DC Food Wars premieres tomorrow

Well, we didn't make it into the promo, but maybe we got into the episode...

The DC "Food Wars" episode of Jumbo Slice vs. Pizza Mart premieres tomorrow night at 10 PM EST on the Travel Channel. All airtimes for this episode can be found here. (Look for the giant pregnant lady and her goofy husband.)

Vince & Dominic's Pizzeria -- Bethesda, Md.

Time for a sentimental journey.

Gary here. Back when I moved to the Washington, D.C., region--this was 1996, folks, so call me a Washingtonian now--my first job was at a marketing communications firm in Bethesda. The office was a hop, skip and a jump from the Montgomery Mall and a few strip malls, where I spent many a lunch hour discussing the future of mankind, philosophy and professional football with co-workers.

We would frequent a pizzeria called Vince & Dominic's, called "V&Ds" for short, and I grew fond of their pizza slices.

These were jumbo slices. I remember my first time at V&Ds, I ordered two slices expecting a normal size. Instead, they brought out two jumbo slices--I was nonplussed. I somehow managed to consume both slices, and I wasn't hungry again for two days.

I was reminded of V&Ds when Liza and I were at the Travel Channel's "Food Wars" taping for Jumbo Slice vs. Pizza Mart. Faithful readers of this blog know well that one of my pizza peeves is droop. Well, Jumbo Slice and Pizza Mart jumbo slices have major league droop. V&D slices? Almost no droop.

So I decided to take Liza and my lovely lil' Molly to the Montgomery Mall for some shopping--we had a Crate & Barrel gift certificate to spend. Of course, we had to stop in at Vince & Dominic's, situated in a strip mall across from the Montgomery Mall.

The restaurant has not changed a bit. The decor is reminiscent of the pizzerias of my youth, with pictures youth leagues on the wall, as well as a few signed photos of celebrities. Yay celebrities!

The procedure for ordering: you put in your order and you grab a table. You may have to clean off the table yourself, and that's okay. There are no waiters and waitresses here. Sometimes you have to work for your meals. Get over it.

V&Ds strives for authentic Italian food. The pizzeria was established in 1983 by a family originally from Reggio Calabria, Italy.

On their pizza boxes is the slogan, "A Little Bit of Italy In Every Bite." V&Ds takes pride in their red sauce, er gravy.

Says their web site: "Here at Vince & Dominic's we know Italian, because we are! If you're looking for that perfect Gravy on your Pizza look no further! Our Gravy, or sauce, is old fashioned Italian and is perfect for not only your pizza, but also with your Meatball Parm, Mozzarella Sticks, and pretty much anything Italian! We all know what makes Pizzeria is great, and that is authentic Italian ingredients!"

Liza and I each ordered a slice and a soft drink. Our food was brought over by one of the cooks, an Italian gentleman. The pizza was straight out of the oven. There was a decent amount of red sauce--er, gravy--and a generous layer of mozzarella cheese baked on top.

Still no droop.

How do they do it?

More from V&Ds web site: "Our slices have a crispy bottom layered with sauce and an abundance of cheese. The reason for the crunchy bottom is, we cook The Special 25 Inch slice pie in our oven about 3/4 cooked with sauce only. When a customer places an order for a slice, we cut it and customize it with the topping or toppings of their choice. Our slices take 7-10 minutes to finish cooking and melt the cheese."

Now this all sounds pretty glowing of V&Ds. While I have fond memories of the pizzeria, I must judge the slice as a pizza afficionado.

As mentioned previously, V&D slices have a thick, toasted crust that stops droop. The crust at the end of the pizza was very bland and a little too crunchy, a mild disappointment but expected given how they cook the slice.

The sauce, er gravy, was spread thinly on top but you could still taste it in every bite. It did have a simple, authentic taste to it--emphasis on simple. While it was a decent flavor, it didn't have a lot of spiciness to it. Still, it seemed to go well with the thick crust.

I liked V&Ds a bit more than Liza, but that may be because I have a history with the place. Their slices are memorable, but I have to acknowledge that this is not high quality pizza.

I like V&Ds pizza, though--I grew up on it.

Gary's Rating: 2.5 stars
Liza's Rating: 2 stars
Molly's Rating: 0 stars...I drink milk.

