Papa Gino's Time

Tonight I tried my Matt's favorite pizza chain and for a chain I must say it was good pizza for a chain. It wasn't overly greasy like Pizza Hut(ok we all know I secretly like the grease, but there are moments when your stomach isn't up for it and the thought of the heartburn is just more than you can handle). It wasn't overly topped like Dominos(I love my cheese and peperoni, but where's the sauce?). The sauce wasn't terribly sweet like Papa John's(love that garlic butter; I think they should just sell the crust). The crust was crunchy and fresh like real bread(think back really far to Chuckie Cheese's cardboard crust pizza, yeah this was like 100 million times better).

We got a large peperoni pizza, and I was slightly regretting the peperoni choice because of the grease on the pizza. The flavor did make it worth it though, and I am not sure if I would have liked the pizza as much without a topping. The sauce was a little bit sweet for me. It wasn't Papa John's sweet, but it didn't have that nice salty spiced base I like in my pizza sauce. The crust was gorgeous. It had the crust of a baguette and the soft center a slice of white bread that when made into peanut butter and jelly and left to sit till lunchtime could be squished to a paper thin.

Honestly I felt like Papa Gino's pizza was the closet thing to a NY style pizza to be found north of CT. If you do not live in New England you might not understand the search for a nice large slice of New York style pizza. It is a terribly hard challenge. I never really thought it would be hard to find a nice large slice of pizza, until I went to school in RI. I grew up in the tri-state area; deep dish or not-sure-what-kind-of-pizza-we-make New England pizza just doesn't cut it for me.

I of course prefer my pizza from the tiny place down the street. Chains are ok, but there is nothing like calling Tony's pizza and hearing "numba 24" and then discussing if he really did say 24 or if it was 34 or maybe 44(fresh off the boat Italians in PA Dutch country, such a funny combination). It's almost midnight, and what would be a better end to your Saturday night than pizza. I'm almost hungry again, almost.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily