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Driftwood Oven experiments with square slices

Driftwood Oven experiments with square slices

Driftwood Oven Experiments With Square Slices - #PGHPIZZAWEEK

March 22, 2017 by Dan Tallarico in Pizza Essay

I don't know what kind of witchcraft happens under Driftwood Oven's pizza tent. Over the cold season, Neil and Justin set up their mobile home and zip themselves inside their pizza den. If you're at Grist House, Dancing Gnome or any other location they call home, to order the pizza you unzip their tent and enter the pizza cave.

The Driftwood Oven pizza cave is a warm safe place. Some folks linger inside with their beer and watch Neil expertly work the oven. Justin is a one-man-show ready to entertain anyone that enters. The pizza cave draws people in, like travelers gathering next to a warm hearth to rest their weary legs and tell tales of pizza.

On my most recent visit into the Driftwood Oven pizza cave, Neil had a tray of square slices. Driftwood Oven has been teasing square slices for a long time. In fact, I had sampled some square slices from Driftwood Oven months ago. The ones Neil are selling today is an evolution of that product. I asked him if this means he finally mastered the formula. 

"It's never perfect. You know that. It's a constant work in progress," was Neil's response. I suppose an artist is never truly satisfied. 

But square slices have a nostalgia to them. My uncle was so excited to see the slices on the menu that he ordered six. "Growing up in Beaver, it's all we ate. For your birthday they set down a platter of square slices," said my uncle, Don Erb, about his history with square slices.

Here Don uses the "blow on hot pizza" technique to cool it down a few degrees.

Here Don uses the "blow on hot pizza" technique to cool it down a few degrees.

There is a rustic feeling to the square slices. It recalls memories of grandma pie: dough mashed into a square tray and plopped into the oven. It requires much less finesse than getting a round pie. 

Driftwood Oven's square slices were delicious. The slices were solid, sturdy, and provided a hearty crunch. In past iterations the inside has been much softer, so maybe they're trying to strike that crunch-to-soft-balance. 

still, it was beautiful and it was simple. I'm excited to eat tray after tray of their square pie in the coming months.

What I Order

  • A margherita and something zany on the menu.
  • Gotta grab a square slice as an appetizer.
  • Get a pizza per person.

How to Hunt Down Driftwood Oven

  • Follow them on Instagram
  • Check their website
  • Hit up their Twitter

Other Driftwood Oven News

  • Pittsburgh Pizza Dojo Part 2: Pizza Boat vs Driftwood oven

  • Driftwood oven Brings Pizza to Pittsburgh Pizza Deserts

  • Recounting the first Pizza Dojo

 

March 22, 2017 /Dan Tallarico
driftwood oven, pgh pizza week, pizza week, pittsburgh pizza
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pghpizzaweek

Celebrate Every Week Like it's #pghpizzaweek with Pizza Walk With Me

March 15, 2017 by Dan Tallarico in Pizza Essay

Hi there, I’m Dan, local Pittsburgh pizza journalist. Next week the City Paper has declared that it will be “#pghpizzaweek” where they will be highlighting pizzas from, at the time of publishing, 11 pizzerias. This is a city that has one of the highest amount of pizzerias per capita. This is a city where each neighborhood has a signature pizza and blocks are dense with pizza shops. 11 doesn't seem like enough, so I'm going to lend a hand.

In the past couple of years, Pittsburgh has experienced a pizza renissance. There’s a healthy mix of wonderfully greasy pies, mobile pizza heroes and neopilitan pizza that seem to import flavor from Italy.

Pizza has that effect on people. It’s a powerful food that can calm your nerves, put you at easy and transport you into a delicious pizza trance.

Over the next couple days I’ll be highlighting a number of local pizzerias as part of #pghpizzaweek. Pittsburgh is a pizza town as much as NYC, I truly believe that. We have some of the best pizza in the world here and it’s my job to highlight that.

So, over the next week you’ll see pictures, videos and essays on the following pizzerias:

  • Spak Brothers
  • Slice Island
  • Pizza Boat
  • Driftwood Oven
  • Caliente
  • Pizza Taglio
  • Mama Lucia’s
  • Slice on Broadway
  • Fiori’s
  • Bella Notte
  • Stone Pizzeria
  • Il Pizzaiolo
  • Pizzuvio
  • Fazio’s Pizza

I've covered many of these places in the past, and it's always fun to look back on great pizza from great pizza places. #pghpizzaweek may be one of the best weeks yet! Pizza ya later.

 

March 15, 2017 /Dan Tallarico
pizza week, #pghpizzaweek
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