after dinner sneeze

Patxi’s has quite a reputation around these parts – “the best deep dish in the city”.  I suppose that’s to be expected from a chain that’s mastered the arts in several cities across the country.  When we saw a free delivery day on some online delivery service in the area (I wanna say it was postmates, but I can’t remember), we decided to jump on it.  What you see above is the spinach pesto deep dish that was “ok”.  There were a few execution flaws (burnt crust, soggy spinach), but the cheese was wonderfully salty and the sauce wonderfully not-sweet.  Ultimately, it wasn’t quite worth the $20-30 per pie they charge (maybe in SF-dollars it is) – I’d give them another shot maybe in-restaurant …

I went a little nuts with this order – this is what happens when g sends me on a pizza errand with an empty stomach: I buy two large pizzas … for two people …  oops!  But wait – let’s back up to how I even got myself into the position to buy the two pies to begin with.  A little while ago, I was re-reading one of our own posts on the blog, and I noticed in a’s little twitter feed off to the right that someone had responded!  Like someone out there in the world read this tiny blog and put forth a suggestion!  How cool is that!  She (we think the poster is a she) suggested Long Branch Pizza in Dogpatch.  We had seen the place before, but never set foot inside … until now!  So there I was, hungry one evening returning from work, determined to perform my husbandly duties by securing food for the family (i.e. g and me).  I went a little overboard, as you can see (They had two flavors I wanted to try, so I got larges of them both!).  Well, the spinach one (“white pie”) was awesome.  Unlike Patxi’s, the spinach still had some texture and was profoundly flavorful – really surprised me!  And the balance of cheeses was right-on.  Damn it was tasty.  The one in the background, however, was the real treat.  The description of “the meatball” is pretty standard at first: meat, cheeses, tomato sauce – no big deal.  But then it mentions “Calabrian chili paste” – and that was a total game changer!  It had that electric spicy kick on the finish that was almost like han dynasty’s Sichuan pepper oil that really added another dimension to the profile.  With all these excellent flavors on a crust that was cooked reasonably (I like mine extra-crispy, so next time I’ll request it – these are more flexible-new-york-neopolitan style), we now completely understand why the place is packed on a Friday night (lines, people waiting for pick-ups, etc).  Take it from us: it’s worth it.