A sharp, haunting pizza from Aslin Brewery
The Cheese Pizza from Aslin Brewing haunts my dreams, plus an ode to a pizza partner and Black Cat Pizza
A few weeks ago I wrote about the food situation at Aslin Brewery. After hiccups and false starts in the kitchen, Aslin Brewing decided that pizza would be their marquee food. The menu has expanded since their initial roll out - you can get wings, waffle fries and smash burgers to accompany your pizza.
But here we are focused on the pizza. It’s called Izzi. From the Aslin Brewing website they describe Izzi as:
IZZI is the scratch kitchen concept developed by
Aslin’s two co-founders, Andrew and Kai, and Chef Taylor Gates.
After scouring the pizza and bakery scene learning, volunteering, and working in some of the DC area's best bakeries and pizzerias, Chef Taylor has perfected his naturally leavened dough and unique fermentation style. We spent the past year enjoying tasty bites in Alexandria and decided it was finally time for Herndon to get in on the deal. Enter, IZZI, an extension of the concept launched in Alexandria. IZZI Herndon will be there for you morning, noon, and night...well, at least until bedtime.
The co-founders did some recon, developed their own pizza based on the DC palate. I’ve spent some time exploring the DC pizza scene and it’s what I’d describe as a hodge podge of pizza. It consists of a lot of pizza makers who moved there and are making their hometown pizza for the DC community. There’s a few solid neopiltan places like Two Amy’s and Menomale, but the vast pizza landscape lacks a unique flavor or perspective. It’s echoing pizza from a nearby region, trying to replicate New Haven Style Apizza or a facsimile of New York Pizza. The world’s pizza coming together to forge a future of pizza. Building a better pizza world - a worthy endeavor for a slice formed by the hands of democracy.
This week I threw out the idea of visiting Aslin Brewery to the family. It was a Monday night, no one was interested in cooking from an exhausted day, and I wanted something sloppy and greasy. Around 5:10pm the family gathered in the dining room and the topic of dinner came up. What could we possibly do…the situation was dire. I shot my shot - next thing I know I’m driving Christa and Charlie to Aslin Brewery, embarking on a weekday pizza adventure.
One of the few restaurants open on a Monday, yet it was fairly empty. Aslin is primarily a brewery and owns a huge space in the Terminal. As it comes to the new fangled Terminal building, this is an addition that’s less egregious than the others. Good vibe, bright, lots of room to hang.
We order the pizza. A large plain is $20. A little pricey, but it’s a solid 16 inch round. For $4 extra you can make it a pan pizza. There’s a couple of speciality options, buffalo chicken, sopprestaa, and veggie, so there’s something for everyone.
As soon as the pizza is plopped down you can feel the vibe change. This pizza has its own aura. It warps reality and your sense of desire. Did you actually want pizza? Wafting into your nostrils is the sharpest cheese smell cheese can conjure. It floats into the hairs lining the nasal passage and embeds itself there. It’s not quite stinky, but this pizza is pungent. It’s serious business and if you’re not in the head space for a dank pizza, well, it might throw you off.
From a distance the pizza looks like a classic pizza. Something you’d see in any suburban pizza shop. It’s round, a sea of red, plops of white. Very humble, a pizza welcome at any Friday night pizza party or sleep over. To the naked eye it is a pristine specimen of pizza. But you cannot discount the pungent scent.
The pizza is crisp, thin, leaves of basil dot the landscape. The sauce is standard,a nice bright tomato sauce. The cheese, at first, tasted like my childhood pizza shop. On first bite I thought of Luciano’s and Monte Cello’s. This is a less greasy version of Mama Lucia’s. I was enamored. A decent brewery pizza that has so much in common with the pizza I grew up eating. A perfect addition to the Pittsburgh pizza tapestry. But there was a mysterious wallop of a flavor that accompanied every bite.
According to the website, the cheese pizza is made with whole milk mozzarella and pecorino romano. Pecorino is sharp, but also has a depth of flavor. That wasn’t what I was tasting. They also say that all pizzas are finished with “Aged seven sisters cheese by doe run dairy.” What is that cheese? Murray’s Cheese describes it as, “The Farm at Doe Run combines the sweet butterscotch flavor of a Gouda with the nutty, milky essence of an Alpine cheese in their Seven Sisters. This highly snackable award-winning selection has a firm paste and notes of caramel and hazelnut, making it an instant crowd-pleaser.”
That is a wild cheese to top a pizza with. It completely takes over the pizza as the alpha cheese of the trio. Christa did not enjoy it and I was able to crush three slices. The pizza pairs well enough with the beer, but on its own it’s hard to justify.
We ended up boxing up the pizza and taking it home. I figured it wouldn’t amount to anything, but later that night I got peckish and took a bite. The pizza that was a turn off the night earlier was now a comfort. I had a weird craving for this pizza with an extreme cheese. I felt like a newly crested vampire who finally gave into the taste for blood. I ate a slice and went to bed.
On Tuesday I biked into the office and kicked myself for forgetting the leftover pizza. Instead I’d settle for a Jimmy John’s hoagie. A woeful constellation prize. What was that pizza doing now, I wondered. How bad did my refrigerator stink…At the end of the day I biked home, arriving before my family, warmed up the air fryer, and tossed a slice in to warm up. I choked it down before anyone got home. It was comforting. It was sharp. It both satiated my craving and exacerbated it. A wild fire that couldn’t be quenched. What was with that cheese?
The next day I raced home and finished the leftovers. My family never had a chance to sample a next-day slice. I ate the whole thing. Did I enjoy it? Yes, I think I did. It also felt like I had to eat it. There was something mysterious about that pizza that kept me coming back. A ghost with unfinished business. I didn’t know what I had to do to continue on my journey, but I had to do something. The sharpness of the pizza haunts me to this day. And if you have the pizza at Aslin please report back and let me know if it haunts you too.
Gourmet Slice from Black Cat Pizza
Last Friday I stopped by Dancing Gnome Brewery for their Friday the 13th Pizza Event. Alberta’s Pizza, Blue Bird and Black Cat all setup shop and you could order pizza from any of them. I didn’t have much time so I hit up the crew of Black Cat Pizza.
I got the Burrata and Hot Honey pizza because that’s not something they typically have for delivery. The Buratta was divine, edible clouds mixed with cheesy marshmallows. The Hot Honey perfect complimented the slices. They’ll be at the Allegheny River Trail Park tomorrow for their Fall Festival if you have a Black Cat Craving.
Big Ups to Christa
Last weekend I traveled to Columbus for the marathon with my lovely wife Christa. Like a great partner, she agreed to come to the marathon and walked nearly 10 miles to spectate me running the race. You really don’t get your bang for your buck when cheering on a runner at a race like this. I think I saw Christa for a total of one minute during my 2:40:28 marathon. A drop in the bucket, but that is quite a potent drop!
During a marathon you spend 90% of it coming up with reasons to slow down or stop entirely. Knowing I had Christa at the finish kept me going. Wanted to give a shoutout to her, who is not only a great marathon partner but is a generous life and pizza partner as well. I wouldn’t go on as many pizza adventures if it weren’t for her!
Wow nice newsletter today.
If you enjoyed this please consider sharing with a pizza pal!
Pizza ya later!
-Dan Tallarico, Pizza Journalist