Culinary Corner-Pizza

After the holiday weekend, when you and yours tire of turkey and all the trimmings, turn to something different to eat. Something easy, involving little or no preparation … something everyone can more or less agree on. Something like pizza.
In the late 1970s, pizza choices in Charlotte were few and far between. Believe it or not, no one in town offered pizza delivery. But over the past quarter century, things on the pizza horizon have changed, with an increasing selection and diversity of pizzas now available. From a traditional thin crust New York-style pizza to the thicker Chicago-style crust to the innovative California-style pies, Charlotte’s pizzerias offer a version to suit almost every taste.

A saucy diversion
Pizza is personal. We all have our own likes and dislikes, favorite toppings and crust preferences. The tendency is to tweak pizza to our individual likings, no matter where we buy it, adding more cheese, ordering additional sauce and sprinkling on hot pepper flakes in addition to optional toppings.
In an effort to discern Charlotte’s best pizza, we convened a panel of eight pizza tasters. Because one can only eat so much cheese, dough and sauce in a single sitting, the tasting was divided into a two-night affair.
To keep taste buds on a level playing field and to avoid distraction, we opted not to order a mass of toppings. Rather, we ordered pizzas with a simple finish of cheese, basil and tomatoes, more commonly known as a Margherita pizza. For those establishments that didn’t offer Margherita pizzas, we ordered as closely as we could. In a couple of cases, that meant a single layering of mushrooms, in another a mix of feta and spinach and in one case, just plain cheese.
We tasted 11 pizzas. Despite best efforts, one or two of CW readers’ favorites may have been unintentionally omitted.
Here are the results of the pizza tasting. Take them as you will and then, after the turkey is gone, order your favorite pie and conduct a tasting of your own.

Good crust is a must
La Roma’s Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria (704-455-5550) in North Charlotte, several miles north of UNC Charlotte at the county line on Highway 49, was one of our panel’s all-around favorites. The thin crust had a warm, rich flavor and scored high marks, as did the real mozzarella and thinly sliced ripe Roma tomatoes. While most of the tasters thought the sauce to be most flavorful, only one thought this pie would benefit with more sauce. Everyone on the panel said they would order this pizza again.
Pizza from Portofino’s (704-527-0702) Park Road location also scored well. Practically perfect, this pizza not only looked great, but the thin crust, balance of sauce and blend of cheeses all garnered top scores from everyone on the panel.

No bones about it
Another North Charlotte offering came from Paventi’s Pizzeria (704-509-4404) located on West Sugar Creek Road between Interstates 77 and 85. According to our tasters, while the crust was the best thing about this pizza, the thin flat dough provided few “pizza bones” to enjoy once the slice was gone.
The pizza from Bertucci’s located on Woodlawn Road (704-523-7121) had visual appeal. It looked homemade and the crust was good, but when it came to overall taste, like the pizza at Paventi’s, sauce and cheese were a disappointment and unexciting at best.
Pepperoni’s (704-523-5231) at Park Road shopping center offers a very thin pizza – thin crust, thin layering of sauce and, as our panel discovered, thin on taste. However, this pizza, topped with a little extra grated Parmesan, made a tasty breakfast the next morning.

Any way you slice it
The pizza from Rudino’s Pizza (704-333-3124) on South Boulevard was indeed a pleasure. Although the square Chicago-style cut turned off one taster from Philly who described the portions as “not having anything to hold on to,” the taste and texture of this pizza scored high marks across the board and was one of the favorites of the evening. This thick-crust pizza offered a good balance of cheese and sauce to the spinach, feta and tomato toppings – as close to a Margherita pizza as Rudino’s offered.
Pizza from Mellow Mushroom’s Cotswold location on Colwick Road (704-362-5335) also fared well. The cheese pizza had a New York-style look, which tasters from New Jersey and the Philly area found most appealing and reminiscent of the pies back home. Crust, sauce and cheese rated high from all but one on our panel.
One of the panel’s favorite pies hailed from Luisa’s Pizzeria on Abbey Place off Montford Road (704-522-8782). Sprinkled with an abundance of dried herbs, this pizza was another that looked as good as it tasted. Crust, sauce and cheese appealed to all but one on the panel and it was the only pie completely gone at the end of the first evening.
Amalfi Italian Cuisine is located in North Charlotte off of University City Boulevard (704-547-8651). The Margherita Napoletana pie scored high in terms of visual appeal, but the sauce was a bit garlicky. Aside from that, the addition of fresh basil baked into the cheese was well received.
A pizza from the Cotswold location of Wolfman Pizza (704-366-3666) was the most avant-garde pizza of those tasted and unappealing to our die-hard tomato and cheese pizza fans. Nevertheless, it received high ratings, although a little more sauce would have been a welcome addition.
Finally, while most adults on the panel shied away from the 12-inch pizza with its dry semolina crust from Little Italy (704-375-1625) on Central Avenue, it was a favorite with the kids on the panel who described it as being “so yummy I can’t wait to eat it!”