Pizza Italia Upgrades, a Visit to the Pizza Factory and Rainbow Cat!
A variety of pizza was consumed during Halloween Week! Let's recap.
Hi there!
Eat any good pizza lately? If you did let me know. Always on the prowl for a perfectly pleasant pie.
Me? Well, wow, thanks for asking. I’ve been eating a lot of pizza lately. Too much? Depending on who you ask, perhaps. But as a wise man once said, “Everything in moderation. Even excess.” This week was excessively pizza. I do have one bit of news which we’ll get to, but enjoy the weekly recap of pizza.
Pizza Italia Bouncing Back
If you’ve driven down Liberty Ave in Bloomfield lately you’ve no doubt noticed the upgrade to Pizza Italia. Pizza Italia suffered fire damage near the start of 2020 and has been rebuilding since. They’ve been open doing window service on a side street, but no doubt that having no presence on bustling Liberty Ave has hurt their business.
This is a considerable upgrade. You got the famous boot, aka Italy, and a huge sign. Even if you couldn’t read English you would know this building had pizza inside. Not sure when it might reopen, but hopefully they’ve expanded their seating beyond the one tiny table near the counter.
Pizza Recap
Halloween Eve - Benvenuti’s Pizza Factory
The Sunday before Halloween Charlie and I met my dad, Tommy T, at Dancing Gnome which was playing host to Benvenuti’s Pizza Factory. This is a mobile foodtruck, a pizza shop on wheels. They emphasize that their dough is made fresh daily. I’ve said this before, but dough made fresh daily is usually not a great sign. Fresh dough doesn’t have the time to gestate, rise and develop that wonderful flavor.
The pizza was a little bland. The crust especially. The charred basil didn’t do much for me and I thought the sauce was a bit too dense.
Factory made pizza has a dreadful connotation. I imagine a smoke filled warehouse focused on churning out mass produced products as cost efficiently as possible. Any talk of a pizza union results in immediate firing. Workers living paycheck to paycheck, never making enough to break out of their stratosphere and live the life they’re dreaming of. A slave to capitalism and dreams that will never come. Years later when the factory is out of business a whole town collapses with nowhere to go. Is that what’s happening here?
Counterpoint - My dad loved it. He thinks the pizza is a work of art. He gobbled down a whole pie himself ranting and raving the whole time. Isn’t it great how subjective pizza is?
Halloween - Caliente’s Pizza
Halloween is a holiday that last all of two hours, but you have to cram a day’s worth of activities in those two hours. Dinner, getting dressed, dressing a kid up, handing out candy, walking through the neighborhood all between the hours of 5pm and 7pm. How is it possible?
Well, through pizza all things are possible. To streamline dinner we picked up Caliente pizza. I’m always surprised how soft, doughy and squishy this pizza is. It’s chewier than most other pizza in the area. And on a misty Halloween night it hit the spot. Perfectly serviceable pizza when you’re in a pinch.
Because Halloween was on a Monday two of our other choices for pizza were closed: Fazio’s and Spak. Caliente was a pleasant bronze medal.
Thursday Night Spak Attack
I’m so embarrassed I didn’t take a picture of this Spak pizza. But on Thursday we had another hectic day and what did we turn to to pull us out of the madness? You guessed it, pizza.
For a simple pizza I am drawn towards Spak. They are incredibly reliable and provide a pizza that’s incredibly comfortable. Always a pleasure to eat.
My go-to Spak move is to get the pizza home, crack open the box and eat half a slice of pizza over the box of pizza. It’s the greatest feeling only rivaled by the experience of eating a ripe peach over the sink. Same concept here. I call it the Spak Attack. Diving right into the pizza like a wild animal, really letting go of any inhibition. It’s freeing and cathartic.
Wow what an update! Thanks for taking the time to read this
Please consider sharing or telling all your pizza friends. It’s not every day you come across a newsletter featuring a cornucopia of pizza philosophy. How cool is that?
Pizza ya later!
-Dan Tallarico, Pizza Journalist