What birthday is complete without pizzas? For mine I decided to head to Dinette in East Liberty for a trio of delicious pizzas.
Notice how fresh the vegetables look, the crispness of the crust, the savory ingredients. A surreal and delicious experience.
A trio of birthday pizzas. I ate my age in slices tonight. I ate 105 slices.
An interactive table that allows you to design your perfect pizza through a drag and drop interface from Pizza Hut.
In the video, “Jeff” and his date/sister seem to have a hell of a fun time ordering their pizza. Then, when they’re finished they get to play a game together while they wait for their greasy pie to find its way to their table.
Thanks to crisduh for sending this my way.
Some pizza I had in an event in New York City. Don’t recall the name, but it wasn’t your standard pizza and it was good.
They clearly knew that if they were going to have a ton of toppings, they’d need a crust that could support the weight. Hence the thicker crust.
Now that’s some intelligent pizza.
Dan Janssen has eaten pizza for almost every meal for a quarter of a century.
People put pizza on a greasy pedestal. Is the shocking thing about this story supposed to be the volume of pizza that he eats? Or that he eats all the pizza and is healthy?
There’s a stigma around pizza that it’s a sloppy mess. That anyone that eats it more than once a week is doomed to become a spawn of Pizza-the-hut. We need more stories like this to show that you can be pizza and be a normal human being at the same time.
Good on Dan Jansen. Making Dans around the world proud and keeping plenty of pizza shops in business.
Next time someone tells you to not eat so much pizza, send them this article. You can still be you and eat an absurd amount of pizza.
A plain slice from Best Pizza [Photograph: Jessica Leibowitz] As a New Yorker, I’m unfit to make the call on whether or not we have the best pizza in the world. It’s against my basic upbringing to even entertain the…
This is a guide that helps you quickly assess a pizza place in New York City. This is excellent because if you’re visiting New York City you may become overwhelmed with the amount of everything.
There’s a pizza place on every corner, and next to that pizza place is another pizza place. If they can afford rent in Manhattan they must be good, right? Well now you can make that call by playing pizza detective.
An aside: I’m glad DiFara pizza makes a cameo in the list of go-to places. I highly recommend making the pilgrimage, even though it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere and there’s an absurd line to battle.
I’m interested to see what a guide of this caliber would look like in other cities. Pittsburgh has some quirky places, and Oakland is full of pizza-traps. If a place is selling you a whole pie for $5 you’re in trouble. Imagine the corners they have to cut to make that profitable…
Anyways, it’s a solid read and worth carrying in your back pocket if you ever end up heading towards New York City.
Pittsburgh has caught pizza fever and every one is getting in on the action. Last week we explored the world of Pizza Cones from Pizza Cono in Squirrel Hill. This week’s new challenger in the pizza arena is Espresso A Mano in Lawrenceville.
Normally they’re busy serving the best coffee money can buy while peddling devilish croissants. But they’ve realized they’ve been ignoring a large demographic in Pittsburgh - Pizza Enthusiasts.
For $3 you can grab a slice of pizza that isn’t made on site. It’s made in a pizza place in Mt. Washington. It was busy and loud and I didn’t quite catch the name and I’m sorry.
On the weekends, they get a few pies delivered to the coffee shop. They cut them up, waiting for an over-caffeinated patron to order a slice. The perfect compliment to a stomach slopping around with coffee.
Through the glass I saw a sample and it looks like something you’d eat at Il Pizzaiolo or Mercurio’s. The crust looked soft and fluffy, the ingredients fresh, and a dazzling piece of pizza that would feel at home in Naples.
I’ll have to go back for a taste next weekend.
I’m pumped more places are carrying pizza. In this dire winter I’m comforted knowing I never have to travel too far to stumble into a pizza oasis.
I visited Pizza Cono, one of the few pizza cone shops in the United States! It’s nestled in the heart of Squirrel Hill, right here in Pittsburgh. It’s quite exciting. Especially if you’re a pizza journalist like myself.
Every one I’ve talked to about the pizza cone had questions about what/how/where/why does this exists. I’ve compiled this video to show the creation of a pizza cone. From dough ball to cone of pizza. This brief video documents the entire pizza cone process.
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A while ago this whole “pizza cone” madness blew up. Pittsburghers were foaming at the mouths to get their jaws around this strange contraption. Was it more than pizza? Or closer to an ice cream cone? Can you fill this with chocolate? Can you use a straw to slurp out the cheese, sauce, and meats?
I was lucky enough to get in touch with the owner of Pizza Cono, Mike. Mike has spent a large majority of his life in Pittsburgh. He worked his way through Pitt University by, you guessed it, working at pizza places. He’s no stranger to the concept of pizza, but he is responsible for bringing this strange concept to Pittsburgh.
Mike was inspired during a trip in Europe. He was always on the lookout for “zany things” when he saw some folks strolling through the streets of Italy holding a pizza cone in one hand, happier than ever. He thought he should bring that cone-shaped happiness to the United States.
