A Slice of (Life and) Pizza

This Pizza Was Baked Between 6 PM and 7 PM

2007-12-28T11:20:00.000-06:00

I used to love the show 24. Loved it. But last season...eh. Even Jack Bauer has his limits.

But that doesn't mean I can't share my 24-themed, radio active pizza with you all.

At first I was unsure what to use for the black part. "Black beans?" I asked my brother. "Hey," he shrugged, "it's your nose." Black olives were viewed as a safer choice.

The rest was pretty standard. Boboli wheat crust, Prego pizza sauce, mozzarella, and (of course) Jack cheese.

Oh Jack Bauer, I only hope next season is better.

Pizza Caper

2007-12-24T12:14:00.000-06:00

Today I discovered this news story about a guy who robbed a Papa Johns last night - on Christmas Eve Eve.

And the worst part? He didn't even do it for the pizza, he did it for the money. Clearly this guy is mixed up in the head. Like that time I got hit on the head with a pan and liked anchovies on my pizza for a week. Man, that was a crazy week.

But my real question is this: What's up with the K-9 unit on the scene? See it in the picture there to the left? Papa Johns in the back. K-9 unit in the front. Why would they torture those poor dogs by making them smell hot, delicious pizza? Seriously, cops, what's up with that?

homemade tacos

2006-03-04T08:29:00.000-06:00

Ok Josh-

I'm trying this one out. I'm branching away from pizza (just for a bit!) to talk about how to make awesome homemade crunchy tacos.

Make everything the way you normally would. The meat with the seasoning, buy regular yellow corn taco shells, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, whatever.

Then. The secret is to take the seasoned meat and put it in the taco shells and then heat up the taco shells. With the meat in them. Just for like 5 minutes. So that when you take the tacos out and begin to eat them, the bottom of the shell is a tiny bit chewy and crunchy all at once. And heating up the seasoned meat in the oven gives it an extra bite.

It's awesome, Josh. Just trust me for once!

Tacoed, Kate

pizza man!

2006-02-06T17:55:00.000-06:00

Pizza man. Sounds like it says it all. It even had on it sign out front "ice cream man inside!" meaning they had awesome ice cream inside as well.

Not so much.

First of all, it was Saturday night, and our party of four was one of the only parties in there. And it was a pretty big space (the outside looks like a souped up barn).

We got the family special which was a large 16" pizza with one topping, the salad bar, and a pitcher of Pepsi. Good deal, right?

Not so much.

The salad bar was a salad bar with a big bowl of brown-turning iceberg lettuce. Next to it were bowls of various topping: too white (read: very fake looking) eggs, undercooked bacon, black and green olives, over-seasoned croutons, etc. etc. Not too bad, I guess. They did have a spectacular poppy seed dressing, though. They also had chocolate pudding and macaroni salad.

The macaroni salad (and usually I'm a huge fan of macaroni salad) was basically macaroni noodles with mayonnaise. Not so bad, I mean, I still ate it. The chocolate pudding tasted like really generic pudding, it left a cardboard box-y, chalky taste in your mouth afterwards. You know, the kind of taste that makes you say, "Oh! That's actually prett- ...wait. Nope."

Then the pizza came. We got half sausage and half pepperoni. I really liked the crust.

...

And the Pepsi was good.

Pizza eh, Kate

Pizza Man
611 Edwardsville Rd
Troy, IL

I've been caught!

2005-12-15T13:27:00.000-06:00

This news story is pretty great. It's about a guy who tries to steal a pizza-delivery car but can't get it out of gear so...oh you can just read it for yourself.

[the full article here]

Nancy's (Chicago)

2005-12-14T00:04:00.000-06:00

There are some people who like to do something while eating their pizza. For some it's watching the big game. For others it's sitting around with the family on "board game night". And then for a select few it's enjoying porn.

Don't get too excited. I haven't found a porn and pizza place. I did however find Nancy's on Broadway (which happens to be located next to a adult bookstore). For those of you who were hoping for a place combining both your passions of pie and porn..well...you'll just have to wait for a Smut n' Slice to open in your neighborhood.

