Allow me to present to you a truly special restaurant, run (and owned) by 2 really exceptional people. Rob and Raya have created not only a comfortable family-feel pizza and pasta (handmade I might add) spot, but the food is really incredible. And you know me, if it wasn't I'd have no problem calling it like I see it, and a little later in the story you'll see for yourself, and then hopefully you'll go and try it for yourself.
First, let's start with the oven. Hot Stove Pizza is what the sign says. Like, what even is that?
My first look and I was like "a conveyor oven, come on, this is not going to be good"
And then I peeked a bit closer, and what did I see???
The conveyor inside the oven is actually made of stone slats that convey the pizza (or whatever) from one end to the other. BRILLIANT!!!!
This provides the nice and crispy crust that you get from direct contact with a cooking surface, while eliminating the hard to reach places to clean, or locate a pizza, in a traditional gas oven, or wood fired, etc... From what I recall it was running at a temp of ~650f.
Canadian made, super unique, and I love it
I'm now looking forward to eating more than I was 10 minutes ago, let's get it!
Caesar Salad
And, as I typically do, I forgot to take a photo. It was decent, not amazing, but a nice tang to the dressing and freshly shaved parm on top. Nice, but we're not here for the salad, and honestly if the wife wasn't along I wouldn't have had it at all.... just sayin'.
Kid pie?
Well, it's all the kid would eat (cheese only) but we each had a slice, and madonna was it good!
The crust, just look at it
Yeah, the crust, it's magic
The crisp and crunch was off the charts. And not the crunch of being over-cooked or stale, etc.. this crunch, when you bite into the crust, shatters into little bitty crunchy pieces, a never-ending crunch if you will, and then the interior pillow hits you. Light and fluffy, slightly chewy, combined with the crunch shards..... someone wipe the sweat from my forehead, I'm overheating!
I need to pause the typing for a sec so that I can go get a leftover slice from the fridge, I'll be right back, I can't type another word until I get this pie back into my mouth.....
OK, thanks, sorry for that.
Stromboli??? Strom-yesi!
Chicken Parm Stromboli
It's made with the same dough as the pizza, a dough that is aged for several days in the fridge, and not old mind you, so don't start with that, it's a ferment in ball form (a ferment, is that a thing?). Rob tells me that they typically let it go for 4 days, which my buddy TK will back me up on, is quite nice :-)
Geeze-Louise, even just the photo looks amazing Delicious view right?!?!?!?
And then the king arrives
Pepperoni sausage, classic, love it, can't get enough, it's the "go-to" for me for sure.
What else can I say? We drove 30 minutes for this dinner, and I would (and will) do it again at twice that if need be. Maybe we'll try the pasta next time? Maybe we'll try IT ALL next time?
I do have 2 final comments:
1) They are located right next door to (literally the fence separating the properties) a childcare/preschool, so they can't serve any alcohol (no beer, wine, etc., no pinché nada). It wasn't a big deal for us as we had the kids in tow, but if it was date night I'm gonna want a beverage.
2) I found out about this spot from Instagram via someone that I follow, Bobs' Pizza Tour in NYC. We had both commented on one of his posts, and I saw their name @momspizzasd, and looked them up and BAM! I love the magic of that (thanks @bobspizzatour !!!)
3) Yeah, I said 2 but it's my blog so meh....Rob and Raya have another location, a more formal dining experience with wine (yes!!!), but it sustained some water damage and has been closed while that's being sorted out. Trattoria Ponte Vecchio, Del Mar (Carmel Valley Road). Look for a post on that coming soon (Ammy, get ready, we'll need your babysitting services as we're gonna relax and enjoy:-))
DVA
Looks like something I can happily sink my teeth into!
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