as advertised. The buffalo sauce was rather mild, but nicely vinegary, and the dish was served with celery and blue cheese dip (rather than the oft-substituted ranch). The cheesesteaks and chicken steaks were both quite good, only lacking in the roll department. The flat sesame seed buns split all the way across did not really adequately contain the sandwich, though they tasted okay.

The interesting thing was that both the chicken and beef had a distinctly Asian flavor to them that we think might have been soy sauce. Whether or not this has a place in a Philly steak, it tasted pretty good. The fries also passed muster: hot and crispy, not too greasy. The main drawback to the meal was the $0.55 charge for refills of fountain drinks, which caught us all off guard in this age of free refills. We managed to nurse our small sodas through the meal and left quite sated.

It's not haute cuisine, but for a quick lunch, Original Buffalo Wings is pretty tasty. Definitely worth a repeat visit.

(*) The consensus among the luncheoners during our visit was Thai; I apologize if we, in our ignorance of Asian cultures, misidentified it.

Beau Jo's, Idaho Springs

Beau Jo's, unique pizza in the heart of the Rockies
(Image from Liz Is Working, who reviewed this place back in April.)

Beau Jo's is a Colorado pizza chain in a number of locations. It's unusual in pizza chains in that it includes calorie counts on the menu (!) and also offers a selection of "SmartMeal" pizzas, with lower-calorie toppings and a whole wheat crust. In fact, they have a philosophy around their customers' health. No sugar in the crust; they use honey as a sweetener instead.

We started, of course, with the cheesy artichoke dip (no spinach), which was heavier on the cream than the artichokes, but still pretty good. They serve it with bread made from the pizza dough, so it's hard to resist going back for more. For our main course, we got Chip's Pie, with artichoke hearts, chicken breast, black olives, Roma tomatoes, and feta cheese. We also got their soup and salad bar.

The salad bar was decent, with the usual salad fixings and some average pasta salads. I liked the bowl of chicken soup I got there, too. Good flavor and thick noodles. But the centerpiece of the meal was the pizza. It's thick-crust (not deep dish), and the outer crust is huge, rounded and solid. The sauce had a good, robust flavor, but there wasn't too much of it. By contrast, there were plenty of toppings, all fresh and delicious.

In keeping with their use of honey to sweeten their dough, Beau Jo's provides honey for you to dip your thick crust in when you're finished with the rest of the pizza. It goes especially well with the whole wheat crust we got.

Good, hearty pizza, and friendly service in a casual dining atmosphere. Perfect for mountain communities, and that may be why Beau Jo's continues to be so popular in Colorado.

Fox's Pizza, Pittsburgh

Fox's Pizza
Pizza chain founded in Pittsburgh: pizza and distinctive "wedgie" sandwiches

Okay, disclaimer: we totally wanted to go to Fox's Pizza for the name. We occasionally look at franchising opportunities when we tire of the high-tech world, and Fox's Pizza Den came up as a good one, plus they have very little presence in California (the downside is that just within walking distance of our house there are five good pizza places, with another opening soon, so it's a pretty saturated market). Anyway, they were founded in Pittsburgh, so on our trip there we decided to try them out.

We had the chance to go there twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. For lunch we got a "wedgie" sandwich, one of Fox's Pizza's distinctive menu items. Mine was a chicken ranch; my friend's was a pepperoni wedgie. The wedgie is basically a small pizza folded in half and then cut in half, so each half of the sandwich is the size of a quarter slice of a small pizza. They're quite good: the chicken ranch wedgie was not very pizza-like, but the chicken and sauce were good, and eating them on a pizza crust was definitely better than standard bread (again we return to my precept that bread quality is a critical and often-overlooked part of sandwich-making). The pepperoni wedgie also got glowing reviews. They were both satisfyingly messy, too. The only drawback was that the Fox's Pizza was a counter service only location, so we had to go sit outside on a bench to eat.

The location in Pittsburgh proper was counter only as well. Situated on the fringe of a shady neighborhood in Mount Washington, we arrived late at night (but before the odd closing hour of 10:45) for a takeout pizza. The pizza remained warm and fresh on the twenty minute trip home and proved tasty as well, with a nice crisp crust, flavorful sauce, and good toppings that enhanced the flavor rather than smothering the pizza. It was received to general acclaim by all. Given that the distribution of pizza places around Pittsburgh seems somewhat more sparse than here in California, I think Fox's Pizza well worth a visit, wherever in the area you happen to be.

Basic Kitchen and Bar, San Diego

Basic Kitchen and Bar
Flatbread pizza and salad in an artsy, urban setting

During San Diego Comic-Con, we enjoy going to all the different restaurants in the beautiful downtown Gaslamp district. When we were in the mood for pizza, though, we couldn't think of a standout place, so we asked a friend for a recommendation. "Basic Kitchen has been getting great reviews," he said, so off we went, to the other side of the ballpark at 10th and J Streets, to a place that looks like an art gallery/bar but has wonderful food as well.

Inside, even in the restaurant area, the feel persists. There's very little standing on ceremony; you seat yourself, and eventually a waiter in t-shirt and ripped jeans comes over to take care of you. Meanwhile, you can enjoy the music and the industrial interior, looking as if someone ripped the innards out of an old brick studio and threw a bunch of tables and chairs into it.

The menu is simplicity itself: choose a red or white sauce for your pizza, small or large, cheese or no, and then pick from toppings like sun-dried tomato, black olive, mushroom, fresh basil, bacon...broccoli...mashed potatoes... (those last couple recommended for white pizzas, it is noted). You can also have a salad if you want. One size, one salad.

We recommend, well, everything. The salad is delicious, with a tangy fruit vinaigrette and the right balance of candied walnut, gorgonzola, pear, and greens. The pizzas have a crispy thin crust, but even our friend who loves Chicago-style pizza liked it because it's not greasy and dripping as New York pizza should be and thin-crust traditionally is. The toppings are all fresh--on our sausage, olive, fresh basil, and mushroom pizza, it was the sausage that got lost in the other flavors.

If not prompt, the service was at least extremely friendly and helpful. We all felt comfortable and resolved to make this stop one of our Comic-Con traditions. Take a little detour and make sure to visit when you're in the area.