Posted by Emily Koh, July 27, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Forget the predictable hot dogs and hamburgers at your next big event—now you can cater slices of Domino's, thanks to the Mobile Pizza Kitchen. Judging from the photos, it really does have a full kitchen inside with roomy counter space, three sinks, a conveyor gas oven, and air conditioning. Kind of like the family RV, but with more pizza.
The Domino's trailer will offer a select menu intended to feed the hungry masses at social functions like festivals, tailgate parties, and fund-raisers. The catch: For now, it's just available in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina, home of the Cowabunga Inc., the Domino's franchiser who came up with it. [via Fast Food Critic]
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 2, 2008 at 12:41 PM
One of Jeff Varasano's homemade pizzas. "One of my best-tasting pies ever," he writes on Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe.
When it rains, it pours. Jeff Varasano's hometown paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, runs a profile on him today. This, in addition to the one the New York Times ran as well.
The AJC's piece has further insight into Jeff's character, painting him as a bit of a wonky engineer and pizza visionary:
To understand the Varasano mind and its approach to problem solving, it helps to know a couple of things:
> One: At the age of 14, he set the U.S. Rubik's Cube record with a time of 24.67 seconds and then published "Jeff Conquers the Cube in 45 Seconds: And You Can Too!" This achievement was noted during an assembly of his freshman class at Yale.
> Two: He is prone to saying things like, "I can watch two ducks fight over a piece of bread and go home and apply that. I see connections that other people can't."
I've met Jeff, and he's not as geeky (in the traditional sense) as this profile would make him out to be. He is, however, pizza-obsessed—a true pizza geek.
I like that this profile has more info on Jeff's upcoming Atlanta pizzeria:
Investors have approached Varasano about setting him up in the pizza business, but he and Stokley are planning on going it alone when they open this fall in the new Mezzo Atlanta building on Peachtree. Disagreements with partners, he claims, doomed his software business.
Isn't he nervous about the pressure of running and cooking in a restaurant?
"No," Varasano says. "Once I learn the brick oven, it won't be too different from what I do here."
Our own Ed Levine is quoted in the story, too, calling Jeff's voluminous pizza page the War and Peace of pizza blog posts."
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 2, 2008 at 1:48 AM
How cool is this? In September 2006, Jeff Varasano's Pizza Page blew up like mad when Boing Boing and all the other biggies linked to it. You see, Varasano announced on his page that he was finally satisfied with his at-home Patsy's clone. Well, the New York Times finally noticed—took 'em two years—and runs a great profile on Jeff. It's full of charming anecdotes about his travails while cooking with an oven modified to bake pizza during the self-clean cycle:
In the steel floor of the lower oven, there is a jagged, dime-size hole, made when an errant piece of superheated topping melted through. One window pane in that oven’s door is shattered, destroyed after a drop of sauce fell onto it at high heat. There is a long list of wrecked equipment — two more oven windows, three mixers and food processors, one internal fan. The oven has been shorting fuses lately. It’s getting harder, Mr. Varasano said, to make up stories for the oven repair guys.
The story also mentions that Varasano is thinking of opening his own pizzeria in Atlanta, where he now lives, this fall.
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 28, 2006 at 1:42 PM
And they are:
- Zachary's Chicago Pizza: Berkeley, California
- PIzzeria Regina: Boston
- Patsy Grimaldi's Pizzeria: Scottsdale, Arizona
- Vic's Bar & Restaurant: Bradley Beach, New Jersey
- Tacconelli's: Philadelphia
- John's: New York City
- Star Pizza: Houston
- Imo's Pizza: Saint Louis
- Home Run Inn: Chicago
- Mellow Mushroom: Atlanta
- Windy City PIzza: Tampa, Florida
- Anthony's Pizza and Pasta: Denver
- Papreza's Pizza: Henderson, Nevada
Well, they say 13 is an unlucky number, right? I mean, only one New York City pizzeria on this list? And it's John's? John's is good, sure, but not the best in NYC. And maybe we should hold our tongue until we've had pizza from the Grimaldi's branch in Arizona, but how can it be any better than the homegrown original Grimaldi's? I guess AOL had to tailor its list to please people across the country. And it's further evidence that these lists are always flawed. Heck, even if Slice put out a list, I'm sure someone—lots of someones—would find fault with it. But they're always good for debate, so have at it. Comments welcome.
13 Perfect Pizzas Across America [AOL Cityguide]
