DeFazio’s Meat Lovers Whole Wheat Pizza
Spiraling out of the All Over Albany 2011 Tournament of Pizza, I have an initiative visit each of the pizzerias that made it to the semi-finals round and sample an outstanding pizza creation. While the tournament was all about rating the pizza, this is much less structured, and really serves to create an awareness of something that you might not know is out there.
One night, I was picking up comic books down on Fulton street in Troy, and I was thinking about where I could go for dinner. Naturally, my first inclination was to make my very first visit to DeFazio’s pizza (266 4th Street Troy, NY). So, I did!
They have lots of special creation pizzas on their menu. They also offer a whole wheat crust option, which made me feel a little better about eating pizza during my days of carefully watching my intake. My eyes steered to either General Tso because why not? And then they steered to Meat Lovers (Meatballs, sausage, bacon, pepperoni, mozzarella, and spices). I opted for meat lovers. [General Tso is clearly worthy of its own post. One day…]
I ordered the 12″, which I am going to say could comfortably feed two people who were not as hungry as I was that night, and it set me back $15.95 ($14.95 + 1.00 for whole wheat). It’s a bit on the high side for a small pizza. I also ordered a Manhattan Special espresso coffee soda, which I had totally forgotten about when considering what to drink when judging pizza.
After about a 10 minute wait, my pizza arrived, piping hot from the wood fired oven (which is a unique cooking method for take out pizza restaurants in the area).
The pizza is loaded with meat, enough so to need a fork and knife to eat it. I’m not really a fork and knife with pizza guy, but load it up like that, and I’ll play that game. The pepperoni and sausage tasted great. The bacon, as always, put it over the top. However, the meatballs, which I suspect are home made, launched this pizza right at the used-to-be-planet Pluto. I am a huge fan of sliced meatball on pizza. These meatballs were sliced thick, had a good texture and were loaded with garlic and cheese. Of the bunch, this was, by far, the best topping on the pizza.
I enjoyed about 3/4 of the pizza while sitting there, and I could have finished the whole thing, but I had to draw the line, until I got home at least.
On the way out, I got to chat with a few of the people behind the counter who had realized that I was one of the judges for 2011’s AOA tournament. They were trying to get me to tell them what we were looking for in the pizzas we were judging, since, apparently, they went too big in 2010’s Tournament of Pizza and lost in the finals this year with a simple pie. I gave the young kid the reassurance that anybody in their right mind would (and should) have scored that pizza perfectly if it was given to us fresh out of the oven.
And that’s the big point, get down there, enjoy a fresh pizza in the shop, and I can guarantee you will not be disappointed. This is a place that takes a lot of pride in what they do. You may spend an extra buck or two, but you can tell that they want you to enjoy their food, and, if they keep up with the quality, there is no way you won’t!
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