The Buffalo News food critic, Andrew Z. Galarneau, reviewed Jay’s Artisan Pizza and made this provocative statement: “If you told me I would only get one more pizza, then lights out, this would be the one. Specifically, Jay’s red top spicy Detroit Style ($15).” You can read Galarneau’s full review here.
As you might know, I love pizza in all its infinite forms. So after reading Galarneau’s pizza review, I had to try this pizza that was to die for. Diane wanted to try Jay’s Margarita Pizza and I wanted Galarneau’s favorite: the red top spicy Detroit Pizza. At this time Jay’s Artisan Pizza is Take-Out only so I went online and put in my order for a 4:00 P.M pick up.
Jay’s Artisan Pizza, a 15-minute drive from our house, had plenty of parking in front of its restaurant. Diane called to say we arrived and a masked woman brought out our pizzas and placed them in the trunk of our Nissan Rogue. Easy peasy!
As soon as we arrived home, we looked at the pizzas. They sure passed the Eye Test! They looked yummy. My red top spicy Detroit Style pizza featured sweet crushed tomato, Parmiagiano and hot cherry peppers with chile honey on a field of mozzarella. Then there’s the sharp cheddar around the rim for a unique flavor. Diane’s Margarita Pizza’s pillowy crust (somewhat like the texture of a cressant) held tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, and bits of kale. Both pizzas were delicious!
However, the question is: would these be our choices for our Last Pizza? Alas, no. As good as these pizzas are, I prefer the generous toppings and thicker crust of Good Guys Pizza (formerly, Pizza Junction which was featured on Drive-ins, Diners, & Dives).
What’s your favorite pizza?
Pizza is also one of our favourite meals but the US pizzas are too thick for our taste – we prefer a thinner crust.
My wife’s favourite is Pizza Hawaii while I’ll take anything with a lot of spicy sausage and maybe ham or bacon.
We haven’t been to a pizzeria lately though I saw that our favourite one is open again – for outdoor seating. Have to confess that I don’t like take out service …
In Europe we have several similar alternatives to Pizza which we made during the pandemic.
The Germans, Alsatians and the Swiss call it Flammkuchen (fire cake), in Hungary it’s Langalo.
The dough is similar to pizza but it’s made with lots of sour cream on top, onions and garlic, often hot peppers and bacon, salami – actually you can put anything salty on it if you make it at home like my wife does.
Our granddaughter likes it with lots of corn kernels – you can buy these frozen in Hungary.
Fun fact:
My wife prepares the dough and puts it on a baking sheet, usually with baking paper and I do the toppings …
We often make several large ones when we have guests – you can always warm it up in the microwave.
Crazy story:
An acquaintence of ours once tried to finish a frozen pizza in the microwave instead of the oven – and was very disappointed by the result …
Wolf, I’m not a fan of microwave pizzas, either. Fortunately, we have several pizzarias within a 10-minute drive so Take-Out is a good option for us. Diane and I also make our own pizzas occasionally.
Yum! That looks great and they sound delicious. Lately, we have been going with Diane’s choice of the margarita (though, of course, each place does their own version of it). Our local pizza place, Nino’s, does several good varieties, but we do like the Margarita. Going a little farther away, Gino’s (our favorite Italian restaurant) makes a delicious eggplant slice, with a ton of grilled eggplant and their delicious tomato sauce. Another favorite, Peppino’s, we have stopped ordering from for the moment, as their pizza is best eaten on the spot and doesn’t travel as well as the others. We get their Margarita with half mushrooms (for me). (Let me add that we are still ordering from them, just not the pizza. In fact, we are planning on getting two shrimp oreganata heroes there today.
Going several miles away towards Coney Island is Jackie’s other favorite, L & B Spumoni Gardens (where we took Maggie and Beth on a very rainy day). They have the best square Sicilian pizza and a big outdoor garden to eat it in. We haven’t been there in some time.
Jeff, all those pizzas you describe sound delicious! We’re lucky that one of our favorite foods is so readily available!
My favorite pizza? Any and all — as long as the tomato sauce is not too sweet. My favorite toppings? Pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, and just about anything else — I even don’t mind anchovies. My favorite pizza place? Alas, most are now gone…I still have fond memories of one place near where Kitty went to college whose pizzas had a thin layer of grease on them — delicious! (Although, my system can probably no longer take that.) My favorite food to go with pizza? More pizza, of course!
Jerry, you’re a pizza lover after my own heart! I could eat pizza every day since there are so many varieties. However, Diane controls my pizza intake for health reasons.
Peppino’s (mentioned above) has a great sign: “I have 99 problems and pizza isn’t one of them.”
