Classic California Style: CPK

Place:
Fashion Valley Mall
7007 Friars Road
(619) 298-4078

Time:
Tuesday 25 August 2009
21:00

Investigation Led By:
Agents Nick, Chastity, Nader, Nader’s girlfriend Melissa, her two guy friends and Joe

Pizza:
8.5out of 10

Atmosphere:
7 out of 10

The development of the California pizza style is shared between California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) and Spago’s. The idea was to bring gourmet ambition into an originally classified peasant food. For better or worse, these ambitions led to the California style of pizza. I happen to be one of those who are not completely on the boat with the gourmet idea. The notion of having gourmet food is a great idea, but the pretentiousness that comes along with it may not measure up to the advancement of the pizza. CPK dose bake a good pie in California style, but the concomitant atmosphere adds an unfortunate aspect to the tradition of pizza.

Pizza is originally a peasant food, but you’d never know it if you ate at CPK. In this way, CPK is similar to the frequent stories of professional athletes, who came from the slums and rose up to athletic greatness. Having achieved the success and money that comes with this recognition, these athletes soon forget their roots and begin to live as though they never had a history. As a result they tend to lose good friends and even distance themselves from their family. Ultimately, they become unhappy since they begin to lose what is really needed to sustain a good life. CPK are these professional athletes in the pizza world. As I sat in their restaurant, it almost seemed inappropriate to talk about how pizza was originally a peasant food. After all, the fabulous bar was tended by, what seemed like, a knowledgeable sommelier uncorking a variety of wines. To be fair, the atmosphere CPK presents to its customers is a nice sit-down restaurant that is not out of range for the occasional visit of the lower middle class. But the attempt to bring the democratic nature of a slice of pizza into the realm of an elite food does not digest well.

The California style is a variation of the Neo-Neopolitan style pizzas. Naples will be our starting point for the development of pizza even though it has earlier origins that go back to Greece. When Italians immigrated to America so did their culinary tradition. The New York style is a variation of the pizza made in Naples, hence the name Neo-Neopolitan for the New York style (there are also other styles, such as the pies in New Haven, that are also classified under Neo-Neopolitan style). The New York style is a large thin crust pizza, whose pizza bread is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. My paradigm example of New York style pizza in San Diego is Bronx pizza. The focus is on producing a quality pizza bread. The toppings are a bonus, not the center piece. This encompasses the more traditional idea that pizza is basically just bread with a little something on top. This is where the California style differs. The focus on California style pizza is the toppings. The idea is to place unique, sometimes heavy, sometimes fairly sophisticated toppings on pizza. The spotlight moves from the bread to the topping in California style. The emphasis on bread seems to move away from creating delicious bread to creating a bread that is at least good enough so that it will not interrupt the eater’s enjoyment of the fantastic toppings. The central difference from a New York style pie and a California style pie is the shift of focus from the bread to the toppings.

By far the most impressive aspect of CPK was the beautiful fired oven. We sat at a table the allowed me to stare at it while the conversation went on around me. I say it was a fired oven because I’m not sure exactly what was fueling it. If I had to guess I would say gas since the flame was bright and powerful the entire time we were there. The rest of the place was also thoughtfully constructed. The restaurant tables were a light tan polished wood and separated from each other by panes of glass. The numerous pictures on the wall were of cartoonish renderings of pizza ingredients and words too small to make our from our seats.

The people around us were of a mixed variety. Directly behind us sat a couple of girls that looked to be in their mid twenties, young and single most likely. I figured they were either in college living on loans or off the wallets of Mom and Dad, or just got a real job and making the transition from having nothing in college to having more money than they are accustom to spending. Two middle-aged men sat at the door. They appeared to be professionals of some sort, perhaps engineers with a devious hint of the capitalist spirit of entrepreneurship. Our waitress was a tall, kind brunette with a nice smile, most likely this was job was paying her way through college. She took our order, which ended up being three pizzas, an artichoke dip and some drinks.

Nick made the great decision of ordering the artichoke dip as an appetizer. They brought out a combination of blue and white tortilla chips that we used to shovel the creamy balance of spinach and artichoke into our mouths. But if you had told me that this was a spinach and cheese dip I would have agreed with you; the presence of artichoke was secondary. Nonetheless, the dip was great. But we were there for the pizza, well, at least I was. I think Nick and Chastity might have been there for the drinks above all else But there was no doubt that at least Nick appreciated the Shrimp Scampi pizza. We ordered three pizzas: the Shrimp Scampi, the Sweet and Spicy Italian Sausage and, of course, the Original BBQ chicken, their pioneering work.

