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Many of my friends love pizza so much that they'd happily eat it three or five times a week. These same friends are also passionately devoted to a particular pizzeria — typically Waldo Pizza or d'Bronx — and wouldn't dream of being disloyal by eating in any other pizza joint.
I am not one of those people. True, I like pizza enough to have eaten plenty of it over the years in every possible incarnation: from the greasy, gloppy mess served in my high school cafeteria to the more glamorous, crispy affair served at the new Vinino restaurant in the Power & Light District and to everything in between.
However, I can go for long periods without desiring the ubiquitous food first made popular by American soldiers returning from duty in World War II-era Italy; they'd developed a fondness for that sexy "pie" of baked flatbread topped with tomatoes (or marinara) and cheese. Blame those hungry GIs for creating an incredible U.S. industry: More than 3 billion pizzas are sold in the United States every year, according to the Kansas Wheat Commission, which makes a lot of the flour that goes into the crusts tossed by the big chains as well as the little neighborhood joints.
The idea of a cozy little neighborhood pizzeria — with a wood-burning oven, hand-tossed dough, a decent glass of Chianti and a laid-back ambience — was the inspiration for chef Rob Dalzell's Pizza Bella.
Best known for the sophisticated bistro 1924 Main and for Souperman, a casual Crossroads soup shop, Dalzell decided to go into the upscale-pizza business after downtown developer Brad Nicholson showed him a vacant space at 1810 Baltimore — an unassuming one-story brick building with big plate-glass windows. The El Dorado architectural firm helped Dalzell transform the inside into a surprisingly chic 50-seat dining room with a painted concrete floor, slatted wooden walls, groovy lipstick-red plastic chairs and a tiny bar.
I heard raves about the place and was eager to see what all the fuss was about. But before we even took a seat at one of the plain wooden tables, I confessed to my friends Bob, Lillis and Ned that even though I was fond of pizza, it fell into the category of dishes I crave only a couple of times a year — like waffles, hot dogs and prime rib. When I do crave hot dogs, waffles and pizza, I absolutely have to have them right away. But for most of the year, I never even think about them.
Bob and Ned, however, fall into the fanatic camp. They have distinct pizza preferences, which they made abundantly clear as they looked over Pizza Bella's menu. Ned went into a near rapture about some new deep-dish Pizza Hut creation, and Bob insisted that the best pizza in town was at Papa Keno's, even if the servers at its midtown location seem to be perpetually stoned.
"The pizza is still delicious," Bob said. "And they have the best salads."
I kept out of that argument. I'm just not passionate about a dish that another friend of mine, a personal trainer, dismisses as "baked fat."
The weather that night was snowy and cold, and the dining room wasn't very busy — which turned out to be a good thing because the only waitress, wearing a man's jacket several sizes too small for her body, wasn't exactly a model server. She was sweet as sugar, but Ned (a veteran waiter) was ready to scream when he noted that the martini he ordered sat at the bar for what felt like ages. When the waitress finally brought it over, he scolded her: "Honey, I think the vodka evaporated a half-hour ago."
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Your friends are downers. They had practically made up their mind about the food before any of you had tried it. I dont understand why The Pitch would send a food critic to a pizza place to write about the opinions of his friends who think that deep dish pizza from pizza hut is good? Arent food critics supposed to have a certain amount of "sophisticated" taste? This review of Pizza Bella is so unclear. The only thing that is clear is that the food is underappreciated by people who dont know how to appreciate food. C'mon Pitch. Get it together.
Your friends are downers. They had practically made up their mind about the food before any of you had tried it. I dont understand why The Pitch would send a food critic to a pizza place to write about the opinions of his friends who think that deep dish pizza from pizza hut is good? Arent food critics supposed to have a certain amount of "sophisticated" taste? This review of Pizza Bella is so unclear. The only thing that is clear is that the food is underappreciated by people who dont know how to appreciate food. C'mon Pitch. Get it together.
Kansas City is lucky to have a place like Pizza Bella offering something at least resembling a vera style pizza. The crap that passes for pizza in the US is amazing/astounding. You want REAL, TRADITIONAL, Italian pizza--Pizza Bella is much closer to most anything else in the city. No offense to those who like Pizza Hut or Papa John's, but calling a chain "pizzeria" the best in town is like saying the best latte in Kansas City is found at McDonald's (using real "expresso" of course...).
As someone who truely loves and appreciates pizza, has studied it and makes several a week (in pursuit of the perfect pizza), I think Pizza Bella does okay. I would give it a 5.5/10. (I don't know that anywhere in KC gets better than a 6.5/10.) Truly great pizza should have truly great crust. While the toppings at Pizza Bella are well above average, the crust just isn't quite there. A good New York-style pizza is usually made with a sour-dough starter and a good ferment and I feel like that's what Pizza Bella lacks. The crust just doesn't really have enough flavor.
As for the sparsity of the toppings, if you again look at traditional Neapolitan pizza you would find that the entire pie isn't covered in cheese, or sauce or whatever else you have on it. The flavors should compliment each other, not over power you. A look at some of the legendary pizza places in NY and Naples (like Luzzo, Una, Patsy's, Da Michelle, Trianon) would confirm this. Pizza Bella definately got this right. You don't like this? Then you just don't like Neapolitan pizza....
