Restaurant experiment: Bettola

Bettola

2901 2nd Avenue South at 29th Street South

Birmingham, AL 35233

205-731-6499

http://bettolarestaurant.com

I unearthed Bettola on Yelp and otherwise would not have found it since I’d yet been to the Pepper Place area.  I guess you could call the neighborhood the industrial part of Birmingham; you pass a bunch of warehouse-ish buildings before renovated factories appear before you, glossy and happenin’ and containing food purveyors.

Anyway, I feel let down by Yelp and the 4.5 star rating Bettola currently possesses.  It’s vaguely ironic that the only 2 star review was penned by someone from NYC because I kept thinking that Motorino in NYC does Bettola better than Bettola does.

Showing up on a busy Saturday night with Laura, I feared we’d be up for a 30 minute wait but luckily the host seated us right away.  There’s a very Manhattan vibe about Bettola just because the restaurant is long and narrow, and tables are a bit too close together for Birmingham.  While there were a few young people at the bar, the clientele seemed to be more well-heeled middle-agers and up.

Our waiter was willing to answer questions and seemed cheerful enough.  Wanting to swap slices, the two of us placed our pizza orders with him after he answered that one pie per person wouldn’t be too little or too much.  Laura and I decided against appetizers which was smart since free bread came out soon after.  Though there were traditional Italian specialties on the menu, I was jonesing for pizza after having watching Mystic Pizza earlier in the week.

The waiter had alerted us that the pizzas would be out in a jiff, and he was spot on since the two of us weren’t even done with the free bread when the pizzas were presented to us.

My pizza was the “Quattro Stagioni”  ($14).  This guy was topped with cotto ham [cooked prosciutto], black olives [may contain pits], mushrooms, and artichokes.  I don’t know what it was, but I just wasn’t in love.  I wish there were cheese.  I did like the charcoal-ly crunchy crust.  Maybe the tomato sauce was a tad dull.  I ate the whole thing and didn’t feel hungry after.  Good sized pie for an individual.

Regarding the other pie, Laura had ordered the “Prosciutto e Rucola” ($15).  Laura and I wished there was more cheese.  The arugula provided an almost too bitter emphasis.  Looks like a salad, no?  I adore prosciutto though.  Needed more of that!  Owing to the thinness of the dough, these slices are tough to eat elegantly.  I found myself doing the old fold-in-half trick which worked decently.  Any escapee toppings were forked into my mouth.

There was a gal working who kept clearing our plates without asking if we were done [we weren't].  What was up with that?  You can’t conclude that crust on the appetizer plates signal that we are done with said crusts.  Annoying.

Exiting the restaurant, I spotted the aqua-tiled pizza oven in the open kitchen.  Cute!

If I were Yelping this, 3 stars sounds about right.  Not as phenomenal as I had hoped.  Laura remarked that we should have gone to Cantina next door instead.  Indeed.

Restaurant experiment: The J. Clyde

The J. Clyde

1312 Cobb Lane between 13th Avenue South and 14th Avenue South

Birmingham, AL 35205

205-939-1312

http://jclyde.com

Stealthily tucked away on Cobb Lane in Five Points, The J. Clyde may not be the easiest place to find, but it’s certainly a hidden treasure and is probably THE place to go in Birmingham if you are a beer aficionado since there are ten billion beers on tap.

Even though it was a rainy Tuesday evening, all the tables were occupied.  The special of the day was 1/2 off all beers with a 6% alcohol content or lower.  Good deal.  Elena, Virgina, and I squished around a small table with some other folks.  I was starving and perused the food menu.  I did drink a $3 beer which was okay.  In case you are wondering, it was the Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel which appears in the photograph below.  I should note that only beer and wine are served here.  No hard stuff or mixed drinks, just so you know.

