EriePizzaAndWings

Yo Taxi! Third Annual Wing Thing Celebration ...

2009-12-20T07:24:00.000-08:00

CONSTANCE: This Erie Pizza and Wing blogger got invited to a very special celebration this week, the annual “wing thing” to commemorate the anniversary date of … oops, I forgot to ask the honoree’s permission to use his real name, so let’s just call him JB. This celebration was to commemorate JB’s heart attack and survival three years ago. Every year on the anniversary date of his heart attack, he indulges in wings. Once a year! Wow, compared to the weekly Erie Pizza and Wing Blog this year, I felt so honored to be invited to this once a year indulgence.
Year one, JB celebrated at Country Tavern. We blogged about them in the summer, when the black squirrel helped select our destination that week. Definitely good pizza and wings there, and they let us pay by check. Year two’s celebration was at Doc Holiday’s. JB said the wings there were also delicious, although we haven’t officially blogged about them yet.

JB hailed a cab for him and about 30 family members and friends to The Cab Bar & Grill for year three’s party. I had never been to The Cab before so was very excited to try their za and wings.

They are deceptively small from West Ridge Road, but have a huge party room in the back that easily accommodated the 3rd “wing thing”. I’d suggest entering from the side if you’d like to avoid all the smoke from the bar area when you enter via the front door.

We ordered a personal pizza with pepperoni and a large split order of wings. BBQ wasn’t on the menu, but they’ll mix it up for you – just ask! And also Dave’s special, The Cab’s signature wing with about 11 or 12 spices. Excited to try this one. JB ordered Cajun, so he promised I could try a wing or two, too.

The servers were able to accommodate the 30+ crowd’s orders and we got served in about 30 minutes. They kept everything straight, but … get this, they accidentally brought me an extra order of Dave’s special wings – so there were plenty to share. Lucky me and those seated around me!

The pizza was adorable – perfect 4-piece size to enjoy with wings. The crust was bakery crust though, and not hand tossed.

And, the wings were crispy – just the way I love them! The BBQ was finger licking good … not too saucy and very flavorful. I also enjoyed the Cajun – on the dry side, which is my personal preference. But I think the overall consensus was on Dave’s special. Very unique flavor and sinus clearing bonus! I loved the Cajun flavoring and mesquite peeked through pretty strongly too. I wonder what the other 9 or 10 spices were. That’ll require another visit to The Cab and further research, a.k.a. taste testing!

Our total Cab tab was about $25 which included a couple of libations and tip. Very price friendly!

The overall slice review for this week was 6 outta 8 slices for the food but a 10 outta 8 slices for the celebration and camaraderie. I loved the symbolism for the celebration. Next time you have a hankering for pizza and wings, hail a Cab and think of your heart health. JB’s heart attack survival prompted me to visit the American Heart Association’s Web site to share the warning symptoms of a heart attack for readers of our Erie Pizza and Wing blog. You’ll see that minutes matter! I hope that you enjoyed this blog post, and also take away, what could be some life-saving information.

Until next year’s celebration … here’s to your heart health! And JB, on behalf of your family and friends, we’re all glad you’re here … thanks for sharing your life with us!

Heart Attack Warning Signs (http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3053)

Some heart attacks are sudden and intense — the "movie heart attack," where no one doubts what's happening. But most heart attacks start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Often people affected aren't sure what's wrong and wait too long before getting help. Here are signs that can mean a heart attack is happening:

• Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.

• Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.

• Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.

• Other signs may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.

As with men, women's most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.
Learn the signs, but remember this: Even if you're not sure it's a heart attack, have it checked out (tell a doctor about your symptoms). Minutes matter! Fast action can save lives — maybe your own. Don’t wait more than five minutes to call 9-1-1 or your emergency response number.

Calling 9-1-1 is almost always the fastest way to get lifesaving treatment. Emergency medical services (EMS) staff can begin treatment when they arrive — up to an hour sooner than if someone gets to the hospital by car. EMS staff is also trained to revive someone whose heart has stopped. Patients with chest pain who arrive by ambulance usually receive faster treatment at the hospital, too. It is best to call EMS for rapid transport to the emergency room.

The 411:
The Cab Bar & Grill
5442 West Ridge Road
Erie, PA 16506
814-838-0507
www.the-cab.com

Patti's Pizza - the Perfect Storm of Za and Wings

2009-12-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

CONSTANCE: Patti's doesn't really offer coupons or specials, but trust me ... their everyday pricing was very fair and competitive. For about $14 we enjoyed a large, 1-item pizza and a dozen wings.

The wings were very crispy and flavorful. Ranch! It's amazing how many varieties of ranch there are out there - but this was one of my favorites.

I think Mathias may have enjoyed the pizza more than me since it was "bakery" crust and not hand-tossed. But it was good, fast and cheap! The perfect storm of pizza and wings!

The 411:

Patti's Pizza
3403 W. 38th Street
838-8388

Wing Blog Goes on Thanksgiving Vacation to See Mickey and More!

2009-12-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

CONSTANCE: We planned for months and the day finally came - FLA Thanksgiving vacation - complete with Flat Stanley packed as carry-on, his "homecoming". It was the perfect travel day - we even got bumped to an earlier flight at no extra cost and arrived 3 hours early. My brother pulled in some favors at work and met us at the airport. We got "home", unloaded the suitcases, grabbed my sis-in-law and the kids and headed to lunch at Beef O'Brady's. We don't have those in Erie, but nationwide, there are over 254 locations ... and they serve over 2 million wings a week so you know they'll be good.

We ordered three different kinds of wings to please our guest bloggers that ranged from 8-year old Emme and 10-year old Andrew up to a 40-something Me! Medium ... Sweet Jalapeno and Kickin' Bayou BBQ. We quickly learned who liked the drummies and who liked the boney wings and dug in - thankfully there were wet naps!

The medium were pretty tangy. Napkins were definitely being used as Kleenix. And the Sweet Jalapeno were also very good - kinda gummy and tangy both. But after everyone had sampled, the clear winner was thumbs up Kickin' Bayou BBQ!! Hints of honey, BBQ and mesquite I think. A flavor combo like no other tried this year. It was really fun having a group blog vacation ...

We spent Thanksgiving Day at Disney World's Magic Kingdom to celebrate my niece Emme's 8th birthday (so technically she was only 7 at the Beef O'Brady's blog). And Friday, the day after Thanksgiving was really our turkey dinner celebration. But come Saturday, we were hungry again (ha!) and had carry-out wings from Frankie's. Frankie's used to be located right on the harbor where all the Disney cruises launch. But in the past three year, if I remember right, they've moved to the main drag in Merritt Island, N. Courtney Parkway, and are located in the bowling alley.

My brother ordered for us, and we had #2 wings with extra hot sauce too. These were delicious. They were crispy ... flavorful. And we got a quart of ranch dressing too. Nice! We cheered the FLA Gators and Tim Tebow to victory and even dressed Daisy the puppy in a Tebow jersey to celebrate!

You might be asking - what about the pizza part of the vacation blog? That came Sunday night. We went to see Blindside (excellent movie - a must see!) and then out for pizza in nearby Village of Cocoa, complete with a park and ice rink (yes, in FLA!) and Santa! Ryan's! Which incidentally had an Amber alert from the prior day, where a father "kidnapped" his son. This and the Tiger Woods story broke during our FLA trip.

We ordered pizza by the slice and I tried the white pizza with eggplant. Here's a link to the piture in my Facebook album to see how huge and incredible this za was (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/photo.php?pid=852121&id=1419060740). Hand-tossed crust - yum! I wish an Erie pizza place would offer eggplant za- baba ghanouj za!

Overall, the Vacation Pizza and Wing visits are an 8 outta 8 slice review. The best part? Having a family that is definitely a 8 outta 8 slices!

The FLA 411:
Beef O'Brady's
1450 N. Courtney Parkway, #36
Merritt Island, Florida, 32953
Phone: (321) 455-6665
http://www.beefobradys.com/index.php

Frankies Wings & Snackbar
600 North Courtenay Parkway
Merritt Island, FL 32953-4749
(321) 452-5557
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&source=hp&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=frankie%27s+merritt+island+florida&fb=1&gl=us&hq=frankie%27s&hnear=merritt+island+florida&cid=8535783847195804062

Ryan's Village Pizza
405 Delannoy Ave
Cocoa, FL 32922
(321) 634 - 5555
http://www.cocoavillage.com/gallery/shops/delannoy_avenue/ryans_village_pizza

Mathias loved this one ... for days!

2009-11-23T12:45:00.000-08:00

MATHIAS: Check back soon ... I have something to say about Vocelli's!

The 411:
Vocelli Pizza
2823 West 26th Street
838-8884
Vocellipizza.com

Train Pulls Into Town with Papa Joe's Pepperoni Cafe Engine

2009-11-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

CONSTANCE: Papa Joe's Pepperoni Cafe was suggested by a FaceBook friend of a friend and oh so delicious! We had trouble finding them at first. Formerly on 8th and Walnut, they're now on West Ridge Road, just past Powell on the north side. Can't miss them!

So we ordered a large hand tossed pizza with ham topping and zinger wings. They had a special, so everything was about $18. Half-hour on a busy Friday night for our wait. We got there and our decision was reaffirmed - the place was packed. There was even a nun decked out in full habit attire (which, sidebar, prompted a debate between Mathias and I on where nuns buy such garb ... turns out there are 489,000 URLS when keywords "nun uniform" are searched - who knew?). This photo was selected with love to remind Mathias of his primary education environment and my piano teacher, Sister Estelle Marie who trimmed my fingernails till they'd bleed and smack my hands with a ruler during my lessons).

Talk about an outta the box experience - when we opened the za box, the slices weren't slices at all but little squares and triangles. That was a fun surprise and I could eat more quantity! The wings were zingers and very flavorful too. Not too spicy. Really meaty.

After a whole year of pizza and wing blogging, some of our descriptors are getting repetitive ... but this place was memorable and different and very popular for good reason! One of my favorites all year for sure and I'm awarding an 8 outta 8 slice review.

Try them sooner than later ... for me, so I can live vicariously through you till January, when we can repeat visit to some of our favorites! Papa Joe's will be at the top of this list!

Oh, the Train concert was very good too. The Clarks were the warm up band. They didn't play many of their oldies but focused on their new CD which has a country flair, and I really wanted to hear "On Saturday" for the line, "That's not the color I wanted, I said blu-e!!". Pat Monahan was incredible and such a showman. I loved the new release "Hey Soul Sister" which he performed with his daughter. And his son also played guitar for another song. It was such a diverse performance and he made Erie proud, and vice versa! Check out "Hey Soul Sister" at Pat's URL: http://www.patmonahan.net/

See you next week - we don't know where we're going yet, but I'm sure there will be stories on how we got there! Or send your thoughts on our next pizza and wing destination to us. Have a good week filled with pizza and wings!

