Austin's best Pizza (Howe: coupon, trendy, buffet)

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by scm53

Do you EVER eat at Whataburger instead of Five Guys? Do you ever have a sandwich at Subway instead of the club at Nau's? Do you ever go to Popeye's instead of Lucy's?

Yep, yep, and yep. But I don't do any of them terribly often.

Originally Posted by scm53

I can go on an on. The issue isn't "cheap" - the issue is convenience.

Trouble is, lots of people are into "all convenience - all the time." And that's soul-sucking. Not to mention wallet-sucking and health-sucking.

Originally Posted by scm53

I don't confuse the $10 take and bake from HEB with Home Slice.

Right, and the take and bake at least has the virtue of being fresh out of the oven when you eat it. But while you're in a typical HEB, take a look at the frozen pizza section. It's usually the largest category in frozen foods. And maybe 80% of them have pepperoni on them. Why? Because pepperoni is a "loud" taste that helps mask how sucky the pizza really is. That's what most people are eating most of the time. It definitely shapes the public's expectations.

Meanwhile, in the time it takes to cook a "take and bake" pizza, or to order and wait for a delivery from "Pizza R Us," you can actually make a simple real meal from scratch. I'm constantly amazed how many otherwise intelligent people haven't mastered that process.

Originally Posted by scm53

Your cheap beer analogy is apt when they start selling Home Slice in my local HEB, right next to the take and bake - just like they sell Franiskaner next to Keystone.

Yeah, but you don't have to go rail to rail. Just step up from a Key Stone to something drinkable.

Originally Posted by scm53

Besides, if I am going to be a food snob (which I've been accused of), it won't be over the differnenceq between $10 and $18 pizza - it will be over the difference between Texas Land and Cattle and Perry's steaks.

To me it's not about price. It's about real food vs meal replacements. Sauce that was cooked fresh, not poured out of a can from Sysco. Cheese that was shredded in the kitchen an hour ago, not in a plant in Buffalo 3 months ago. A pie that was made by hand by a caring craftsman, not an assembly line product thrown together by a min-wager following a photo-diagram.

So if you happen to think Home Slice is Austin's Best Pizza, then don't just say "Home Slice Yayyyy!" Tell me why you think so, in detail. What is there to recommend about it? And "I like it," isn't a recommendation.

[OzzyRules]

I once heard somewhere that pizza as we know it was an Italian-American creation.

[mayfair44]

Originally Posted by sxrckr

Any suggestions of good pizza that's gluten free?

Eastside Pies offers. Using crusts from Smart Flour Foods.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by OzzyRules

I once heard somewhere that pizza as we know it was an Italian-American creation.

Did I not just say that?

It's pretty much the same deal as chop suey and chow mein, which were created in American gold rush camps but are unknown in China.

Except that in the case of pizza, it was actually invented in Greece. Seriously.

And while Neapolitan pizza is beloved in Naples, and Roman Pizza is popular in Rome (and made in rectangular pans and cut in square pieces to order and sold by weight) and Sicilian fishermen's wives tossed anchovies and garlic and olive oil on top of the flat bread they baked, the pizza that American's love to eat is pretty much an American thing that first became popular after WWII.

My mom told me about the first time she ever even heard about pizza pie, just after the war ended, on the outskirts of L.A. Housing was in extremely short supply, so when Dad was mustered out of the Air Corps their first place to live was a little motor court cabin in a poor Italian neighborhood. There was a little Italian grocery down the road that made fresh baked bread, and on Friday nights it put up a few sawhorses and threw some boards down on them and covered them with red and white checked oilcloths and served homemade red wine from recycled chianti bottles and served PIZZA PIE.

She seriously had never heard of it before, but she tried it, and it was good, and from there it just mushroomed.

[migol84]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Did I not just say that?

It's pretty much the same deal as chop suey and chow mein, which were created in American gold rush camps but are unknown in China.

the same thing with burrito and nachos. not mexican food.

[mayfair44]

Originally Posted by OzzyRules

ACTUALLY, I probably should have narrowed it down to central Austin, particularly near UT. That's the area I plan to visit when I go. Also, I usually like to drive down Lamar (north and south). Preferable someplace where they sell it by the slice, rather than having to order a whole pizza.

For central, you've also got whole pies or slices at Milto's at 29th/Guad. My personal fav for dining/takeout in the area now is Salvation on 34th. Similar thin Eastcoast style pies like Homeslice, without the crowd and hype. IMO, Salvation's pizza blows Homeslice away. I think they only do slices during lunch.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by OzzyRules

I once heard somewhere that pizza as we know it was an Italian-American creation.

Yep, leave it to us Americans to improve something by making it 1)Bigger and 2)Lower quality. Plus if it can involve an automobile somehow, so much the better (delivery pizza).

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by mayfair44

For central, you've also got whole pies or slices at Milto's at 29th/Guad. My personal fav for dining/takeout in the area now is Salvation on 34th. Similar thin Eastcoast style pies like Homeslice, without the crowd and hype. IMO, Salvation's pizza blows Homeslice away. I think they only do slices during lunch.

Someone needs to just settle this once and for all with a Pizza Wars poll. I'd do it but I'm sure I'd forget some of the places... like Salvation. I've been really meaning to try that, heard many good things.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Someone needs to just settle this once and for all with a Pizza Wars poll. I'd do it but I'm sure I'd forget some of the places... like Salvation. I've been really meaning to try that, heard many good things.

I think it would need to be in Tiers, otherwise the competition would be too chaotic. Or categories... maybe price ranges.

Like maybe keep all the pizza chains quarantined together. Let them duke it out between themselves.

Best wood-fired (eliminates all the chains).

Best cheese pizza, 10", under $10
Best cheese pizza, 10", $10 -12
Best cheese pizza, 10", over $12

Best exotic pizza - non-traditional

Best traditional pizza - Neapolitan style

Best pizza - Chicago deep-dish style

Best pizza - New York thin-crust style

Best pizza - Buffalo transitional style

Best pizza - Hollywood celebrity chef style

Best thin-crust that is so crisp it breaks if you try to fold it

Best thin-crust that is so floppy you have to fold it to eat it

Best white pie

Etc.

Food for thought...

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by OpenD

I think it would need to be in Tiers, otherwise the competition would be too chaotic. Or categories... maybe price ranges.

Like maybe keep all the pizza chains quarantined together. Let them duke it out between themselves.

I was thinking more of a "from the gut" vote, pick your single favorite local Pizza, regardless of the style or cost. Just whatever you like best, your go-to place. Only local places or local chains, not the national ones.

Recommendations are so subjective, so I think a vote would at least make clear the popular favorite.