Look how happy I am.
To his knowledge, you won’t find a pizza cone shop anywhere in the United States. I’ve yet to do my research, but this is the first i’ve heard of a building where you can walk in, hand someone $3.75 and leave with a pizza cone.
“Pizza cone is meant to be an on-the-go experience,” Mike told me. He wants people to stop into his shop, get a shot of espresso from his espresso machine, grab a pizza cone, and continue on their way. This isn’t a pizzeria, but a quick place to stop for lunch on the go. Or the perfect cafe to visit en route to work. Ideal for the student on the way home from class, or the young lover who wants to surprise their significant other with a bouquet of pizza.
Mike invited me into his pizza cono shop to show me how a pizza cone is made. The process is mostly the same–they make dough, they let the dough rise, and they even keep it in the same white, plastic dough trays I’ve used in my pizza making days. But then that’s where your traditional pizza making experience ends.
The pizza cone process is more mechanical. A side-effect of machinery rising up? Probably. The only part of pizza cone creation that involves a human is the stuffing of the dough into a hole (which is filled with a cone to achieve that cone shape), and filling the pizza cone with toppings. The cooking of the cone is done with a carousel that rotates in-and-out of heated sections until the cheese is melted and the cone is a tad crispy.
Seven minutes later you’re presented with a pizza cone.
He’s still working on perfecting the pizza cone. The ingredients aren’t the warmest at the bottom, so he’s warming up the sauce before layering the ingredients.
The top of the cone is crispy, but further down, the dough has a lot more give. Which results in a mushy cone. In this way, it mimics a slice of pizza almost perfectly. The cone was much less messier than I thought it would be.
And for those of you that dab the grease off your pizza, you’ll sleep easy knowing there’s almost no grease to be found here. It’s a tidy cone that somehow stays contained within the funnel. No flakiness and a thin layer of aluminum foil keeps your hands clean.
Pizza Cono has limited day-time hours at the time I clicked publish. You can find it on the corner of Forbes and Murray in Squirrel Hill. By all those other pizza places.
I’ll have more info about pizza cone in the coming days. Stay tuned for videos of a pizza cone being created, interviews, photos, and a more detailed review!
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I just received a phone call from the owner of the Pizza Cono place opening up in Squirrel Hill.
I’ll be stopping by their place Thursday afternoon to sample some of their cones, interview the owners, and figure out what exactly is going on here. It sounds like the grand opening is coming this Saturday, but that could always change.
The owner, Mike, seemed very excited and said that “people love the cone,” but I suppose I’ll be the judge of that.
Yesterday, news hit that pizza perfume was released into the wild. I was wondering what would drive Demeter to finally create the scent we’ve been waiting for. The one scent that’s worth wafting into my nostrils.
I emailed the CEO of Demeter, Mark Crames. He got back to me that same day and apologized for not responding earlier. Since he’s a CEO I’ll let it pass.
So what inspired the pizza perfume? According to Crames, they’re not the first. If you remember your pizza history you’ll recall that Pizza Hut was the trail blazer in the pizza perfume field. This was back in 2012 and it all started with a joke Facebook post about pizza hut cologne.
What was once a joke transformed into 100 limited editions bottles of pizza perfume.
Crames explained the inspiration, saying, “Pizza Hut in Canada did a very short run limited edition, and the positive reception is what sparked our decision to give it a try. The positive reception of the Pizza Hut project made me think people might be ready to wear a well done savory scent.”
But they weren’t aiming to mimic a Brooklyn pizzeria or bottle the scent of Naples. When asked if the scent was reminiscent of a specific slice Crames said, “I did not have a specific target in mind, but more a generic fresh, hot pizza smell.”
I’m hoping for an evolution of pizza scents. “Brooklyn Bombshell” scent would be nice. Not to mention smelling like a “Pizzaiolo,” or a “Deep Dish Diva”
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Are you happy? Are you finally satisfied? The stink of pizza has been bottled and is ready to spray onto you or your significant other. Luckily, the NY Daily News is on it.
It looks like a bottle was sent to their office where they spent the better part of the day spraying and smelling each other. Reviews range from “great if you want to smell like garlic” to smells of “cold, leftover pizza.”
You can buy the pizza perfume on Demeter’s website. But why? I supposed you’d want to smell like pizza when:
I’ve reached out to the CEO for more of a comment on this. Let’s hope he gets back to me.
Pizza journalist.
Yesterday, my story about a possible pizza cone restaurant opening up in Pittsburgh blew up larger than a dough ball injected with too much yeast. You may have even read about it on the Post-Gazette’s food blog.
There isn’t much new information about the pizza cone concept, but I do have a brief interview with a pizza cone technology distributor. I actually got a contact from this company, Husmak, a few months ago in my Tumblr inbox. I disregarded it, thinking the pizza cone would never be in my grasp. How wrong I was.
I reached out to my contact at Husmak and asked him a few questions.