The 411:
Papa Joe's Pepperoni Cafe
3826 W Ridge Rd
Erie, PA 16506
(814) 835-3360

Yamato and Cornerstone are the Pulse of Life

2009-11-08T10:01:00.000-08:00

CONSTANCE: Yamato's show was sold out. They've traveled the world over and have reached more than a million people, but I felt like they were freshly performing for me, and Mathias. The 11-member ensemble performed at Mercyhurst's D'Angelo Performing Afts Center on Sunday November 1 and we were there! They believe that the drumbeat, like the heartbeat, is the pulse of life.

And our blog believes that of pizza and wings, too. What a great combination and fun evening.

We went to Cornerstone after the performance and placed our order. Large pizza with split topping of ham and banana peppers and cajun ranch wings. With $2 tip, the order came to $15. Not bad!

It was a 20 minute wait so we drove to Giant Eagle in Wesleyville to pick up a birthday cake for my friend and called my Mother on the way. She wants a telephone and slippers for Christmas. How practical! She's getting more than that of course, but it was a great catch-up call.

Our order was ready when we got back. It was a later night to eat, but we settled into Curb Your Enthusiasm and enjoyed some good za and wings. While everything was really good, it wasn't memorable. I'd rate 4 outta 8 slices. Value and very nice service! It would probably be a fun place to eat there and shoot some pool and chillax!

The 411:
Cornerstone Bar and Grill
809 E 38th St
Erie, PA 16504-1768
(814) 825-3700
hcornerstonebar.com/

Food fight, my parking spot secret ... and Desparate Housewives!

2009-10-25T06:15:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: While Mathias and I usually agree or share similar opinions on MOST things, there are a couple of areas where we are a nice complement to each other. That's a euphemism for we horribly disagree but go along to get along! The first is parking the car. If it were up to Mathias, we'd park in Meadville to go to the Millcreek Mall, and he'd consider that a good parking spot. His theory is grab the first spot you see. Not me! I visualize a parking spot close to the Macy's entrance, and boom - we're there. Sometimes it takes a drive down the adjoining row, but more often than not, my secret parking spot visualization does the trick the first pass!

The second area of complementary thinking is Sabo's Pizza. We're already in third quarter of our year-long Erie Pizza and Wing Odessey and we've had similar reviews of all the local pizza and wing places until now. Food fight, oh, it's on!

We ordered based on the phone special, of a large pizza with one topping and 20 wings for (with tax) $19 (seems to be the local going price). Mathias wanted diced tomatoes on his half and I love sausage. The wings were Cajun ranch flavored with a hint of Parmesan. It was only a 15 minute wait on a busy Friday night, and about a 15 minute drive to get there, so our order was ready when we got there ... and also lukewarm when we got home. Our bad not Sabo's fault.

The wings looked like Part Tavern wings, kind of burnt, but I had an open mind. The sausage was saucer-shaped, like the pepperoni at Uptown's and Luchetti's, so I knew I'd love it. The crust is fresh dough made daily guaranteed - and it was delish!

The wings were very meaty and crispy and tasted like you could make them at home. Which I thought was a good thing; however, Mathias did not, and I quote him from FaceBook, "The wings tasted like wings you'd get in eastern Europe, before the fall of the soviet union; a bird like creature, cooked in machine oil and sprinkled with the flavoring of an herb only found near the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear facility." Ouch - how did you really feel Mathias?

I thought they were good ...

There was a piece of my pizza left over for breakfast meaning that Mathias ate four pieces on Friday night. And the leftover wings were devoured by Mathias for lunch on Saturday too, before I realized how much he hated everything.

I was surprised to see Mathias eating an "I love you man" sized bowl of cereal - Apple Jacks, his favorite, because he was still unsatisfied and hungry from Sabo's.

Overall, I'll give Sabo's a 5 outta 8 slice review. I think it would be a nice place to eat in too and I'd probably try the antipasto salad next time too. Their menu is pretty comprehensive too including subs and calzones. Oh, I have a confession to make ... I thought their name was Scavo's at first, just like on "Desperate Housewives" ... oops, my bad!

The 411:
Sabo's Pizza
7374 West Ridge Road
47404500

TKO at Ringside Restaurant ...

2009-10-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE:

Round 1: Started at 4 p.m. on a Friday with a quick FaceBook post asking for Erie Pizza and Wing suggestions for our blog. Lots of great suggestions, and a few we haven't tried yet. We settled on Ringside Restaurant, closest to home on a Friday night that wrapped up a looooong week.

Round 2: No coupons, so the crafty Mathias (M: I was just hungry, not crafty, but thanks for the thought, Constance- my Amish babe!)called and asked if they had any za and wing specials. They did - 30 wings with a large one item pizza for $18.98 with a 2-liter Coke product (M: I'm more of a diet Buttermilk man of god myself-what with being Amish and all). That sealed the deal.

Round 3: Sausage selected for topping and Hot Parmesan cheese wings. The crust is hand tossed too.

Round 4: Hated to put on shoes, but it was so cold and snowy (M: You should have heard her-I didn't know Amish women knew such curse words). So I put them on but didn't tie them ... a nice compromise I thought! We walked in the restaurant, and the hostess informed me my shoes were untied. How polite is that? Our order was ready when promised. 45 minutes on a Friday night wasn't unreasonable.

Round 5: Got home and the pizza looked delicious - clumps of sausage. Crispy hand-tossed crust, my favorite. The wings looked wonderful too, although the cheese smelled like stinky feet or kitty litter when I first opened the package. Mathias didn't agree ... but I know what I smelled! (M: did you check you shoes? Maybe you stepped in something; after all, we took the horse and buggy to the restaurant).

Round 6: The taste - delicious! The sauce was tart and unique. Crust - da bomb! (M: Constance, you're so Ghetto-Amish). And sausage was clumpy and very generous. The wings didn't taste like they smelled either. Crispy. Lots of meat. Hot and spicy but not overkill. Very tasty and a great experience. They gave us a coupon sheet from ValPak (don't know how we missed it ourselves, but they honored the coupon price for us) ... no doubt we'll be back.

Best $20 ever spent and a 7 outta 8 slice rating.

Round 7: Za leftovers for breakfast and wings for lunch.

Round 8: Blogs can have as many rounds as the blogger wants, but just in case you're wondering how many rounds there are in a boxing match? According to Yahoo Answers: Championship bouts are twelve rounds, and non-championship bouts ten rounds. (M: I once took the the World Amish Heavyweight Champion Asa "The Not-so-Meek" Troyer 12 rounds. It got dark so we fought by candlelight and he snuck a patented "Barnburner" past me.

However, amateur bouts are usually four rounds, and the number of rounds is gradually increased after a fighter turns pro. So a fighter may move from four rounds to six to eight to ten, and finally to twelve if he gets a title shot. Now we know - TKO!

The 411:
Lou Bizzarro's Ringside Restaurant
3202 Sterrettania Road
Phone: 833-8444

Presque Isle Pizza -Once Bitten Better Twice! Do-over Rocked!

2009-10-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: Once upon a time, Constance and Mathias tried Presque Isle Pizza and the chicken ranch pizza was less than impressive. It's taken 10 months into our 2009 blogging adventure to revisit Presque Isle Pizza again. A coupon in the ValPak landed in the mailbox this week. We ordered a 14" large pizza with banana peppers and 20 wings that were Cajun lime flavored. All for under $20 with the coupon.

It was a beautiful Fall day, and after doing the weekly obligatory errands, we called in our order. Perfect timing as it would be ready upon our arrival. On the way home, since I had finished reading Twilight (I'm a little slow with this trend) we hit Blockbuster and picked up Twilight the movie to have za and movie night. Redbox was out, or our "date night" would have been under $20 for dinner and a movie.

The Groundhog Day pizza was delicious! Hand tossed crust and excellent sauce with the perfect amount of banana peppers - the only thing better would have been waking up to a leftover piece for breakfast this a.m. but alas, Mathias had a midnight snack.

The wings came with carrots, celery and Ranch dressing included with the price. They were wet, and finger-licking good! The lime was a nice balance and the only flavor of its kind this year.

So are there any readers who haven't seen Twilight yet? I am into the second book in the series of four now, so it was nice to see the movie and picture the characters and locations from my mind's eye. I will say everything was spot on for me, except the meadow scenes. And I did like diamond Edward's special fx better than how I envisioned.

Presque Isle Pizza gave us a coupon sheet to revisit them again soon. Nice photos of someone's kids and the claim to be Millcreek's best wings rang true! Highly recommended! 7.5 outta 8 slice rating.

See you next week where our adventure is yet to be determined, but we'll be influenced by some advertising ploy or testimonial of a friend and make it a great one! Have a good week!

The 411: Presque Isle Pizza
West 32nd and Sterrettania
Erie, PA
838-1008 or 833-1008

Boro Homecomig Tradition - Charlie's After the Game

2009-10-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: Flat Stanley joined us this year for the Edinboro Homecoming Parade, Football Game and post-celebration at Charlie's! Back in the day, it was called Uncle Charlie's and located next to the bowling alley in town. But in recent years, the name has been changed to Charlie's and the new location is in the Giant Eagle Plaza, before you get into town, if you're coming in on Rt. 99 from Erie.

Flat Stanley got to meet lots of BORO friends, and their kids this year too. We shared Jamaican jerk wings and a large pizza with half pineapple and half sausage. This week's blog was one of my favorites all year because the atmosphere was like a trip down memory lane. The total bill was under $20 and everything was delicious. Mathias did think the wings were kind of salty, but they were dry and packed with an afterpunch. Sinus clearing - always a favorite.

We took home one sausage piece and a couple of wings to savor later. Overall, 8 outta 8 slice rating.

Promises were made to hit Charlie's next year after the game and invites have already been extended to those that couldn't make it this year. Thanks Bud, Pam, Drew, Donna, Julie, Sandy, Bob and EVERYONE who made the day and pizza and wing blog so memorable and delicious! See you next year, but hopefully sooner ... Go Scots!

The 411:
Charlie's Pub & Eatery
606 Erie Street (in the Giant Eagle Plaza)
Edinboro, PA 16412
734-1715

Welcome Flat Stanley - Guest Blogger from FLA

2009-09-26T06:42:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: The package arrived earlier in the week. Flat Stanley, a school project for my niece Emily. As part of Flat Stanley's visit, we're supposed to show him a good time and introduce him to the unique local and regional attributes of our area. What better introduction to Western PA than our Erie Pizza and Wing weekly blog experience.

This week's pizza and wing selection was quite the production. It started with a radio commercial I heard - only once though, so I only had part of the story: hand tossed dough, two blocks west of Peninsula Drive on either West Lake Road or West Ridge Road, and the name had three words in it, and I thought it was "On ... something something".

Mathias and I started on Peninsula Drive and then headed west on West Ridge Road. He took the right side of the road and I took the left. No businesses seemed to match the description from the radio commercial. We circled down to West Lake Road next on our pizza quest. We were almost at Peninsula Drive and then I saw it - the big flashing sign that said ON THE ROCKS! And it got even better - pizza special $5!

We went inside to order and were greeted by a bouncer. It looked like the place was set up for a private party. There was a comedian getting ready to start and since we were placing a carry out order, we could order and wait for free - no cover.