The Shrimp Scampi Pizza consisted of shrimp, mild onions, roasted garlic, Mozzarella, oregano and Italian parsley with a white wine lemon-garlic butter sauce. The minced roasted garlic complimented the shrimp well. The butter sauce had a potent taste of garlic, and there’s nothing that goes better with shrimp than garlic and copiuos amounts of butter. However this pizza had a good balance; the sauce was not too buttery or too strong with garlic.

The Italian sausage was the least impressive one out of the three; it consisted of a combination of sweet and spicy Italian sausages, tomato sauce, red and yellow peppers, mild onions and Mozzarella. This pizza was not bad, but it did not stand out like the Shrimp Scampi or the BBQ chicken. Unfortunately, I could not try this pizza without a sumptuous amount of Parmesan sprinkled on by Nader’s girlfriend Melissa. Parmesan is a strong cheese; it doesn’t take much of it to overpower other flavors, but I still think I caught the essence of this pizza. The yellow peppers stood out as visually appealing. The spicy Italian sausage was not very spicy, and my adverse review of this pizza may be due to my dislike of sweet sausage, although I couldn’t taste the sweetness that much either. The tomato sauce was nothing extraordinary, but it was good.

And last but not least their famous BBQ Chicken pizza. This pizza consisted in barbeque sauce, smoked Gouda and Mozzarella, BBQ chicken, sliced red onions and cilantro. Fortunately for Nader and I, we were still full from reviewing Newport Pizza, where one of the pies we had was a BBQ chicken. So we were able to compare and contrast the different pizzas that we ate within only hours of each other. Not surprisingly, CPK’s BBQ chicken dominated Newport’s. The onions, just as at Newport, went well with the BBQ sauce. However, CPK had superior pizza bread and higher quality cheeses, which resulted in less grease and stronger cheese flavor. The cilantro was also a nice subtle touch that gave the pizza more of a bite but not so much so that it came out from being a background flavor.

CPK does make a pretty tasty pizza in its own original way. That in itself is worth respect. But I don’t know if I see myself in the near future having the irresistible desire to experience the entire CPK ambiance again.

Beer and PIzza in Ocean Beach

Place:
Newport Pizza and Ale House
5050 Newport Ave
Ocean Beach, 92107

Time:
Tuesday 25 August 2009
14:00

Investigation Led By:
Agents Nader and Joe

Pizza:
6.5out of 10

Atmosphere:
9 out 10

Judging pizzerias in San Diego sets a tough standard of what counts as exceptional atmosphere. Newport Pizza and Ale House is a paradigm example, a lively ale house/pizza place decorated with style and located only footsteps away from the beach. While there’s not much missing as far as atmosphere, the tavern-like pizzeria places its pies in second priority to their extensive beer selection.

Newport Pizza located, appropriately enough, on Newport, Ocean Beach’s most happening avenue. They have a dog-friendly patio and while I was there I saw more than one dog hanging out on the patio. This patio rule fits the people of Ocean Beach (OB) since it seems that almost every local owns a dog; OB even has a beach-property park dedicated to dogs. Sounds like when they die, all dogs really go to OB. Agent Nader and I sat inside on bar stools at a high wood table attached to the side of the wall.

We situated ourselves across the room from where the pizzas were made. I always appreciate a pizza place that makes their pizza production easy for the customers to see; half the beauty of pizza is the production, it’s sort of a spectator sport. In front of the pizza production they displayed their slice selection separated from the hungry beach goers by a pane of glass. The slices were set on top of a long booth that had transparent cubes with a stream of neon lights below. This was sort of out of the theme of the place. Most of the ale house was wooden with beer memorabilia hanging up on the walls. Above the bar hung hundreds of taps. Their beer selection contained a long list of beverages on tap and three refrigerators full of other less typically bought beer. It was pretty evident that the focus at Newport Pizza was on the beer, not the pizza. The motto that was attached to there logo was “No crap on tap”. Although all beer lovers, myself included, could appreciate this quality standard, There didn’t seem to be such a quality emphasis on the pizza, or else they probably would have had another logo stating something like, “No cut-cost pizza sauce”. But we didn’t find anything like that.