When it all comes down to it, you have to take Pizza Bella for what it is--a place making a traditional wood-fired pizza with a modern twist (in the form of more artisan ingredients). To put it in art terms, comparing it with "pizzerias" producing other styles of pizza (D'Bronx, Papa John's etc) is like directly comparing Monet's work with Jackson Pollock's and Caravaggio's. You end up deciding which style or period you prefer rather than the individual merits of each artist. Likewise, you have to compare Pizza Bella to other NY/Neapolitan style pizza's and as far as Kansas City goes, this one ain't bad.
Kansas City is lucky to have a place like Pizza Bella offering something at least resembling a vera style pizza. The crap that passes for pizza in the US is amazing/astounding. You want REAL, TRADITIONAL, Italian pizza--Pizza Bella is much closer to most anything else in the city. No offense to those who like Pizza Hut or Papa John's, but calling a chain "pizzeria" the best in town is like saying the best latte in Kansas City is found at McDonald's (using real "expresso" of course...). As someone who truely loves and appreciates pizza, has studied it and makes several a week (in pursuit of the perfect pizza), I think Pizza Bella does okay. I would give it a 5.5/10. (I don't know that anywhere in KC gets better than a 6.5/10.) Truly great pizza should have truly great crust. While the toppings at Pizza Bella are well above average, the crust just isn't quite there. A good New York-style pizza is usually made with a sour-dough starter and a good ferment and I feel like that's what Pizza Bella lacks. The crust just doesn't really have enough flavor. As for the sparsity of the toppings, if you again look at traditional Neapolitan pizza you would find that the entire pie isn't covered in cheese, or sauce or whatever else you have on it. The flavors should compliment each other, not over power you. A look at some of the legendary pizza places in NY and Naples (like Luzzo, Una, Patsy's, Da Michelle, Trianon) would confirm this. Pizza Bella definately got this right. You don't like this? Then you just don't like Neapolitan pizza.... When it all comes down to it, you have to take Pizza Bella for what it is--a place making a traditional wood-fired pizza with a modern twist (in the form of more artisan ingredients). To put it in art terms, comparing it with "pizzerias" producing other styles of pizza (D'Bronx, Papa John's etc) is like directly comparing Monet's work with Jackson Pollock's and Caravaggio's. You end up deciding which style or period you prefer rather than the individual merits of each artist. Likewise, you have to compare Pizza Bella to other NY/Neapolitan style pizza's and as far as Kansas City goes, this one ain't bad.
Dear Devo, I couldnt help but read your review of Pizza Bella and think, "Is this guy TRYING to sound like a snob?" I mean I dont watch Rachel Ray either but anyone with half a brain... ESPECIALLY a food critic... should be able to decipher the mystery that is EVO. Its not that hard.
Dear Devo, I couldnt help but read your review of Pizza Bella and think, "Is this guy TRYING to sound like a snob?" I mean I dont watch Rachel Ray either but anyone with half a brain... ESPECIALLY a food critic... should be able to decipher the mystery that is EVO. Its not that hard.
I see why Ned doesn't like this pizza. He likes deep dish pizza. This is always a gooey mess of fatty substances and has too many flavors. So he should eat at his favorite pizza palace. Perhaps drinking with pizza dulls the palate.
Richard
I see why Ned doesn't like this pizza. He likes deep dish pizza. This is always a gooey mess of fatty substances and has too many flavors. So he should eat at his favorite pizza palace. Perhaps drinking with pizza dulls the palate. Richard
horse should stick to eating his normal bucket of oats and save his self righteous ire for something more important than the relative merits of that big disappointment, pizzabella. the most one can say about pizzabella is that it is earnestly underwhelming: after my rule of thumb three visits here's what i think--the pizza crust is like hardtack on a meth binge that was excavated from a collapsed trattoria in the center of pompeii. there was a mingy smattering of some multisyllabic cheeze on the crust that was as thin and evanescent as the layer of chrome on an old predepression trailer hitch stranded in a kansas wheat field. this is cheeze as a metaphysical notion,certainly not sustenance. on top of this vaporoous cloud cover were rounds of soggy and SPONGY mozarella supporting an abundantly overeager cluster of greenery,oh wait--why it's the "new pasrsley"--fresh basil. this concatenation of culinary misfires looked more like a chia pet than a pizza and is anything BUT in a centuries old neopolitan tradition. on my last visit, a lovely snow saturday, seated in a"cookiecutter contemporary" dining that vaguely mimics the "less is more" philosophy of the kitchen ,I wanted to speed dial pizza hut as I waited for what seemed like a small eternity for a server who had everything but a sense of direction. sometimes less is just plain less...ned
