Category: Pizza

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Pizza 9 – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:55 AM

My first review of Pizza 9 was written after my inaugural visit in January, 2009 at its original location in Albuquerque’s International District.  Three years later, there are nine Pizza 9 restaurants strewn throughout Albuquerque and Rio Rancho with a Pizza 9 planned for Santa Fe and “sky’s the limit” growth planned beyond that.  Even before Pizza 9 became a ubiquitous Duke City presence, my review engendered a significant number of visits and comments.  Today, this review is the tenth most frequently launched from among nearly 700 reviews on this blog.  More than 20 comments–some favorable and some almost inflammatory in nature–seem to indicate Pizza 9 evokes passion. What’s in a name?  According to an English bard and playwright of some repute, a rose by any name would smell as sweet.  It would be interesting to conjecture what William Shakespeare would have said about pizza, especially since the label “pizza” has come to mean different things, especially to proponents of two vastly different styles of pizza. In New York City, pizza is practically a religion with nearly than 1700 restaurants in “Metropolis” containing the words “pizza” or “pizzeria” in their name.   “New York style pizza”  has come to mean…

AlbuquerqueBurgersClosed in 2016Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011Pizza

Doc & Eddy’s – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:50 AM

Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn’t you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same You wanna be where everybody knows Your name. –Cheers Lyrics America has become increasingly homogenized as corporate chains have used catchy jingles, universal name recognition and multi-million dollar media budgets to spread their tentacles across the fruited plain and entice gullible  customers into their  copycat restaurants.  Despite the boring sameness perpetuated by corporate chains, Americans still crave a familiar, comfortable and welcoming gathering spot where “everybody knows your name.”  More than ever, American diners want to support restaurants that are part of the community, especially those which showcase local fare and local ingredients. Local restaurants–mom-and-pops–the type of which will be celebrated by Ryan Scott’s compelling radio program “Break the Chain” also inspire loyalty because they’re owned and operated by our friends and neighbors, people like us who are invested in the community and share our passion for the Land of Enchantment.  That…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2012Gone But Not ForgottenItalianPizza

Amici – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:10 PM

“There are two laws of the universe — gravity, and everyone likes Italian food.” Neil Simon, American playwright and screenwriter A 2007 Harris Poll declared Italian food the most popular ethnic food in America, revealing that when Americans eat out, the cuisine of choice for nearly a quarter of them is Italian food.  Among the youngest group of respondents, those aged 18-30, the percentage is even higher.  Famous oenophile and food writer Dino Romano believes Italian food is so popular because humans are genetically predisposed to eat as many things that are good for us as possible.  Romano believes Italian cuisine lends itself to an anthropological need to eat a large variety of foods in many ways. Perhaps the operative word here should be “large.”  When it comes to Italian food, most of us believe the only thing wrong with Italian food is described in the adage, “the problem with Italian food is two days later you’re hungry again.”  We like our pasta in profuse portions (lotsa pasta), our pizzas to be prolific, our cannoli to be colossal, our antipasti to be ample.  You get the picture.  When it comes to dieting, there are many other things we’d rather give…

Closed in 2011Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoPizzaRio Rancho

Rocco’s Pizzeria – Rio Rancho, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:16 AM

In an age of sensory bombardment, we all occasionally experience a phenomenon known as an “earworm.” Earworm is a literal translation of a German term for a song (particularly an annoying one) stuck in someone’s head. For some it’s the Gilligan’s Island theme song. For others, it might be “It’s a Small World” or the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.” In the 1960s, one television commercial was responsible for an earworm that afflicted many of us in the Albuquerque viewing area. It was a commercial for Peppino’s Pizza Joint and the words to its annoyingly catchy jingle were “The p-pizza’s p-perfect at Peppino’s, the p-pizza’s p-perfect at Peppino’s p-pizza joint.” I’ll bet some of the more “seasoned” (geriatrically advanced like me) members of the Duke City Fix’s Born in ‘Burque group reading this post are cursing me because now they can’t get that jingle out of their minds. Peppino’s Pizza Joint and that catchy jingle have been gone now for close to forty years, but the jingle is reborn every time I passed by or thought about Petitto’s Pizzeria in Rio Rancho. Petitto’s, which opened in 2007, was ensconced in a fairly nondescript strip shopping center on Southern Boulevard and was not…

