Margherita pizza from Red Rocket Pizza Co.
Chalk this one up to surreal food experiences of 2020-2021. There I was, in a garage, eating hot-out-of-the-oven pizza on a picnic table, alongside shovels and ladders, with a "Ninja Turtles" movie playing in the background.
Chris Black and his cook, Chris Blair, spend most Sundays here, making wood-fired pizzas in an Italian oven that takes up a corner of the garage.
Black, a DJ, had to find a new way to occupy his time when clubs shut down last year. He turned to pizza, starting first on a tabletop pizza oven he'd been using as a hobbyist for about four years. Last summer, he seriously upgraded his oven and has been making preordered pies for tips ever since. He's hoping that by summer he'll have a food truck — it's currently being outfitted with a custom oven — and then he'll be off to events. Although, hopefully you'll still be able to catch him in his garage.
Black worked long and hard on developing a cold-fermented dough that yielded a pillowy, tangy crust. His herbaceous sauce is still evolving, he said, but it stands up nicely to toppings, such as the green olive-pepperoni-honey combo called Shorty.
Find Red Rocket on Facebook (facebook.com/RedRocketPizzaCompany) and place your order as early as you can — every single pizza is accounted for each Sunday (aka, no walk-ups). Then, pick a time, grab a seat at the picnic table and enjoy it while it's hot. (Sharyn Jackson)
2626 Plymouth Av. N., Mpls., redrocketpizzacompany@gmail.com. Open noon-8 p.m. Sun. Order via e-mail or Facebook Messenger.
Steak lomito at DelSur Empanadas
Co-owners Nicolas Nikolov and Diego Montero are skilled in the empanadas-making arts (the one filled with sweet corn, red peppers and green onions is one of my current favorite vegetarian dishes), but they also know their way around the lomito.
"They're traditional sandwiches that you find in many places in Argentina," said Nikolov. "Particularly in Córdoba, where my partner Diego is from."