This is gonna be a no bullshit post, so hold on to your ass
The BEST Chicago Style pizza in San Diego
Yeah, I said it. You know my loath of words like "best" "favorite" etc.... but for this pie, on this night, I gotta use it. I offer only one caveat, and that's an apology to Hollywood Pies, who I think is the best Chicago style pie I've ever had, but you guys skipped town and Hollywood is not a place I'll enthusiastically travel to for so many reasons. So, back to the here and now....
It's been a while since my last Berkeley pie. So long ago in fact that they now have 2 store front locations, whereas previously you had to know the number of the dude and they would only deliver, maybe you could pick it up, but there was no restaurant, no store, just super cool schizznizzle. But, I digress. I am at the North Park location, getting a pie to go. It's raining, I've just finished a hot yoga class, the boys are sore, and I'm hungry. Three doors down and here I go.....
A pretty cool interior, intentionally sort of stark, urban, rustic. And shockingly laking of people.
Two TV's. One showing sports and the other with a "Cool Hand Luke" style movie.
This is over the entrance to the kitchen and it's HUGE.
I LOVE this oven. No pretentious wood, italian, brick, blah blah blah here. We're making pizza and the only thing we need from the oven is heat. No need for added flavor, there's enough in the pie. Berkeley's is serving pizza, not charcoal.
Random kegs of beer abound. Another coolness-ness
Here's a dozen taps and there's another row of a dozen of them to the left, and there appeared to be another 20 or so of unused taps on the ready when business picks up, my guess.
Ommegang. Yes please.
OK, enough of that shit, let's fuck this pie up.
A very cool old school pizza box.
Yeah, I forgot to get a shot of the whole pie. But you have to remember that I'm STARVING!!!!!
The first impressions are good. It weighed about 57 million pounds and had my car smelling of all things pizza. The slices come apart easy, holding their own on the way to the plate. Firm but not hard. What did she say?!?!?
Ohhhh mama! Get fricken ready!
Sausage and pepperoni.
It's delicious. So good in fact that I don't even think I chewed the first slice on the way down.
I took a bit more time with the second one, in order to properly inspect and explain, and so I don't choke to death also :-O
So the first thing I notice is the sausage which, as I requested from the sole employee at The Berk, was a complete layer of sausage, which I think is a thing.... And I say this because you can, at most Chicago places, order either a complete layer of sausage or sporadic chunks, and I request the complete layer, of which some areas near the crust appear to have been abandoned. But really, this is quite a small gripe. The sausage is plentiful and flavorful and the pepperoni has just the right level of spice and balance with the sausage, and completely coats the pie.
Now to the crust. It seem not a true "Chicago Style" I have to say. Meaning that it should taste and feel similar to a pie crust (apple, cherry, etc.. you get what I'm trying to say...) and this Berkeley pie crust has the texture, ever so slightly, of a new york/east coast pie. However, it has structure to it, holds up to the weight of what's going on above it. Don't get me wrong, I love it, and I think it works beautifully, in perfect harmony with the rest of the show. Firm yet not hard (like Lefty's. Try them and you'll see. Down in the corner there is so much cornmeal or something bad that it turns into a rock. Like eating an old chocolate chip cookie that has been sitting out for a week. Bad).
Although most do as do I, eat this style pie with a knife and fork, you should be able to pick it up and eat it like a slice, which is what it is.... And you should be able to, and you should want to cause it's so fricken good, eat the WHOLE crust without putting it down, and you should want to. There should be no pile of crust on the plate at the end. No pizza bones!
Pizza bones = bad
2 slices down and I need another, sofaking good
On to the tomatoes and cheese.
Nice big chunks of tomato packed full of flavor. You can taste the balance of acid to sweetness exploding in your mouth. And a nice light coating on the pie too. Not too soupy and not too sparse either. Just right.
Lastly the cheese.
Stringy and salty, the glue holding together this collage of ingredients together. A nice thick layer smack dab in the middle. Like a molten chocolate lava cake where you slice into it and it oozes out.
Although this is a large thick pie it's not overly filling. That may sound retarded to some of you, but it's true. Don't get me wrong, it will fill you up, but it won't knock you out for the night and won't sit in your belly like a ton of bricks.
Great flavors, great ingredients, right here close to home.
Eat there, take one home, get it delivered, do it how you want, just do it, you'll like it.
DVA
