Because my metabolism seems to be hard-wired to crave carbs the moment the snow flies, I've spent the past week obsessed with pizza. Specifically, my never-ending search for the independently owned pizzeria that my neighborhood sorely lacks. My primordial hunger took me to three pizzerias in as many days.
Count me a newly converted fan of Papa's Deli. This north Minneapolis gem feeds its neighborhood with a steady diet of sandwiches, salads and pastas, but the robust pizzas are what caught my appetite. The crusts are thick, chewy and lightly charred, and while the design-your-own toppings selection has a familiar ring to it, I prefer to stick with the "Ann Kaari" (named for the former Minneapolis School Board member), which subs out tomato sauce in favor of a garlicky butter, which is then sprinkled with crisp bacon, juicy chicken and fresh spinach.
One other tip: try the terrific "East Coast Tomato Pie" variation, which drops the marinara in favor of olive oil and straight-up crushed tomatoes, and goes easy on the cheese. Decent prices, too; a 10-incher starts at $9.99. Oh, and do not leave without checking out the exceptionally light (and crustless) cheesecake.
Meanwhile, the 10- and 14-inch pies at the cozy Amici Pizza and Bistro sport wonderfully thin and crisp crusts, and the lightly golden beauties ($11 to $20) are judiciously topped with complementary ingredients: sweet roasted apples against salty prosciutto, with each bite ending in a fragrant thyme finish, or a bright tomato sauce dressed with feisty sausage, hot pickled peppers and creamy ricotta.
I wonder if Tommy Chicago's Pizzeria is going to single-handedly reignite the deep-dish pizza craze that pushed places like the Green Mill to the pizza forefront all those years ago. These 12- and 14-inch pies ($15.50 to $27.95) are monsters that seem to value gleeful excess over subtlety -- there's so much cheese that you wonder about kickbacks from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, a red sauce brimming with big chunks of tomatoes, a proliferation of herbs. Don't get me started on the calorie-killing double-crust versions. While most pizzas make for a welcome morning-after meal, these could be categorized as Leftovers Heaven.