Now for the food.  The J. Clyde serves the usual sort of pub grub you’d expect (fries, burgers) with a couple of surprises like grilled quail, veal schnitzel, and fried sauerkraut balls.  Now normally I’d learn towards a burger, but I took a break from beef and went for a pizza.  For $9, you select either a tomato or pesto sauce base and one topping.  Additional toppings are $1 each.  I elected for bacon.  Though the pizza did take its sweet time coming out, it was worth the wait as it was fantastic.  Right out of the oven (nearly burned my mouth), with bacon aplenty.  And the bacon was crispy!  Seeing as though I lurve crunchy bacon, I was thrilled.  I considered offering slices to my companions but selfishly didn’t.  Well, I had an excuse since this was my dinner.  Honestly.

I also want to put in a plug for our waiter who was jovial and on top of things.  The other employees seemed chipper and helpful as well.

Even though some patrons were smoking, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I wasn’t ridiculously reeking of tobacco later.  Maybe it’s just more spacious or something.  Wins all around!

Restaurant experiment: Angelo’s Pizza

Angelo’s Pizza

117 West 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

New York, NY 10019

212-333-4333

http://www.angelospizzany.com/

“The service is as bad as our waitress’s accent!”–Leslie

Let me set the scene.  Leslie and I had 45 minutes to eat dinner.  The original move was to go to one of those deli/multifood places that are all the rage in NYC, but Leslie decided to eschew that notion and squeeze in a quick dinner at Angelo’s, since she’s been here before and knew it was stomach-friendly.

She asked the platinum blond middle-aged hostess if we could be in and out in 45 minutes.

“Sure.”

Um, that didn’t transpire.

We were seated downstairs, and I picked out a small table near the kitchen where I could observe an overweight customer swap out his chair for a nearby one, then swap that one out for another one.  Pointy rolls emerged, and we ate the bread by dipping it into olive oil.  Leslie raved about the fried zucchini & eggplant with garlic yogurt dip ($10), so we shared that.  I don’t even care for eggplant, but I liked this.  Deep fry anything and I’ll be happy, I guess.  Mmm, tzaziki-like dip.  Hot and fresh!

Leslie and I shared a small pie with ricotta and roasted peppers.  It was taking ages to come out, following the devouring of the zucchini and eggplant.  We concluded we should ask the waitress for the check when the pizza was dropped off.

Our waitress was a young woman with a strong Eastern European accent.  She wasn’t exactly a Rhodes Scholar.  Leslie tried to explain to her in the lengthy dead time post-appetizer that we were in a hurry, and the waitress was confused and asked if we wanted the pizza and the appetizer to come out at the same time.  Huh?  Not like we can travel back in time.

The pizza came out, but I couldn’t enjoy it that much because of the time limitations.  The peppers were not too roasty but the ricotta was a smart pick.  Nice pizza.  No Lombardi’s, but what is?

A small pizza is $15, and $2.50 will get you one topping.  So $20 (including tip) each for the dinner was slightly too much.  But it’s Midtown and touristy, so I guess Angelo’s can get away with it.  If that zucchini eggplant fried delicacy wasn’t so fine…

Restaurant experiment: L’asso

L’asso

192 Mott Street at Kenmare Street

New York, NY 10012

212-219-2353

http://lassonyc.com/

AmyC invited me out to dinner as an early birthday treat.  She suggested this joint L’asso which I was unfamiliar with, but she had been several times and felt like it was a good choice.  Props to her for reading the blog to check if I had been there or not!

On a nippy night, I ventured into L’asso and met AmyC at the bar, and Frank, Shing, and Sophie showed up soon after.  We were then seated at our table in the middle of the floor.  The restaurant is cramped meaning both busy and with a lot of squished tables, and I kept getting bumped by people moving along in the aisle.  So that was unpleasant.  But typical.  The menu features pasta and other Italian items though Frank said it was wise to go with the pizzas.  Okay then, sounds fine to me.  I also ordered a dark and stormy which was reeking of rum, very stormy indeed.  I skimmed the pastas but spent most of my efforts on the pizza page.  The five of us decided to share a few pizzas.  My contribution/selection was the puta di mare which was garlicky sautéed shrimp and broccoli rabe on pizza with an artichoke sauce.  We shared a medium of that along with mediums of the margherita and the one with portobellos and truffle oil.  The bleached blonde bobbed waitress brought out complimentary appetizers which resembled tortillas soaked in herbs and olive oil.  That and the olives were quickly gobbled by me in anticipation of the pizza.  I also spent food waiting time playing with AmyC’s brand spanking new Droid phone (pretty kickass).