We ordered a large, one item - sausage, my favorite and 20 wings. The wings were on special for 40 cents too. If you eat in, they are 25 cents each! The bartender was very helpful and we chatted it up about the signature wings. We settled on CPR! Cajun-Parmesan-Ranch! Our wait time was 15 minutes and we were just in time for the comedian. And I use the term loosely ...

I'll admit, I was excited when I saw the piano. My experience has been good with piano-guy comedians. Until now ... he was the most raunchy, foul-mouthed man ever. He even looked like a dirty old man. I swear I was blushing. I think Mathias was too. It was the longest 15 minutes ever.

We headed home to watch The Office and enjoy our za and wings. You'll see by the photos that for $15 (including a $2 tip) everything looked fantastic and trust me, it tasted even better.

The hand-tossed dough was crispy and fresh. Mathias said that the sauce tasted like cherries. It was very flavorful and the most unique sauce we've had all year. The sausage had caraway seeds in it too which is my sausage of choice.

The CPR wings were crispy and tangy with a hint of hot. Sinus clearing but not too hot.

Our za and wings were worth the drive time discovery to find On The Rocks, and also well worth enduring the porn version of Weird Al. Flat Stanley, being a minor, waited in the car and didn't enter the bar or have to endure porn Al (thankfully).

My rating ... for the first time, a half-rating ... 7.5 slice rating outta 8 slices. I hope On The Rocks advertises more, so that more people have the opportunity to discover them too. And until then, I'm doing my part as word of mouth, er, um ... blog, is the most successful form of advertising. True that!

The 411:
On The Rocks
3040 W Lake Rd
Erie, PA 16505-3844
(814) 464-1581‎

If you have trouble making decisions, try the "Tumbleweed"! Or any of the other 50 flavors ...

2009-09-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: We've always wanted to try Chipper's. It looks like a garage ... small, on the corner, not anything special. But special it was - 51 flavors of wings - one for each state and Puerto Rico! And dozens more than Baskin Robbin's has ice cream flavors. We settled on the Tumbleweed, a butter garlic blend meshed with mesquite. The wait time was about 45 minutes, but well worth it. Twelve wings were $6.25. Since Chipper's doesn't have wings, we called Hungry Howie's as we were leaving.

It's my birthday on the first day of Fall, and I had a free pizza coupon to use with a $5 purchase as Hungry Howie's. We got Cajun crazy bread and a medium pizza with green peppers with ranch spiced crust. Funny how we'd never tried green peppers all year. A first night for many things!

We got home and everything was still hot! The wings were crispy and flavorful and came with veggies and ranch dip too. The tumbleweed flavor was really good. I have messed up taste buds this week due to a wicked sinus/cold infection so they probably were even more flavorful than I was able to enjoy.

Hungry Howie's, although a chain, is locally owned and they always have a fine za. Even though the phone order taker thought my name was Donnie (and I even spelled it C-O-N-N-I-E!!).

The other first of the night was pretty unique too. Mathias was shocked that I'd never had a Wendy's Frosty and dipped my fries into it. So we had dessert first. The salty taste of the hot fries was the perfect complement to the cold chocolate of the Frosty. Delicious!

My slice rating for the pizza and wings would be a 6 outta 8 slice review. I'd definitely go back to try the other 50 flavors at Chipper's: lizards, Chads, CB's ... so many sound intriguing!

And when you go to Hungry Howie's sign up for the birthday club so you can get a free za to help celebrate your special day! It almost makes getting a year older all worth it!

The 411:
Chipper's Tavern
4808 Wattsburg Road
(intersects with East Grandview)
825.5176

Hungry Howie's
128 W 12th St # 100
Erie, PA 16501-1751
814.464.0202
www.hungryhowies.com

We Parked It @ and Played Pool and the Reverend Joined Us Too!

2009-09-15T06:57:00.001-07:00

CONSTANCE: We parked it @! And it was fun ... and delicious!

We had a rehearsal dinner Friday night, so pizza and wing night got moved again. We'll get back on schedule soon though, promise!

Like Eli's, so many friends have suggested the Part Tavern for pizza and wings. Being in Lawrence Park, we decided to order and eat right there. A twist to our adventures.

We ordered a large pizza - split toppings - half with hot peppers for me and tomatoes for Mathias. And the wings recommended were the Herbie flavor. Yum! We got to play two games of pool while waiting, and Mathias even got to play Reverend Horton Heat on the "juke box" while we waited. "Big Red Rocket of Love" filled the tavern, and some of the bar patrons knew it too and were jamming with us!

The wing photo is a bit misleading. The wings looked burnt and I was ready to turn my nose up at them, but then I just tried one. And I was hooked! Crispy, flavorful ... and to remember the name, I'll just remember "Herbie the Love Bug!"

This was def one of my favorite blog weeks. Even though Mathias beat me at pool and won both games (but I had only one ball left each time). $20 including tip and an 8 outta 8 slice review from me!

The 411:
Park Tavern The
4205 E Lake Rd
Erie, PA 16511-1356
(814) 899-8661
www.theparktavernpa.com

You Got Chocolate in My Peanut Butter ... Two Great Tastes!

2009-09-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: During our year-long Erie Pizza and Wing Blogging Adventure, Eli's has consistently come at the top of the wing list whenever we've asked friends about their favorite wings. We've put off trying them because they're not one-stop-shopping and only have wings and not pizza. But my idea was to get our pizza from Hunter's, just down the street - everything would be in close proximity and still hot when we got home. Why hadn't I thought of this sooner?

Mathias asked the Eli's bartender which wings are their "signature" flavor, and she strongly recommended Mikey's. A tangy-hot mix of flavor, ready to explode.

The pizza order at Hunter's was a one topping - hot banana peppers. And check out the photo - Mathias was in heaven with four corners to devour!

Remember the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup TV commercial from years ago where two passersby collide and the one person's chocolate bar ends up in the jar of peanut butter carried by the other person (I know, who carries a jar of peanut butter around - so don't think about this too much). My point? The combination of Eli's wings and Hunter's pizza was genius!

Eli's wings were absolutely professional - they were just delicious! And not amateurish, like some of the other Erie restaurants we've tried. The Mikey's flavor, and flavor name was so fresh and different - we loved it! And I also got to meet Mathias's cousin and her husband when we picked up too.

And Hunter's. Mathias was expecting typical "bar" pizza. But instead, we got pizza that rivaled some of our favorite places this year. The cheese was fresh and the crust wasn't hand-tossed, but I loved it anyways. Crispy and fresh. I guess fresh was the theme.

The price, even though ordered at two separate establishments, was in our $20 price point. And the order time was pretty standard too.

Overall, I'm giving this week an 8 outta 8 slice review. Two great tastes that go great together ...

The 411:
Eli's Tavern
1002 W 26th Street
Erie, PA 16508
(814) 454-0713

Hunter's Inn
1204 W 26th St
Erie, PA 16508-1520
(814) 453-6780

One Way Inn ... Intermisison to A Bridezilla Marathon.

2009-09-15T05:48:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: Our Erie Pizza and Wing blogging has had an erratic couple-few weeks. This Friday was spoken for as I had a bachelorette party at 1201 Kitchen. So I happily traded in pizza and wings for grilled romaine salad and rice bowl. Delicious. And so much fun complete with plastic male body part straws - who knew they made them?! So blogging got moved to Sunday night.

It was a rainy Sunday, and we went to see the movie District 9. It wasn't what I expected but very enjoyable. My review would be to wait till it comes to a Red Box near you.

So, to continue on with our lazy theme of the day, and I can't believe I'm sharing this with you readers, we started watching "Bridezillas". Trust me, there was nothing else to watch on 600 channels, and all the DVRed shows were caught up too. It was really something. And it was a marathon. They hooked you in the current episode with teases about the next episode, so you were compelled to see how everything worked out.

We needed a break, and that's where One Way Inn came into our lazy Sunday. We ordered Cajun wings and sausage pizza. And were pleasantly surprised. Mathias picked up our order and said the place was pretty trendy. Nice hardwood floors, wi-fi and a group of guys surrounding a laptop working on their fantasy football teams. I've driven past so many times and never realized how delicious the food would be.

The sausage pizza reminded me of Luchetti's (see the photo!!) and the wings were very meaty and flavorful. Pricing was about $20 - typical. And the order wait time took about 1/2-hour.

I'd easily give One Way Inn a 6 outta 8 slice review. Can any readers help me with this? Was One Way Inn once located north of the Glenwood YMCA?

Try them ... you'll like them!!

The 411:
One Way Inn
4344 Peach St
Erie, PA 16509-1443
(814) 864-5212

Mister Pizza = Mr. Yuck ...

2009-08-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: We just didn't like Mister Pizza. I know, my mother always said if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. I wrestled with how to write this weekly blog, and I guess I feel best about being honest.

No coupons to be had anywhere. No menu in the phone book or online. Mathias went in person to order and wait for the pizza. Primitive. My eye exam had my pupils dilated and looking like a possessed person outta "True Blood". Since I didn't go with, this is hearsay, but Mathias said the people were just not friendly or nice. The lady also called him "buddy", kinda like Tommy Gavin's sponsoree in "Rescue Me" always calling him "Pally" earlier on this season. I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it, but it just added to the whole negative experience for Mathias and vicariously, me.

The pizza crust wasn't hand tossed. Mathias got half pineapple and half ham topping. The sauce tasted like it was something out of a can and we could have made a better pizza at home ourselves at a fraction of the cost. It was also sort of burnt. Unfortunately when I downloaded the photos, they accidentally got deleted so you'll have to trust me on this.

The wings were brown, and extra crispy which I like, but unfortunately, I'd describe the flavor as non-existent or "fryer". They upset my stomach last night too. Blah ...

We threw out the leftovers this a.m. and that's the first time this has happened.

Boy, what a whiny blog. So sorry, really wanted to like them ...

My review is a 1 outta 8 slices. We'll try them again - it may have been an off night for them; however, they're at the bottom of the to try again later list.

The 411:

Mister Pizza
312 W 31st St
Erie, PA 16508
814-456-0468

The Daily Double a.k.a. The Bird Nest Experience

2009-08-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: Our pizza and wing adventure usually starts earlier in the week as we work for the weekend. This week, Mathias met the former owner of the Sports Page and that lead to a hankering to relive his BC (Before Constance) days in the 80s when he's gone there to watch football and devour pizza and wings (the guilt-free all you can eat wings days of a 20-something!!). Like most of our selections, we'd driven past their location too many times to count and usually remarked something like, "we should go there sometime". So that sometime was Friday night.

Our evening began on the hammock with the schnauzers in the backyard. Just rehashing the week and then I noticed that the schnauzers seemed more fascinated with something other than me. Kody and Kringles are both like my shadows, so I grew instantly suspicious. They were both acting guilty when I called to them too. Kringles is so pure and innocent (we rescued him from a puppy mill where he lived for 2+ years as a stud dog through Because You Care) and he instantly ran over with a dead bird in his mouth. Ah ha! That would explain the little bird feathers I'd been seeing in the house the past couple of days. Here I'd thought that one of the pillows was leaking. And another ah ha moment - he had licked me on the lips just last night. Eewwww ... gross! I felt like Lucy being kissed by Snoopy in Peanuts, but they never showed a dead Woodstock in Snoopy's mouth - I definitely had it worse!!