Two girls were working the front and in charge of the music. A couple other guys, throughout our time there, emerged from the back, but only for a moment. We sat at our table trying to figure out what song was playing. At first, I gave no thought to it and figured it was just Christina Aguilera or some variation of that style. But Nader pointed out that the instrumentation was probably too complex to be a typical pop-star song. My next guess was PJ Harvey but at this point I was just fishing for answers. We soon found out when one of the girls changed the music. The music was connected to an iTunes program and shone on one of the half dozen flat screens in the place. We could see the play-list on the TV as they sifted through looking for new music. The song had been from Zero Seven, and then they switched to the newest Radiohead album, “In Rainbows”. I appreciated the switch; it made the entire atmosphere that much better.

The most charming element of their pizzas were their names. The Greek-style-toppings pizza with pesto, artichoke, olives, feta, etc., for instance, was called “Hulk”; The meat-lovers pizza was called “Ron Jeremy”. Nader and I ordered a split pie, one side being “Homer Simpson”, and the other side was “Clint Eastwood”.

The Homer Simpson consisted of a honey mustard sauce, chicken, onion, mozzarella and cheddar. The honey mustard gave the pizza a creamy taste and soaked into the pizza bread too easily. The pizza bread itself appeared to be a slightly smaller New York style, thin bread that grows bigger into a decent crust to chew on. The bread did not have much flavor; it seemed, instead, just to be an edible place on which toppings go. The bottom of the pizza bread was overcooked, which gave the bottom too much of a crunch, but the inside was pretty tender. The central problem with the pizza, however, was not the bread but the grease. There was an overload of cheese that oozed with grease. Some bites predominately had the taste of grease rather than pizza ingredients. Between the grease and the honey mustard sauce the bread became soggy quickly. I’m not sure it would have held its form at all if it wasn’t for the solid overcooked bottom. Overall, the “Homer Simpson” mainly tasted like creamy grease along with some pizza flavor, but then again, what should we have expected ordering a pizza named after Homer Simpson. I have no doubt Homer Simpson would love this pizza.

The other style was the Clint Eastwood, which consisted in a barbeque sauce, Chicken, onion and cheddar. This was a much better pizza than the “Homer Simpson”. For one I actually tasted the ingredients, and, on top of that, the flavors complemented each other. The barbeque sauce and the onions went together like a miser and his money. Besides the faults of excessive grease and the pizza bread that I mentioned above, I thought the Clint Eastwood was pretty tasty and had potential to be a great barbeque pizza. The Clint Eastwood also went well with the beer special of the day, a summer port ale that is produced, I believe, by Stone Brewery. The piney bite of the pale ale paired well with the onions and the barbeque sauce.

Maybe the girl who rang us up thought we were nice or maybe she just wasn’t paying attention, but she charged us less than the menu demanded. Both the Simpson and the Clint Eastwood where only sold as whole pies and were a dollar more than the other specialty pies. We got a single pie split into the Homer Simpson and Clint Eastwood, and the girl charged us $18. Our beers were on special and ran $3.50 a piece. Nader and I walked out having drank good beer, eaten decent pizza and leaving with extra pizza in our hands for under 15 bucks each.

A Baker's Quest for Great Pizza

I recently began my search for the best pizza in San Diego a few months ago in July and decided to record my investigations in a blog (The San Diego Pizza Investigation). I picked up the Thursday Food section of The Union Tribune and, to my delight, they were running an article on Pizza. They mentioned that baker and author of the successful book The Baker's Apprentice, Peter Reinhart, recently came out with a new book called American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza. When I read that, I knew if I was to be a self respecting pizza investigator, then I had to read about Reinhart's search. I hoped it would aid in my pizza search, and I was not mistaken. American Pie is a great story about a man's search, not just around America, but around the world finding what it takes to make a great pie, and it also provides indispensable information for any person concerned about pizza making, pizza ingredients and a healthy fix of pizza history.

Reinhart is driven by a question: when he says that Pizzeria Bianca in Arizona is the best pizza he has ever tasted can he really be sure that there's nothing better? He begins his search in, where else, Italy. He moves along from Genoa to Rome to Naples and many places in between. From there he travels back to the States and searches New York, New Haven, San Francisco and Los Angeles. There are a variety of different styles of pizza and focaccia that he encounters, and he also recognizes some important generalizations about what it takes to make a great pizza.