horse should stick to eating his normal bucket of oats and save his self righteous ire for something more important than the relative merits of that big disappointment, pizzabella. the most one can say about pizzabella is that it is earnestly underwhelming: after my rule of thumb three visits here's what i think--the pizza crust is like hardtack on a meth binge that was excavated from a collapsed trattoria in the center of pompeii. there was a mingy smattering of some multisyllabic cheeze on the crust that was as thin and evanescent as the layer of chrome on an old predepression trailer hitch stranded in a kansas wheat field. this is cheeze as a metaphysical notion,certainly not sustenance. on top of this vaporoous cloud cover were rounds of soggy and SPONGY mozarella supporting an abundantly overeager cluster of greenery,oh wait--why it's the "new pasrsley"--fresh basil. this concatenation of culinary misfires looked more like a chia pet than a pizza and is anything BUT in a centuries old neopolitan tradition. on my last visit, a lovely snow saturday, seated in a"cookiecutter contemporary" dining that vaguely mimics the "less is more" philosophy of the kitchen ,I wanted to speed dial pizza hut as I waited for what seemed like a small eternity for a server who had everything but a sense of direction. sometimes less is just plain less...ned
horse should stick to eating his normal bucket of oats and save his self righteous ire for something more important than the relative merits of that big disappointment, pizzabella. the most one can say about pizzabella is that it is earnestly underwhelming: after my rule of thumb three visits here's what i think--the pizza crust is like hardtack on a meth binge that was excavated from a collapsed trattoria in the center of pompeii. there was a mingy smattering of some multisyllabic cheeze on the crust that was as thin and evanescent as the layer of chrome on an old predepression trailer hitch stranded in a kansas wheat field. this is cheeze as a metaphysical notion,certainly not sustenance. on top of this vaporoous cloud cover were rounds of soggy and SPONGY mozarella supporting an abundantly overeager cluster of greenery,oh wait--why it's the "new pasrsley"--fresh basil. this concatenation of culinary misfires looked more like a chia pet than a pizza and is anything BUT in a centuries old neopolitan tradition. on my last visit, a lovely snow saturday, seated in a"cookiecutter contemporary" dining that vaguely mimics the "less is more" philosophy of the kitchen ,I wanted to speed dial pizza hut as I waited for what seemed like a small eternity for a server who had everything but a sense of direction. sometimes less is just plain less...ned
horse should stick to eating his normal bucket of oats and save his self righteous ire for something more important than the relative merits of that big disappointment, pizzabella. the most one can say about pizzabella is that it is earnestly underwhelming: after my rule of thumb three visits here's what i think--the pizza crust is like hardtack on a meth binge that was excavated from a collapsed trattoria in the center of pompeii. there was a mingy smattering of some multisyllabic cheeze on the crust that was as thin and evanescent as the layer of chrome on an old predepression trailer hitch stranded in a kansas wheat field. this is cheeze as a metaphysical notion,certainly not sustenance. on top of this vaporoous cloud cover were rounds of soggy and SPONGY mozarella supporting an abundantly overeager cluster of greenery,oh wait--why it's the "new pasrsley"--fresh basil. this concatenation of culinary misfires looked more like a chia pet than a pizza and is anything BUT in a centuries old neopolitan tradition. on my last visit, a lovely snow saturday, seated in a"cookiecutter contemporary" dining that vaguely mimics the "less is more" philosophy of the kitchen ,I wanted to speed dial pizza hut as I waited for what seemed like a small eternity for a server who had everything but a sense of direction. sometimes less is just plain less...ned
Sorry Horse, you're wrong about evo. The writer is correct in being mystified by evo. It's not a common term for Extra Virgin Olive Oil unless you're a big fan of the Rachel Ray Show. It's one of her culinary slang terms.
Sorry Horse, you're wrong about evo. The writer is correct in being mystified by evo. It's not a common term for Extra Virgin Olive Oil unless you're a big fan of the Rachel Ray Show. It's one of her culinary slang terms.
too artsy? wtf? i am not a foodie, but even i know that pizza bella's pies are squarely in the centuries-old neapolitan tradition, with an emphasis on a crispy wood-fired crust and modest amounts of fresh ingredients sprinkled on top.
if "evo" is that much of a mystery to the writer and his pseudo-foodie friends, i think it's time for the pitch to look into a new food writer! just kidding, but seriously, we're not talking about avant-garde cuisine here. just simple, fresh ingredients done very well. if you want a SUPER XTREME STUFT CRUST PHILLY CHEESE STEAK pizza, call any of the ubiquitous chain delivery joints in the area. if you want authentic neopolitan pizza, go to pizza bella (or bella napoli in brookside, also excellent).
too artsy? wtf? i am not a foodie, but even i know that pizza bella's pies are squarely in the centuries-old neapolitan tradition, with an emphasis on a crispy wood-fired crust and modest amounts of fresh ingredients sprinkled on top. if "evo" is that much of a mystery to the writer and his pseudo-foodie friends, i think it's time for the pitch to look into a new food writer! just kidding, but seriously, we're not talking about avant-garde cuisine here. just simple, fresh ingredients done very well. if you want a SUPER XTREME STUFT CRUST PHILLY CHEESE STEAK pizza, call any of the ubiquitous chain delivery joints in the area. if you want authentic neopolitan pizza, go to pizza bella (or bella napoli in brookside, also excellent).
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