Monday, July 11, 2005
Eater on "pizza-faced panic in Portland"
[Originally published May 22, 2005]
Lines pour out the front door as locals salivate at the heady aroma of hype. Three toppings and a cloud of smoke from the pizza oven. Can you dig (in) it?
Recently relocated from its suburban netherland location, Apizza Scholls , shoehorned in a location of some Ethnic restaurant on Upper Southeast Hawthorne, serves its flinty-crusted pies at a three-topping max. Which is enough. Pizza aficionados engage in a race to the edge of thinness and this spot embraces that aesthetic.
Crowds can be long for this small spot with no take-out. Whole pies delivered to your table while you drink. The place opened to salivacious reviews, but some Oregonians upset that there were no local wines served (and few if any beers). The official line: they are working on it. The behind-the-scenes, smoking by the dumpster rumor? Northwest wines are too expensive for the value and don't pair well. I mean, if you REALLY want Oregon wine....
I drank Anchor Steam beer. I vaguely recall a certain dissatisfaction at the menu, mostly stemming from some confusion over what the Italian-sounding ingredient was on the Marguerita?
It's been a few weeks. It was good.
Tip: thin crusts mean you can eat about 15% more than normal, even from a place like Escape from New York, where you have to be careful not to roll the paper plate up with your slice as you stuff it into your face.
Extra tip: new spot opens in June from the folks at Gino's, playing the same thin-crust gig.
Lines pour out the front door as locals salivate at the heady aroma of hype. Three toppings and a cloud of smoke from the pizza oven. Can you dig (in) it?
Recently relocated from its suburban netherland location, Apizza Scholls , shoehorned in a location of some Ethnic restaurant on Upper Southeast Hawthorne, serves its flinty-crusted pies at a three-topping max. Which is enough. Pizza aficionados engage in a race to the edge of thinness and this spot embraces that aesthetic.
Crowds can be long for this small spot with no take-out. Whole pies delivered to your table while you drink. The place opened to salivacious reviews, but some Oregonians upset that there were no local wines served (and few if any beers). The official line: they are working on it. The behind-the-scenes, smoking by the dumpster rumor? Northwest wines are too expensive for the value and don't pair well. I mean, if you REALLY want Oregon wine....
I drank Anchor Steam beer. I vaguely recall a certain dissatisfaction at the menu, mostly stemming from some confusion over what the Italian-sounding ingredient was on the Marguerita?
It's been a few weeks. It was good.
Tip: thin crusts mean you can eat about 15% more than normal, even from a place like Escape from New York, where you have to be careful not to roll the paper plate up with your slice as you stuff it into your face.
Extra tip: new spot opens in June from the folks at Gino's, playing the same thin-crust gig.