The margherita emerged first and we all pounced on it.  As you can see, there was a lot of sauce on it.  The crust is very airy and crunchy.  The margharita is a very safe pizza in general, and I found it to be tasty.

Second in the parade of pizzas was my pick, the puta di mare.  Nobody at the table had sampled it before, so it was an unknown entity but after the first few bites, all five of us were happy with my pick.  Whew, because I hate it when I pick bad stuff.  There was a hint of spiciness which I could have done without, but no matter.  Thumbs up.

Last was the portobello.  You can see my punchy Dark and Stormy in the upper left corner.  Since I’m not a huge fan of portobello in general, I would have to place this last, but still, I would eat it, not like I would avoid touching it with a 10 foot pole of anything.  This pizza, like the preceeding, also did not have a tomato sauce; it too was a white pizza.

Thanks to Frank and AmyC (and Shing and Sophie too)  for lassoing me into the L’asso fold and for the lovely dinner!

Restaurant experiment: Grimaldi’s

Grimaldi’s

19 Old Fulton Street between Front and Water Streets

Brooklyn, NY 11201

718-858-4300

http://www.grimaldis.com/2/Index.htm

Supposedly Grimaldi’s is the top pizza place of all five boroughs.  Through the friend-vine, Nick and Lily have both been here, and Nick is Team Grimaldi’s while Lily think it’s aight.  My first trip here was with the brother since he had heard the rumors and wanted to try it out.  Of course I was game.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we arrived at this place at 11:10 AM and were not the first people there (they open at 11:30).  A line formed soon after.  I killed time by going through a box marked FREE which some bearded dudes had put out on the sidewalk.  Scored some CDs.  If you wanna know, the unofficial line forms away from the water as we learned as some woman in the line tried to act all high and mighty.  Shut up, lady.  These Italian tourists vouched for us, so there!

The doors finally opened, and it was kinda like Black Friday at Wal-Mart.  The place was full ten minutes later.  Wha?  The walls have pictures of famous folks who have eaten there, and the shirts read “I’m gonna make you a pizza you can’t refuse.”  I sat under a picture of The Godfather with this phrase.  The oven is out in the open.  As I waited in yet another line (for the bathroom), a dad was telling his son all about how the coal oven has to get super hot and such.  Free hand sanitizer, hey.

The brother and I decided to share a small pizza which was perfect for two people.  I had black olives and sausage on my half, and he had mushrooms and sausage on his portion.  The pie appeared pretty zippily.

Would I wait an hour outside for this pizza?

No.

Let me tell you why.  The black olives were bizarrely salty.  And I think they salted the underside of the dough.  What the heck?  Or since I just saw Fantastic Mr. Fox, what the cuss?  I ate everything, but I was craving water like the insane all the rest of the day.  Messed up.  Brother fared better, but he wasn’t exactly majorly impressed.  Oh well.  That’s what you get when you go to these hyped places.  Cash only, bleh.

When we left, there was a long line of pizza gobblers waiting outside.  Team Lombardi’s!  (Sorry Nick)

Restaurant experiment: Lombardi’s Pizza

Lombardi’s Pizza

32 Spring Street at Mott Street

New York, NY 10012

212-941-7994

http://www.firstpizza.com/

I was stoked to knock off two New York institutions in one night (the other being Katz’s). And no waits and throngs of tourists. Score!

Usually I am on my burger quest, but now I’ve taken a wee detour into a pizza quest. Lily was hungry, we were in Soho, I suggested Lombardi’s. That worked. On the way, we saw a dalmatian at the FDNY station. Novelty.

The hostess was wearing some earpiece like a Secret Service telemarketer combo. We were seated in the first dining room; I was surprised at how large Lombardi’s is. There was an obnoxious large group which needed to shut up, especially the loud talker man. After some deliberation, Lily and I agreed to share a small pizza with sauteed garlic spinach; it won out over roasted red peppers.