Jeff, I love Peppino’s saying! Many of the pizza places around here, who specialize in Take-Out only, have done a fabulous business durning the Pandemic.
I like pizza, but I’m not a big fan of meat toppings. I prefer an all-veggie pizza on thin crust. We have a nice pizza place here, Italian Pie, but when we go there I usually get a calzone. It’s odd, but I would never get a meatball pizza, but I usually get a meatball calzone.
I love calzones too. We usually get one with ham when we get it.
Jackie likes pepperoni better than I do. I prefer sausage, also mushrooms. But ham, meatballs, peppers and onions, all OK with me.
But no pineapple, as in Wolf’s Hawaiian pizza. Some places around here also have salad on the pizza, which is just weird and a non-starter for me.
Jeff, I’m with you on salad on top of a pizza. Non-starter!!!
Deb, I’m a big fan of calzones, too! Most of the pizzas I order are meatless. We had a local pizzeria, LUMBER CITY PIZZA, who made outstanding veggie pizzas. Sadly, they went out of business.
i’m not as wild about pizza as the rest of you. I do enjoy it, though. Some friends got one for my birthday, a marguerite pizza (i think that’s how it’s spelled here) and it wasn’t that great. The problem is the place made it too early and it sat for probably 1/2 hour. It was simple, sauce, mozz cheese, tomato and basil.
I just don’t like pepperoni or peppers, but I’ll eat sausage, hawaiian, and even simple cheese with basil or spinach
Jeff’s eggplant pizza sounds divine, will have to look for that, and clearly a trip to Hungary is called for (If Americans are ever allowed out of the country again)
Maggie, the Amazing Patrick is a big fan of Hawaiian pizza. I was reluctant to try it–pineapple on a pizza just didn’t seem right–but it tasted great!
The Detroit favorite is Buddy’s Pizza, which is very thick and very cheesy. The sauce, to me, is more like straight tomato paste. I am not a fan. I like thin pizzas, which you can get more easily in NYC. I like pizza but it wouldn’t be my first choice. I’d rather have a Philly Cheesesteak.
Yum, Philly cheesesteak with onions.
Jeff, I actually had a Philly cheesesteak with onions when I was last in Philadelphia. Marvelous!
Patti, I remember taking you and Phil to our local pizzeria, PIZZA JUNCTION. Sadly, they went out of business.
If we want regular take-out pizza, we get it at Flying Pie, and get the Italian Combo, which has the meats you’d expect, olives, herbs. Very good, but expensive! Most of the time we get our pizza at Papa Murphy’s, which is a take-and-bake place nearby. We get the Murphy’s Combo, pop it in a 425 degree oven and in 18 minutes it’s ready to eat. You can get thin, regular or deep dish. We probably have pizza a couple of times a month. The pizza there is $14 for a large, as opposed to $30 at Flying Pie. Another place, Pizza Caboose, also has good pizza, but it’s also about $30 for a large.
Rick, I’ve noticed the prices for pizza have increased during the Pandemic. I’m sure this is in part due to the ingredient prices going up steadily. Our favorite Good Guys pizza now cost $24. It used to be $20 a few months ago.
Some very nice sounding varieties …
Of course here in Eastern Europe pizzas are cheaper – but not worse.
Now this reminds me of our holidays in Istria, Croatia just across Venice, 40 – 30 years ago when it was still a part of Yugoslavia.
We had a Caravan standing all year on a nudist camp site and went out almost very evening because prices were so low.
One problem was however that some toppings just were not available in the communist economy.
I still remember when a friend asked for a pizza with tuns – and the owner said
Sorry, we can’t get tuna in this country ..
The next holidays we spent there – the same reaction. However then my friend put a large cardboard box on the table and said:
Now you have tuna! The box was filled with cans of tuna bought somewhere in Germany.
PS:
I don’t like tuna, anchovis or any other kind of fiah or sea fruit – when asked I always tell people:
Throw that stuff back into the sea! 🙂 🙂
PS:
Sorry for the spelling errors, maybe it’s covid 19?
Wolf, the pesky Spell-Checker messes with me all the time!
Wolf, Diane and I are NOT seafood fans, either. But, our doctors urge us to eat seafood to improve our “good” cholesterol. So Diane eats a can of Tuna each week. I have shrimp once a month with hot dipping sauce to disguise the fishy taste.
Given the amount of Italian-Americans in the Philadelphia area (including even more “hidden” part Italians such as myself), there is a remarkable dearth of good pizza. The best we found in Center City, when we lived in there, was owned and operated by a Greek-American, Savas, which closed at least two decades ago (he was ready to retire, and did so).
Todd, Western NY is the Mecca for great pizza. There are a half dozen excellent pizzerias within a 10-minute drive from my house.