This pizza was a last minute decision that I made with my roommate. It was roommie night and we had planned on cooking but decided it was just too much effort. She pulled out the ipad and began to order delivery from the Sisson Ave Pizza House.
Pizza Basics
There was cheese. There was crust. There was nothing special about either.
The Pizza
This is, verbatim, what the menu promised:
BBQ chicken, bacon, blue cheese
The Chicken
Chunks of white meat that seemed to have been soaked in brine. It was very, very salty.
The Sauce
There was no BBQ sauce on this pizza. There may have been some trivial amount, but it was not something you could taste over the saltiness of the chicken.
The Toppings
There was bacon, which was also very salty. There was no blue cheese.
Overall
I can't really give a rating to this pizza. It was so fucking salty that it was barely edible. Moreover, there was no fucking blue cheese. The menu said there would be blue cheese (I'm glad there was not, it was already the saltiest pizza I had ever eaten), the menu lied. Liars get no respect from me, they flunk BBQ Pizza 101 and are suspended for academic dishonesty.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
The Fireplace (B+)
Connecticut is a strange place to go hiking. I grew up in Maine, so I'm used to well marked, well maintained trails that scale mountains. Connecticut has many state parks with many hiking trails...but many of them are poorly marked, poorly maintained and some are downright dangerous. Not only that, but CT doesn't have many mountains and the hikes are treacherous scramblings up hills. Having said that, there are many beautiful vistas at the top of CT hills that let you see for miles and miles.
Another difference between Maine hiking and CT hiking is that Mainers usually have to drive long distances to reach the trails they want to climb--they are far from civilization. Most Connecticut parks are right inside of towns. So what did I do after hiking last week? I got a barbecue chicken pizza, of course!
The Location
The Fireplace is a cute pizzeria and pub located in downtown Southington, CT. The atmosphere is quiet and dark, the tone is hip and young. Their website boasts of their many awards and positive reviews.
The Basics
The Fireplace makes all their food in a wood fueled oven, but I would not call this brick oven pizza. In reality, it's New Haven style pizza. I have to admit that the rest of this review will be biased. I just do not like New Haven pizza. Since moving to Connecticut, I've discovered that it's a thing for people here to love New Haven Pizza. I feel like I am keeping some kind of dirty secret because I don't love the same pizza as my local friends and coworkers--and I don't dare tell them.
I guess it's not a secret anymore.
New Haven pizzas are thin and have a chewy, crispy crust. That sounds appealing, but it's terribly unpleasant. The crust requires so much chewing and mashing that my jaw actually gets tired after the second piece. It's like eating a tough, overcooked steak...that occasionally jabs you in the gums. I like New York pizza with its soft, chewy crust, I like Chicago deep dish pizza with its flaky, fatty crust and I like brick oven pizzas with their floury, melt-in-your-mouth crusts. I do not like this New Haven bullshit. I think Tony Stark could have made his Iron Man suit out of New Haven Pizzas.
The Pizza
The Fireplace calls their barbecue chicken pizza the 'Honey Barbecue' and it is described as 'chicken, bacon, mozzarella cheese over honey barbecue sauce.' Sounds great, right? It looked great, too.
The Chicken
Chunks of breast meat that were still moist. Yum!
The Sauce
Ok, I'm going to pause here and say that this honey barbecue sauce was absolutely amazing. It had just the right balance of sweet and tangy. It was full of seasonings and flavors that were subtle and powerful at the same time. The Fireplace may have the best barbecue sauces I've ever had. You can bet that I will be going back to try their wings.
The Toppings
I should point out, here, that the bacon on this pizza was freshly cooked and was laid across the pizza in complete strips. They were a little crispy, a little chewy and added just the right amount of salt to the pizza.
Overall
The flavor of this pizza came together in a really beautiful way. It had just the right balance of salty, sweet and tangy. I was blown away. Unfortunately, I just can't get past the particle-board crust. I am giving this pizza a B+. If you like New Haven style pizza, dear reader, you would probably give this pizza an A.
I think that Connecticut pizza is a lot like Connecticut hiking--beautiful, convenient and a pain in the ass.
Another difference between Maine hiking and CT hiking is that Mainers usually have to drive long distances to reach the trails they want to climb--they are far from civilization. Most Connecticut parks are right inside of towns. So what did I do after hiking last week? I got a barbecue chicken pizza, of course!
The Location
The Fireplace is a cute pizzeria and pub located in downtown Southington, CT. The atmosphere is quiet and dark, the tone is hip and young. Their website boasts of their many awards and positive reviews.
The Basics
The Fireplace makes all their food in a wood fueled oven, but I would not call this brick oven pizza. In reality, it's New Haven style pizza. I have to admit that the rest of this review will be biased. I just do not like New Haven pizza. Since moving to Connecticut, I've discovered that it's a thing for people here to love New Haven Pizza. I feel like I am keeping some kind of dirty secret because I don't love the same pizza as my local friends and coworkers--and I don't dare tell them.
I guess it's not a secret anymore.