Porn aside, Nancy's has a damn good slice. Though unlike previous places we've reviewed like Pizza Ria and Renaldi's, the pizza at Nancy's wasn't all about the cheese; it was all about the sauce. The cheese is made second class, and the sauce takes over the pie, shining with a flavor of garlic and basil. Mmm! With sauce like this who needs cheese? Well...you do. Otherwise you'd just be eating sauce and bread, and not pizza. But you see what I'm saying.

A good traditional slice, and open 'til 2 a.m. for those times when you can't sleep, and the warm milk and/or whiskey isn't working.

Sauced, Josh

Nancy's
2930 N. Broadway St.
Chicago, IL 60657

rock 'n roll pizza (montreal)

2005-12-13T21:03:00.000-06:00

kate here. speaking with a certain joe swanberg i know tonight reminded me of the montreal world film festival in september 2005. the prostitutes/"tudies" we saw, the hotel we slept in, and the cheap, cheap pizza places.

welcome to canada, everything's in french, and every single corner hosts a 99 cent pizza place! we were at the festival with "kissing on the mouth". the hotel was barely paying for us (us being the cast/crew of KOTM) to stay in it, and we were broke. enter rock 'n roll pizza.

i believe the first time we stopped in this establishment was the first night we were in montreal. it was late, and nothing much was open. except for rnr. i didn't enjoy a slice that first night, i believe it was kris and/or joe who first enjoyed it. but i do know we went back many, many times. 99 cents for a slice the size you get at any chicago pizza place? booyah.

it was around the corner, off of a very main street near our hotel (which was a really classy, not our style hotel, by the way). neon sign, greasy counter, and the lamest/coolest owner. i couldn't tell, due to the high counter, whether he was tall or not. but picture any typical pizza place owner with graying hair, 60ish, bad accent, and cheap pizza, and you've nailed this guy. i went in one night, probably around 3 in the morning, with laura. while we were waiting for our slices, the owner's back turned, she whispered to me how she was nervous to be in here. the previous night (i told you we went there always) the owner hit on her. going so far as pleading with her to meet him for a drink after the shop closed. she politely declined, took her cheese pizza, and left.

but she was back. we had to go back! everything was in french! we were broke! the only language we understood was 99 cent rock 'n roll pizza. granted, there were hundreds of other 99cent places, but rnr was honestly opened until like dawn or something crazy like that.

ah montreal. how i miss your "tudies," your girlie clubs on every corner, your condom stores, you gourmet gelato/chocolate shop, the poutine, and the way i felt illiterate from reading french signs for a week. i'll never forget the lord of the rings inspired store, complete with life-sized statues of gandolf and ... elijah wood out front.

but mostly, i'll never forget you, rock 'n roll pizza.

reminiscing/condescending, kate

rock 'n roll pizza
...
montreal, quebec
canada

Freschetta (St. Louis)

2005-12-10T23:25:00.000-06:00

allow me to explain.

i went out with my best friend, jim, tonight. we went around the corner to hit up black thorn for a beer or two and some good conversation.

"can i see your IDs?" we're asked as we sit at the bar. jim promptly throws his on the counter. i grab for the front cover of my wallet and feel for the familiar texture of my driver's license. instead i feel the less familiar and too smooth texture of my old school ID.

"give me just a second." i pull my wallet out totally from my purse and begin to dig. nothing. i flip through my checkbook, thinking maybe it fell out and got wedged between my blank checks. nothing.

"jim i don't think i have it. i think it left it at home!" my mind flashes back to me getting home from the gym friday morning. i never put my ID back in my purse.

"she doesn't have her ID," the bartender says to a man who must be the owner.