Chef Spike is Opening a Pizza Place... Coming Soon

As you may have already guessed, Gary and I are big Top Chef fans. Our favorite local Top Chef celeb is Carla, of course, because she gave my belly a celebratory rub at the Food Wars taping last month.  How can you not love that?  But our second favorite would have to be Chef Spike, who is now famous enough to be referred to by one name, kind of like Madonna or Cher.  Spike is better than either of those pop divas, though.  Why, you ask?  Because he's opening up a pizza restaurant, that's why!

In April, the lanky, bearded Mendelsohn will expand his fast-casual concept with the opening of We, the Pizza, a hip New York-style pizzeria emphasizing regional, farm-fresh ingredients. It’ll be right next door to Good Stuff on Pennsylvania Avenue.

We, the Pizza will operate as a sit-down restaurant and later take on deliveries. It will sell slices and whole pies that range from the classics, topped with cheese and pepperoni, to the more creative: with creamed spinach; potato and pancetta; or mushrooms with truffle shavings and Bechamel sauce.

Gary, Molly, and I are looking forward to blogging it up for you all!

Liberty Tree -- H Street Corridor

As you can see from the post and picture below, Gary and I were expecting-- and soon!  Well, our little bundle of joy has arrived.  Molly was born on February 26, and has already expressed a desire for some pizza.  Naturally, we had to oblige.  Could you say "no" to this cute little face?

We decided to venture out on a Monday evening to try out a new restaurant in the up and coming H Street corridor.  Liberty Tree offers American fare, and of course, our beloved pizza cooked in a wood-burning oven.  Your resident pizza bloggers had to give it a try.

The space at Liberty Tree is fairly small.  It has an open kitchen with a bar area, and a few booths and tables.  The restaurant is nice and cozy, with a more sophisticated vibe than many of the restaurants on H Street.

The three of us took a table near the bar area, but it was still low-key enough for little Molly to enjoy her dining out experience.  Gary and I split a salad, a goat cheese appetizer, and my favorite-- a margherita pizza.

Since it's a new restaurant, they seemed to still be working out some service issues (all of our food came out at once, for example), but the food was good.  But on to the most important part of the meal-- the pizza!

The pizzas are 10 inches and are cut in 6 pieces-- the perfect size for sharing.  The sauce had a spicy zip-- it kind of reminded me of the tomato sauce at Matchbox, although not quite as spicy.  The cheese and basil were both fresh tasting. The most unusual part of the pizza was the crust.  It's different from any I've sampled here in DC-- it was light and buttery, and had a crunchy, almost cracker-y taste.  I liked it, although it didn't really seem like pizza crust to me.  I don't think Gary cared for it much, though.  Maybe because the middle of the pizza crust had the dreaded "droop" that Gary dislikes.

Molly slept through the whole meal, so unfortunately, she is not able to weigh in with her opinions on this one.

Overall, we enjoyed our Liberty Tree experience and would return.  The pizza was good, but not one of our favorites in DC... at least as of yet.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this restaurant grows and changes once it's open for a while longer.

Liza and Gary's rating:  2.5 stars

"Food Wars" on the Travel Channel-- We're Local Pizza Celebs!

Gary and I had a rather unique pizza-related experience a few weeks back. We ventured out to Adams Morgan for the taping of a new show on the Travel Channel called "Food Wars". The premise of the show is that they go to different cities and find a food that is unique there. Then there's a "food war" between two different restaurants that make that food.

The Food War in DC was... pizza! Specifically, a jumbo slice of pizza. The pitted "Jumbo Slice" pizza against "Pizza Mart" pizza in Adams Morgan. The show was taped at Madam's Organ. We had tons of fun! We got to see the taste panel, and Gary and I were interviewed. Hopefully we'll make it on the show, and won't end up on the cutting room floor. We'll see...

One of the judges was local food celebrity Carla Hall, of "Top Chef" fame. We talked to her a bit and she was just as sweet and adorable as she was on TV.


"Food Wars" premieres tonight at 10 PM EST on the Travel Channel. The DC episode hasn't been scheduled yet, but we'll give you a heads up when it is!

