sampling San Antonio's finest pizza
Eischen’s Bar in Okarche Oklahoma is the oldest bar in Oklahoma.
It’s an old dark bar with sawdust on the floor.
They also make some of the best fried chicken in the country. You can only order a whole chicken. No half orders or all dark orders. You either eat a whole chicken, share it, or take some home. The coating is not real heavy, but it is crispy and tasty. The chicken is cooked to perfection, tender and juicy.
[whohit]Eischens[/whohit]
This is the reason for the trip, the ‘holy grail’ of our quest.
Great selection of local and regional craft beers. We had beers, but we don’t remember which ones. We were lucky to be able to drive back to our motel, but that is another story.
We ordered the Italian Stallion, and the Prosciutto E Formaggi with pancetta and roasted walnuts.
The Italian Stallion was a good pizza, but the mouth feel was a little dry, The Prosciutto E Formaggi is Larry’s all-time favorite pizza and Henry agrees. The prosciutto and fig make a very good pizza. We added pancetta because everything is better with bacon and the roasted walnuts (sugar and cinnamon) played well with the figs.
[whohit]wedge pizzeria[/whohit]
This is not a food post. After the fried pies, Henry decided he wanted to see Turner Falls.
$12 a head to get in, but Larry qualifies for the half price senior rate and Henry does not until his birthday this coming Saturday. The gate keeper cut him no slack and he paid full price.
Turner Falls is a beautiful place amid the rocky arid landscape of southern Oklahoma. It is a great place for the kids to play in the cool water, Check it out if you are passing through.
[whohit]turner falls[/whohit]
We left Ft. Worth headed for Oklahoma City. We stopped for lunch at Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies at exit 51 on IH 35 in Oklahoma.
The crew was busy assembling pies. We ordered a chicken and vegetable pie, a beef and vegetable pie, and a pizza style pie.
The pies were made fresh for us and served very hot. The crust was flaky and crisp and not at all greasy. The pizza style pie was light on pepperoni and cheese, and the sauce tasted like tomato soup. Henry thought the beef pie was better than the rest. Larry liked the chicken pie better. There was no fight and we left satisfied and glad we stopped.
[whohit]fried pies[/whohit]
For quite some time, Larry has wanted to eat at Cane Rosso in Dallas. Since Henry wanted to do this pizza road trip, now was the time to try this pizza. The location in Ft. Worth has only been open for about 4 months.
Excellent craft beer selection here. Regional and international. Pabst is considered an import? Henry drank Cusquena Malt Lager from Peru. Larry started with a Shiner Bock followed by a Buried Hatchet Stout from Southern Star Brewery in Conroe, and then Malka Blonde from Israel.
This evening’s cooks are here from Italy and Guatemala.
The pizzas are cooked in a 900 degree oven for 70 seconds, rotated halfway once during the cooking time. They have a soft crust and need to be eaten with a fork. We were warned the Vera Napoletana pizza crust was soft and required a knife and fork to eat. We’ve had Vera Napoletana pizza before and some crusts stood up by themselves.
We ordered 2 pizzas:
The Zoli was a very good classic tasting pizza. You really can’t go wrong with meat and fresh mozzarella.
The Delia was one of the best pizzas we have eaten. The sweetness of the bacon marmalade made this one pop.
$82 including tip and 6 great beer is not a bad price. All in all, it was a great pizza experience. We sure wish they would open a location in San Antonio.
[whohit]cane rosso[/whohit]
We left San Antonio at noon today headed for Ft. Worth. Immediate change of plans happened when we decided to have lunch in New Braunfels. Larry suggested Coopers Old Time Pit BBQ.
Coopers BBQ
Henry said the brisket was the absolute best he ever ate. The pork ribs were perfect and the beef rib was amazing. If you are in San Antonio and want some great BBQ, the closest place is Cooper’s in New Braunfels. The BBQ there rivals that of City Market in Luling, and Smitty’s, Black’s, and Kreutz’s in Lockhart.
[whohit]coopers[/whohit]
For quite some time, Larry has been telling Henry about the best pizza he ever ate. Henry has decided that it is time for a road trip. Follow Los Pizza Dudes as they travel over 800 miles in 2 1/2 days to sample great pizza and other delights. First stop is Tuesday July 22 for pizza in Ft. Worth. The review should be up late Tuesday evening depending on the selection of beer available.
