bummer…any great pizza in the North Bay, Robert?
Diavola in Cloverdale. Oenotri in Napa. Cafe Reyes in Point Reyes Station. Might be more, I’m not really up on the Marin / Sonoma scene.
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It’s not sublime neopolitan or anything, but Mary’s Pizza Shack has been slinging exceptionally tasty neighborhood pies for many many years. Several locations in Marin, Sonoma, and Yolo counties.
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Oh yeah, old-school California, kind of similar to Tommaso’s. I haven’t been to one in years.
many thanks, Robert, thats a good start!
Mentions:
- Arizmendi
- Casa Barotti
- Cheese Board
- Chez Panisse [Cafe]
- de Laura
- Gioia
- Lucia’s
- Nabolom
- Pollara
- Rose
- Sliver
- State Flour
- Three.OneFour
They opened Gioia Pizza on Hopkins Street in May 2004 at a time when, as the couple recalls, pizza felt “totally unrepresented.” “There was no pizza scene back 18 years ago at all — San Francisco was not known for pizza.”
Ignorant arrivistes. Pizzas of note in SF before Gioia opened:
- Amici’s
- Arinell
- Escape from New York
- L’Osteria del Forno
- LuLu
- Patxi’s
- Pauline’s
- Pazzia > Ideale
- Pizzetta 211
- Prego (where Wolfgang Puck found Spago’s opening pizza chef Ed LaDou)
- Tommaso’s (inspired Chez Panisse Cafe > Prego > Spago)
- Zuni Cafe
And the East Bay had:
- Arinell
- Bucci’s
- Cheese Board
- Chez Panisse
- Little Chicago
- LoCoco’s
- LoCoCo’s (cousins)
- Nizza La Bella (best NY-style pizza ever in the Bay Area)
- Oliveto
- Pizzaiolo
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Flour + Water Pizzeria taking over the old Rose Pistola space. Reservations now available for 6/28 on.
I looked up Matt Molina, the chef at Graffiti Pizza, and after getting very confused about his biography realized that there’s another award-winning pizzaiolo Matt Molina, formerly of Pizzeria Mozza.
Tried a grandma pie the other night. The texture of the crust reminded me of a montanara. I could have done without the balsamic glaze. I’ll stick with regular pies.
outta sight pizza (HOME) - couple blocks from civic center
the dough here is good quality - regular slices reheat to a pretty good crisp, square slices achieve near-optimal balance of lightness/chew. square slice >>> round slice
i find both the tomato sauce and cheese on plain cheese slices to be overdone - too much herbs and cooking time with the sauce, cheese too fancy - melts down too much. the correct order might instead to be one of the non-plain cheese slices…
I was in SF this past weekend(6/30, 7/1) and had a few great slices…not sure if I saw Outta Sight Pizza mentioned in the Eater list referenced above but I tried it and loved it…An excellent crust, a bit crispy, a bit chewy although the thin end of my pesto slice broke off, on all 3 slices including the “grandma slice” which was fresh out of the oven…the other 2 slices, a sausage & peppers and the pesto were delicious! the grandma had a chipotle base and oddly corn niblets but it was delicious…sausage & peppers with a piece of basil was close to perfect(sausage may have been a tad dry)especially for a reheat as was the pesto…the neighborhood is a bit sketchy( a beat up car with a few people sitting right in front of the pizzeria looked like they were about to do a drive by or smash & grab but all went well), but this pizzeria is a great addition to SF slice scene!
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I tried Pizza da Laura in the old PIQ space for lunch yesterday. I was expecting to be able to order a couple of slices at the counter but it’s exclusively a sit-down place. Only slices available were NY-style cheese or pepperoni.
Arancini were good. Tomato sauce was great.
The “Detroit” was tasty but not what I expect for that style. They pile a bunch of cheese around the edge so it turns into a frico-ish thing the server called a “cheese wall,” but the bottom crust doesn’t get brown and caramelized all the way across. The crust was denser and thinner than I want it to be. Still stuck with making my own.
I’ll definitely be going back to try some of the other styles.
Tried Rose Pizzeria last week. Neglected to photograph the snack plate.
Gigantes with sheep’s milk feta, pickled artichokes, and onion were delicious.
Wild rocket salad was excellent except I’d say hold the currants next time.
Excellent pizza. Crisp, nice char. Old Faithful was spicier than I expect. Looking forward to trying other combos.
Excellent tiramisu. More whipped cream than mascarpone (if any) so relatively light.
Great place and friendly service.
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Updated to add the gigantes.
and thats a town you can call Frisco! haha!
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Pizzeria da Laura and Flour & Water are in this.
Tried three.one four, which opened in the old Lalime’s space a week ago.
Meatballs were good though Comal’s are better. Forgot to take a photo until we’d taken two of them. They were out of focaccia so gave us fried pizza dough instead.
Westbrae (“crushed tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, speck, mushroom, egg, arugula”) was good, kind of reminiscent of a capricciosa. “Crushed tomatoes” were actually a very tasty cooked sauce.
Lalime (“braised lamb, sun dried tomatoes, feta, red onion, tzatziki”) was fun though I’d have liked gamier lamb.
“ask quietly” is the pastas. One was a cacio e pepe, spaghetti stirred in a wheel of pecorino brought to the table on a cart. The other was a pasta with tomato sauce and cheese? baked under a pizza-dough topping.
For dessert they had a nutella calzone, which was not really appealing after all that pizza, and a decomposed tiramisu assembled at the table, which doesn’t make much sense to me, you want the ladyfingers to soak for a while.
A lot of the wines seem awfully expensive relative to the food menu. We drank the Lambrusco, tasty and a good match for the food but $60 is a pretty steep markup for a wine that retails for $17-20.
If the place were in my neighborhood I’d probably go there regularly but since we’d have to drive by Jupiter, Lucia’s, and Rose Pizzeria to get there we probably won’t go back.
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