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MMMMmmmm Pizza...

Love Village Bakery in Davis. Flatbread, thin crust style cooked in a nice brick oven. Mom & pop shop run by friendly kids at UC Davis. I've gotten multiple free pizzas while waiting for my own order because of issues like delivery pizzas that went cold or the crust got slightly burned (great job with QA there).

http://www.yelp.com/biz/village-bakery-davis
 
GO. said:
+ one meeelion
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I was super excited to try this after my friend's buildup.

Anti-climactic. It was terrible. Tasted like a thick slice of tomato pie. Bland. I personally don't like chicago pizza that much as a concept but I've had way better in SF.

(naturally this is just my opinion, not a statement of fact against Zacharies).
 
HappyHighwayman said:
I was super excited to try this after my friend's buildup.

Anti-climactic. It was terrible. Tasted like a thick slice of tomato pie. Bland. I personally don't like chicago pizza that much as a concept but I've had way better in SF.

(naturally this is just my opinion, not a statement of fact against Zacharies).
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Maybe a bad day?
 

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I only had it once like 7 years ago so I am willing to be open minded and try again but it was basically very doughy and tomato-ee.

I even tried to fix it by melting cheese on top :)
 
HappyHighwayman said:
I only had it once like 7 years ago so I am willing to be open minded and try again but it was basically very doughy and tomato-ee.

I even tried to fix it by melting cheese on top :)
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Hmm interesting.. I've only eaten at the one on Solano, never Piedmont, but it's always really good. :drool

Lemme know, I'll go order pizza there with you sometime. Jeff wants good pizza so he can come too. :laughing
 
HappyHighwayman said:
Honestly, I make better pizza than most take out places, and I do it for a fraction of the cost.

Buy a pizza steel (or stone), a paddle/peel and learn to make your own dough. Then it's just about the quality of the toppings.
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Bowling4Bikes said:
+1 but don't forget the quality of sauce! very important.

<-- used to work at a high-quality pizza shop

my faves in the area?

-Village Host in burlingame
-Mission pizza in fremont
-garrett in san jose.

all have good dough, good sauce, good toppings. I'd vouch for them.
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Ok, so my family just got into making our pizza at home. Got the dough recipe from a barfer in the BBQ pRon thread.

2 biggest issues we have had so far:
1- Dough being too elastic to shape in a circle. We seem to only be able to do oddly shaped rectangles
2- Can't find good Pepperoni. The last one was some natural uncured pepperoni that tasted like a dog treat.

Any suggestions?
 
(sighing at unproveable regional pizza bias. Yeah, like New Haven is just SO famous for their pizza. C'mon Man. To college kids, I guess).

Looks like I'll have to go to Sacto to try Zelda's. Frankly, I haven't had a pizza that really seemed unusually good in, like, never. We had very good pizza at Bella Roma in Mtz when I was a kid. And I like the artisan-y wood fired oven pizzas that are produced in your trendier joints with the super ingredients. I ate a fair bit of pizza in Italy and it ain't that exciting either. They are much simpler there. it seems like pizza has a million ways to disappoint, but not many to rise to exceptional. I mean, when you really think about it, the very best qualities of pizza can be found in the various types of focaccias around, like the "figasa" (reg. dialect) at Liguria in SF. Otherwise, the dough just becomes the medium and it is just white flour so it has limits in terms of flavor.

I guess the best pizza is probably one you make yourself in terms of freshness and picky ingredients. But getting the dough/crust right is the challenge in a residential kitchen...

I think there are cross-purposes at work here. American pizza is known for its excesses, just a lot of everything. But any pizza that is truly memorable tends to have much more spare ingredients so you can taste them distinctly. And each type has its fans, so arguing about pizzas becomes very hard. As far as the trend towards stuffing more and dough, and cramming cheese into it, man, it's kinda disgusting.

I guess it would be clearer to argue about what is good if you qualify yourself. If you love thick or thin crust, then if you want it groaning with ingredients or the opposite.

For eating myself comatose on abundant pizza, I like Snowy Alps from the local Mtn Mike's in El Sobrante. Just a lot of good stuff on it. Not exceptional, but not bad. Dough tastes fresh, not stale or cardboardy. And I love crumbly Ital. sausage so much on pizza, I just sorta dont care after that, as long as each thing tastes fresh. I have noticed that pepperoni seems to vary a bit on pizza. Sometimes, its just chewy, oily and spicy, with not much discernible flavor within it. I think it's my least favorite meat on the average pizza, yet is super popular with most people.
 
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GO. said:
Hmm interesting.. I've only eaten at the one on Solano, never Piedmont, but it's always really good. :drool

Lemme know, I'll go order pizza there with you sometime. Jeff wants good pizza so he can come too. :laughing
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I was working in East Bay (San Ramon) when I had it so not sure where it would have come from (I had just moved to the Bay so at the time I had a poor sense of direction...had not yet started riding).
 
Little Star on divis here in the City:drool

thin or deep, it don't matter!
 
If you're at all interested in making your own pizza and saving yourself years of trial and error:

Dough:http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/new-york-style-pizza.html
Sauce:http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/new-york-style-pizza-sauce.html

You need a stand mixer but ideally a food processor, a wooden pizza peel (paddle), and a pizza stone...I prefer a pizza "steel" though...I've broken like 4-5 stones in 7 years and my steel is both indestructible AND better at holding heat.

And that's it. I pre-heat to 550 for 1 hour and then switch to broil for the bake. Takes under 4 minutes.
 
Bay Arean said:
(sighing at unproveable regional pizza bias. Yeah, like New Haven is just SO famous for their pizza. C'mon Man. To college kids, I guess)
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New Haven is in fact "so" famous for their pizza. Read the links. No sure where your amazingly off base college kid comment is coming from.

I'm not denying I'm bias to right coast pizza. But fact is, many many people recognize New Haven having some of the best pizza.

Around here, Escape From New York had decent pie. Lane splitters was better 5-6 years ago. Zachary's is not my cup of tea, but it's pizza. Arnel's, think that's what it's called, was pretty good. But I haven't had it in 5 years and remember to only be good reheated.
 
Zachary's is underwhelming I think because their pies are on the bland side. Used to like it but I've moved on to better pizzas. I'll give them credit for using fresh ingredients though.
 
Silence said:
Zachary's is underwhelming I think because their pies are on the bland side. Used to like it but I've moved on to better pizzas. I'll give them credit for using fresh ingredients though.
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I agree. For the amount of hype I was expecting something really amazing.

it wasn't bad, but I felt like I was eating a jar of unseasoned pasta sauce with a spoon.:laughing
 
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