Top Of
the world
1-5 Exit 199
3 miles N of Eugene
685-9434
SATURDAY • DEC. 11 • 8PM
Tickets At Face The Music, Emu Ticket Office
and all Fastin • $12 Advance $15 Door
008074
Community
Center tor the
Perform! ly Arts
8th &
Lincoln
■ Tonight ■
Babes With Axes:
Six Year Anniversary
fOlk
$7 advance, $8 door, 7:30 pm
■ Friday ■
Floater, Mel
Heavy Rock
$8 advance, $10 door, 8:30 pm
■ Saturday ■
Chanukah
Celebration wM
Rabbi I. Hershy
Worch, Rob Tobias,
David Helfand
£ Friends
Original & Traditional
Jeuish Music
$3 door, 7:30 pm
■ Monday■
The Coup,
or Dominion
lli/) llo/)
$12 advance, $14 door, 9:00 pm
■ Wednesday ■
FuManchu,
Speedealer,
Slow Rush
Hard Rock
$8 advance, $8 door, 8:00 pm
■ December 9 ■
An Evening with
Martin Sexton
S/nger-songuriter
$12 advance, $14 door, 8:00 pm
■ December 10 ■
An Evening with
Tanas
Original Celtic
$10 advance, $12 door, 9:00 pm
All Ages Welcome • 687-2746
RECYCLE
That's
■ With its origins rooted in
the great boot of Italy, pizza
of all shapes and styles can
be found in the hearts and
stomachs of Eugene eaters
By Sara Jarrett
Oregon Daily Emerald
■|Tr T*hat’s amore? When the
moon hits your eye like
▼ ▼ a big pizza pie.
Like the famous song suggests,
pizza can and does act like a bea
con in the night after a wild par
ty, when nothing else is open, or
when you’re just too lazy to leave
your house in the middle of
cramming for finals. It’s cheaper
than Chinese food, nostalgic of
childhood birthdays past and
can be made to suit any taste.
Oh, how those taste buds perk
when the thought of pizza even
enters the brain — this food has
be the greatest invention of all
time. Are you ever not in the
mood?
The way a pizza parlor smells
of grease and laughter; the ab
sence of utensils; the community
effort in eating it; the hot, moist,
bottom of a freshly delivered box;
cold leftovers the morning after
— it’s pure bliss.
To boot, there’s half-and-half
toppings, take-and-bake, the
promise of delivery in thirty min
utes or it’s free and the slogan,
“It’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno.”
Yes, pizza has its own culture.
Major American cities claim
fame and honor in how pizza is
made within its limits — the
competition, in fact, can be quite
intense. True New Yorkers
wouldn’t be caught dead with a
Chicago-style slice, would they?
What’s the difference you ask?
Well, it’s like comparing a 99
cent Totino’s to a pie at Pegasus
— OK, maybe not quite so dras
tic.
Though a Chicago-style is usu
ally plump with more toppings
placed under the cheese, and
then doused with thicker sauce,
the true difference between the
two is how the crust is prepared.
Unlike New York style crusts
that are flat against the pan,
Chicago (or pan) style crusts, de
veloped in the 1940s by Chica
go’s Pizzeria Uno, are crimped to
give the pizza a more circular
look and a more developed crust.
Purists believe, however, that
Naples, Italy — modern pizza’s
birth place — is the only place to
take a bite. In pre-Renaissance
Naples, when poor housewives
had only flour, olive oil, lard,
cheese and herbs to feed their
family, a lot of experimentation
took place.
Pizza was known as a peas:
ant’s meal for decades, until
Maria Carolina, the Queen of
Naples in the 16th century, con
vinced her husband, King Ferdi
nand IV to allow the dish to be
made in the royal oven.
Thanks to the creativity of bak
er Raffaele Esposito of Napoli
(Naples) in the Italian region of
Campania, pizza became accept
ed throughout the land. In 1889,
he designed a pizza especially for
the visit of the Italian King Um
berto and Queen Margheria,
which resembled the Italian
Flag’s red, white, and green de
sign. The pizza Margheria is still
made with the original recipe of
tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil.