So you might be asking how does this relate to the pizza and wings? When Mathias called to ask about any specials, we were pleasantly surprised by the Daily Double ongoing special. A large pepperoni za and 15 wings. Not the all you can eat Mathias glory days, but enough for us two. $15 - good deal!

We went in and the new owners had different decor that the 80s, but Mathias said it still had the same aura about the place. The bar patrons welcomed us and the "Norm" of the bar, was filling us in on the new owners, and how good the pizza and wings were going to be, the new decor, etc. The couple minutes we had to wait went very quickly.

Being so close we got home to steamy hot pizza and wings ... and you'll see from the micro photo, the pepperoni looked like it was all nested in there - like a bird nest! This was a positive spin on the earlier bird breath dog kiss I'd received.

Check out the photos - the za was delicious. Mathias said the best crust this year. Crunchy and square - he got all four corners! And the wing flavor we'd selected was Cajun. It was more of a hot versus Louisiana Licker-kind of flavor, but crispy, flavorful and sinus-clearing and in allergy season, this is a good thing!

I'd say they're one of Erie's best kept pizza and wing secrets - kinda under the radar, but very worthy of a 7 out of 8 slice review.

Remember to ask for the Daily Double and you'll surely enjoy the bird nest pepperoni as much as we did!

The 411:

Sports Page
1527 W 26th St
Erie, PA 16508-1301
(814) 459-7243

Trading-in Sliced Pepperoni for Sushi and Diced Tomatoes for Duck

2009-08-09T06:19:00.001-07:00

CONSTANCE: Road trip - figuratively speaking. Our Erie Pizza and Wings blog is taking a fork in the road this week and moving on up to try some Latin/Asian inspired cuisine at 1201 Kitchen in the heart of Erie's downtown. The restaurant recently transformed with new owners, JB Innes and Chef Dan Kern. I had never been there under the old ownership, because I'm more of a pizza and wings kinda girl. I love to be casual and comfortable. And I had heard that you had to dress up and behave at the "old" restaruant and wine bar. So, pleasant surprise - the new 1201 Kitchen is casual AND comfortable and very affordable too.

I met up with some guests for this week's blog road trip. Fellow bloggers from Erie Blogs and Global Erie. We rated seats at the chef's table. We each ordered appetizers to share and we passed our selections around like it was family style. I had the ANGRY 1201 ROLL - SPICY CRAB/AVOCADO/WASABI TOBIKO/BLACK SEASAME. Only one of our group, Sean, was a sushi lover, like me so - more for us! Delicious. And a topping of wasabi crystals had everyone talking!

The big hit appetizer was the GRILLED ROMAINE: ROASTED POBLANO BUTTERMILK DRESSING/LAQUERED BACON. Mike and the west side of the table joked with Chef Dan that he should offer just plates of the laquered bacon as an appetizer - yessiree! It was THAT good!

1201's menu is a Latin/Asian inspired cuisine, and is designed to highlight the finest, freshest food obtainable and it changes seasonally, every 4-6 weeks. I had a hard time selecting just one entree, so it was bonus that everyone at our table ordered a different entree to share. I decided on the DUCK ENCHILADAS: BRAISED DUCK/DRUNKEN PINTOS/1201 DIRTY RICE/CHILE RAJAS SALAD. When our entrees were delivered, the aroma of mine had everyone passing the plate, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the presentation and the aroma. I'm surprised the plate made it back to me!

Crispy skin salmon. Wok roasted scallops. The strip (steak). Fried rice bowl. Had I died and gone to heaven? The fun we had trying and sharing everything. Plus, we were blogging and tweeting and twitpic-ing photos of the food which had excellent presentation. Visit twitter and search #1201 for more photos and shared adventures of the evening.

And, yes, we all saved room for dessert! It was an adventure that had a story behind it. JB shared with us the story of a patron who would be bringing his girl friend over from Sweden and he wanted to impress her with a peppered ice cream that they had shared in her homeland. That's how the peppered ice cream got on the menu. I'd say that it was my favorite. A little bite of this and a little bite of that - what a perfect ending - complete with a perfect sunset viewed from our corner window!

Thanks to our friends from Erie Blogs (Mike, Jenny, Sean, Lory and Ron) and Global Erie's Dale for joining the Erie Pizza and Wing blog this week, along with Forte Marketing's Shari. And to our hosts with the mosts, JB and Dan from 1201 Kitchen.

If you haven't been there since the new owners, 1201 Kitchen is now casual dining at its finest!! You don't have to dress up and behave ... you can dress for pizza and wings and for about the same budget, enjoy a beautiful and delicious dining adventure!

The 411:

1201 Kitchen
1201 State Street
Erie, Pennsylvania 16501
814-464-8989
1201restaurant.com

Here's a backwards adventure for you! Root beer, and then za and wings ...

2009-08-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: I had been craving a root beer float for two weeks now. So I had this brilliant idea (at least I thought it to be brilliant), to go to the White Turkey Drive-In in Conneaut, Ohio for one of their home-made root beer floats in frosted glasses. I hadn't had one since last year and love to get there at least once a summer. It reminds me of summers growing up in Conneaut at the family vacation spot and going there in the evenings after long care-free days at the beach. So I suggested my backwards plan to Mathias.

How about we have dessert first tonight? He was in! So on the way to Conneaut on a picture perfect Friday night, we stopped in at Avonia Tavern to check out the menu and place our order. Boy was that place packed! Mathias had never been, and for me, it's been about 8 years. It always reinforces that you've made a good decision when it's a packed house. They had so many options for both pizza and wings. We selected the Sicilian White Pizza (butter and garlic sauce basted crust with onion, tomato, and melted mozzarella cheese) and Buffalo Bleu wings. We got a large za and 16 piece wing order to have extras. I just ate some za to get inspired to write the blog.

Because they were so busy, we were told 45 minutes for our order, and we said, make it an hour for our westward adventure. White Turkey was packed too. What economic times? If the local restaurants are any indication ...

So Mathias and I enjoyed our root beer floats and a side order of onion rings outside on an octagonal picnic table (right Mathias?). What a nice way to ease out of the work week and into the weekend. The frosty mugs are so much fun and memorable. The old rock tunes on the jukebox made us feel like "Happy Days".

We checked the time and knew we better head back into PA for our pizza and wing order. And when we got back, Avonia was still packed! We lost some food temp from Fairview to Southwest Erie, but still, both the za and wings were delicious!

The bleu cheese on the wings was a really nice touch. They were very saucy. I prefer crispy and dry, but made an exception ... this time because they were so good. And the pizza had had tossed crust too. The addition of tomato and onion made the pizza just the perfect blend for tremendous mouth excitement. And for breakfast again today - cold was just as good!

Highly recommended! Out total order was in the low $20s (no coupons or specials this week). Rating - 7 outta 8 slices. There are many other specialty pizzas to try so I know we'll be back. It was fun to have dessert first too. If you try our backwards adventure, let us know what you think!

See you next week ...

The 411:
The Avonia Tavern
7321 West Lake Road
Fairview, PA 16415
Phone: 474-5347

http://www.avoniatavern.com/

We Met "The Ugly Cousin" at Odis 12 ...

2009-07-25T07:05:00.001-07:00

CONSTANCE:
You know you're getting older when you go into a bar and see your son's friends there - legally and all! What the heck, I texted my son and invited him to come over too; afterall Odis's is the place where everyone knows your name and he lives right across the street. He was sleeping though, getting ready for third shift.

Having heard that Odis 12 was a major winner of 2009 Erie's Best Wing Cook Off, we were excited to try the best non-traditional wing in Erie - The Ugly Cousin. What a crazy name and what a crazy combination of flavors too! I wasn't aware that they had pizza either, so was surprised and glad that we could get our weekly blog za and wings from the same place. Mathias found online coupons on the Odis 12 Web site (the URL is under the 411 below), so a large one item pizza (Mathias picked ham as our topping) and The Ugly Cousin was a no-brainer for wings. $19 with a $2 tip - nice price! Extremely competitive.

We had to wait longer than our 35 minutes promised wait time. Probably about 50 minutes; however, the bartender/server was very gracious and apologetic as she explained interim power outages delayed our food. We were starving by the time we got home.

The wings were incredible and yep, I had 10 in one sitting!! Crispy. Sweet, sour, tangy with a chaser of hot twang - wow ... I'd say probably my favorite so far. I know I've been saying this every week, but this week I really mean it!

The za wasn't hand-tossed crust so I was being all high maintenance skeptical about it, but that changed after the first bite. The cheese was delicious. The ham was real and not lunch-meat type. The sauce was familiar too. Not necessarily original tasting, but very memorable. I loved the Odis 12 pizza.

What a great discovery, and they're basically down the street from me too! You have to move Odis 12's to the top of your list and try them soon ... and ask for The Ugly Cousin! 8 outta 8 slice review in this wing beauty contest - enjoy!

The 411:

Odis 12 Bar & Grille
Mike Miodus
664 West 26th Street
Erie Pa, 16508
814.452.6347

http://odis12.com/

Lefty's ... Lefty's ...

2009-07-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

The 411:

Lefty's
1248 Brown Ave
Erie, PA
454-4805

Maria's ... SSShhhhhhhh ... what a great secret discovery!

2009-07-10T04:49:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: Since we started our year - 52 delicious weeks - of discovering Erie Pizza and Wing places in January, we've heard from everyone we talk to about so many Erie favorites. The same names seem to resurface over and over again. You know who they are, no doubt! That's why discovering Maria's Pizza last night was such a treasure. We discovered it on our own. No prompting from friends. We had done a drive by on our way to pick up our CSA veggies last week. And then, Mathias found a coupon in the Coupon Keeper in the Erie Times-News.

It was destiny!

So we stopped in yesterday before picking up this week's crops. As a quick sidebar, we got a plethora of healthy veggies, from leaf spinach and turnips to snap peas and radishes. It's forced up to eat healthier on our non-pizza and wing blog nights!

Actually that's a nice segue to our wings at Maria's. We had the Coupon Clipper coupons, but wanted wings with our za, so Mathias asked if we could negotiate a wing AND pizza special. And he started to explain about our blog and how most places have 15-20 wings and a 1-topping large pizza with tax for about $19 or $20. The owner said that his prices were pretty good without a coupon and he wouldn't offer us a special. That's when we grabbed the menu and realized that he was right. Mathias was all set to negotiate and I think a little disappointed when he didn't get the chance.

So we selected a large pizza with bacon - a first to try that as a topping. And 12 wings with Cajun flavoring. The wings come with carrots and Ranch dressing. The good kind too (not the watered down kind). And come to find out that the wings are baked, not fried! Healthy!! Or healthier at least!

