Going into the Wolve's Den with a Pizza Lupo Review
Plus, some new and intriguing pizza popping up in Oakland and a couple of places you can get your precious Valentine's Day Heart pizza.
Hi there!
This is getting published on 2/10, a day after National Pizza Day. A day we always and consistently celebrate on February 9th. Because that’s the day pizza was invented.
I want to highlight a cool thing that Rico at Slice On Broadway was doing. For every pizza ordered on National Pizza Day from Slice On Broadway, they’d donate to the Pittsburgh Food Bank! A real win-win.
Okay, lots of things today, so let’s get into this Pizza Lupo experience!
Pizza Lupo Review
Pizza Lupo has gone under some changes in recent months. After opening up, I heard they had some issues getting their oven temperature consistent which disrupted their pizza process. After undergoing some renovations, getting equipped with a new oven, they reopened last year ready to break into the pizza scene. They quickly became a darling of the pizza community. They were ranked one of the top pizza places by the Post-Gazette and everyone I talked to asked me if I had Pizza Lupo.
I told them that, yes, I did eat their pizza and my experience was featured on our podcast. I wasn’t a huge fan of the pizza so it was tough for me to justify passing up Spirit, Spak, Driftwood Oven to visit Pizza Lupo. The competition is fiercer, it’s a den of wolves here!
But I always added the caveat that I had their pizza in the past, before they perfected their craft. I heard it was better. I heard they figured it out.
Does it matter what I didn’t like about the old pizza Lupo? The sauce and cheese that congealed into an entity found in school lunch rooms? The crust that lacked flavor? Pizza is an evolution for many shops and it’s important to keep improving. Many pizza makers are constantly on the hunt for a better pizza - a bad pizza is the first step to creating a better pizza. Trust the process.
I was eager to give Pizza Lupo another chance. After all, it was a shop of mystery and intrigue. A new shop making a splash, crushing it on Instagram, doing all the right things. Heck their website simply states that their pizza is both authentic and memorable.
Authentic pizza - that’s an interesting callout for a pizza place. Authentic in what way? Has there been a string of fake, invalid pizza getting distributed in the city? What makes a pizza truly authentic? It’s a philosophical question that you’ll think about with every bite of Pizza Lupo. Is what you’re eating real pizza and all other pizza has been an illusion?
Their claim of authenticity can be a call out to how they handle their dough and pizza. Oddly, I found the pizza incredibly chewy. The dough was so overwhelmingly chewy it overshadowed nearly every aspect of the pizza. I went back for another piece thinking it was a fluke, maybe I was hallucinating. But slice after slice, across two different pieces had more in common with bubblegum than a traditional pizza. My jaw was working over time to masticate each slice. A factor of over-handling dough is a chewy crust. I’m not sure if that’s exactly what caused this pizza to act that way, but could be a case of being too authentic.
The sauce was a non-factor from the pie. It was certainly present, pools of it oozed around the pizza, but this night it didn’t feel like contributing to the flavor profile. Without photos to prove the sauce's existence I would doubt it was ever applied.
On the contrary, the cheese stole the show. If you like cheese and resent other fundamental aspects of pizza, this is the pizza for you. Even the vodka pizza we ordered emphasized the fresh mozzarella cheese which over powered the rest of the pizza flavors. The vodka sauce flavoring skulked in the background waiting far too long to pounce on the taste buds, if ever.
I know people that speak highly of Pizza Lupo. I kept going back to the boxes looking for that revelation. Looking for that memorable experience. But it never came.
Pizza is a work in progress. There are dozen variables that disrupt the pizza flow. It’s possible an uptick in humidity on an abnormal warm day warped the dough. Or the hydration was off ever so slightly. Maybe I got the one-in-a-million unusual pizza from Pizza Lupo.
But they succeeded in making their pizza memorable. Experiencing this pizza helps me to calibrate what I like and don’t like about pizza. An excellent data point that helps to reinforce my own pizza beliefs. I look forward to letting some time pass and trying Pizza Lupo again to see how they’ve evolved their process.
New Pizza Entrant in Oakland - Gussy’s Bagel
Pittsburgh Pizza Expert Steve Mason knows his way around the city’s pizza. He recently posted about Gussy’s Bagel in Oakland serving pizza during lunch. Pizza looks incredibly legit, goopy, and delicious. Nice char, good pools of cheese.
First they conquer bagels, now pizza. Could this be the slice of NYC that Oakland has been pining for? This pizza reminds me of the Brooklyn Style pizza Pizza Taglio made one Christmas Eve.
Heart Shaped Pizza in a Box
Okay pizza lovers, forget buying a dozen roses for $25 or a box of mediocre chocolates for your loved one. Celebrate Valentine’s Day in style by grabbing sloppy heart shaped pizza. Because love is sloppy. Love is cheesy. Love is built out a sturdy foundation that holds all our hopes and dreams. Yes, pizza is the perfect metaphor for love.
I’ve kept an eye on what pizza shops in the area are serving up heart-shaped pizza for the holiday. Here’s a few I found. If there’s some I missed let me know in the comments!
Aldi’s Frozen Heart Pizza
This is the candy heart equivalent of pizza hearts. It’s serviceable, cheap and expresses your deep, burning passion for your partner. It’s made with REAL cheese and is perfect for sharing. I’m seeing reports that this pizza retails for $5.99 and resides in the deli section.
Alta Via Pizzeria Broken Heart Pizza
Whether you are celebrating with a loved one or trying to drown your sorrows with pizza, Alta Via Pizzeria in Bakery Square has you covered. The bad news is that this heart-shaped pizza is an astonishing $25. I guess it’s more affordable than going out to grab surf-and-turf. If that’s the bar then $25 is a fair price.
Pizza Italia Heart Pizza
Pizza Italia is working on a new facade on Liberty Ave, but they’re still operating in Bloomfield as if they were never on fire. To me, they were one of the more prominent places in the city to advertise their pizza hearts. They even have a photo on their website year-round. Will they make this pizza for you out of season? I guess it’s worth asking.
Mineo’s Mound of Love
Mineo’s put out this post last year around this time offering to make heart-shaped pizza for their fans. I called Mineo’s to confirm this fact and great news: They are doing heart-shaped pizza for Valentine’s Day. The person was jovial when they first picked up the phone, but when I asked their answer was curt. Almost disappointed. Check out Mineo’s here.
Thanks for reading! I hope you have found something to enjoy in this amazing pizza newsletter. Feel free to leave a comment or share the newsletter with your pizza pals.
Thanks and pizza ya later!
-Dan Tallarico, Pizza Journalist