"then she has to leave." they apologize, i apologize, ("no, no i understand") as i put on my jacket and get right back up to leave. jim and i head to schnucks.

i start thinking about the blog. we need to get a pizza. jim grabs some boulevard unfiltered wheat beer and a lemon, i grab a freschetta brick oven margherita pizza.

back at jim's, we start drinking, i make the pizza, and we both watch iron chef america until it's finished. for those of you who don't know, margherita pizza is tomato, basil, and garlic topping. this particular one was thin crust and square.

it was lacking in the taste department, i'm not gonna lie. however, for being frozen, the tomatos had a surprisingly good flavor, but the basil and garlic was near nonexistent. the cheese and crust were good, but the sauce was almost nowhere to be found. one of the best parts of the pizza was the parmesan cheese we put on it, a la real pizza restaurants.

then we got ice cream from oberwies, hung out with a couple more friends, and i was home by 11.

my ID is now safely in my wallet.

carded, kate

Freschetta Pizza
freschetta.com

Renaldi's Pizza Pub (Chicago)

2005-12-09T12:54:00.000-06:00

Renaldi's ain't no fancy shmancy pizza joint. Renaldi's would sooner drop kick you in the crotch and spit on your neck than put pineapple on your pizza. Renaldi's is the restaurant equivalent of a big fat pizza cook in an undershirt with a cigarette dangling from his mouth while he shrugs his shoulders and says, "Fuggetaboutit!"

Renaldi's also hasn't caught up with the box movement, and put my to-go slices on paper plates, separating them with squares of tinfoil and putting them into a paper bag. Mmm! Just watch the grease seep through!

But all my ninny, pizza snobbery aside, the pizza itself wasn't bad, though it did taste like exactly like a spice from Sbarros. Which isn't a horrible thing, as long as you enjoy having flashbacks of being 13 years old in the mall food court, with one of your friends begging you for five more bucks so he can buy the new Ace of Base CD. I said it was a friend buying it. A friend who wasn't me. I swear. I only liked that one song. Really!

Sigh. But I digress. To sum up: Nothing special, but a fine stop for a quick slice. A good choice if you have a nephew who goes "Why is there a leaf on my pizza?" when you take him somewhere nice that has basil or spices on the pie.

Fuggetinaboutit, Josh

Renaldi's Pizza Pub
2827 N Broadway St.
Chicago, IL 60657

It's Getting Hot In Herre

2005-12-08T12:34:00.000-06:00

So remember all those things we said about Slice. Er, well...it looks like they were listening. But at least this East Coast/Mid-West feud is out in the open and the years of healing can begin. I think cheese and sauce is something we can all agree on. Amen.

[read Slice's reply here]

Moonshine (Chicago)

2005-12-08T11:02:00.000-06:00

12.08.2005... Moonshine (Chicago)

Last night I went out to dinner at Moonshine, a hip little restaurant and bar in Wicker Park (but then, what place isn't hip in Wicker Park?). But despite the trendiness of the red-lit bar, or the loud funky music, Moonshine sure knows how to make a pie. Pizza pie, that is.

They only have thin crust, but it's not the kind that will snap in half when you bend it. And they have a plethora of toppings you can add to your pizza, but they aren't the kind that will overpower your slice. Somehow Moonshine gets it just right, and each square you eat (yes, this cut it up into squares - it's thin crust, c'mon!) melts in your mouth like butter. Pizza butter, that is.

For good measure I also tried a side, in this case the mac & cheese. It seems like mac & cheese is the hip new side in restaurants, and this place makes it more like mom used to make (mmm, cheesy goodness), rather that seeing how fancy they can makes it (parmesan flakes, white cheese, etc.) as it's been done at places like Parlor and She She.

So if you're in the mood for a good slice and your drink in a mason jar (they had to have something that went along with the Moonshine theme) head on down to Moonshine. I reckon you won't regret it.

Trendier (in my stomach), Josh

Moonshine
1824 W Division St.
Chicago, IL 60622

agreed.

2005-12-07T20:32:00.000-06:00

I'm with Josh. We will wipe the floor with Slice. Here is why:

1 - We are a guy/girl duo. Those are always big sellers with the kids.

