Yeah, white pizza is a nice change. I like it when several cheeses are used. It’s usually just ricotta and mozzarella. This is a great twist on white pizza. It actually includes a white sauce.
Edit: Hmmm, that looks familiar.
White pizzas typically have a sauce of some type. When I think of a pizza that has no sauce, I just think of “sauceless pizza” which some chains will make for you (I’ve gotten it from both Pizza Hut and Papa John’s before). But yeah, the only chain I can think of that makes a decent white pizza is California Pizza Kitchen and that’s, well, not exactly national. Their roasted artichoke and spinach white pizza is fantastic, though (it has a creamy white spinach and artichoke sauce).
For whatever reason the Pizza Pizza cheese pizzas I’ve had (don’t ask) were all totally sauceless. It was like a garlic finger with no garlic and less interesting cheese. Probably my all-time least enjoyable takeout pizza experience.
Maybe it’s different on the west coast, but here in New York (and pretty much everywhere I’ve gotten pizza on the east coast), white pizza = no sauce. Unless you count olive oil as a sauce.
I’ve seen it both ways in NY… a garlic/flour/oil/cream base they plop the cheese onto, or just garlic/oil + cheese.
95% of the time when I don’t get regular/plain/cheese, I usually go for grandma or margherita, so perhaps my smaller sample size is giving me an unrealistic view.
I like a variety of pizza.
I’m a fan of St. Louis style pizza done right. I’m only so-so on Imo’s (St. Louis area chain that does St. Louis pizza). Like many chains, the stuff it makes seems a bit greasy. I prefer the various locals.
I like Chicago style pizza, too. This thread made me look at some nutritional info for Uno’s though, and it was pretty bad.
I’ve got less experience with NY style (big slices, medium-thin), but have positive opinions of what I’ve tried.
The main national chains (Pizza Hut, Domino’s etc)? Meh. It’s decent, but maybe not worth it, calorie-wise. i.e. If I’m gonna consume that many calories, I’d rather “spend” them on something better.
I’ve got very little experience with white pizza, but reasonably good memories of it. Maybe that’s an east coast thing?
When I was a kid, we lived in Brazil for a while (mid '78 to mid '80) and pizza there at the time was big on olive oil, not so much on tomato sauce (maybe just a little). At the time we resented this Brazilian style pizza, but now I’d kinda like to try something like that again. IIRC, meat was rare on pizzas down there, but veggies and maybe stuff like basil was common.
[EDIT - Anecdote supposedly about a supposed Godfather’s in/near Columbia, Missouri removed. According to my brother, it was called Shakespeare’s - presumably unrelated.]
This is my experience as well.
I think it is. When my girlfriend/friends here say they want white pizza, they don’t mean “pizza without sauce.”
Since we’ve moved into the regional war phase of things, let me put my vote down for New Haven-style apizza. I first encountered this in a local place that turns out to have been started by emigrants from Connecticut, and it’s just great stuff. Super-thin crust that’s not all crackery, combined with lighter toppings, particularly excellent white/green pizzas.
Yea, those are called cheesy bread sticks.
When I said white pizza, I meant NY/NJ-style white pizza, which is pizza dough, olive oil, mozzarella, ricotta, and seasoning like garlic, oregano, and the like. When done right, it’s just about my favorite style of pizza.
What really differentiates it from “cheesy bread sticks” is that it’s still NY/NJ-style pizza dough - thin, crispy, chewy, definitely not crackery or doughy. You still fold it when you eat it, as all true NY/NJ pizzas should be eaten. Plus, the little islands of ricotta in the plain of mozzarella are just so, so great.
Yeah, exactly. White pizza is all about showcasing the crust. The Roman dish that it’s based on, Pizza Bianca, doesn’t even have cheese. It’s just olive oil and a bit of salt on a pizza dough, and that’s it. (Otto in NYC serves this, and its very good).
I suspect that we added the cheese when it came over to the US, and then as it moved west, the west coasters added additional extraneous ingredients, as they are wont to do. ;)
Living in NYC, there is no excuse for me to eat that near-pizza sold in the chains. i will say that Papa Johns is the closest to decent pizza, i especially like their crust. The others i can’t stomach.
It was definitely a revelation when I went from a strict diet of national chain pizza to some smaller chains and/or indie pizza shops. I don’t eschew them completely, but even my best experiences with Domino’s and Papa John’s (Pizza Hut occasionally lures me with stuffed crust and $10 any pizza deals, but has terrible grease issues and is too salty, etc.) don’t compare. The real selling point for me, though, is that none of the nationals get very exciting with their pizza ingredients. It’s the same pepperoni, a couple kinds of sausage, chicken, beef, olives, peppers, onions, etc stuff for all of 'em. Which is fine, I guess, that’s the staple stuff. But there’s only so many ways you can mix that. Domino’s and Papa John’s at least get a little creative with their specialties. I dig the Domino’s philly cheesesteak and buffalo chicken ones, and Papa John’s chicken cordon bleu and a couple recently introduced ones (like the sausage and pepper one they’ve been advertising lately) are pretty decent. But compare that to these smaller chains I used to be able to order from:
www.gosarpinos.com
www.pizzaluce.com
Waaay more variety. Unfortunately, neither chain has many stores in our metro area, and when I moved at the start of this month I moved out of their delivery areas (I’m still in range of all three nationals. Papa John’s is less than a mile away.) I don’t have a car so pickup’s out of the question. One of the few downsides of the move. But you know, it opened up a couple of decent independent pizza places, one of which is walkable, and a whole lot of other restaurants and shopping in the immediate area, so I can’t complain too much.
Edit: Huh. I guess I’m still in range for Pizza Luce, which has ridiculously huge delivery areas.
One thing I’ve wondered about Pizza Hut: Does that $10-for-any-pizza deal include the personal pan?
Mountain Mike’s is always great. Had a Round Table last night. They’re pretty good in Northern California. One medium pizza delivered was $26 though, so that sucked.
Oh god yes. Was that the one on Charleston west of Decatur? I spent probably 10% of my restaurant-eating childhood in their little 3-arcade-machine nook with two handfuls of pizza. sigh.
Pizza chains are mostly bad. However in the Boston suburbs area, some actually provide superior pizza. Still not good, but better than you get from almost all the local independent pizzerias, most of which are Greek for some strange reason. So my local Papa Gino’s, mediocre as it is, is still better than the non-chain alternatives. Dominos is still not good, though. A local chain, Upper Crust, is sometimes OK, sometimes not. Sal’s has just penetrated the area, and it’s not all that good either.
There are fewer and fewer good independent Neapolitan pizzerias, even in NYC. At least bad NYC pizza is still recognizably pizza, unlike the Greek pizza we have around here, which is some kind of bread pie made with tomato sauce and cheese. When I was a kid in Queens, there used to be some superb ambrosia-like pizza available, but it’s all gone now. Alas.
I must admit that I really do like Round Table pizza, at least when it’s made in a good franchise. This despite it being nothing at all like NYC pizza. With that almost-burnt crust and the amazing weight of each slice, it’s nothing like any other kind of pizza, really. Sadly, the nearest one to me is around 3,000 miles away…
When I was in high school, the closest pizzeria (to the school) was owned by an Israeli dude. He called everyone paisan. Of course that became his name. He made kick-ass falafel, the first I ever had. The pizza was tasty. But it had some weird orange grease that you had to drain off before you ate it.
Hey, we were kids. What did we know? He also had the first Pong game that I ever saw. That place rocked.
That’s not a pizza, that’s bread.
Bread is the only non-negotiable component in pizza.