We went to pick up our CSA crops and were back in 1/2-hour to pick up our dinner. The total was about $15, so this is counter-intuitive to our search for the best deal with coupons to use each week.

The owner was very nice, and the young man working the counter was too. Actually he followed us out to the car to ask for our blog address to see what we had to say about Maria's.

We were surprised to learn that they've been in business since 1992. Previously at another location and now at their current location for three years. Their restaurant was refreshing - blue's and yellow's ... not the expected red's, white's and black's color scheme we've seen ad nauseum. Their menu provided a lot of FAQ's and it was again refreshing to know that they support our community via fund raisers for local organizations. That's important to me and hopefully to all of you readers too. We all live and work here, and it's nice to give back and cross-support our community like that!

We ate the za and wings while watching a Seinfeld episode - the one where Kramer gets free coffee for life! And then Rescue Me. If you haven't seen this week's episode, the last 10 minutes are so worth it! You'll enjoy how they handle what could be really sensitive situations with drama and humor!

The crust wasn't hand tossed, but it had the same fresh taste and was crispy and delicious. The sauce was the perfect mix of spices and tangy-ness for me. The bacon was really innovative too. Have I lived in a cave up till this point? Don't know why I never tried that before!

And the wings were very light tasting and packed with flavor. Not greasy at all. And the Ranch dressing was the perfect - did I mention FREE too - complement to top off the flavor!

Our experience was a great one - the thrill of discovery through the taste of flavor - I'd say 7 outta 8 slices.

Don't wait for a coupon to try Maria's - you won't need one! Oh, if you miss the entry turn, just turn on Pacific and drive around back to the front. Tell them Constance and Mathias sent you and enjoy!
The 411:
Maria's Pizza
2340 West Grandview and Pacific Avenue
866-5499

Maria's Here We Come ...

2009-07-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

This week we're trying a brand new place - not referred by anyone - aren't we living on the edge? Read our latest Erie Pizza and Wing review this weekend. And we're also going to post on DiningVerse.com too.

Thanks for your interest and support ...

A Faux Friday

2009-07-03T04:52:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE:
I heard tell of Skippereno's ... and finally got to live the legend last night on our faux Friday. This was the shortest-longest week ever wasn't it. With 5-6" of rain in 8 hours, flooding, continued clouds and rain all week. No wonder Thursday night really felt like a Friday night! With the 4th of July holiday, we wanted to get a jump on the blog to enjoy more traditional fare of this holiday (a.k.a. can you say Smith's hot dog WITH skin - that's another blog isn't it?).

Blob-reader, Jim, suggested we try Skip's (might this non-native call it that too?) and to ask for the tick, spicy pepperoni. So we did! To stretch our blog-budget, we found two great coupons in the phone book. So for 20 wings and a large, 1-item pizza, our bill totaled $20.13 which is pretty typical, and maybe a couple of bills on the high side.

In searching for the history of Skip's and it's rebirth, I found a great article from ShowCase, linked here in case you're interested to learn more:
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071026/ENTERTAINMENT06/710260342/0/ENTERTAINMENT04

The article doesn't really go too much into the za and wings - that's what our blog is for. I was totally blown away with the wings. We ordered Parmesan Ranch and they were the freshest wings we've had during our year-long adventure. They just tasted light, and were crispy without having that greasy, heavy taste. Is it an oxymoron to say they actually tasted healthy? It's our blog - guess we can say what we want. They were amazing!! My favorite thus far!

And blog-reader Jim definitely nailed the za! There's even a photo to show you the detail of how the pepperoni curls and it took every ounce of self control to leave some for leftovers today. I liked that the slices were cut smaller. It allowed me to eat 5 pieces (which actually would have been about 2 regular slices). A little game I play with myself.

So excited to have the leftovers today. Thanks Jim for sharing! We've had some other great reader comments too, and the year is young and we're looking to try them all. Continue to comment and share your favorites - we'll get there!

Oh, got to play the "Erie" game and saw my Erie best-friend's brother at Skip's while we were waiting yesterday too. It was his birthday and he had to pick up his own birthday pizza. We teased him about that! He suggested a place over on Parade ... 8th and Parade maybe? Anyone else with more info on that would be appreciated. And Otis's too for wings. And another friend tried Alfee's after our review and was also pleasantly surprised. I will have to check and see if she spotted the gargoyle too! This blog is turning out to be a win-win for everyone!

Thanks for reading and good eating will be had by all when you eat at Skip's! 8 outta 8 slices for sure!

The 411:
Skippereno's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria
1604 West Grandview Blvd.
(Greengarden at Grandview)
864-8888

Curb my enthusiasm ... so good they're on speed-dial!

2009-06-28T15:22:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE:
I didn't believe we hadn't done a blog to Barbato's yet. They're one of my Erie favs. Have you ever tried their salad bar at lunch time? The wedding soup is to die for. But this isn't a soup blog, is it?

We had a coupon from the phone book to get a large 1-item pizza and 20 wings = $20.13 including tax. I picked the Cajun Ranch for the wings and Mathias selected ham for our pizza topping.

On a busy Friday night - yep we're back on our routine - we were told 10 minutes; that is unprecedented. But we had a little problem because someone has a new-found sitcom addiction - Curb Your Enthusiasm, the original HBO series. And we started watching while waiting for our pizza to be ready. It was the Christmas episode where Larry hooks up with the Black family after Cheryl leaves him.

They are all hilariously amusing and tie so many aspects of each episode together. We waited to finish before going to pick up our order. If you've ever watched the show, can you blame me? And I caution you if you haven't - there's 6 seasons on demand and on DVDs (hint: available free from the library!) ... you'll be having marathon sessions! Season seven starts this fall with the cast of Seinfeld appearing. Can't wait!

The pizza wasn't as fresh - but I blame myself for the delay in picking it up ... actually I blame Larry David! I dominated the wings this week - they were spot on with flavor and crispness. Thankfully Mathias and I have this magical way of balancing ourselves, and he adored the za.

I don't believe we had any leftovers. Or Mathias had a midnight snack? Hmmm ...

Barbato's is a favorite and one of Erie's hometown pizza and wing treasures. My rating this week is 7 outta 8.

Next week, thanks to a reader suggestion, Skippereno's is bumped to the top of the list! Retro ... love it!

The 411:
Barbato's Pizza and Pasta
1529 West 38th Street
Erie, PA
Phone: 814.868.1111

The Reverend, Races and Reunion Wreaked Havoc

2009-06-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE:
Gotta love summer in Erie ... so much to do. We're two weeks behind with our blog, but let me explain what happened. We went to see Reverend Horton Heat in Cleveland at House of Blues on Friday, June 12 ... our usually pizza and wing night. We had to scoot right after work and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Wendy's at Geneva Ohio on the way to the concert. The Reverend is a niche band, so if you've not heard of him yet, give him a chance at http://www.reverendhortonheat.com/. The concert was just incredible and we stayed afterward to meet the bass player Jimbo. Got an autograph and everything - Mathias was in heaven. Get the pun?? I guess it's not punny if you have to call it out.

So Saturday the 13th had us on the road again to Mercer Speedway. We were actually guests of Plyler Overhead Door in their luxury suite and had delicious fare (still not pizza and wings though). And Sunday, my roommate, Amy, from college was in town and we grilled gyros. Boy, Mathias should have been Greek! They were delicious and Amy even asked for the recipe. She was our first guest on the new deck.

So, that's what happened to the blog. But things happen for a reason. A while back, I had signed up to be a member of Hungry Howie's Pizza club. And at the time of sign-up, they asked for important dates in my life. So July 2nd is our anniversary. And they e-mailed a special offer to celebrate:

FREE Pizza for your significant other
when you buy any size pizza
at regular menu price
Second pizza must be of equal or lesser value

Perfect! Sausage for me and pineapple for Mathias. Our whole meal was under $10. Oh, I forgot to mention that I also got suspected food poisoning this week too (not from pizza and wings) so this was the first meal I enjoyed after that episode.

Hungry Howie's is a franchise, so I realize our mission is to first and foremost support Erie pizza and wing joints ... but the coupon and locally-owned franchisee slipped this one by for us!

I'd say a 6 outta 8 slice review. Love the crust topping - I had ranch. That's a unique niche!

We didn't get wings this week. So, read our next review from Barbatos that included the full shebang! Don't forget to sign up for the e-mail fan club at Hungry Howie's because nothing says Happy Anniversary and I love you better than your favorite topping on a his and hers pizza! Love ya Mathias!

The 411:
Hungry Howie's Pizza
128 West 12th St.
Erie, PA 16501
Phone: 814.464.0202
http://www.hungryhowies.com/

You can now find our blog posed at at http://erie.allinoneplace.com/dining along with other dining blogs you might find interesting!

From Par to Pizza ... a Perfect Week Was Had by All!

2009-06-06T04:54:00.001-07:00

CONSTANCE: Sometimes we don't decide on our weekly Erie Pizza and Wing Blog Spot until Friday after work. Did any coupons come in the Val-Pak this week? Did any friends suggest a spot? Phone book or online discounts? But to my pleasant surprise this week, our decision was made Wednesday night during weekly golf league.

I'm a substitute and new to the Orchard Ponds golf league, so each week, it's been fun to meet new friends while golfing and striving to get better each week. This week, my friend Jenny joined me along with Annie and Mary Ann. It was Annie's birthday and we joked that she got to deduct a stroke per hole! She shared with us the details of her great day, which included a trip to the casino. That reminded me of last week's blog spot - Country Tavern, and how good the pizza and wings were. I was excited to share with our foursome the great experience Mathias and I had had. Come to find out, Mary Ann owns a bar and challenged us to come taste Erie's best pizza and wings there.

I asked about signature pizzas they had, and special wing flavors too. I was so intrigued by the red hot raspberry wings. They also have unique pizza offers, including meatball, chicken and white. But, Mary Ann said that the pepperoni was to die for. I couldn't wait to get home to tell Mathias how excited I was about trying Uptown's ... and having the decision made for us so early in the week was kinda cool too. So excited!

Almost as excited as I was about how great my golf game turned out that night. I had a bogey (but bogey and pizza didn't flow for a catchy blog title!) on hole one. But, holes 2 through seven were painful; I had a 15 on hole five - shameful. But, thanks to the coaching of Jenny, Annie and Mary Ann, I had killer holes on eight and nine. I missed the water obstacles and I had the best drive of my life on nine - yes, I overshot the hole! Oh, it was pretty and it all came together. I hope I can remember what I did for this week! Love finishing on a high note like that.

The other excitement this week was cool too. We got a new deck built and it's done already! Mathias took credit for building it on FaceBook. Well, not entirely true, but we had some fun with it joking about how he's my Amish boyfriend and all. Having a deck has been our dream for three years now. Year one we bought a book on how to build decks. Year two we talked, planned and designed our ideas. And year three - we hired someone to make this dream a reality. And it's only June so we can enjoy this all season long. Maybe next week we'll even eat our za and wings on the deck and post a photo.

And, the best news in our perfect week? Mathias got his dream job! I'll let him tell you more about that. So come Friday, we had reason to celebrate this week.

