It’s pizza. Is there such thing as bad pizza? Yes. But mostly, no. Because, pizza.
We start off at Brucia, Ramón Freire 1302 in Colegiales, a fairly new opening, where, I’d assert, we had a couple of the best pizzas we’ve had in quite some time in Buenos Aires. It’s a bit of a hike for me to get there, as no convenient bus lines head that way, so it won’t be a regular spot, though I wish it were. They only have outdoor seating, so it will be interesting to see how they handle the approaching winter months.
They claim to be the first napolitana style pizzeria in Colegiales. We decided to try their fugazzeta first, which is unlike any fugazzeta we’ve had here. Beautiful dough, topped with cuartirolo cheese, a tangy, really melty and gooey cheese, and then caramelized red onions atop. Spectacular! And then, an off-menu pizza (it’s on their delivery menu from Rappi, but for some reason not on their in-house menu, though when I asked, they said it was available). The diavola is basically a pepperoni pizza with the addition of a fiery chili infused sauce. Yum! It’s not going to blast your head off with spice, but it’s also not for the faint of heart.
Long time readers know that I really love extra thin style pizza crust… or extra thick… or… damn… pizza. But Soler Vino Pizza has been a favorite for quite a few years now, and they’ve recently opened a new branch at Coronel Díaz 1879 in Palermo, just off the corner of Santa Fé. It’s the classic Roman style pizza they’re known for, along with a wall of wine available retail or to drink there (I don’t recall the original spot having different prices for drinking the wine there versus to go, but here, to go has a 10% discount).
The menu is as best I can tell, the same as the original location. At lunchtime they have two specials – pizza and beverage or pizza, beverage, and dessert. We opted for the former, and while it limits the choice of pizzas to just three, the combo with beverage costs less than ordering either pizza on its own. We went with a classic marinara and a carbonara. The former with vibrant fresh tomato sauce, a decent amount of excellent mozzarella, and fresh basil. The latter isn’t all that carbonara-ish, being a potato topped pizza with mozzarella and what the menu said was guanciale but seemed more like pancetta, or bacon. No egg. No pepper. It was still tasty as can be, just not what I think of as a carbonara pizza, more like, say the ones from Boniato or La Guitarrita. Really nice to have a branch of this fave in easy walking distance!
I’m to be disappointed on this one. The topic of pizza a la parrilla, grilled pizza, swam to the surface recently, so I did a Google-dive and came up with half a dozen spots, mostly in the suburbs, that are offering it, and am setting out to try them. Most of them are a good distance away, requiring well over an hour to get to them – this one took a solid hour and a half – so they’ll trickle in slowly. I headed first to Pizza a la Parrijah, Pedernera 2611, in the southern ‘burb of Banfield.
Now, that’s no pizza a la parrilla. It’s a regular Argentine pizza a la piedra. The name of the place, their online presence, and their menu, all say they serve pizza a la parrilla. There’s a big grill in the open kitchen. There is, admittedly, also a deck oven. Didn’t occur to me to ask, though perhaps I should have, given that neither the pizzero nor the young lady at the counter knew the difference between their offered calabresa and calabresa especial, other than the 200 peso gap. The pizzero had to go somewhere in back to ask the owner, I gathered, only to find that the only difference is roasted peppers atop.
But back to the delivery of the pizza, which was promised in 15 minutes to the table – I was the only person there, and took 35 minutes. And why do I not have a grilled pizza in front of me? “It’s too hot to work in front of the grill, and nobody ever wants those kind of pizzas anyway, and we offer both, so except only at night and only when requested, I don’t make them.” It’d kind of be nice to have something like that noted on the menu, which does not mention any style other than grilled. I guess you have to be a neighbor or regular to know that. Then again, of the half dozen people who trickled in and out while I was there, none of them got pizza, just empanadas.
How was it? Okay. An average sort of crust, nothing special, but cooked well. I did like the cheese, which seemed to be a blend of mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, and blue. The sausage, while good, and moderately spicy, is cut way too thick, and the scattering of roasted peppers was nice. Not much sauce, so hard to say. It was just an overall decent Argentine style pizza – one I’d be fine with here in our neighborhood, but certainly wasn’t worth the three-hour round trip via two buses each way. And I doubt I’ll make the trek out there at night to special order their namesake pizza.
But all is not lost in the world of pizza a la parrilla. I set off to another of the spots new to my list, this one in town, though across it. Tulio, Álvarez Thomas 1602 in Villa Ortuzar is just down the road from the famed La Mezzetta, which offers one of the most classic Argentine a la piedra pizzas around. Here, the grill is king when it comes to your pie. And it’s the only style they offer – in three sizes.
While the “small” is a little bigger than I was planning to eat, I figured I could make my way through most of it, and an individual sounded too small. Plus, I got to do a half and half, that they won’t do on the single serving size. On the left, the diavola, on the right, the porcina. Let’s start with the crust. It’s nice and thin and crunchy, and seasoned well, though it has a slightly floury, taste that didn’t quite cook out – they probably just need to brush off the flour they use for rolling it out a little better. Good cheese, good sauce on the sauced side (the other is a “white pizza”). Decent sausage, could have been spicier for my tastes, but just fine, and plentiful. Aesthetically, I’m not sold on the “olive cheeks” approach to putting olives on the pie, but at least no pits. The other side with good sausage, but a lack of much in the way of the promised pine mushrooms. Only a few bits scattered here and there – I’d have rather had more mushroom and less sausage, but they go the reverse. Maybe a bit too much grated parmesan atop, it got kind of salty there. Overall, I liked it quite a bit and with few other in-town a la parrilla options, this, despite the distance, could be a go-to spot when I have the urge.
