The hunt for pizza . . . in Memphis

Pizzeria Bianco - Phoenix

Ahhh pizza. I love pizza. You love pizza. Everybody loves pizza.

However, I really love pizza. I have been known to make  people wait over six hours so I could have one of my favorite pizzas at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. They have a pizza called the Rosa, which is fairly simple with red onion, pistachios, and parmasean. However, the flavor is intense and rich and worth waiting 6 hours for.

I have also made a bunch of colleagues join me on a “Pizza Crawl” after a meeting in NYC. We spent an afternoon in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan hunting for the best NYC pizza. The winner was Grimaldi's, under the Brooklyn Bridge. They use fresh mozzerella, fresh basil, real Italian sausage (not the turds you get at Dominos), and fresh homemade tomato sauce, all cooked under a coal fire brick-oven.

My pizza roots go back to Milwaukee, where I grew up with some of the best Italian restaurants in the country. Our favorites were Lisa’s Pizza and Palermo Villa Pizza. Milwaukee-style pizza has a very thin crust with lots of sauce and cut into little squares instead of pie slices.

Grimaldi's

Lisa's Pizza from diningoutmilwaukee.com

 

Palermo Villa - from facebook

Now I live in Memphis and I married a girl (Susan) who also loves pizza. In fact, we have takeout pizza almost every Friday night. After a long hard week, there is nothing better than enjoying a pizza, a bottle of wine, and a movie. With no dishes, it is easy and delicious.

Unfortunately, with my high pizza standards, we have had much difficulty in

finding a good pizza place in Memphis. We have searched high and low, near and far. I have lived in Memphis for seven years and have not found a truly awesome pizza (until recently).

According to the Memphis Flyer “Best of” issue, the best pizza in Memphis year-after-year is Memphis Pizza Café. I am sorry, but I disagree. I wish I liked it, as it is near my house and it would make my life easy, but it just isn’t very good. The sauce lacks flavor and the crust isn’t very crisp.

We have tried numerous others. A couple times we thought we found some good ones, only to be let down the next week, because they were so inconsistent (Old Venice). Or HighPoint Pizza, which is so consistent that we got sick of it after a couple of weeks. Then there was Lavoros off of Summer, which I liked enough but Susan didn’t like the sweetness in the sauce. I think they have cinnamon in it. Finally, a number of people at work were recommending the Pizza Shack, which is right near my house. I got really excited, until we actually had the pizza which came with a cardboard crust.

Russo's from Commercial Appeal

I was about ready to give up, when we found Russo’s in Germantown. In fact, for the past few months, I have been driving about 30 minutes out of the way to have their NYC pizza. Even though it is chain, this place reminds me of the pizza that you can get by the slice on any corner in Manhattan. They sauce is very good and they don’t skimp on it. The sausage is sliced thin length-wise across the pizza. They also have good sides to with the pizza, like toasted ravioli.

Plus, they are neighbors to my favorite wine store in Memphis, Forest Hill Wine Merchants. While waiting for your pizza, go next store and find the wine to enjoy with your meal. Instead of organizing the store by region or price, they have the wines organized by color. The bottles wrap around the store with the darkest reds on the right and the lightest whites on the left. (To be honest, I have never really been on the left side of the store.) They also have a great high-alcohol beer selection with the hard to find Rogue beers and Belgian styles like Chimay. They even have a wine chiller to cool off a wine in minutes. My favorite part is their huge bourbon selection, with multiple selections from every major distillery and some hard to find small batch options. The service is knowledgeable and not pretentious. They always seem to have a couple wines available to taste. The only downfall is that they are a little pricey.

Okay, now back to PIZZA. Although Russo’s is quite good, it is still too far away. So my wife and I kept hunting for another location. Now, I am happy to say, I think we found the best pizza in Memphis. Have you been tothe Trolley Stop?

The Trolley Stop Market is not only a restaurant, but a year-round indoor farmer’s market, and craft fair. The ingredients are all local and the best part is that their pizza is delicious. I would assume that the other things on the menu are good as well, but knowing how good the pizza is I haven’t been able to order anything else.

Trolley Stop Market - from facebook

The large pizza is absolutely huge. We normally order a large with half pepperoni and half sausage, all onion. I like sausage and Susan likes pepperoni. Since everything is local, the meat is fresh and flavorful. Plus, you can actually taste the tomatoes in the sauce. You can just tell that it was made that day. The hipster service is laid back, but attentive and nice. Plus, they have local Ghost River beer on tap to enjoy while waiting for your pizza. Last night, I had their Copperhead Red Ale. Yummy.

Okay, so I am a bit pretentious myself, when it comes to pizza. I realize that Memphis is not known for being a place to go for pizza. However, I am happy to report after hunting long enough, I found a pizza that can compete with the best pizzas of the Northeast and the Midwest. What makes the Trolley Stop so delicious is not that they are trying to be like NY style pizza, but that their ingredients are local and fresh and you can taste the difference in their food.

If anybody who reads this has some other Memphis pizza recommendations, please leave a comment and let me know.