I had driven past Uptown's a zillion times, totally unaware of the surprise that would wait for us there someday. Our selections were predetermined (the pepperoni and the red hot raspberry wings), so we phoned in and headed over. We got to drive by the gargoyle on 29th Street by Alfee's too. I'm amazed at how wicked cool that is and it never gets old!

Mary Ann was talking with another customer right by the door when we got to Uptown's. And we also saw Annie and also another woman from golf was the bartender. What a small world! Introductions were made and we were so excited to try our newest discovery. Mary Ann said to be brutally honest with our review. And we promised we would.

I'll tell you what! I'm so proud of Erie for so many reasons, and the high quality of our local pizza and wing talent is at the top of my list. When we started this weekly blog, we knew we'd discover some new favorites and non-chain places. That's been really fun - each week, anticipating each new discovery and supporting our local community - keeping jobs here and talking up all that is great - right here in our own backyard. Plus, the serendipity of how we were lead to Uptown's made this week really fun and special too.

And now for our honest review?

One of my Erie favorites is Luchetti's and Uptown's built on what I like best about Luchetti's. The hand tossed dough crust ... but a little thicker and chewier than Luchetti's. The sauce that I love from Luchetti's but a little tangier - loved this! The cheese had everything Luchetti's has but more layers of flavor- hard to describe but I'll give it my best shot - kinda like an extra type of cheese was thrown in there with the mozzarella, maybe Parmesan? And the pepperoni is the little saucers that curl up with flavor. I wanted to eat four pieces, but I was full at three. So there would be leftovers for breakfast Saturday a.m.

The raspberry wings were delicious and so different from any other wings we've tried in Erie ... or anywhere else for that matter! I love Wasabi hot, and while these were called red hot raspberry, don't let that deter you if you shy away hot. They were tangy but not overbearing, bus sinus clearing, yes ... The raspberry was just so unique and added a nice flavor burst to the wings. The drummies, my favorite, were very plump and full of meat. And Mathias loved the other wing pieces - we're perfect like that together!

Uptown's has nearly 20 wing flavors on the menu, but Mary Ann says they'll make up any flavor upon request.

We had a reader comment recently ask us what was our favorite Erie Pizza and Wing spot so far. I'd now have to say Uptown's ... it was a crazy coincidence about how we discovered it. The wing flavors were so unique (and I forgot to mention on the crispy side - just the way I like them!) and the hand tossed dough and saucer pepperoni was outta this world - better than my other Erie favorite, Luchetti's.

Eight out of eight slices, and then some is my rating! Forgot to mention that our large one-item pizza and 30 wings was $18.50. They also have daily specials that include Greek night, quesadilla and burger nights too. I don't think you'd ever get tired of Uptown's.

When you go, tell Mary Ann that Constance and Mathias sent you ... hope you enjoy as much as we did!!

The 411:
Uptown's Corner Pub and Kitchen
264 East 30th
Corner of East 30th and German
Phone: 455-8696

The black squirrel picked our pizza and wing blog spot this week!

2009-05-30T06:14:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: It was a beautiful day to clean the attic. And I had procrastinated enough. Ten years actually! So I organized and I traveled for six hours down memory lane: the mementos from when I was a camp counselor all summer in the Allegheny National Forest with out toilets and WITH huge spiders. My camp nick name was WC for water closet! The Native American tomahawk and beads from a trip to South Dakota when I was 11, and my first knitting projects that my Grandma taught me on that trip. College photos and pledge books and paddles ... and my son's baby blankets and toys. The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all these retro games - Life, Happiness, and remember Battleship!

Leading up to the black squirrel. There were a couple of boxes from my ex-husband in the attic that had to be sorted through. His diploma and year books, an envelope that contained his great great great grandmothers hair that had been cut off because she had the fever (seriously!) and the black squirrel. It was taxidermied of course. And these past 10 years, the attic had been his home. Oh, that reminds me, I found one of my favorite childhood books too, "Miss Suzy" the squirrel.

So I packed up this menagerie of memories - his memories, and had them in two boxes sitting on the front porch. I left a voice mail asking how quickly he could come pick things up but hadn't heard back yet. I knew I was in trouble when Mathias came over, and first thing he grabs for is the black squirrel and says, "This is kinda cool!". I knew that I had to take charge and get the squirrel, the fever hair and deer antlers to my ex as soon as possible, or risk having the squirrel take up residence in the house again.

That's how the black squirrel picked our pizza and wing blog spot - Country Tavern! We could stop in and order our za and deliver the menagerie and be back with dinner waiting for us.

They don't accept credit or debit cards there, but being a "townie" versus a casino tourist, I was able to write a check. We ordered the buffalo-Cajun-ranch wings.

They came with free carrots and celery too!

And it had been some time since we had sausage pizza to that was our topping. We were starving and had looked forward to this all week! The crust was fresh dough and the sauce and sausage reminded me a little like Luchetti's and it was delicious. Trust me, I just had three pieces leftover for breakfast. I had to use the 5-second rule as KC the kitten had jumped on the counter and knocked the za all over the floor. So to get my point across - I even ate it off of the floor! Let me be clear - I picked it up and ate it at the table!

The wings were my kinda wings too! Crispy ... packed with a flavor punch ... but not too saucy. There are leftover wings for Mathias, but no pizza and I think he'll be okay with that cause he really loved the wings too.

They are smoke-free there. The bartender had to be the enforcer while we were there and a patron asked for an ashtray after he had lit up. He must not have been a townie!

Our meal was a little more pricey, but well worth it. $24.96 for a large 1-item pizza and 20 wings. Fresh, quality ingredients and a delightful atmosphere = priceless. Well, delightful might not be the best choice of words, what do you think Mathias? It was a nice place and delicious-o pizza and wings!

The 411:
Country Tavern
8107 Perry Hwy
Erie, PA 16509
(814) 864-5635

A+++++++++++

2009-05-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: It's been a long week for us Amish with raising a new roof for the neighbors and all, that we were excited that Friday brings pizza and wing night. Since we had recently visited my hometown favorite, Mathias wanted to share his howetown favorite with me ... Pizza Plus. I thought the title for this week's blog would grab the essence of how I felt about it too ... an A+++++++ just like Ralphie got in "A Christmas Story" for his essay.

It was delicious! The pepperoni was all curled up like little saucers and reminded me of Luchetti's pepperoni. And had me at "hello!!" (Name that movie!!) Oink! Oink! I had four slices. It was tasty. The wings were honey mustard, which Mathias picked. I finally had to confess that I don't really like honey mustard wings. The color was creepy and I was suspicious, but I tried two little drummies like a trooper. They were very meaty and all, but I just am not a big mustard fan. But don't let my less than enthusiast review taint you here.

I'm sure Mathias will tell you more when he comes in from roof raising ... but I'd give a 6 out of 8 slice review. And it's not an 8 cause I don't like mustard. But the pizza rocked!

The 411:
Pizza Plus
2230 Broad Street
456.7350

Luigi's ... what a pleasant surprise!

2009-05-19T05:50:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: Luigi's ... 20 wings + 20 pieces of pizza for $20 = priceless! It was a long day for us Amish. I know Mathias brings out our persona's more than I do, but I thought I'd try. Props for that?

We were up with the roosters for an early Bike Around the Bay ride. It was my first time on the bike this year, and it looked like rain and I was semi-disappointed thinking we wouldn't be able to ride. But it turned out to be a beautiful day and ride (till about 1 p.m. that is!). We had signed up for the 50-mile and maybe I could have done it, but after climbing the Waldameer hill with my rehab-ed knee, and I sat the whole way up too ... I defaulted with the 30-mile ride. I felt that we had totally earned our pizza and wings this week!

I haven't been back to Luigi's since I worked for a company at 12th and Plum Streets in the 90s. A lunch bunch would go up pretty regularly and what I remembered was their square slices. You could order lunch by the slice with whatever toppings you would like. Kinda different then ... and now!

When Mathias found a coupon in the phone book (you might be wondering how Amish have phone books?) we were so excited. I had remembered their sausage as being sliced so I picked the za topping and Mathias picked our wings. Parmesan Ranch. I took a late shower and my hair was still wet (I'm so vein, I bet I think this blog is about me!), so Mathias just went into the bar directly to pick up our za and wings.

Apparently, I missed quite the show! He can tell you all about that.

From the first bite of pizza I was transported back in time and remembered why I loved their pizza so much. The sauce is a little on the tart side but very substantial. Mini-chunky I guess you'd say. The cheese - delicious, and yes, the sliced sausage had tremendous flavor. It was square like my favorite hometown pizza too. With crispy crust.

The wings were the most unusual we've had since writing this blog, well in my lifetime actually. They drizzled the Parmesan cheese all over them. The photo doesn't do it justice. Trust me - to die for!

We'll definitely be back, and hope you enjoy as much as we did if you go. Be sure to clip the 20 + 20 = $20 coupon outta the phone book too.

The 411:

Luigi's
1801 Liberty Street
455.9541

Mother's Day Hometown Pride: Taking the Blog on the Road

2009-05-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: We took the pizza and wing blog on the road for the best Mother's Day ever ... with my mom and family in Sharpsville. Mom and brother Bill brought the new grilled wings from KFC. Really good and tasty and lots of white meat too! And Mathias and I treated to Plaza Pizza ... this pizza is huge and seriously, the best ever. I have yet, after living in Erie for 20+ years found anything to rival the taste and value. What you're looking at fed a family of 8 and about half of the tray was leftover. $20 - yep, $20. Stop by when you go to Kranyak's Christmas Land (it's right next door) or when you shop Reyer's the world largest shoe store, or The Winner for a prom dress. Enjoy Plaza Pizza - an 8 out of 8 slice review!

I wish we would have grabbed a couple of extra slices for the ride home by way of the Queensryche concert in Pittsburgh. We were so hungry after wards that we took the buggy to Taco Bell and inhaled a couple of fresco tacos.

Mathias: So it took the buggy about 90 minutes to get to Sharpsville; I've done some work on the engine and we made good time.

Plaza Pizza has a reputation for being the best regarded pizza in the Metropolitan Sharpsville area. Driving around in the buggy, we saw plenty of places particular to the Sharpsville area but all agreed on Plaza Pizza; in fact, it was on the speed dial. Since telephones are frightening to the Amish, I figured hitting one button wouldn't be as bad.

Right off, I was glad I was up raising a barn this morning because it prepared me for the workout of carrying the pizza box! It was the size of a small garage door!!! We had half cheese, half sausage (I believe the sausage was a former resident of our booming pig farm?!?!). Flat out, the crust was the best I've had yet; so good that I took all four corner pieces to get most bang for the buck. It was crunchy but not stale kind of crunchy. The sauce was quite tomato-ey and the toppings were a bit spicy. Just enough to put a zing in the Amish Grandmother we we're honoring that day. The pizza easily earned 8 out of 8 slices.

The wings were the new Kentucky Grilled Chicken. That's all I have to say about that. You make the implication about how I feel about the Colonel's latest offering.

