Fiori's Pizza - Revisiting Fiori's Pizzeria after a Four Year Hiatus
My first pizza visit of 2017 was none other than the legendary Fiori's Pizzeria in Brookline. Fiori's is one of the oldest, well revered pizza places in the city of Pittsburgh. So, when I asked Joey from the Vandal where he wanted to meet for a pizza adventure he said "Well, Fiori's." He also threw out Beto's, but let's be real, it wasn't a competition.
Four years have passed since I've been to Fiori's. Let's look at the slices of pizza side-by-side. A lot has happened in phone technology in four years, but dang do these slices look foreign.
Fiori's from 2013. Looks undercooked and sad.
Fiori's from 2017. Looks mega delicious with great lighting.
2017 Fiori's is full of passion. That's a perfectly cooked pizza that's wearing a slightly charred bubble like a beauty mark. The cheese has browned nicely without losing any of its flavor. The 2017 pizza is what you see when you should see when you look up "Pizza" in the Pizza Bible.
I'm not a fan of a sloppy pizza that can't keep its act together. I enjoy a pizza with confidence, and sturdiness that can support a myriad of toppings if put to the test. If your pizza collapses in half, creating a cheese avalanche and leaves you rushing for a fork & knife, you got a bad slice on your hands. Stability is key, else you spend time stuffing the guts back onto the pizza.
Last time I ate at Fiori's, four years ago, I wrote the following about its crust:
“There’s some give to the crust, but not enough that leads to a complete pizza breakdown. You could build a house on this crust except you’d have to worry about a sinking foundation in about three years.”
Fiori's still delivers a sturdy pizza. Hands down one of the most structurally sound pizzas I've encountered. I'm sure that pizza from my last visit would continue to be sturdy. You wouldn't have to worry about a sinking foundation with a Fiori's pizza house for ten years at this rate.
Last week I had Mineo's. The juxtaposition of these two pieces was a revelation. Mineo's delivered disappointed, flimsy slices that cried out under the pool of cheese and grease. With Fiori's, the pizza is there to serve you. It is a finely built vessel that is capable of carrying cheese, sauce and toppings into its landing zone (your mouth).
Consistency is a hallmark of quality pizza. I can make a decent pizza in my kitchen 25% of the time, but to pull out a delicious, evenly topped pizza day after day, year after year is amazing. It's a testament to the craft behind Fiori's. They live to fix you up and I'm glad they're still fixing up Pittsburgh after all this time.
Fiori's pizza shines like the sun as a fluorescent ray strikes a small, quiet, pond of grease.
From crust to the tip, Fiori's delivers a complete pizza package. Last time I ate Fiori's, I remember the crust being a bit bland. That was not the case in this visit. After getting through the cheese and roasted red peppers, the crust was a delight to bite into.The carapace of the crust gave way to a soft cushion of dough.
Fiori's is on the other side of the Liberty Bridge, not a bad drive. One of my 2017 resolutions is to visit Fiori's more than once every four years.
Get fixed up, get Fiori's.