Wednesday, September 18, 2013

You want PIE for dinner?

Pizza Pie, that is. My much more attractive better half was talking to me about an article she saw on Thrillist.com, about a place called Project Pie in Hillcrest.


To say I was interested after reading the article would be a slight understatement. Kyle Hall goes into depth about the owner, the ideals etc. Great article, read it here: Project Pie. Rather than rewording his already great work, I'll just do my own review.


Walking west on University from 5th Avenue, you can start to see the neon glow of the Project Pie sign. Upon entering, you might feel a bit of hipster decor creeping up on you. From the Edison bulbs on faucet style outlets, the visibly hand written quotes on the wall, you might get that impression.



However, after taking in the sights and sounds after entering, you'll come up to the "menu". The idea is simple, either pick a number from the Menu, from 1.) Classic Cheese Pie, to 7.) Prosciutto, Caramelized Onions, Mozzarella, Parmesan (White Pizza), or Build your own. With toppings ranging from delicious pepperoni, to Gorgonzola to simply Sea Salt, with various blasts of flavor in between, all fresh, all delectable.

After perusing the menu and various options, we walk up, the nice pizza engineer asks our name, writes it on a piece of wax paper, takes a freshly made pizza dough out of refrigeration, puts it in what I would call a "press" (a form of modified tortilla press), it comes out, perfectly formed, exactly the size of the peel (about a perfectly personal sized 10 inches), the pizza engineer spreads a very thin layer of corn meal,  throws the freshly pressed dough on top, then brushes on some olive oil (I assume), and pass it down the line... 


Now, this is where it REALLY gets good. I decided to paint by numbers for my first pie at this well thought out kitchen (the #2, if you're counting, pepperoni, Italian sausage, crumbled meatballs, mozzarella, signature red sauce and fresh garlic). Niki decided on picking a number herself (the afore mentioned #7, a SAUCE-LESS white pizza. She didn't even realize it was without sauce until we got back home). You can stick with the stock flavors for the numbers.

After they get done assembling your pie the way you want it (take that BK!), they slide it on peel into the, "Really, Really HOT" stone fire oven. The pizza bakes approximately 2 minutes. The crust is thin, but not too thin, crunchy thanks to the corn meal, has a great snap to it, very nicely done!


HOWEVER... You can add, whatever you like... No extra cost, Pizza Hut, be ENVIOUS (Pizza Duh, am I right?!?!), so with this news on hand, I added (to my already delicious sounding pie), prosciutto, black olives, MOUNDS of bacon, and extra fresh garlic. My beautiful counterpart added, fresh garlic, black olives and artichokes to her #7. But you can add what you want... WHAT YOU WANT!!! 


They ask us if we want drinks, of course, they have fountain drinks, but if you're thinking you're only getting the familiar Coke, or Sprite, you're in for a nice surprise! They have Boylan's Fountain Drinks, such as Black Cherry Cola, Root Beer (yum!), and of course their famous Birch Beer, all of course made with pure cane sugar, no preservatives, and no artificial coloring. If you haven't had it, stopping by Project Pie is worth that alone!



Now, I'm not going to go into obscure adjectives to describe just HOW much we loved the pizza (we are kind of pizza snobs). I've had pizza on 3 different continents and this by far is one of my absolute favorites! From my earlier mention of the just right crunchy crust to the glorious snap of the cheese... I'll let you decide just how delicious it is... Believe me, you will NOT be disappointed!


We will have to go back and try their sweet pies, but we were way to full to have any on that visit.

A definite recommend from me. Not to put to fine of a point on it, Aaaahhhhnold said it best, "I'll be back!".

Project Pie
3888 4th Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103

To view all the of the pics full sized, visit my site: http://www.photog-rob.com