2 - We are bi-city! I mean... our enterprise is based in 2 cities.

3 - Obviously there was no "official" poll suggesting that Slice was voted "America's Favorite Pizza Blog." I don't recall ever receiving any notification of any kind of poll (online or otherwise) declaring that A Slice of (Life and) Pizza was being "graded", so to speak, alongside every other pizza blog in this or any country. This was uncalled for.

That being said:

Josh, I like the idea of being filthy rich. If asked to do so, I would sell this blog. Just a heads up so we're both on the same page. And, just in case Slice never buys us out, maybe we should stop giving them so much publicity on this, our highly viewed, best of the best, pizza site. I mean, we can barely contain all the comments we're getting, we don't want people straying!

Bring it!
Kate

More like America's stupidest pizza blog!

2005-12-06T17:44:00.000-06:00

So there's this blog called Slice. Slice calls itself "America's Favorite Pizza Blog". I'm sorry, but was there a poll taken to see what America's favorite pizza blog was? No. I think not. For all you know America's favorite pizza blog could be A Slice of (Life and) Pizza (And yes, we realize that grammar is kinda off. We're working on it).

So our new plan is to beat Slice at it's own game. Which really shouldn't be that hard, seeing as how it's a NY based pizza blog and we're a Chicago/St. Louis based pizza blog. I mean, this isn't a rap war; blogs from different parts of the country should be able to co-exist. It's Jay-Z. We're Nelly. Why can't we just put out a duet album and get on with our lives?

Granted, Slice is a bit bigger than yours truly. So it also wouldn't hurt if Slice pulled a Microsoft. That is to say, realize that we've got some good ideas and are a force to be reckoned with, so it just buys us up before we can do them any harm. Either way Kate and I end up filthy rich.

So I formally make this blog my declaration of competition against Slice. Good day.

Feudingly, Josh

Oh crap

2005-12-04T02:07:00.000-06:00

While Googling this pizza blog to see how popular we've become (why hasn't Letterman called us to schedule an appearance yet?) I came across something interesting.

The August 3rd, 2004 edition of the New York Times has a headline that reads:

"A Slice of Life, and Pizza, on the Kerry Campaign"

The article talks about John Kerry, pizza, and pretty much everything inbetween. I just feel a little bit cheated. Like one of those women who thinks she's thought up the perfect baby name but then hears that some other woman already named her kid Younanni last year. Can we really keep our blog title after seeing that, Kate? Huh? Can we?

Sigh. The full New York Times article can be read here.

Disappointed, Josh

Pizza Ria (Chicago)

2005-12-03T12:39:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, at the intersection of North, Halsted, and Clyborn there stood a little building that housed the escalators down to the red line North and Clyborn subway stop. Also in that little building there was a Currency Exchange. But the neighborhood grew (aka gentrification) and nothing says bad, poor neighborhood like a Currency Exchange. A Crate & Barrel moved in next door. Ditto on a Borders. And so the Currency Exchange was forced to leave. But what to put in it's place? Ah ha! Pizza! And so, Pizza Ria was born. Ta da!

At the tiny corner pizzeria you can buy either full pizzas, or by the slice, available in everything from Malibu style (ranch dressing, chicken, and mozzarella, which I'm sure no one actually living in Malibu would eat) to something called Big Meaty (which sounds fairly obscene, and consists of pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, and bacon). And if you'd like some caffeine to go with your grease, they also proudly serve Seattle's Best Coffee.

As for the taste, it's not half bad. The pizza had a very distinctive Parmesan taste, saving time (and wrist effort) for those of you who like to shake a lot of the stuff on your slice. The crust was a bit crispy, but overall not bad. I like my crust soft, what can I say?

I have to admit I was a bit shocked when I walked out of the restaurant and opened the box, my beautiful slice was once again cut into two pieces just so it could fit into the box. Is there a pizza revolution going on? Are slices getting bigger? If so, I think someone should start making bigger boxes. And I think Kate and I are just the people to bring those large boxes to the masses! But I suppose...one step at a time.

