With all the rankings of restaurants online, it’s still fun to go back through your memory banks to find the places you’ve enjoyed the most. Pizza is something people love to argue about. Who makes the best crust? How are the spices? Deep dish or thin? Does it have the proper crispiness?
There are multiple variables we consider when thinking about where we got the best pizza of our lives. Interestingly, I think our judgements are somewhat influenced by what stage of life we were in when we ate that pizza. For example, it’s probably hard to beat the very best pizza you had, because if you consumed it when you were a kid, your taste buds probably got way more involved in ranking it highly than if you had your first pizza slice at age 85. Just sayin’.
One of the best pizza’s I remember is Binovi’s (who the heck knows if that spelling is correct), a short drive from our home in New Jersey where our family grew up. Our dad would drive over and have a beer in a paper cup and bring it home in a white box, strictly a basic large cheese. It bubbled and the cheese/tomato sauce mixture was like artwork, crusted and gooey in a perfect combination. It was a Sunday night treat that remains in the memory banks to this day.
During high school, after a group of buddies went to a basketball or football game, the local hangout was Romito’s in Kankakee, IL. The sausage pizza was the best, crisp crust, cut in squares so us hungry teenagers could inhale chunks more quickly. Sadly, it no longer exists, but when I return to visit friends, another great pizza place is where we go: Sammy’s.
Sammy’s has a story. I don’t remember it. But several friends do, and they like to remind me of it. During high school, we came in one night to get pizza and the waitress got angry with me. It seems someone had walked out on their bill with her recently and she thought I was one of the culprits. “YOU ARE ON THAT BOWLING TEAM, AREN’T YOU?,” my friends have recounted she yelled at me, accusing me of cheating her on the bill.
I don’t remember the story at all, but my friends sure love to laugh in retelling it. Their pizza has achieved such a level of perfection, that I make Sammy’s a stop when I come back to visit. That says it all. Sausage and cheese. Sometimes I’ll add onions.
Are you a Papa Murphy’s fan? If not, you should be. They have a couple of special pies. One has become our go-to the past couple of years: A white cheddar veggie option that drizzles juices off it, and has artichokes as a signature ingredient. It makes you feel righteous for hammering four slices. “Mom, I ate my vegetables.”
College brought deep dish front and center, with two awesome places in Champaign, IL, Garcias and Papa Dels. Not sure either survive today.
In Pennsylvania, our kids got their first taste, at Guiardano’s, and the all-meat version we ordered is one of the best ever.
Does where you live and when you lived there shape your pizza memories? I’m not sure. But it certainly is fun to think back on the great tastes that make you want to return to the old haunts.
With all the rankings of restaurants online, it’s still fun to go back through your memory banks to find the places you’ve enjoyed the most. Pizza is something people love to argue about. Who makes the best crust? How are the spices? Deep dish or thin? Does it have the proper crispiness?
There are multiple variables we consider when thinking about where we got the best pizza of our lives. Interestingly, I think our judgements are somewhat influenced by what stage of life we were in when we ate that pizza. For example, it’s probably hard to beat the very best pizza you had, because if you consumed it when you were a kid, your taste buds probably got way more involved in ranking it highly than if you had your first pizza slice at age 85. Just sayin’.
One of the best pizza’s I remember is Binovi’s (who the heck knows if that spelling is correct), a short drive from our home in New Jersey where our family grew up. Our dad would drive over and have a beer in a paper cup and bring it home in a white box, strictly a basic large cheese. It bubbled and the cheese/tomato sauce mixture was like artwork, crusted and gooey in a perfect combination. It was a Sunday night treat that remains in the memory banks to this day.
During high school, after a group of buddies went to a basketball or football game, the local hangout was Romito’s in Kankakee, IL. The sausage pizza was the best, crisp crust, cut in squares so us hungry teenagers could inhale chunks more quickly. Sadly, it no longer exists, but when I return to visit friends, another great pizza place is where we go: Sammy’s.
Sammy’s has a story. I don’t remember it. But several friends do, and they like to remind me of it. During high school, we came in one night to get pizza and the waitress got angry with me. It seems someone had walked out on their bill with her recently and she thought I was one of the culprits. “YOU ARE ON THAT BOWLING TEAM, AREN’T YOU?,” my friends have recounted she yelled at me, accusing me of cheating her on the bill.
I don’t remember the story at all, but my friends sure love to laugh in retelling it. Their pizza has achieved such a level of perfection, that I make Sammy’s a stop when I come back to visit. That says it all. Sausage and cheese. Sometimes I’ll add onions.
Are you a Papa Murphy’s fan? If not, you should be. They have a couple of special pies. One has become our go-to the past couple of years: A white cheddar veggie option that drizzles juices off it, and has artichokes as a signature ingredient. It makes you feel righteous for hammering four slices. “Mom, I ate my vegetables.”
College brought deep dish front and center, with two awesome places in Champaign, IL, Garcias and Papa Dels. Not sure either survive today.
In Pennsylvania, our kids got their first taste, at Guiardano’s, and the all-meat version we ordered is one of the best ever.
Does where you live and when you lived there shape your pizza memories? I’m not sure. But it certainly is fun to think back on the great tastes that make you want to return to the old haunts.