Pi Pizzeria and Wine Bar-- Adams Morgan

We have been bad bloggers lately. Many apologies for neglecting our poor pizza blog for the last few months. We do have a good excuse though-- we have a little one on the way! Consequently, I haven't been in the mood for pizza like I usually am. But, now with one month to go, we figured it was time to venture out for some pie-- so why not try Pi?

Gary and I went out with friends Steph, the Chef, and Jenn. I got a gift certificate for Pi off of restaurant.com, so I figured we were golden-- not so, as it turns out. (More on that later.)

It was sort of a weird experience from the start. I called for a reservation at 5:30 p.m., and the person on the phone said that they "already had a reservation at that time." Uhhh, you can't have more than one? After putting me on hold, she came back and said that she could take the reservation. Ooooooooooookay.

We actually got there a few minutes late, but when Steph and Chef got to Pi at 5:30, they weren't even open yet! (They are scheduled to open at 5:00.) They finally got someone to open the door for them. The oddest part was that we were the only people there for our whole stay, except for a few folks at the bar. What happened to the other reservation?

Also, if you go to Pi, make sure upon your arrival that you find the right entrance. We all arrived separately and we all walked up the steps to the door. Doesn't open. The door is to your left, but it looks like a window, not a door. It took us all a while to realize this.

Anyway, we all got settled in at a round table near the window, and it was actually a pretty nice spot. We decided to split three pizzas between the five of us: a voce e notte (smoked mozzarella, eggplant, red pepper, onion), a malafemmena (mozzarella, hot sausage, olives, red peppers), and a Margherita.

This is where the mini-drama comes in: apparently Pi is under new ownership, and they no longer accept restaurant.com gift certificates. So why are they still selling gift certificates on the web site? This is a mystery. After going back and forth about this for a while, and me being a salty pregnant lady, and our server making a bunch of phone calls, they decided to honor the gift certificate. But-- if you plan to go, be aware.

Now, on to the pizza. Ours were the first pizzas of the night, which can sometimes make for a rather floppy pie. All three pizzas arrived at the same time, which was good.

First bite was the vocce a notte. Gary thought it lacked flavor and was pretty bland, but I could taste a smokiness to the mozzarella and eggplant that I liked.

The Margherita was decent, good amount of tomatoes and cheese. This was the best pizza of the bunch, Gary declared.

Since the malfemmena had sausage on it, I will bow out on this review and yield to Gary: "This pie had a real bite to it, courtesy of the spicy sausage. This was welcome after eating the flavorless vocce a notte, but it kind of dominated the rest of the pizza."

On to the crust: it was thin and crunchy on all three pies, and I thought they were good enough. Gary was not a fan. He thought it was like store-bought Elio's crust, just really bland.

Overall, we thought Pi's pizzas were pretty standard, nothing to write home about--but plenty to write a blog about. To be fair, I think Steph, Chef, and Jenn enjoyed the pizzas more than we did. Their ratings were more in the 3ish range, but ours were:

Liza's Rating: 2.5 stars
Gary's Rating: 2 stars

Margherita Wars Recap

Gary and I had a great time meeting up with the pizzablogger for the Margherita Wars on October 24! . All photos below are courtesy of the pizzablogger.

We started off at one of our favorite DC pizza places, 2 Amys. As usual, they did not disappoint. Great crust texture, a little bit of sauce, and fresh cheese. Yummy.

Next we went to my personal favorite, Red Rocks. The crust was a bit more charred, and there was more sauce and it was a bit sweeter.

We finished our leg of the journey at Coal Fire Pizza in Howard County. Honestly, I did not care for this pizza at all. A little too thin for my taste and way too burnt.

The verdict? Gary and pizzablogger definitely preferred 2 Amys. For me, Red Rocks and 2 Amys were neck-and-neck, with maybe a slight advantage to Red Rocks.

In other words, we confirmed what we've known for a long time now-- we have some mighty fine pizza here in Washington, DC! The pizzablogger went on to two more establishments in Baltimore. His full recap can be found here.

Gary and I have been pretty busy recently and haven't been able to get out much to try new pies, but we have a couple restaurants on our radar for future reviews. If you have any suggestions, please write them in the comments. Thanks!