Pizza Talk With Me

After a week hiatus, we are BACK to go deep on Driftwood Oven. If you’ve been following Pizza Walk With Me, you’ll know that we’ve been covering Driftwood Oven since their inception as a mobile pizza unit. They would travel from brewery to brewery and Christa and I would trace their path willing to brave the wait to get a bite of their Archer.

Now Driftwood Oven has a brick and mortar spot on Butler St which has allowed them to expand their offerings, experiment with the majestic power of sourdough and churn out an assortment of quality pies, salad, desserts, baked goods and more. They are constantly improving and evolving, so I’m excited to see what they accomplish in the next few years.

Our Driftwood Oven Order:

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Red Top Omni Slice with Pickled Peppers

Blanca Omni Slice

Kale Caesar Salad with Anchovy

Other Discussions and Pizza News:

Connecticut lawmakers propose making pizza the official state food.

Kevin Konn is experimenting with personal round Roman pies.

Spirit Pizza Update: Their round pies are about to get better.

Can anyone get through this paywall about frozen pizzas in the Wall Street Journal?

On this week of Pizza Talk With Me, Christa and Dan take a trip down memory lane and revisit a pizza place that was a keystone in their lives. Monte Cello’s, previously on McKnight road and now on Babcock Boulevard, has played host to after-football game hangs, family outings and after church meals. Their pizza buffet is state of the art, offering up a variety of pizzas to satisfy any pizza craving.

In this visit, Christa and Dan devour a plain pizza, dip into their Sicilian and grab a small buffalo chicken to round out the pizza trio. A Monte Cello’s meal isn’t complete without zucchini planks and, yes, there is some crunch with our munch via a house salad!

Other Items:

We talk about the winning pizza from the Pizza Expo 365, the virtual version of the legendary Pizza Expo. The overall winner was The Sweet Canuck, a pizza by Joe Leroux from Amadio’s Pizza in Ontario. Recipe here.

The people’s choice was a meaty Charcuterie Pizza by Paul Basset from Montebella’s in New York. Make it at home with this recipe.

We also talk about the beta run of Pizza Date With Me, new ranch / hot sauce hybrid, and more!

Growing up DiGiorno was the premier frozen pizza. It broke new ground in the freezer aisle and transformed the frozen pizza landscape. While it couldn’t compete with the local shop, it was a solid substitute in a pinch. Years later the pizza industry has never been more competitive and DiGiorno has evolved to meet the needs of their constituency by creating a product that goes beyond the traditional pizza: Croissant Crust Pizza.

In this episode of the podcast Christa and Dan devour a three meat croissant crust pizza from DiGorno, a standa

Well we had to get to Spirit eventually and why not celebrate our fifth episode in style? In this episode we gobble down the infamous Butt Patrol pizza from Spirit as well as a sheet of their fabulous grandma pie. Crunch Meets Munch as Christa waxes poetic about their simple, yet sufficient, Caesar Salad. We also discuss a variety of other incredible pieces of pizza news and topics.

Only 21 more weeks until our live show at Spirit!

We also talk a lot about Frasier and this video of Kelsey Grammer at the Just for Laughs festival.

Pizza News:

NY Times article about pizza shops adapting to the pandemic.

Lorelei in East Liberty has opened a pizza shop called Wood Fired! They are doing pop-up type stuff, so stay tuned. They are cooking out of the old Pizza Taglio place.

Pessario’s on Butler St had a fire issue! They hope to have renovations staring soon.

Questions from The Grease Bag

What do we think of rainbow pizza?

Should we put French fries on pizza like Primanti Sandwiches?

Stuffed crust pizza, yay or nay?

In this Grand Opening SLICE episode, Christa and I delve into the world of Cappello’s frozen pizza. These pizzas aren’t your traditional gluten based pizzas, no way, these are almond flour crust. If you’re looking for an alternative crust pizza tune into today’s episodes for our thoughts! Plus we talk about a bunch of other things. Like:

Driftwood Oven is hiring! We talk about why their compensation package is exciting for workers and the community.

The grinch!

Christa goes deep on a kale Caesar salad in the Crunch with My Munch Corner.

Pizza questions we answer:

What’s the deal with pineapple on pizza anyways?

What’s up?

What are some healthy items you’ve seen at pizza places?

And more!

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Google Podcasts

Hi there! In the third episode of Pizza Talk With Me, Dan and Christa take their time diving into the newest entrant to the Lawrenceville Pizza Family: Pizza Lupo. Listen to them dissect the variety of pizza and ponder the origin story of their name.

Other pizza items covered:

Spirit has a new menu item - The VIPER “Rollie”

Xavier University’s Pizza ATM is on the fritz and it’s bumming everyone out. This was one of the first pizza ATMs!

Detroit Style pizza is sweeping the nation and we miss Michigan & Trumbull

Pizza questions we answer:

What are our deep thoughts on red pizza vs white pizza?

What do you do if your broiler handle breaks?

Are there any toppings that are an absolute no go?

What’s your favorite alternative crust pizza?

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Google Podcasts

Join Christa and Dan for a SLICE episode where they open up the grease bag to answer your burning questions and chomp their way through a frozen pizza from Eat Pizza. Here’s some of the topics covered in this episode of Pizza Talk With Me.

New hours at Spak Bros. Pizza.

Correction - in last episode we thought that caciocavallo was a type of meat. It is in fact a type of cheese. Photo below.

Some of the questions answered:

How do you reheat a slice of pizza?

Do you prefer having your cheese on top of your sauce or vice versa?

Where is the best NY Slice in the city of Pittsburgh?

And more!

Hi there! In this episode of Pizza Talk With Me, we talk about Badamo’s Pizza, ponder the difference between their round and square pie and go deep on their salad.

Pizza News Items:

Rich Allison, Chief Executive at Domino’s, thinks pizza is the perfect food for the pandemic and for all time. He’s not wrong when you think about it.

Fellow pizza journalist Hal Klein goes deep on Pittsburgh unique style of pizza.

Slice On Broadway is expanding north into the Wexford territory. They may or may not be taking over a spot that used to house a pizza place.

Spirit has unveiled a Butt Patrol pizza. Sounds…delicious?? Check it out on their menu here.

Let us know how you liked the podcast. Hit me up on Instagram or fill out a contact form. If you have a pizza question we may even pull it out of the grease bag!

Pizza ya later!