My maternity leave is coming to an end. It seems like only yesterday that I was hanging up my keyboard in anticipation of Charlie’s arrival. Now I’ve been a Mom for almost two months. Holy smokes! I couldn’t have kept the posts coming on Mary Makes Dinner without the help of my friends. Thank you to everyone who has contributed guest posts! Our last guest post comes today from Kristen of Mad Betty.
Kristin and her hubby, Chris of Craft Taste, hail from Jersey, part of the original pizza kingdom, better known as the tri-state area. One of the things that makes Kristin and I such good friends is our shared love and respect of all things pizza. Scott Bobleo and I have gone on many a double-date with Chris and Kristin in search of Austin’s best pie. Like all good crusades, our quest for great pizza never ends. Kristin investigated 360 Pizza on South Lamar recently, adding another slice to her collection. – Mary Helen
Mary Helen and Scott are two of my best friends. The conversation is easy and we always have lots to talk about, although inevitably our conversation turns to pizza. Our passion for quality pizza is very, very real and our East Coast roots qualify us to judge. Together with my husband, we’ve formed a casual pizza club, The Hot Slices. (We’re all quite hot, in case you didn’t know.) We check out notable pizza in Austin, discuss the crust at length, debate the merits of different toppings, and plan out future pizza trips all while laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Sometimes there’s beer. It’s one of my favorite things.
We’re excited to welcome Baby Charlie into the Hot Slices. He’s not quite ready for his own slice yet. But once he gets some teeth, watch out, world! Until then, I’m dutifully continuing the pizza mission on my own.
The newest pizza offering in the South Lamar neighborhood is 360 Pizza, which has a sister restaurant in West Austin. Inhabiting the old Mercury location, it’s in the charming little red building that must have been destined for pizza.
Giving them a few weeks to be open, I dropped in with a friend recently and we shared a pie. A regular plain ole’ pie is my litmus test, but the enthusiastic guys behind the counter urged us to try some of their toppings. So we compromised with half cheese and half mushroom, Italian artisan pepperoni, and ricotta.
The pizza came out quickly and we dug in. The crust was thin enough to fold, yet robust enough to hold its own weight. Crunchy, a little leathery, with just the right amount of yield when I bit into it. The crust is usually where pizza goes wrong, and I’m happy to say that it was the best feature of our pie.
The cheese was nicely browned, if a little heavy-handed. I find that pizza is often over-cheesed in this queso lovin’ state. I like to see a little sauce through the cheese. Speaking of sauce, this one was rich in tomato flavor. No complaints.
The fresh mushrooms were dynamite as was the artisan pepperoni. 360 has a fantastic topping selection. Way above average. But they lost me a little on the ricotta. They explained that they load it into a pastry bag and squiggle onto the pizza to evenly distribute it, providing ricotta in every bite. And the ricotta tasted fine, but it looked too much like cheap spray cheese to truly be enjoyed. I suggested they spoon on a few clumps of ricotta in the traditional way, but who knows if they’ll take my advice. No one needs ricotta in every bite anyway.
The establishment itself is tiny and not really an eat-in place. (They deliver!) My friend and I sat in the only two chairs and used a video game as a table. We had to grab paper towels from the bathroom to use as napkins, so they clearly aren’t expecting people to dine in, although they didn’t discourage us from doing so. The staff was courteous and passionate about what they were cooking. There’s a picnic table outside and they sell beer, so it could be a nice way to spend a warm summer night. Maybe we’ll hold a future Hot Slices meeting there.