To this day, it is said that an
acknowledgement to Raffaele Es
posito, of the 1889 pizzeria
“Pietro e Basta Cosi,” for the
qualities of pizza he prepared for
Her Majesty the Queen Marghe
ria. This set the standard from
which today’s pizza evolved.
Pizza then migrated to the
United States with the Italians in
the early 1900s, but the present
day high demand for pizza didn’t
occur until the late 1950s. Upon
returning from World War II, sol
diers began demanding the food
they found and loved in Italy.
Mass production went into full
force.
The Pizza Hut chain was
founded in 1958 by two brothers
while they were still students at
Wichita State University. In the
1960s, two more brothers invent
ed the Tombstone brand, named
after the cemetery across the
street from their bar in Medford,
Wise. Domino’s opened in the
early 1980s.
Currently, there are over
61,000 pizza establishments in
the United States and over 100
acres of pizza disappear every
day. Annually, 23 pounds of piz
za is consumed per capita.
Locally, there are plenty of
great places and opportunities to
make your own personal dent
and contribution to the contin
ued ballooning of those statistics,
with four-and-a-half yellow
pages devoted to the subject in
the Lane County phone book.
Arguably the best pizza in
town, Bellizzi’s Mafia Style, on
the corner of 11th Avenue and
High Street, demands respect.
The crust is absolutely amazing,
with ingredients stuffed inside
like mini calzones surrounding a
mountain of cheese, tomatoes,
meats and mushrooms.
Though rumors about real con
nections with the mob surround
the Italian family restaurant, its
menu explains that the name
came from grandpa Bellizzi’s
first restaurant in Bronx, N.Y. in
the 1930s. When members of the
neighborhood Mafia repeatedly
left behind the crust, grandpa got
wise and started stuffing it. Not a
morsel was left behind again.
Likely story, but I still wouldn’t
mess with Big Johnny Bellizzi.
Mazzi’s in South Eugene
claims to bake the closest to what
you would actually find in Sici
ly, said Mazzi, the owner’s son
and chef of the restaurant.
“It’s cooked in a pan with a
two-inch wall,” he said. This
deep-pan style allows for more
room to pack ingredients.
“What’s most important is that
you have really great ingredi
ents.”
The deep-dish style is in con
trast to slices found at Sy’s,
which is located near campus on
Alder Street. The New York-style
thin crust seems popular among
most people around campus but
is drastically different from the
classic pizzas of Italy.
According to Mazzi, Ambrosia
offers the closest thing to the first
pizza ever made. The restaurant
cooks its pizza on stone, which is
the floor of the rock oven. This
wood burning gives an aromatic
ash flavor to the pizza.
For an “American style
gourmet pizza,” Pegasus Smoke
house Pizza, a mushroom’s throw
from campus, offers your best bet.
It’s called smokehouse because all
of the chicken used as topping is
smoked on site, Pegasus employ
ee Dana Dickinson explained.
Ironically, though, the menu only
offers one pizza with chicken on
it. For convenience sake, you can
buy by-the-slice all day.
For something a little experi
mental, The Pizza Research Insti
tute, across the street from Soriah
at 1328 Lawrence St., caters to
the unusual. The name gives the
owner leeway to come up with
his own recipes every day.
Bought by the slice, the Chefs
Choice is reserved for whatever
the chefs brain can cook up.
On any given day, you can get
pineapples and mangoes or
squash and zucchini. The Greek
Style is special because it’s
cooked on a flaky, pastry style
crust that is piled so high it must
be eaten with a fork.
And if you’re on campus, be
tween classes, and just jonesing
for a slice, there’s always the
newly-opened Pizza Planet that
sits next to Jamba Juice in the
EMU. Unlike some delivered pie,
you can count on their slices be
ingnice and warm.
Now, that’s amore.
Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald
Pegasus employee Ryan Richardson tosses the perfect pizza during a recent lunch hour shift.