New Haven pizzas are thin and have a chewy, crispy crust. That sounds appealing, but it's terribly unpleasant. The crust requires so much chewing and mashing that my jaw actually gets tired after the second piece. It's like eating a tough, overcooked steak...that occasionally jabs you in the gums. I like New York pizza with its soft, chewy crust, I like Chicago deep dish pizza with its flaky, fatty crust and I like brick oven pizzas with their floury, melt-in-your-mouth crusts. I do not like this New Haven bullshit. I think Tony Stark could have made his Iron Man suit out of New Haven Pizzas.
 |
| "I knew I should have gone with something tougher." |
The Pizza
The Fireplace calls their barbecue chicken pizza the 'Honey Barbecue' and it is described as 'chicken, bacon, mozzarella cheese over honey barbecue sauce.' Sounds great, right? It looked great, too.
 |
| Delicious in the middle, dangerous around the edge. |
The Chicken
Chunks of breast meat that were still moist. Yum!
The Sauce
Ok, I'm going to pause here and say that this honey barbecue sauce was absolutely amazing. It had just the right balance of sweet and tangy. It was full of seasonings and flavors that were subtle and powerful at the same time. The Fireplace may have the best barbecue sauces I've ever had. You can bet that I will be going back to try their wings.
The Toppings
I should point out, here, that the bacon on this pizza was freshly cooked and was laid across the pizza in complete strips. They were a little crispy, a little chewy and added just the right amount of salt to the pizza.
Overall
The flavor of this pizza came together in a really beautiful way. It had just the right balance of salty, sweet and tangy. I was blown away. Unfortunately, I just can't get past the particle-board crust. I am giving this pizza a B+. If you like New Haven style pizza, dear reader, you would probably give this pizza an A.
I think that Connecticut pizza is a lot like Connecticut hiking--beautiful, convenient and a pain in the ass.
Monday, August 12, 2013
George's Pizza Restaurant (D+)
It has been a year since I posted in the Barbecue Chicken Pizza blog! Why did I take an extended hiatus from reviewing the world's favorite pizza--was it because I stopped eating barbecue chicken pizza? Not at all. After a lot of exploring and reviewing, I finally admitted to myself that Fred's Brick House Cafe made the best pizzas I have ever had in my life. I've eaten a LOT of there wood-fired treats over the past year. While I did occasionally order chicken pizzas from other restaurants, it seemed silly to keep reviewing them since I had already found the best.
But I am back now. Why? Because I don't live near Fred's Brick House Cafe anymore! I moved to Hartford, a full 30 minutes away from Fred's. I'm in the middle of a city and I have no idea where to go for good pizza. I asked around and nobody could point me to a good pizza joint, or hole-in-the-wall take-out or a beloved mom-and-pop institution. Nobody seems to know anything about good pizza in Hartford.
So I'm back on the case...and I'm bringing you all with me.
I found George's Pizza Restaurant on Yelp. It had five glowing reviews and a five star rating and was just a couple miles from my house. George's seemed like a great place to start, so I put in a call for...take-out. George's doesn't deliver, but it was ok because getting there turned out to be half the fun. George's Pizza Restaurant is located on Park Street in Hartford which, for those of you that don't know the local geography, is a colorful area. It's a poor neighborhood, predominantly Puerto Rican, and has a reputation for being dangerous. I think there are some annoying things about Park Street, where people yell at each other from a block away and step into traffic without looking, but I have to say that it seems like a warm, vibrant community. George's Pizza Restaurant is located right where Park Street starts to turn from urban (ethnic) to suburban (white). It's a cute joint that looks like it has been serving the community solidly for decades.
The Cheese Pizza
George's makes deep dish pizzas that have a yummy, flaky crust. The cheese on top was slightly overcooked an chewy--something that I actually enjoy a lot. Unfortunately, the cheese pizza I ordered was bland and tasteless. There was no seasoning in the sauce, the cheese or the crust.
The Barbecue Chicken Pizza
The menu promised a pizza with chicken, BBQ sauce, ricotta cheese and bacon, a description that excited my mouth and my belly. When I got home and opened the box, I found that the pizza was constructed using the Envelope Method. All the toppings were tucked in the space between the cheese and the crust.
 |
| What are you hiding?! |
The Chicken
The chicken was leftover dark meat with an unpleasant texture.
The Sauce
The BBQ sauce was a bit sour and unappealing.
The Overall Taste
This pizza was bland. Remember how I said that the cheese pizza was bland? Yeah, this pizza was bland, too. I was excited by the promise of bacon and ricotta but I was disappointed. The bacon? Bland, fatty chunks. The ricotta? Bland, fatty mush. Three blands do not make a bright.
The Overall Taste
This pizza was bland. Remember how I said that the cheese pizza was bland? Yeah, this pizza was bland, too. I was excited by the promise of bacon and ricotta but I was disappointed. The bacon? Bland, fatty chunks. The ricotta? Bland, fatty mush. Three blands do not make a bright.
Rating
I was very disappointed by this pizza. The description sounded delicious and the pizza looked delicious. When I put it in my mouth, though, there was no delicious anywhere to be seen. The pizza's saving grace was a tasty crust with a great texture. George's Pizza Restaurant gets a D+.
 |
| Your mother and I are very disappointed in you. |
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