I think the most profound observation in this book is when Reinhart reveals that what makes a great pizza is not the great ingredients or the fantastic oven; great pizza is made from dedicated pizzaiolis, pizza makers. This point, I thought, was profound considering it is one of the numerous metaphors found in cooking that reflects life in general. It may be necessary for the pizzaioli to be somewhat talented and have access to great ingredients, but these are not sufficient for creating wonderful pizza. The pizzaioli must be dedicated to his craft and sincerely care to make the best pizza posible. This drive alone, while being something that only comes from within a pizzaioli, is the seed to acquiring all the rest of the external necessities of a great pie. Throughout his search, Reinhart finds this truth to be evident regardless of geographic location or pizza style.

I appreciated how Reinhart organized the different styles of pizza. In Italy he distinguished between varieties of foccacia and noted the differences between the Roman style pizza, with it's almost cracker thin pizza bread, with that of the Nepoletana pizza of Naples, which is a little thicker but still light enough for a pizza to be a meal for one. The most useful distinction he makes is the 3 generations of Neo-Neopolitan pizza found in America. The first generation being the classic American pizza found in New York and New Haven. He calls the style in New Haven, Neo-Neopolitan, and the style in New York, simply enough, New York Style. Both styles, however would fit into the first generation. The second generation are the national pizza chains, like Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's, that have become the most popular style. These pizzas, for better or worse, have developed into their own style. The third generation Neo-Neopolitan style in America is coined as California style. This style places emphasis on elaborate toppings. Reinhart gives Spago and California Pizza Kitchen the majority of credit or the development of this style. California style, however, is not without its critics. The more traditional pizza-lovers may may see the emphasis on toppings as missing the point to pizza: that pizza is essentially bread with a little something on top. These stylistic distinctions are not cut-and-dry. Reinhart himself seems to place New York Style pizza earlier in the book into the first generation and later in The Pizzas section place it in the second generation.

American Pie offers an interesting search around Italy and America for a great pizza, along with a helpful technical and linguistic introduction to dough making, cheeses, Italian pizza terminology and creating particular pizza styles. For each style, Reinhart offers some of his own recipes and recommendations for one's own variations. This book is a worthwhile read for anyone who loves all things pizza.

Bronx Pizza: New York Style Pizza by the Slice

Place:
Bronx Pizza
111 Washington St.

Time:
Saturday 22 August 2009
14:30

Investigation Led By:
Agent Joe, despite the big plans of meeting up with three other people.

Pizza:
9 out of 10

Atmosphere:
8.5 out o 10

Bronx Pizza, as most people will tell you, makes the best New York style pizza in San Diego, and has a laid back vibe with a unique architectural set-up.

I thought Bronx was going to be a tiny hole in the wall place, especially after my last pizza excursion to Lefty's, where there's about enough room inside to turn around and that's it, but actually Bronx is a much larger hole in the wall than I initially expected; there are three parts to it. From the outside there is an ordering window and a door with a couple benches situated in front of the large window on which there is a picture of boxing gloves. Apparently, according to their website, one of the employees is a boxing fanatic and himself a former boxer.

As you walk in the first part of the pizzeria you notice this is where all the magic happens. The first thing I noticed were the pizzas by the slice offered in the display case. Behind them was a nice guy named Seth who took my order. He had a shaved head and a lot of tattoos. Tattoos seemed to be common with people who are into making good pizza. The pizzaioli in Una Pizzeria Nepoletana in New York is well tatted also. This has to be the only place that when I see tattoos I get a sense that these guys may be obsessed with their jobs. Behind Seth was a beautiful pizza oven. I'm not sure what kind of oven it was exactly. I didn't see any flames, so I don't think it was a wood fire. My guess is a brick oven. I believe old school New York pies where cooked using a coal oven. Either way it was a great sight. I sat down across the room facing the oven watching the guys cook up the pies.

Bronx went a little deeper into the building as well. Interestingly, there was a patio as you walk in deeper into the shop, and then if you go further there was more of a restaurant-looking place with tables and red bench seats, giving this portion of the shop a sort of 1950's diner ambiance.