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Straight Up Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:07 AM

Hall of Fame New York Yankee Yogi Berra is renown for his malapropisms, notorious flubs that made him one of the most quoted personalities in the sports world.   “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six” is one of his classic examples of misspeak.  In a more serious vein, Pulitzer Prize award-winning writer Anna Quindlen, used pizza in an analogy  “Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around.” Profound quotes all, but perhaps the one which best expresses the sentiment most Americans feel about pizza–which we consume at the rate of approximately 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices per second–comes from “every man” comedian and actor Kevin James who said, “There’s no better feeling in the world than a warm pizza box on your lap.” Posting in the Chow Down in Burque Town forum, a Duke City Fix member who goes by the sobriquet “Coffee Freak” waxed eloquent about a new pizza restaurant which opened in the Northeast Heights in May, 2009. Feeling as if he’d “been stuck in exile since moving to the NE Heights,” the coffee connoisseur’s dreams had been dominated by good pizza, dreams which “were…

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‘O Eating House – Pojoaque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:57 PM

Until the 1990s, Poeh (also known as the Pueblo of Pojoaque) lived up to its name. In Tewa, the traditional language of six of New Mexico’s eight northern Pueblos, “Poeh” means pathway. That’s all Poeh seemed to be–a pathway to somewhere else.  Located fifteen miles north of Santa Fe on U.S. 84/285, Poeh didn’t seem to draw a second glance from speeding motorists on their way to Taos.  That was the case until the 1990s when the late Poeh governor Jake Viarrial and other tribal visionaries led an economic renaissance that established thriving Pueblo businesses, including flourishing gaming operations. Today Poeh’s numerous tribal enterprises make it a model of prosperity and self-sufficiency. Its empire now includes the Cities of Gold casino, the Buffalo Thunder resort (New Mexico’s largest and most expensive resort), two hotels, two golf courses, a shopping center, a wellness center and a Santa Fe caliber fine-dining restaurant called Ó (pronounced “oh”) Eating House. The restaurant is named for the traditional corn grinding stone, perhaps the most essential of prehistoric cooking implements, at the center of traditional Pueblo kitchens.  Located just east of the Poeh Cultural Center and Museum, the Ó Eating House launched its new dining concept…

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RedBrick Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:41 AM

The American culture of instant gratification may be precipitating the decline of the independent neighborhood pizzeria. In recent years, this traditional bastion of pizza preparation has been largely supplanted by ubiquitous pizza delivery companies with their gratuitous gimmicks, copious coupons and promises of breakneck deliveries. Pizzaiolis, the artisans who deftly toss and craft prandial perfection in the form of circular, precisely seasoned and superbly sauced oven-baked flat-bread have been unseated by pimply teenagers slathering ketchup on cardboard spheres then setting land speed records to ensure the day’s special of five for the price of one reaches its intended destination within seconds after an order is placed. The American consumer seemingly prefers quick and cheap pizza of inferior quality and taste that he or she can devour in front of the 500-channel living room altar to the greater expenditure of time spent with family or friends at a pizzeria in which sensory titillation includes the imbibing of incomparable aromas you just can’t get by opening a cardboard box. RedBrick Pizza purports to address the gap between the delivery-oriented market and the more traditional sit-down restaurant approach with a revolutionary “fast casual” concept, ostensibly giving the American consumer a product far superior…

Closed in 2011Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoPizzaRio Rancho

