Holiday Pizza Recap
Tis the season to eat pizza. Let's recap the holiday pizza consumption.
Hi there!
Many family events are decorated with greasy pizza boxes and whenever we get together, wherever we may go, there’s a 90% pizza is on the menu. Maybe we need to expand our horizons, explore the deep culinary universe. Go beyond the ominous pizza belt that surrounds our existence to discover new celestial foods. Yes, we could do that. But why begin to irresponsibility cultivate another planet when there’s still so much work to be done on our own? There’s so many pizza combinations, flavors and toppings to explore…
Pizza Stop 1 - Nancetta’s for Festivus
Nancetta’s is a hidden Italian restaurant off of Old Freeport Road. If you drive down Freeport road you’ve probably gone by it hundreds of time without realizing it. Because why would you go down Old Freeport Road? They built a better, upgraded, road next to it and kept the old road just for fun. Old Freeport road is covered in shadows and darkness and a few businesses exist back there out of the public’s eye.
That’s where Nancetta’s is located. Unassuming, tiny, trying to bring “real” Italian food to Pittsburgh. Here’s their pizza.
It was flaky, chewy and, well, solid. More flatbread than pizza in some ways. Not a big rise, but the toppings were fresh. Tomatoes aren’t totally in season, but it got the point across: Nancetta’s marches to the beat of their own drum. If you’re doing Italian in Pittsburgh a certain way, Nancetta’s does the opposite. They are breaking all the rules and plating food in a peculiar way that makes you suspicious. What’s really going on here?
This was on Festivus and we all had a great time. The owner came over to talk to us. We were the only people in the restaurant and I’m not sure if he felt bad for us or we were supposed to feel bad for him. He bragged about his take on Italian and that he makes the food that your grandma made. Not knowing our grandma it’s possible that he did a self own. He concluded by saying he’s bringing eight pasta dishes to the city in 2024 that no one in Pittsburgh has ever had. So look forward to that.
Pizza Stop 2 - Christmas Day Pizza Rossa
To me Christmas means two things: My daughter’s birthday and pizza. I love having a nice Sicilian, square or thicker pizza alongside a cup of coffee. The sound of joy, Charlie begging for more gifts to open, bracing for the onslaught of family functions. There’s a peace and familiarity to pizza. I can always escape to the kitchen for another slice.
This year I grabbed two Pizza Rossas from Daniele Brenci. I wrote about it in the last issue and if you haven’t grabbed this pizza yet you haven’t lived. Catch him this Sunday at Tina’s!
Pizza Stop 3 - Post-Trivia Caliente
My dad, Tommy T, has been going to trivia on Tuesday nights in Aspinwall. He started out by going alone and finishing dead last every week. He told me this and I thought I’d tag along to see if I can provide any insights. I know I’d be a huge asset if there was ever a category on video games, runners from the 70’s and today or pizza. I haven’t had a tremendous impact, but we are now closer to the top than we are to the bottom which is a huge improvement over scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Over the holidays my sister was in town and tagged along. A team of three would surely be exponentially better than a team of two. And it was. We coasted through the categories and rocketed to the top of the leaderboard. Going into the final category we were only five points behind first place. The final category was space.
Well, turns out we don’t know space too well. The one question we got right that no one else was was: What song did the astronauts play as a joke on Christmas Day as a joke over their radio? The song was created in 1850.
The answer is of course Jingle-Bells.
We ended up losing by one point. In an earlier round our team was stumped and were unable to recall who sang the infamous song “Long December” which has 72 millions plays on Spotify, reached peak popularity in 1996, a time where I was buying music, and actually know 25% of the words too. Strange stuff.
We were starving post-trivia and there was no way we could rest our heads with the trivia adrenaline coursing through our veins. So we hit up Caliente in Aspinwall.
It was near closing time, so I expected half-hearted pizzas. But we got some of the best cooked pizzas I’ve ever had at Caliente. These pizzas were crispy, well-done and artfully crafted. Big props to them.
My dad was craving a Mee-Maw Pizza to take back to his pizza lab. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) they were out of that. So we settled on the Luca Brasi. This is one of the pizzas in their award winning section and keeping it sequestered in that arena is a disservice to the rest of their menu. This was a great pizza - the sauce was bright, juicy. It was perfecty topped and the flavors came together to create a pizza that’s better than the sum of its parts. This is what the standard pizza should be.
Maybe it’s not economical to make this the standard. This way they can offer a more affordable entry-level product then mature their customer into someone that always orders the Luca Brasi. But for me this is the pizza worth eating at Caliente and what I’d recommend someone who is curious why Caliente’s website is under the URL WorldsBestPizza.com to try.
Last Pizza of the Year - Slyfox
Christa, Charlie and I met our pal Mark for some pizza. Earlier in the day Mark helped me move a couch. We were unable to get it into the basement, but we certainly tried out best. I’ve been doing a lot of math since that failure and I’m confident it can fit if we try a couple new-and-improved angles.
Anyways, later that day we met up at Sly Fox in the Highline for a drink and some food. They have a solid looking pizza oven there, but the pizzas that came out were mediocre. I bet these pizzas taste great on a hot day after biking along the trails, but for a hang, you can do way better. Nothing to write home about, but I had to document my final pizza of the year.
Maybe not the best way to close out pizza, but I know 2024 will have tremendous pizza. The Pittsburgh pizza scene is maturing and evolving and I bet we’ll see some exciting innovation from our favorite pizza shops.
Happy New Year and Pizza ya later!
-Dan Tallarico, Pizza Journalist