And was that the right choice or what? Totally appetizing. Marvelous sauce and fresh mozzarella. The center of the circle’s crust wasn’t falling apart. The outer crust was a tiny too much floured, but no biggie. The spinach brought the pizza to a whole new level. It all worked. It’s like one of those days where the sun is shining, it’s not too humid, you are wearing a new snazzy outfit, you left work early, and you excited about meeting friends for dinner at a place you picked out (wait, that’s me). Modify that to your liking.

It was about $20 total. Cash only, sigh. I might wait fifteen minutes in a line for Lombardi’s. Generous, because I dislike waiting in lines. This just well maybe perhaps might be the best pizza in Manhattan??? At the very least, it’s the oldest parlor in the US, birthed in 1905. Ancient!

Restaurant experiment: Motorino

Motorino

319 Graham Street at Devoe Street

Brooklyn, NY 11211

718-599-8899

http://www.motorinopizza.com/

The picture is gigantic on delicious purpose.

I didn’t have a choice in the matter; it was destiny. It was fate. Last week, the heavens were telling me to go to Motorino.

• My Newsweek from last week contained an article, “Save the Slice,” which mentions Motorino. The article was kinda dumb though.
• My Time Out New York from last week did a mini-writeup about Motorino in a section about pizza.
• And I was slated to be in Brooklyn that weekend anyway.

Since Lily, Nina, and I showed up at a funky time (mid-afternoon) on Sunday, Motorino wasn’t very crowded. I’m not sure how crowded it gets, but with all these articles and buzz, I’m sure the traffic has been heavier as of late. We were given the option to sit in the backyard but since the sun was in full force, we opted to stay in the main dining room by the open doors. The staff is very helpful and genuinely affable. It’s Williamsburg, ya know? So that was surprising.

There was a $10 brunch which I didn’t select mostly because it offered two liquids and I didn’t want to drink much (non-alcoholic but alcoholic for $3 more). I opted for a pie for myself, and Lily ordered one for herself. The Prosciutto di Parma ($12) featured parmiggiano, olive oil, and oregano, though I maintain that my pie was meatier than hers and more filling. Nina commented that they sure were generous with the prosciutto, and I concur. See the evidence above. The crust was outstanding! The right amount of burnt combine with a hint of cheese, aw yeah.

Lily’s pie was sort of like the flagship Motorino pizza: the Margherita DOC ($13). That baby had tomato, mozzarella di bufala (tangy buffalo cheese), and basil. She and I slice exchanged, and I also approved the message the Margherita DOC was expressing. Very thin dough in the center though. Typical New York.  Lily also had wanted lemonade and was offered some lemon drink ($3) which was astronomically sour, meaning I loved it or at least the sips I stole.

In the battle of the Williamsburg pizza parlors, I might have to side with Fornino but I still like you lots, Motorino.

Restaurant experiment: Fornino

Fornino

187 Bedford Avenue between North 6th and 7th Streets

Brooklyn, NY 11211

718-384-6004

Stacy declared that we had to try Fornino because their tagline is “the art and science of pizza.” I’m not sure what they qualify as science. Did they hole up in a lab and run experiments with all sorts of controls to determine optimal conditions for pie production and ingredient combinations? Forgot to ask. There were no references to published articles under each menu item, tsk tsk.  All right, I’ll stop.

Since it was such a warm day, we decided to sit in the enclosed back patio which was the same idea a lot of other diners were having. At Fornino, you aren’t served by any one person; it seems as though the staff swap duties/tables because I was a bit surprised when different hipster girls kept coming up to our table.

Stacy’s brilliant ideas consisted of ordering a pitcher of the fruit filled red wine sangria (white was also available) as well as the antipasti platter for $15. I was half expecting a sampler which would barely whet our appetites, but I was as wrong as humanly possible.

Because this is what came out (note the sangria in the background).

Oh, it was massive! A half of that could have easily been my dinner. I tried it all except the beets which I let Stacy consume. Beets and I don’t particularly get along. Highlights include the mozzarella balls, figs in the salad, and the beans. Well, everything mostly. The sopressata was a little too spicy for me, so Stacy took care of them for me. We make a good eating team. I wish I could find the names of everything somewhere online, but nothing’s coming up, so my hampered memory will have to do.