Frattellis – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:24 AM

In New York City, pizza by the slice is as ubiquitous as towering skyscrapers. Many of the city’s nearly 3,000 pizzerias serve pizza by the slice. Most have been doing so since the end of WWII when recently returned American veterans who served in Italy craved the sliced pizza they had enjoyed during their service. Heck, in the Big Apple, you can even find pizza by the slice proffered by sidewalk vendors. At about two bucks a slice, it’s usually pretty decent thin-sliced pizza blanketed with cheese. A widespread presence doesn’t mean the practice is universally approved of. The other school of thought snubs its nose at the thought of serving by the slice, the triangle-shaped, tomato sauced pie Americans consume at the rate of 100 acres a day. Many traditionalists, particularly artisan Pizzaiolis with coal-burning oven pedigrees disdain the practice of pizza by the slice, scoffing that the practitioners of this sacrilege have reduced the art of pizza making to a fast-food assembly-line pretense. While several pizzerias in the Albuquerque metropolitan area serve pizza by the slice, the lack of historical ties to the genesis of America’s pizza might be the reason you don’t hear the slice versus no…

AlbuquerqueItalianPizzaRating: Very Good

JC’s New York Pizza Department – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:46 PM

Gil’s immutable law of thermodynamics posits that the enjoyment of even the best pizza is correlative with the length of time which has expired since it was removed from the oven.  Pizza tastes best right out of the oven when it is steaming hot and the aromas waft upwards to provide an almost sensual olfactory massage.  That flavor and olfactory appreciation diminishes as the pizza grows colder and your belly fuller.  This law is absolutely immutable, but it also has an equally immutable corollary: the flavor of a great pizza actually improves after it’s been refrigerated overnight.  It helps, of course, if you wake up ravenously hungry and that the pizza was fabulous to begin with. I developed this theory in 2003 after our inaugural visit to Al’s New York Pizza Department in Albuquerque’s Central Avenue after observing just how much we loved the pizza immediately after it got to our table and how that love, much like some relationships, diminished after two slices.  Fortunately the pizza was so large that we took about half of it home where we refrigerated it overnight.  Intending to nosh on only one slice of cold pizza for breakfast, we ended up devouring the…

MassachusettsPizzaRating: ExcellentSandwich

Steve’s House of Pizza – Bedford, Massachusetts

Gil Garduno9:34 PM

Memories Pressed between the pages of my mind Memories Sweetened through the ages just like wine Quiet thoughts come floating down and settle softly to the ground Like golden autumn leaves around my feet I touch them and they burst apart with sweet memories – The Lettermen, 1969 Memory–our ability to recall information, personal experiences and processes–isn’t always reliable or necessarily as sweet as The Lettermen might have you believe.  Memory has, in fact, been shown to be very fallible.  Studies have concluded that memories are often constructed after the fact and that they’re often based as much, if not more, on our emotional state at the time as they are the actual experience being committed to memory. While stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base, I had so many tuna grinders (what New Englanders call subs) from Steve’s House of Pizza in nearby Bedford, Massachusetts, that my great friend Paul Venne told me I’d soon grow gills.  While my friends and colleagues were bingeing on Big Macs and wolfing down Whoppers, weekly (at least) visits to Steve’s sustained me. Leaving Massachusetts I pined for those grinders for more than twenty-years.  Could a simple grinder really have been as good as…

New MexicoPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)Taos County

Taos Pizza Out Back – Taos, New Mexico

Gil Garduno10:46 PM

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28 It’s unlikely the Taos Chamber of Commerce ever used that New Testament passage to lure visitors to Taos, but it would have made an excellent tourism slogan.  Taos, New Mexico seems to have a mollifying effect on weary souls.  It has been easing burdens and removing the yoke of the heavily laden for more than a millennium. Taos calls its visitors to spiritual odysseys, to commune with incomparable beauty and serenity, to imbibe the exotic melting pot of cultures.  It has inspired dazzling creativity and intoxicated legendary artists such as D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O’Keefe, Mabel Dodge Luhan and Willa Cather. Some have, in fact, described Taos as being more a state of mind than it is a location.  That state of mind would be a little unconventional–relaxed and informal with a “live and let live” element.  It’s that element which has made Taos a haven for counter-culture, an accepting habitat for hippies.  Taos does not follow the normal rules of society.  It is Bohemian in every respect. You’ll experience that Bohemian spirit as you turn off Paseo del Pueblo onto a gravel…