Remember 2009, when it felt as if the Twin Cities was being inundated by burger chains? It seemed as if a diner couldn't turn a corner without running into a Smashburger or a Five Guys.
In 2014, it's the pizzamakers who appear to have all landed, en masse, in the metro area. Here's a quick rundown.
Leave it to Byerly's, the Nordstrom of supermarkets, to conveniently insert a better-than-decent slice shop into its midst. Well, inside two of its stores, anyway, most recently its just-opened, yup-to-the-minute grocery palace in Edina.
As the Tucci Pronto name suggests, it's a branch of Tucci Benucch, the Mall of America stalwart run by Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (which also manages another Byerly's staple, Big Bowl Chinese Express).
The toppings selection isn't huge, just a few basics sold ready-made (coarsely ground sausage, pepperoni that zips with personality) and also available with a handful of familiar add-ons, including green pepper, onions and black olives. (One wish: a lighter touch with the cheese, which overwhelms the more-than-adequate red sauce.)
The clincher is the crust: wonderfully crispy and sturdy on the underside, leading to chewy, puffed-up edges. The price is right, too, with a single jumbo slice clocking in at $3.50, or two for $6.
Whole pizzas — a significant improvement over the pickup pizzas at the Little Caesars and Papa John's of this world — start at $10.99.
As for the baked pastas, they don't live up to the pizzas. Skip the fried ravioli. But come back for this very traditional pizza. Often.