I had big plans to meet up with some of my coworkers here, pool our money together, and buy a huge selection of pizza. I also hoped to buy a whole pie, so I could take the fresh-out-of-the-oven taste test. Unfortunately for me, I'm the only person who thinks that a pizza date is a big deal. Every single person flaked on me and this ended up being a solo mission. But considering that I still had a pretty good time and the pizza was worth the 50 minute drive there and back.

I decided not to order a whole pie and instead go for a couple of slices. I ordered a Whitestone pizza and a Whitestone with spinach. The Whitestone pizza consisted of mozzarella, ricotta, garlic and parmesan, and, of course the Whitestone with spinach is all that plus some spinach.

The pizza was great, to the point that I now appreciate New York style pizza. My favorite style is still the Chicago deep dish, but I now understand why so many people crave good New York style pizza. The bread and crust were just right, thin and crispy but yet still tender inside. My slices weren't over cooked to the point of being like dry crackers or undercooked to the point where there's no crunch when you bit into the pizza. The mozzarella was a little rubbery; I think because it was by the slice, so I didn't get the fresh out-of-the-oven melted, stringy, gooey, mozzarella. Their placing of the ricotta chunks, and the spinach chunks for the slice that had spinach on it, gave just the right amount of ricotta and spinach in each bite. The crust was tasty on its own, which I think is important considering that pizza is mostly just bread with toppings. The crust is the eater's chance to taste the quality of the pizza bread without the confusion of the taste of the toppings. The crust was crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside, but I did think the crust was a little chewy. One reason for this may have been the fact that is was a reheated slice from an earlier cooked pizza. I don't think, however, that the slices stay in the display case for long. Bronx had a steady stream of customers, who mostly seemed to order by the slice. I bet a pie doesn't last much longer than 20 minutes in the case on slow days.

While I was eating my last spinach slice watching customers order in front of the display case, one family came in and told Seth that they traveled all the way from Oakland to eat at Bronx. The father quickly qualified the statement by saying that they always stop by the Bronx when he's in town, which now made it seem as though he didn't voyage all this way just for the taste of Bronx pizza. This made a little more sense considering if he had gone only a few hundred more miles but eastbound from Oakland, he could have had New York style pizza in New York, imagine that. The more I thought about it, the more it sounded funny, to travel 500 miles for New York style pizza in San Diego. But I do think Bronx pizza would be at least a competitor, and probably better, to any of the typical pizzerias in New York. I can't really say that with certainty since I haven't tried pizza in New York. My claim is based on the assumption that these guys know the New York style, and on the evidence I gathered on this investigation that they put in the time and effort to produce a great slice of pie.

Chicago-Style Deep Dish at Lefty's

Place:
Lefty's Chicago Pizzeria
4030 Goldfinch Street
(619) 299-4030

Time:
Tuesday 18 August 2009
15:00

Investigation Led By:
Agents Billy and Joe (and Agent Justin M.I.A)

The investigations from now on, I've decided, are going to be written in a more fluid fashion. The mechanical style in which I'd been writing the other posts just doesn't have the character of review that I'm striving for. So, I'm changing the style a bit.

Pizza:
9.5 out 10

Atmosphere:
6 out of 10

While Lefty's atmosphere is nothing to boast about, the pizza is amazing, and, after all, the eyes are on the pies.

Lefty's pizzeria is a cozy little corner shop located in a neighborhood-like area just off of University Ave. Agent Billy and I got there around 2:30 to meet up with Agent Justin, who oddly enough never made it out. I hope he was not fatally wounded in an earlier investigation in the morning. Agent Billy and I waited outside lefty's on one of the pair of benches. The wind was blowing from down the street where there happen to be a stinky dumpster, and, not surprisingly, the dumpster stench wafted over to us. After waiting for about twenty minutes we decided something must of happen to Agent Justin, and we knew that he would want us to press on without him, so we did.

When I say that Lefty's is a cozy place, I mean lefty's is a very cozy and snug place. There's not really much to Lefty's. As you walk inside there are a couple couple's round tables to the left near the windows, where the benches we were sitting on outside happen to be, a mini two person bar table on the other side of the entrance looking out to their patio, a display case with a selection of beverages, and about 8 feet straight ahead from the door was the register. Despite its tiny space, Lefty's was bustling with business.