So, we get the buggy on the road and hit the show!! Front Row seats, five feet from the stage. The only thing keeping Constance from stage diving was a bunch of steroidy guys wearing t-shirts that said "Security". We haven't been this close since the Wandering Amish Concert Caravan back in '06. Fantastic show, got to talk to some of the band members afterwards at their tour bus and even got some mementos signed. Best. Day. Ever!!

The 411:
Plaza Pizza
2417 East State Street
Hermitage, PA
(724) 981-0634

Mama Mia!!! They should have blown up the pizza joint instead.

2009-05-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

Mathias: Yeah, the title's a tad bit insensitive but I couldn't come up with something else while my popcorn is in the microwave. See ya in about two hours, after the movie.

CONSTANCE: Funny thing is that I thought the RedBox movie, "Run Fat Boy Run", would be a "B" movie and the pizza and wings would be 5 Star ... but instead, the movie was really good, albeit predictable. The pizza and wings had no flavor and were very greasy. Not spending much time with this review; clearly my least favorite ... 1 outta 8 slice review only because the people there were nice.

Mathias: Constance is right about the wings; they reminded me of tiny wet hand towels that you wring out; except they were soaked with oil. Not a pleasant sight or taste. It's as if they simply deep fried the wings and tossed them in the container-there was no ranch taste at all. However, I didn't think the pizza was that bad. The pizza was light and had good texture; it wasn't like chewing leather or raw dough. I'd give the wings a 1 out of 8 but the pizza 6 out of 8. This was the only time so far that we threw out the leftovers (just the wings, not the pizza-I ate that in the middle of the night).

John's Wildwoods Pizza - Strange name but damn good wings

2009-05-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

Mathias: After several comments about John's Wildwood Pizza we finally made it out to Edinboro. We would have like to go sooner but Constance had some.....situations in that neck of the woods some time ago and we were just waiting for the dust to settle. I believe the statute of limitations has expired so we were free to hit the Boro.

CONSTANCE: We forgot the digital camera, so these are from the Blackberry. I LOVE JOHN WILDWOOD'S. We had a picnic along Lakeside Drive and went fishing. Good thing we didn't plan on a fish fry, right Mathias?

8 outta 8 slice review!!

Mathias: I can understand the loyalty to the college pizza joint. Back in the Arizona Territory, we had a place called Long Island Pizza that would deliver -FREE- a large one item for $4.00!!!! Of course, that was the early 80's (I ran so far away.........). To that end, I thought the crust was somewhat tough, like softened leather. The toppings and all were fine but the pizza was a bit chewy. Funny thing-the warmed up leftovers tasted better and weren't as tough. Go figure, or as we say in the Amish Community, Go Figure while you're raising that barn. So I'm giving the pizza 5 out of 8 slices.

The wings, on the other hand, were incredible!! They were the biggest so far and the honey mustard coating was thick and tangy. I had honey mustard wings at a sports bar back in the Arizona Territory some years back and they tasted like little chunks of pure sugar, (my teeth hurt after eating them) so I was a little leery. So, being Amish, I shunned them from that day forward. Here, it was a different story-tasty, tangy and just sloppy enough for me not to care about wiping my hands on my Amish Brand Dungarees. Gotta give the wings 7.5 out of 8.

On a side note, we went fishing at Edinboro Lake after our pizza and wings and for being one close to nature, I am the world's worst fisherman. I haven't caught a fish in the last 3 outings so it's a good thing we're not dependent on my skills to put food on the table.

The 411 (since the coupon was cut out of the phone book - oops!):
734-7355
johnwildwoodpizza.com

They're celebrating 30 years and have a pretty sweet Web site. Enjoy!

That Thing You Do! Night Flights ...

2009-04-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: Our plan "A" for the week was Patty's Pizza per a reader's suggestion, but we just couldn't find a coupon this week for Patty's anywhere, even online - no luck! So, being the thrifty little bloggers that we are, put Patty's on hold and visited the phone book for money-saving options.

That's how we discovered Night Flights. Did you know that the Tom Hanks' movie "That Thing You Do!" was set there? "The pizza parlor by the airport" where The Oneders got their "start". Villapiano's!!!!

(Mathias: Best line from the movie? "But we're from Erie!!" The guitarist (Steve Zahn) said it to some Vegas types towards the end of the movie.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Thing_You_Do!

There was a killer coupon - $15.99 for a 1-topping large pizza and 25 wings. The deal of the day I think. We couldn't reach them by phone to order, (M: I was online courtesy of Netzero!!) so we drove out, placed our order and then had a nice albeit quick drive to the Peninsula on such a beautiful, sunny day. Everyone else had the same idea - it was packed with runners, cyclists, dogs, fishermen ... gotta love the Peninsula! (M: But we're not sharing the pizza and wings-it's every one for themselves).

Night Flights was packed on a Friday for happy hour, complete with a pool table and 30-somethings. There were some biker boys at the bar when we placed our order (M: they were really old men with tattered Harley Davidson T-shirts; maybe Hell's Angels pensioners??). We ordered "Ragun" wings which were Cajun and Ranch. The one biker boy joked that that was the worst flavor and proceeded to show me his order of Rajun wings. I joked back that he had better share his with me and let me try them to be sure. He laughed but I didn't get a wing - what's up with that?? (M: Constance is fibbing-she grabbed a handful of wings and told "Snake" he was now her b*tch; never knew she had the cajones?!?!)

For the pizza topping, we asked for banana onion ... oops on that! Apparently the phone book coupon had a typo. Here we thought we were being all adventurous by trying a new topping, and we got our "usual" banana peppers. (M: ever hear of a Jackalope?)

Our order was ready when promised and still hot by the time we got home. They threw in celery and carrots plus ranch dressing with the wings - no up-charge or anything! (M: So I threw the bartender a three dollar tip-got to spread the karma; besides he was being pulled in several directions at once and still kept his cool). The photos show what we got - a lot! And boy was everything delicious! I had the last piece of za for breakfast (inspiration as I wrote this blog) and Mathias is going to have 15 wings for lunch today (oink!!). Just kidding Mathias! (M: "za"?? Someone is getting too liguistically adventurous for her britches)

The crust was good, cheese authentic ... I'd have to say an 8 out of 8 slice rating again this week! (M: I'm only going with 6 out of 8-not enough sauce for my liking). This one is going to be hard to beat - the coupon was killer and you can see the high quality and value and the excellent service we received made this such a delicious experience. (M: the crust WAS tasty and crunchy almost like an almost stale soft pretzel but why be stingy on the sauce? The sauce is the quarterback of the pizza (not 'za) team!!)

The only thing that might have made this better would have been to watch That Thing You Do! while we ate ... (M: and more sauce-got to hammer that point!)

The 411:
Night Flights
4707 W Lake Rd
Erie, PA 16505
(814) 838-7118
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/nightflights11

Mathias' Easter Tradition is Resurrected

2009-04-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: BC ... Before Constance, Mathias had a Good Friday tradition of ordering Pizza Hut pizza and watching The Ten Commandments. So we decided for Easter week blogging, we'd resurrect this tradition (pardon the pun!) (M: wrong religious event. Constance is actually a convert to Amishness from Rastafarianism so I'll let the mistake slide). My how things have changed with Pizza Hut - we did the whole transaction online. PizzaHut.com was a really cool experience (M: no it wasn't-the DMV website is more user-friendly). And did you know they're now called "The Hut!". Now you do!

We ordered the PANormous, "the biggest pan pizza Pizza Hut has ever created — over 40% bigger than their large pan pizza! (M: it's Friday night-why bring any fractions into the equation??? Friday's the time for shutting down the brain). And now you can get 1 topping per side for just $10!" Done deal! We each got to pick our topping - I picked banana peppers and Mathias picked tomatoes. It was a lot of pizza for $10 and with the packets of cheese and hot pepper flakes ... mmm tasty! (M: Constance doesn't seem to remember the Abbot & Costello routine that ensued when her banana peppers weren't on the right side of the box. Who knew that simply turning the box 180 degrees would make her so happy??)

For wings, we selected Spicy Asian, (M: "spasian??") boneless. Our total order was about $19, so for 10 wings, we paid about $8-ish I guess. So the PANormous $10 deal is definitely a marketing ploy - they got us! The flavor of the wings was really different, and they were boneless so convenient, but I missed nibbling around the bones. (M: Truth be told, when Constance gets gnawing on the wings, it's like watching a wood chipper turned to 11-there are pieces flying everywhere!!!)

For a busy Friday night, our order only took about 15 minutes and we were home on the couch watching The Ten Commandments. Now I understand where the saying "a Cecil B. DeMille" originated. What a fantastic movie and star studded cast - even Lilly Muster was in it! It's a long one though and we're still watching a little bit every night. (M: I like the movie because the Yul Brynner character has all the best lines; besides, he's the only guy that can wear a skirt and then kick your behind while spouting out memorable lines like "Moses, Moses, Moses...do ya feel lucky? Well, do ya punk? That's from the movie, right?)

The overall "Hut" experience was an 8 out of 8 slice rating! But I missed the wing bones and human element in the ordering process ... but, we had so much leftover za (M: stop the 'za!!) for Saturday a.m., no bones about it (pardon that pun too!). (M: Constance, Constance, Constance....do you feel hungry? Well, do ya?)

The 411:
PizzaHut.com

That's it!

Memorial Pizza and Wings ... Dad Would Be Proud!

2009-04-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: In honor of my Father who passed away nine years ago on March 31, Mathias and I wanted to have a retro pizza and wing night. After all, my Father is the one who taught me to cook. His chef's special? Homemade pizza! So we took a shortcut and bought Chef Boyardee pizza in a box. Mathias was in charge of that.

Earlier in the day, we researched recipes online for marinades for the chicken wings. Mathias came across one for Cajun Spice Chicken Wings. The marinade had cayenne pepper, brown sugar, garlic powder, thyme, hot pepper sauce ... it smelled fantastic! If anyone would like the recipe, let us know and we can post that too.

Mathias was the pizza chef, and I spearheaded the wing project. After marinading for several hours, I drained the wings in a colander and then tossed about 4 at a time in a large bag with two cups flour. The wings cooked in an electric skillet with a cup of canola oil. The time? Four minutes on each side. We made about 15-20 I guess. After frying, I tossed about half of them in a plastic container with Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce for a wet version. The remainder were served dry.

The biggest taste difference? They were not as crispy as those from a "real" wing joint; however, they were very fresh and tasted clean ... not like the fryer and everything else cooked in it.

While my adventure was going on in the south side of the kitchen, Mathias was feverishly at work on the north side. Everything needed for the pizza was right in the box! The crust took about 20 minutes, and rather than two round pies, we made one large rectangle one. Add sauce, cheese in the box ... supplement with Kraft pizza cheese and then bake 10 minutes; rotate and bake for 20 more.

Daddy's little girl used to be the mozzarella cheese grater, so using shredded cheese out of a bag was a modern luxury!

Hope you can see by the photos just how delicious this tribute meal turned out. And in "economic times like these" we spent under $20 and have 3/4 of a bag of frozen wings remaining to experiment on another recipe another time.