Parmesaned, Josh

Pizza Ria
2255 W North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

Black Thorn Pub (St. Louis)

2005-11-30T13:31:00.000-06:00

Easily the best pizza I've ever had in my life. Easily. Josh, you shoulda been there.

The setting: I went to Black Thorn a couple Sundays ago with a group of friends. It's a tiny place, tucked away so much that I never knew it was right around the corner from my best friend's house. It was decorated mostly with grafitti covering the walls, everything from stickers to intricate doodles to large chalk drawings. It was dark, it was kinda creepy, and it had games.

I played some mean shuffle board, despite the fact that the table was low on that grain/salt stuff. I still won. A lot. Also there was Ms. Pac Man, a $4 golfing video game, Galaga, Donkey Kong, air hockey, foosball, darts, and a Terminator 3 pinball machine.

Thankfully they had all those games; we ordered pizza... and waited about an hour for it to be ready. It was worth it. It claims to be Chicago-style, but, having eaten actual Chicago-style in Chicago, it wasn't.

It was however, the best pizza I've eaten in my life. (See above) It's also made from scratch. The sauce was garlicy and almost spicy. It was super cheesy, and good cheese too. Sausage and pepperoni. It may not have been Chicago-style, but damned if it wasn't just as filling. I ate a slice and (reluctantly) a half and was considerably uncomfortable for the rest of the evening.

It was well worth the wait, though I must say, by the end of that hour or so, all I could do was sit at the table and complain with everyone else about how hungry I was. It was comparable to when your mom fixed dinner when you were a kid. You'd ask how much longer, and when she said, "About 15 minutes," you thought you were going to die waiting for those minutes to pass.

Who knew that such a dingy, hole-in-the-wall looking pub could host this miraculous gift to the pizza world?

Full, Kate

Black Thorn Pub
3735 Wyoming Street
St. Louis, MO 63116

Got Pizza? (Chicago)

2005-11-29T00:24:00.000-06:00

Everyday on my way to work I pass by a place called Got Pizza? It boasts "authentic New York style giant slices." And while I love the Chicago Style pizza with which I have grown up, every now and then I want a big slice that I can just fold in half and go to town on. So when I decided to stop in today I was a little sad that all I ended up with was a big slice of disappointment.

The first thing I saw when I walked in was a guy sitting behind the counter reading the help wanted ads. Encouraging! Then I asked for a slice of cheese (which was way overpriced), and was left waiting for three minutes while they heated it up. I then watched in horror as the guy took my beautiful giant slice and cut it down the middle, making two smaller slices. What is the point of boasting giant slices if you are just going to cut them in half?! Sigh. In the end it didn't even taste that great.

Chicago may be the second city to New York, but it's clearly not second when it comes to pizza.

Sliced, Josh

Got Pizza?
1234 N Halsted St.
Chicago, IL 60622

Imo's (St. Louis)

2005-11-28T21:55:00.000-06:00

When you come to St. Louis, basically you have a couple places to choose from for "authentic" St. Louis style pizza: Imo's and Cecil Whitaker's. Last night I had the pleasure of having Imo's pizza. First, a description of St. Louis Style pizza:

A thin, cracker-like crust. ...that's pretty much all I know about it.

Imo's pizza has this super thin, saltine-esque crust, with a "zesty" tomato sauce, provel cheese, and it's cut into squares. I had the veggie pizza which had broccoli, green peppers, mushroom, onions, and tomatoes on it. A lot of toppings for such a fragile (read: frah-GILE) crust. But it held its own. It really held its own.

The cheese is unusual. It's the kind where it gets stuck behind your front teeth after you take a bite. But it's really very good. I recommend it. I have yet to try CW's, and, believe me, you'll be the first to know what it's like.

Love, Kate

Imo's Pizza
1100 Hwy. 157 S.
Edwardsville, IL 62025