There were a variety of people that came and left as we hung out and ate on the patio. There was a family, a father with two little girls and a boy, along with the father's friend. There was another man in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, with dreads wrapped up on top of his head like a snake coiled. Sitting next to us there were two middle aged, middle class career-type men. The more heavyset man had much to say about English Royalty back in the time in which the movie Braveheart was set. Agent Billy and I found this interesting an we eavesdropped for a bit, but I was disappointed since I don't think the man ever really made a point; it was more like he just brought up random facts without reason. But he probably had a point which a I missed since, after all, I was not part of their conversation. There were a number of other people but I think these three types I just described show the wide variety of people that ate at Lefty's.

One of Agent Billy's favorite aspects of Lefty's was that the man working there had a fabulous handlebar mustache. He was very friendly and seemed to know about pizza. Two other attractive ladies worked there as well. We sat out on the patio. One of the most noticeable things about the patio were the blue and white perpendicular crosshatch table clothes that suited the four picnic-like tables. There was no music, but for some reason, the place didn't seem in urgent need of any. I think the constant flow of people coming in and out of the pizzeria was entertainment enough. The people were the best element of the atmosphere at Lefty's. But as we soon found out, Lefty's focuses it's attention less on the atmosphere and more on the pizza.

To state it simply: the pizza was fantastic. We ordered one of their specialty pies called Gold Coast, which consisted of grilled chicken, artichoke, sun-dried tomato, basil and elephant garlic. She asked us if we wanted thin or deep dish and, of course, we went deep dish. This pizza was packed with flavor. The basil was a great touch; it was strong but did not overpower the other ingredients. The sauce was a chunky tomato pleasure. The freshness of all the ingredients, particularly the basil and the tomato, was clearly evident. This was my first deep dish pizza and it was not what I expected; it was much better. I thought a deep dish pizza was going to be a lot more bready, but this pizza had an excellent bread-to-cheese ratio. The crust was crispy yet still bready on the inside and had a garlic butter taste. After this experience I became a supporter of the deep dish Chicago-style pizza.

As I began to say earlier, they had a display case with a variety of beverages ranging from bottled grape soda to, yes, beer. Neither of us actually bought beer on this investigation, but it was available. The quality of the pizza was worth the price. We paid 26 bucks and change for a deep dish specialty pizza.

Medieval Pies at Round Table

Place:
Round Table Pizza (apparently from their slogan they're trying to be "the last honest [mega corporate] Pizza.")
13510 Poway Road, Poway
(858) 748-2333

Time:
Wednesday 12 August 2009
Around 19:45

Investigation Led By:
Agents Judy C., Judy B. and Joe (AKA: the jubilant J's)

Overall: 4 out of 10

Pizza: 3 out of 10

Bread: For starters we got two pizzas only one of which we ate at Round Table. The two pizzas were almost polar opposites as far as quality is concerned. There is a simple explanation for this I will elaborate in a moment. The first pizza was a large King Arthur, which had good bread, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. This pizza alone would have gotten a much higher rating but the other pizza also has to be factored into the rating. The second pizza was a simple pepperoni. The look and taste of this pizza could have given the the lower end pre-made pizzas at the grocery store a boost of confidence. The pepperoni pizza bread was like chewing bubble gum, and it was soaked in a mysteriously high amount of grease, I really don't know where all that grease on the pepperoni came from. It was as if the grease was put on as a topping in addition to the pepperoni. I believe the reason for the great quality disparity between the two pizzas is that the King Arthur was paid for in full price, while the pepperoni was acquired for only 50 cents (!) due to an ongoing deal celebrating Round Table's 50 anniversary. It would not surprise me to hear that they had a number of these peperoni pizzas lined up in the back in anticipation for those who know about this "deal".

Cheese: The King Arthur had a good amount of melted stringy cheese. I'd say the cheese to bread ratio was 25 to 75 including the crust. The cheese on the pepperoni was soaked in grease, not stringy, and could have been for all intents and purposes fake cheese or some similar concoction that some scientist had created to simulate mozzarella.

Sauce: A thin layer of tomato sauce on both pies.

Toppings: I enjoyed the King Arthur, but if I had to state its main fault that would be the topping overload; it consisted of pepperoni, Italian sausage, Italian dry salami, linguica (which I just found out is a type of pork sausage), mushrooms, green peppers, yellow onions and black olives. I don't know who to really blame for this, however, since we did order it knowing ahead of time the King Arthur is their supreme pizza, which basically translates to "we pile on as many toppings as we can on this pizza". I do have to mention that I am not a mushroom fan and the King Arthur was loaded with mushrooms, but I did not seem to have a problem with this. So, the pizza complimented the mushrooms enough so that I did not find myself gagging on fungi. The pepperoni pizza on the other hand was simple, but the pepperonis were merely repositories for grease along with the rest of the pizza.

