Mad Greek goes from the ridiculous to the sublime. Back in the friendly confines of New York City and Artichoke Basille’s Pizza. And by the looks of things early on about the only thing funny about this place is it’s name.
Knock-knock… Who’s there?… Artichoke… Artichoke who?… Arti choke his chicken last night after his wife threw him out the house. Anyways you can see why I am a pizza reviewer and not a comedian
The Macaroni Grill changed their pizza a while back, hoping to sell more since the previous version was pretty hideous. They reached out to me several times asking if I would like to be a part of their focus group but I never heard back from them. The other day I realized that they did in fact change their pizza and decided to try a piece of my friends pie to see if anything changed for the better.
Unlike most of the pizza I eat, my buddy ordered his pizza at the Macaroni Grill with pepperoni. The Primo Pepperoni Pizza came with artisan pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. I usually do not like the smell of Pepperoni so I managed to use a knife and fork and out out a slice that was plain.
The Mad Greek is back in pizza action at Borriello Brothers Real New York Pizza on Rte. 24 in Colorado Springs. I know it has been a while and you probably missed me but I am back and will hopefully start sending in more reviews.
About the only good thing as an omen before I marched into the unknown (is there really any good pizza outside of New York?) was my favorite # is at least 24. That being said, Borriello’s was voted best pizza in 2008 through 2011. The question is where? If it was voted best in all of Colorado, I can understand as it’s nearest rival Beau Jo’s should be turned into a thrift shop that serves spicy buffalo wings because BJs pizza flat out was horrible in my opinion.
Sal’s Pizza in Boca Raton has a couple of locations. The one we went to on this completely overcast and pouring rain kind of evening was in the Garden Shops. I haven’t ever really been a fan of any of the Sal’s pizzas that I have eaten so I wasn’t hopeful for anything different out of this location.
We got some Mozzarella Sticks and ordered an individual pie on the well done side each. Of course I got mine plain, since that is the best way to truly taste a pizza and compare it to other plain pies you have previous had. The guest I had joining me had meatball on his.
Back in 2010 I named a small place in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn named Lucali as one of the 10 best pizzerias in the county. You can read about the list here. I haven’t been back up those ways for a while, so I wasn’t sure how the place was doing. After hearing the owner was stabbed I thought that they perhaps would close. This wasn’t the case. Lucali was actually busy scoping out a new location in the quickly hip Sunset Harbor area of Miami Beach.
Lucali in Miami beach seats plenty more than that of the original one in Brooklyn which contains about 10 tables, if I recall correctly. After finding parking in the municipal garage next door, I made my way down, walked around the block and walked inside an overly dim pizzeria.
Normally I am not one to like frozen pizza. I try to avoid it at all costs unless I am starving and it is the only thing in my freezer. I have had some decent frozen pizza in my time, including but not limited to Home Run Inn, and some DiGiorno Pizza. Recently my wife brought me home a deep dish style frozen pizza she picked up and thought I might like to taste.
Prior to her bringing home this deep dish frozen pizza, I had never even heard of Forty Seventh Street Chicago Style Pizza. The packaging was simple at best, and this pizza didn’t even vaguely resemble something I would normally want to put into my delicate mouth. Luckily for Forty Seventh Street Frozen Pizza, I was starving and there was absolutely nothing else to eat in the house. Not even Jello Pudding.
For a full work week, I found myself in Plano, TX. A suburban little area located outside of Dallas. I ate at a place called Urban Crust Pizza for lunch four of the five days I was in Plano, TX actually.
Urban Crust has a decent lunch special which was a personal size pizza (9-10 inches) and a soup of the day or caesar salad for less than $10! With the lunch special you choose one topping, I believe you could ask for more for a price but I never did. The toppings I had were: pepperoni, sausage, prosciutto and jalapeño. I asked the server if the meat was store bought or from the area and the reply was it is from the local butcher shop.
When eating pizza in Staten Island, there are several places you gotta try. Denino’s Pizzeria of course, and Joe and Pat’s. Both are legendary, and win awards quite regularly, well at least Denino’s does. Since we went to Denino’s Pizzeria and Tavern last time I was in Staten Island, we decided to go back and experience Joe and Pat’s.
Joe and Pat’s was just what I expected inside. An old style pizza joint with a bunch of tables to eat in, and a few tables to the left with waitress service. We sat down, ordered a plain pie and began the wait. Our waitress seemed nice, but I had some issues with her later in the evening that I will explain further down.
Recently Woodfield Country Club in Boca Raton, one of the areas premier clubs changed their menu. Some of the items I think were silly, but one of the new items is the Flatbread Pizza selection. Was invited there the other night from a friend who needed to kill his food minimum and had the opportunity to try it.
Like always, I ordered a plain one. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I haven’t really enjoyed the other pizzas they serve here. Outside of Boca West Country Club which has its own pizza oven, many of the Country Clubs around Boca Raton seem to fail when it comes to their food selection (outside of some Brunch).
Was invited to a private party the other evening at a pretty cool warehouse that had some of the most amazing pinball machines. The host was gracious enough to also provide us with drinks and pizza all night. I went with one of the guys to go pick up the pizza at Mamma Mia’s in Boynton Beach, located on Woolbright Road.
Mamma Mia’s has several locations around Palm Beach County, and I have been to most of them but never really loved it enough to go out of my way just to have the pizza again. We ordered a couple of plain pies and some Sicilian pies. Unfortunately I had to wait until we arrived back at the warehouse before trying them, but once the box was open I digged in on a regular and Sicilian slice.