Unfortunately, I still had to contend with the small Trevisana pizza we had ordered. You know, I would have been fine with either/or; both the pizza and the appetizer were too much! The waitress made it sound like the small pizzas were the size of the personal pan pizzas you got from Pizza Hut with the Book It! program if anyone knows what I’m talking about.

But how could we resist? As is my mantra, you cannot go wrong with cheese and bacon. Make that goat cheese, drool. And sweet pearl tomatoes (I don’t know what they are called since the menu just referred to them as roasted tomatoes, but I like calling them pearls) were only making the pie even better. Yum yum yum. The radiccio I could do without, but it wasn’t anything major.  And I had to cut the crusts out of the consumption plan.  Don’t need no filler.

I’m sure any foodie with a pizza hankering could be sated here. The pizza selection is almost too unwieldy, and going with the science theme, I suggested to Stacy that Fornino should implement a flowchart to assist with your pizza selection. For reals. Though I was helped since I don’t like eggplant, and we nixed all the pizzas with that as a topping. Ick.  And clams because we weren’t too thrilled about clams on pizza.

OK Fornino, you get the delicious science stamp of approval from the scientistas.

Lesson time

I learned that pancetta AKA Italian bacon, is different from bacon AKA American bacon because it is cured but not smoked. Both Italian and American varieties are taken from the belly of a pig. And pancetta also often comes rolled up in a cylinder and is pronounced pan-SHEH-tuh. Whoops, I think I had been saying pan-CHETTA but now I know. (reference: http://www.foodsubs.com/MeatcureBacon.html)

Restaurant experiment: La Villa

La Villa

261 Fifth Avenue between Garfield Place and 1st Street

Brooklyn, NY 11215

718-499-9888

lavillaparkslope.com

Pizza.  A word and food that has been at the back of my brain for the last few weeks.  Since I’m too lazy to wait in line at Grimaldi’s (supposedly the best pizza in Brooklyn or NYC), I’ll just have to cope with pizza joints that aren’t as tourist-infested and line-prone.  At the recommendation of the roommate and some positive Yelp reviews, I set out to down some slices on a Sunday afternoon.  My easygoing friend luckily went with my desire for pizza, as long as it wasn’t Domino’s.  Heck no!  How does Domino’s stay in business?  Everyone I know thinks it’s disgusting.  We went close to 1 PM, and there was no wait.  La Villa feels sort of chain-y on the inside with slick shiny surfaces, but it is not a national chain.  The list of pizzas seemed to have the same pizza over and over, but with slight variations like

• tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, olive oil
• tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, olive oil, garlic

Being the nerd that I am, I believed that they should have put this list of pizzas into a table form to lessen confusion.  “Why is this pizza different from this pizza?”  Or maybe a flowchart.  I love flowcharts.  Anyway, we settled on the Grandma’s pizza “Foccacia di Nona” which had, you guessed it, tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, olive oil, and garlic.  Luckily we ordered a small instead of a large because a small comfortably fed the two of us.  The complimentary bread was yummy, some with onion and some without.  We also ordered an appetizer of baked clams which was probably not something I would get again as a half-dozen for $10 did not feel like a steal, and size-wise: littleneck not cherrystone.  Why were there no cheesesticks in the menu’s appetizer section?  Odd.  I guess La Villa needs to conserve their homemade mozzarella for the pizzas.   

Anyway, the grandma’s pizza was deliziosa!  One gripe that I have with some thin crusts are that the midsection crust flops over and causes all the toppings to slide onto your plate.  That was not the case here since the crust wasn’t anorexic.  This certain pizza didn’t have sauce which probably helped too.  The crust was crunchy but not crackery.  The toppings were all flavorful and delightful with a fair amount of fresh basil tossed about the pie.  Are your ears burning, Patsy’s?  One basil spring isn’t gonna cut it.  Oily but not OILY.  Very pleased.  You know it’s a special pizza when you’re thinking about it the next day.