Condiments: This is the first pizza investigation that I neglected to try the condiments on my pizza. I did check out their Parmesan since the quality of a pizzeria speaks volumes of their concern for good pizza. Round table's Parmesan looked and smelled pretty good. The rest of the standard condiments were there: crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. Interestingly, they had a salad bar that had all sorts of dips and sauces and salad constituents. The salad bar in a pizza place could lead to tons of interesting combination experiments.

Drinks: No beer, I think. I didn't go too out of my way to check, but if they do serve alcohol it is not exactly easy to find this out. My gut tells me, since Round Table is trying to be as family oriented as possible, that they probably don't want to serve alcohol. In fact, there was a cheesy banner hanging up on the wall that announced "Round table is fun for the whole family!". With a banner like that and the part of the building sectioned off for arcade games and an air hockey table right next to it, I think Round Table has cornered the market for pizzerias most like Chucky Cheese. Other than no beer they did have a fountain drink selection with the typical sodas, lemonades and teas.

Atmosphere: 3 out of 10

Eye-candy: Round table gave me a new appreciation of the pizzerias that at least try to put posters or some form of art on the wall. All around me were blank walls. As I walked in I was visually bombarded by a table full on documents and forms, some for employment, some for sponsorship and a number of others. The last thing anyone wants to deal with when walking into a pizzeria is paperwork. Most people have been working all day and have come to get some pizza as a short reprieve before the whole ordeal happens tomorrow; these people do not want to see more documents and business proposals at their local pizza place. I can hear them saying "Please! I just want pizza, conversation and good music; is that too much to ask from a pizza joint?" Unfortunately, these people would also be disappointed at the music situation at round table as well.

Music: Believe it or not, there was none! To be more accurate I believe there may have been some music on but it was not loud enough to be perceptible by anyone in the dinning area. Perhaps the guys in the back were constructing pizzas to good tunes, but we sure weren't eating to any. This is a big problem. Life without music is just people going through the motions.

People: Other than us agents their was a family of five that sat next to our booth. A mother, father, two boys and a girl. They finished before we did and the kids went to go play with the air hockey table. The place was dead other than us, the family and the employees.

Service: Preparing the pies, there were a couple down to earth guys in their early twenties. One large man was friendly and helpful when I asked him about our pepperoni pizza that hadn't been sent out to us. There was one girl that wasn't in uniform but was hanging around the front talking to the workers for a while. I figure she might have been a new hire, a worker but just not on the clock, or most likely waiting around for her boyfriend.

Price: Agents Judy C and Judy B. covered the tab even though, without a doubt, I ate the most (thank you guys). But according to the menu a large King Arthur runs about $22.99 plus the drinks and the 50 cent pepperoni pizza. The price tag was probably around $28.

Just Off the Trolley Tracks: Zpizza

Place:
Zpizza
5175 Linda Vista Road, Suite 106
(619) 272-0022

Time:
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Approximately 16:30 on our way home after leaving midway through a Padres game (they were losing 4 to 1 to the Mets by the sixth inning).

Investigation Led By:
Agents Nader and Joe

Overall: 5 out of 10

Pizza: 5.5 out of 10.

Bread: The crust was thin and not too crispy; it had a "healthy" taste to it. Zpizza apparently prides themselves on being healthy, but I don't know if health and good pizza will always go together. To their credit, there were no bubbles or any major issues that would ruin a pizza, like those those gigantic bubbles in the pizza bread at Pizzeria Luigi's, an earlier investigation.

Cheese: Nothing out of the ordinary. We decided to split our large pie into to different types. Agent Nader chose the Provence and I chose the Santa Fe. Both styles used the same typical mozzarella cheese and, of course the same pizza bread since they were both one and the same pizza. The toppings and sauces was where all the difference were.

Sauce: Thin layer of tomato sauce. To be honest I don't recall even seeing any pizza sauce, but I would have been able to tell if there was a complete lack of sauce. Either way, the sauce was not anything extraordinary.