We are manufacturer of food processing equipments for 3 decades. We have been producing Pizza cone equipments since year 2005. Pizza cone was introduced in Italy in 2000.
Pizza cone is just like a regular pizza in terms of recipe.You may create any type of recipe such as veg, non veg, sea etc..
Pizza cone is popular every where in the world. Even in the Philippines you can find restaurants of pizza cones.
The only difference is, regular pizza has much of dough so you have much feelings of dough. Whereas, pizza cone has very thin layer of dough and that makes pizza cone tastier. Pizza cone makes the ingredients feel abundant.
There ya go. I’ve sent a few more questions, but this should whet your appetite. I’m very interested in tasting one of these, especially if the ingredients are made more abundant.
With a thinner crust, an abundance of ingredients, and a good grip, it seems like the ideal pizza experience for the traveler. Many times I’ve walked down sidewalks trying to eat a fresh slice out of a pizza box I just purchased from Mineo’s. I’m sure I looked like a meager dog trying to get that hunk of meat out from a dumpster.
Pathetic but lovable.
This pizza cone contraption will surely solve that problem. And never again will we have to look like pizza eating fools in Squirrel Hill.
Also, I’ve started a pizza newsletter. If you’d like to sign up, click the newsletter icon in the upper right! I’ll send pizza news sent right to your inbox! If the icon isn’t working, click the link for pizza newsletter stuff.
In Squirrel Hill there’s finally pizza innovation. This is an area so saturated with pizza places it’s impossible to walk a block without accidentally swallowing a slice. And now innovation in pizza eating.
They said it couldn’t be done. That pizza would always be triangular. Or rectangular. That you had to go vertical if you wanted to change the pizza game. “You can always build up” they said. But don’t tell that to Pizza Cono.
The other day I got this distress call from andreadisaster.
“Pizza not flat anymore…” is their motto. Everyone is baffled by this.
Pizza at its core is flat. We all know that. It’s a disc that you toss in the air. It’s what pizzaiolo’s do in Naples 24/7. It’s how they power their city.
But Pizza Cono is bringing the pizza cone craze to Pittsburgh. But where did the pizza cono craze start? Why Pittsburgh? Why now?
I’m still trying to solve that pizza cone mystery. In the mean time, I’ve reached out to a distributor of pizza cone technology with a few questions. The company is Husmak and they want pizza to be a cone.
I sent Husmask an email hoping they could tell me they’re expanding into the United States from Europe. This is their response:
Dear Sir,Thanking for your email about Pizza Cone concept.To your knowledge, yes we have several equipments sold to US.But we cannot say if opening in Pittsburgh is our equipments.Anyway, you can write me email and will be glad to reply.Your faithfullyAbbas Najarcustomer rep.
FYBLOVESPIZZA sticker I saw on the corner of Liberty and 40th St in Pittsburgh. I think we officially have our first pizza mystery.
I’ve searched for “FYBLOVESPIZZA” and “FYBLOVESPIZZ” and came up empty. Who could FYB even be? Fix Your Bike? Fuzzy Yellow Balls? A kind of protein? Knowing that everyone in the world loves pizza does not make this easy to pin down. If this was “FYBLOVESARTICHOKES” I’m sure we’d find our answer in no time.
The latter suspect makes the most sense. I know that my FYB protein gets all jittery with excitement and anticipation whenever they have the opportunity to bond with/digest some pizza. Whenever they’re starved for pizza they come together to form a triangular pizza slice. It’s their way of getting my attention
Though, I doubt that proteins have the capital to purchase stickers then hire someone to put them on garbage cans.
So if you have any information on FYB and whether they love pizza or not, please let me know! To crack this code (which has addled the pizza police department for years) would be momentous. I’m not going to compare this to solving the Zodiac mystery, but it’s certainly close.
Welcome to my pizza montage. This is from Piccolo Forno. Their pizza style mimics that of Northern Italy. You know, the Lucca area. Less rise to their crust and more of a crunch.
There’s some prosciutto, arugula, red peps, and a bit or artichoke. The artichoke was a bit overwhelming and mushy but what are ya gonna do?
Imagine returning from your trip to Italy, studying pizza formations and meeting with the finest pizzaiolos, only to find that your most loved employee has stolen thousands from your pizza shop.
I wonder if the “former manager” was secretly a calzone enthusiast…
A former manager of a Ross pizza shop accused of stealing tens of thousands in fraudulent credit card refunds from his employer is expected to surrender this morning on felony theft charges, the Allegheny County district attorney’s office said today. Prosecutors said Franco Asturi, 42, used a credit card machine owned by Mamma Lucia Pizza to process the fraudulent refunds, then transferred more than $60,000 from the pizza shop bank account into his own personal accounts. The business’ bank records showed that about $126,000 in fraudulent refunds were processed starting in May 2010, most credited to the same credit card linked to an account in Mr. Asturi’s name, a detective with the DA’s office wrote in a criminal complaint. The pizza shop owner, Paul Mancino, discovered something was