[whohit]road trip[/whohit]
Today we revisited the first place we went when we began this pizza journey. Sorrento Ristorante is a family owned and operated located on Broadway in Alamo Heights since 2001. Our server today was Emily, granddaughter of the man who started it all, Gino Ciccone.
3 pizzas were ordered today knowing that the leftovers could be reheated for breakfast tomorrow. The crusts were made with a very tasty dough, but were a little limp at the tips of the slices, requiring support. They were thin and light, just as we like them. Perhaps a hotter oven or a drier sauce would perfect the crust.
The pepperoni pizza was greasy. Yes, greasy just like a pepperoni pizza should be. If it’s not greasy, it’s not a pepperoni pizza.
The second pizza we ordered had prosciutto, bacon, and pineapple. It was a great change from the traditional “hawaiian” pizza (canadian bacon and pineapple). The flavors melded well and made this a very enjoyable pizza. We would have liked have had pancetta on it, but it wasn’t available.
The third pizza was the Neopolitan with Baby Broccolini and Homemade Sausage. The broccolini worked surprisingly well on this pizza. The sausage was very good with none of the flavors overpowering the others as so often happens with italian sausage. There was a hint of garlic on the pizza which tied all the flavors together.
🙂 Friendly server
🙂 Cold Beer
😐 No draft beer
🙂 Chilled mugs
🙂 Friendly server
🙂 Quality ingredients
🙂 Restaurant atmosphere
🙂 Cool looking to-go boxes (Henry’s idea… too much Moretti’s)
3 pizzas and 6 beers set us back $73.66. Not too bad.
No, this is not a gourmet pizza place. This is an italian restaurant that serves excellent pizza. The food was made even better by our wonderful and friendly server Emily. We taught her a new way to pour beer. Ask her to show you.
[whohit]sorrento[/whohit]
If you like a good cold lager with a nice malt flavor, this is not the place for you. If you like ales with bitter hop taste, you’ll like this place. If you like great pizza, You’ll love this place.
We won’t comment further on the beer as we were not impressed. We ordered chips and salsa as an appetizer. The salsa was very good, but the chips were not very crisp. They had a stale crunch to them. And, there was no trace of oil. Maybe they were baked. We’ll have to try them again.
The pizza is a different story. We ordered 2 pizzas. As a departure from the norm, we ordered something vegetarian. The Mucho Mushroom pizza had sundried tomato pesto, shitake, white & portabella mushrooms, topped with Italian parsley. The best mushroom pizza we ever ate. Ever. Of course it is the only mushroom pizza we ever ate. Ever. We also ordered the Meathead pizza with tomato sauce, salami, pepperoni, canadian bacon, italian sausage, and bacon. It’s what pizza should be. Thin crisp crust that stands up and doesn’t flop. Just the right amount of sauce. And plenty of tasty meat. We’ll be back to do this one again.
🙁 Poor beer selection
🙂 Excellent crust
🙂 Flavorful toppings
🙂 Good roasted salsa
🙁 Poor beer selection
🙁 Stale chips
🙂 10 minute drive from Larry’s house
🙁 25 minute drive from Henry’s house (move dude)
[whohit]freetail[/whohit]
Today we went to Grimaldi’s at The Quarry. It is a chain restaurant, but they have great pizza. Their brick oven is fired with anthracite coal.
We started with a Peroni and a Shiner Bock. The meatball pizza looked good, so we ordered a personal size. They lie. There are no meatballs on the pizza. There are only slices of meatballs.
Larry suggested grilled chicken and sun dried tomatoes on the next pizza. Henry suggested adding anchovies. So it was a grilled chicken and sun dried pizza with anchovies on Henry’s half. The stray piece of anchovy that crawled over to Larry’s side reminded him of why there were anchovies on Henry’s half only.
🙂 The personal (12″) pizza is only $9.
😐 The small (16″) pizza is $14.
🙂 The fresh mozzarella is produced by free range cows.
🙂 Anchovies and ‘meatball’ toppings are $2.
😐 Sun dried tomatoes topping is $4.
🙁 Grilled chicken topping is $5 (and a little scarce on the pizza).
🙁 Topping on half of the pizza is full price
🙂 Good beer selection.
🙂 Server Luan is great.
They dropped one slice of the small pizza on the floor in the kitchen and brought the pizza to the table missing the slice. They made another small pizza with the same topping to go at no charge ($18 value).
2 pizzas and 6 beers was about $65 including the tip. This is a little high, but the pizza was good.
[whohit]grimaldis[/whohit]