Toppings: The Santa Fe consisted of chipotle pesto, mozzarella, chicken sausage, red onions, corn, fresh avocado, sour cream, and cilantro. At least this is what the menu lists. The reason I chose the Santa Fe was precisely for the chipotle pesto. Come to think of it, the chipoltle pesto most likely replaced the tomato sauce, which would explain the mysterious lack of tomato sauce I just mentioned. I hope this was the case because the pesto sauce was not easily visible, or tasteable for that matter. I was fairly excited to taste this chipotle pesto and my anticipation turn to mild disappointment after hardly noticing any pesto at all. The pizza reminded me of a vegetarian pizza except for the tasty chicken sausage slices dealt out on top of the mozzarella. The above description of the Santa Fe is a little misleading. The pizza appears much more plain then the menu description. One surprise was the light sprinkle of corn, yes, corn. The menu, on a second glance, does mention that corn is one of the toppings. The corn topping provoked agent Nader into mentioning an international pizza investigation he once led with Agent Munir in Israel. They were shocked to find that pizza makers there never mixed cheese with meat, an apparent violation of the the old Jewish adage: "Never boil the calve in the mother's milk". Needless to say, they knew that the best pizza in the world must be sought out in other regions of the world.

Agent Nader opted for the Provence style pizza, which consisted of organic tomato sauce, roasted garlic sauce, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, capers, tomatoes and basil. There were noticeable little seed/pod looking things sown across the pizza. I didn't venture to try one by itself, but Agent Nader did and thought they were decent. Assuming that these pod-like things were intentionally place on the pizza, I figure that they must be the capers.. Maybe a little google research on capers would settle this mystery. Both pizzas were not bad. They may be just the right pizza for vegetarians who would thrive on bread and plants.

Sauce: The Provence half was tomato and the Santa Fe half was chipotle pesto.

Condiments: The standard: Pretty good Parmesan, crushed red peppers and salt and pepper.

Drinks: No beer. Not even a fountain selection. They did have a selection, but this was more of a health conscious pizzeria, so naturally they offered bottled drinks from behind the counter. For some reason there seems to be a tendency to equate healthy drinks with bottled drinks. Agent Nader bought a bottled Arnold Palmer. The company that manufactured the drink was called something like Manson and Sons Inc., which sort of gives a off a vibe that the company is some small farm family hand crafting each drink in the barn. But I think Manson and Sons is more properly equated to some major corporate law firm with a name like Bariben and Sons Inc.

Atmosphere: 4 out 10

Eye-candy: There wasn't much for visual stimulus. The pizzeria was located in a low traffic plaza right off the trolley tracks. The place seemed more like a neighborhood than a market, directly across the parking lot was a condo or apartment complex. Inside Zpizza there were what looked like mass produced poster-size pictures of pizza ingredients. One was of an avocado sliced in half with the pit still intact. There was one TV screen around the top corner nearest to the window ( the only window, the place was built in the hole-in-the-wall fashion ). There was one red sofa, the rest of the furniture was black tables and chairs. Zpizza was apparently trying to offer a more relaxed vibe with the sofa, but it wasn't working. In fact, the sofa seemed out of place enough so that it got me thinking about the future of Zpizza in this plaza: I concluded that it won't be in business for much longer than a year.

Music: This was the worst aspect of Zpizza. It would have been better if they hadn't played any music at all. By playing what they did, they showed that they had no deep concern for music. The music was playing on some sort of radio program that intermittently and fairly frequently ruined the flow of music with commercials. When there wasn't commercials they played worn-out, tame, and commercialized rock such as Stained. Who do they expect to come and lounge on their single red sofa looking forward to this music? The masterminds behind Zpizza may or may not know how to run a business, but it is clear that they are out of touch with culture.

People: We were the only people in the joint that afternoon, and we were the only people in there the entire time we stuck around to eat our pie.

Service: We were helped by a cute Latin girl wearing an all-black uniform. She also delivered our pizza to our table. There was one guy working on the pizzas, or pizza, singular, since we were the only ones buying pizza, and another guy who came out from the back a few minutes later. I wondered how Zpizza could afford to staff 3 people while they manage to sell at best one pizza an hour. This became another reason why I don't think Zpizza will be around next fall.

Price: We got a large pizza split into two of their "Zpizza Creations" and a bottled Arnold Palmer for $23 and change.