But that's not the point ... I wanted Mathias to "meet" my Dad, and do something to keep his memory alive ...

Our rating? 8 out of 8 slices of course :-)

See you next week!

A $4 pizza ... the stuff urban legands are made of!

2009-04-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: This week is another unique week and we'll be doing two blogs. Last night was a plan "B" night because it got so late and we were starving; so we'll do plan "A" tonight.

Our plan "B" last night was Quality Markets at 38th & Liberty Streets and their Buffalo chicken wing pizza. Ironic because Quality was our plan "A" a few weeks back! So we called in our order to the deli, which I'd highly recommend. We were told 20 minutes on a busy Friday night ... acceptable. We actually had an errand to do in advance of the pick up and I think we were running a bit behind.

The cashier-chef, Candy, is a regular at the deli and she's the best maker of the Buffalo chicken wing pizzas, so if you can, ask for her. She recognized me and then tentatively explained there was a delay with making our pizza and we'd need to wait about 20 more minutes. As a trade off and good customer service, she said we could have the pizza at the regular pizza special price of $5.99 for Friday or Saturday nights. Done deal! We had some shopping to do anyways, so not a big deal.

We got our Easter Smith's ham. Incidentally, I've learned that although Smith's ham is a higher cost per pound, it's all meat!! The other "value priced" hams are mostly water. Thought I'd pass that along. We got our Easter eggs for dying too.

While shopping, we ran into a friend who had been in a horrible truck-pedestrian accident (yep, he was the pedestrian). The accident was New Year's Eve, and he's doing remarkably better. My son works at Quality too, but he was already gone for the day. I love shopping there because as a neighborhood store, you get a chance to see so many friends and neighbors there.

Twenty minutes had easily passed. We checked out with $81 of much needed groceries and went back to the deli to pick up our za. It still wasn't ready. I waited in the car and played with Pandora on my Blackberry and texted my sister-in-law about a recipe of mine she wants, while Mathias went back into the deli.

Candy went home at 8 and we were left in the care of Josh ... who proceeded to rip our pizza when taking it out of the fireplace-oven. As you'll see in the picture, it looks like an amoeba and the toppings all shifted during the rip. He told Mathias that it was his bad and we could have the za for only $3.99. Or wait for a new one ...

When can you ever get a specialty pizza for $4, even though it was slightly damaged. It's going down in the pizza and wing blog as "the time we got the $4 pizza!!".

The Buffalo chicken wing pizza at Quality is an 8 out of 8 slice delicious masterpiece. It's by far the best concoction of it's kind. There are some challenges with the ordering and delivery time, so as long as you're flexible and understanding to expect the unexpected, you might end up with a $4 too!

Tonight, we're making our own pizza and Cajun chicken wings in honor of my Father, who passed away on March 31, 2000. He's the one who taught me to cook pizza from scratch and to cook in general, not my Mother. He never got to meet Mathias. So it'll be a special way for him and Mathias and me to connect. We'll take some pics and post another blog tomorrow. I hope we'll have some leftovers for breakfast too!

Oh, I should mention how delicious the Quality Buffalo chicken wing pizza was for breakfast today! And I probably should e-mail my sister-in-law that recipe now too before I forget ...

Mmmmm, Viva Calamari's!!

2009-03-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

Mathias: Okay, I've been the slacker in the couple these last few weeks and Constance has been the vigilant one. So, to pick up the slack, I'm going to blather on for a little bit here.

So me and my main Amish squeeze Constance were invited to a retirement party for our friend's mom. The setting was at Calamari's Squid Row; Constance has been there numerous times for work and I've been there a few times, most notably the one day last year when the Bar Stool Open was in full force and someone launched a Titlist at my Amish noggin.

Anyway, it was announced that the food was ready and after I threw some elbows, we had a plate full of pizza and wings. It was some standard cheese and pepperoni-the little round ones that curl up when you cook it. The wings were Honey Mustard, Buffalo and some dry type I didn't load up on. I didn't want to violate the deadly sin of gluttony so I only pigged out on two of the three flavors. Later, the staff brought out what turned out to be my new favorite pizza in town, the White Pizza.

First, the wings were bigger than most of the wings we've picked up at the local pizza joints and were right out of the oven (or deep fryer, whatever?). The buffalo were super tangy and spicy and the honey mustard were sweet and sassy. Both wings were some of the best I've had in town; I may have eaten some of the bone just to get some more of the flavor.

But, hands down, the White Pizza was the best I've had in years, if not ever. It was made with olive oil, mozzarella, basil and tomato slices. It was a standard bakery crust but mmmmmmm, that was the best pizza I've had. I mentioned to Constance that we'll have to actually order an entire White Pizza from Calamari's and take home some night. Clearly, the pizza and wings from Calamari's tonight was an easy 8 out of 8 slices; sad thing was that we didn't get a chance to sneak some home for Saturday morning breakfast.

CONSTANCE: ROAD TRIP! EriePizzaAndWings goes on the road to a retirement part at Calamari's! Mathias forgot to mention that Elvis was in the house and his performance was amazing! I am typically not a fan of honey mustard wings, but to echo Mathias's review, they were finger licking good. I'd give Calamari's an 8 out of 8 slice review too. I am just missing Saturday a.m. leftovers!

Not sure what next week holds, but we'll have all week to think about it and discover something new! We're always watching for coupons and deals of the day. See you next week ... bueno mangiare (let's hope the Google English to Italian translations are accurate with this one!).

Za ... Our Pizza Plan "B": Little Anthony's Pizza

2009-03-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE:
My personal theory on life is that Plan "A" rarely works out so to anticipate, be prepared and be flexible; that way your Plan "B" can work out even better than Plan "A" ever could have been ... and so it was last night with our pizza and wing blog.

Plan "A" will be revisited another Friday, but just wasn't in the cards yesterday. Quality Markets on 38th and Liberty has a hidden talent - in the deli, they make the best buffalo chicken pizzas. They really do, and we looked forward to having one all day. When Mathias went up to order in person, the deli pizza maker was on break and no one was available to make our pizza for at least 15 minutes. More than we wanted to wait. Highly disappointing for a Friday night about 7 p.m. Poor planning on their part. But this isn't intended as a dis, just to illustrate the sequence of events leading up to our Plan "B".

Like the gargoyle in last week's blog, how many times have you or I driven past Little Anthony's Pizza at 22nd and Liberty? Exactly! So, no flyers or coupons in hand, we looked up their phone number the old school way - in the phone book. One of the biggest things we've learned about our pizza and wing adventure is to always ask about specials when calling in. Many are unadvertised, and the savings can add up, especially when you're doing this weekly for an entire year!

So the special was a large pepperoni pizza with 25 wings. Mathias wasn't too crazy about just pepperoni. We got spoiled after the cappicola last week! So his idea was to add tomatoes to it when we got it home.

My turn to pick the wings. Cajun dry ... mmm!!

The wait time was only about 15 minutes during a peak Friday night. Convenient location. Price point under $20 and hot-n-ready in the door at home. I had a knee procedure done yesterday, so actually Mathias did the errand without me riding shotgun last night. I was on the couch waiting to watch "High School Reunion" and had a heating pad on my knee instead!

The crust wasn't hand tossed and it was pepperoni and not "our pick" for the topping, so the wings scored higher for me. Wow, they were meaty and flavor-packed to make a Cajun proud. I'd average my rating at 5.5 out of 8, due to the crust. Mathias thought the crust needed to be cooked more. It was better for breakfast I'd say ... yep I just devoured three pieces.

And the title of this blog is in honor of "Za" being added to the Scrabble dictionary this week ... short for pizza of course! And worth a lot of points!

The 411:
Little Anthony's Pizza
2204 Liberty Street
459-2110

P.S. What's up with the Homecoming Queen's secret anyways ... Mathias and I each have our spoiler thoughts on that. Does anyone else watch?

Alfee's Pizza and Wings and a Winged Gargolye too!

2009-03-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

CONSTANCE: Gotta love the marketing of the family pizza place ... nothing better than a good old fashioned flyer placed on the porch. Seriously, that's what cinched the deal to go to Alfee's last Friday. The menu was pretty expansive. My turn to pick the pizza topping, and I picked cappicola. I wasn't sure what that was exactly, so Googled it before ordering (1). None of the other pizza establishments offered it so far.

Matt picked Cajun wings. And the wings came with Ranch dip and carrots and celery - no extra cost - how customer friendly is that?

The ambiance of Alfee's was pretty old school with an actual pinball machine. Mathias can tell you more about that. And post the pictures too when he adds to the blog.

And one of most memorable things to me was discovering a gargoyle on the way there. I got interested in gargoyles and grotesques about two years ago. And sometimes we'll just go on drives to take photos and have a gargoyle hunt. So the shocking thing was that this gargoyle was right on West 29th Street. On the way to my doctor's and dentist's office, my route to the East Side ... I've driven past it zillions of times and never noticed it before until Alfee's Pizza night when Mathias called it to my attention. The photo from my Blackberry got posted to my FaceBook page, but didn't import here. So I'll take it with the digital camera and post later. It's a huge one with lots of character. If you're like me you associate things in packages, so Alfee's will always be referred to as "remember the time we went to Alfee's and saw the gargoyle?"

Back to the pizza and wings though. We asked about specials when calling in our order, and like most places, got a large one-item pizza and 25 wings for the "expected $20" including tax. The crust was my favorite part and hand tossed. The wings were wet, but not too wet and very flavorful. Mathias said his favorite so far!! And my rating ... I'd say a 7 our of 8 slices.

The 411:

Alfee's Pizza Subs Wings
3001 Glenwood Park Ave.
866.6671

Another cool thing happened this week too. When we had eaten at My Dad's Pizza, Mathias entered my name to win a free pizza, and I won! So Tuesday night was bonus pizza night and we redeemed the free pizza. A new topping was tried - meatball ... and it was very delicious too.

Since we're blogging now for two weeks, I can tell you that Little Anthony's Pizza was our find last night. And I'm eating leftover pizza as I write to get in the spirit. You're invited to share a cup of vanilla-flavored coffee with me and read on ...

(1) Capicola, or coppa, is a traditional Neapolitan Italian cold cut (salume) made from pork shoulder or neck and dry-cured whole. The name coppa is Italian for nape, while capicola comes from capo—head and collo—neck of a pig. The Neapolitan Italian spelling, "'Capocollo'", is dervied from Latin, "caput collum". It is similar to the more widely known cured ham, Prosciutto, because they are both pork-derived cold-cuts that are used in similar dishes. However, the technical definition of ham is the thigh and buttocks of a pig (or boar) slaughtered for meat, whereas Capicola is solely meat from the shoulder or neck.

Lucky Man's Restaurant - How Apropos!

2009-03-07T06:01:00.000-08:00

CONSTANCE: Some days you are the windshield and some days you are the bug. Well, yesterday, I was the windshield. Everything was great all day long. The highlights? I won a free pizza from the business card drawing at My Dad's Pizza - a large 1 item pizza ... it's a major award, can you say "Fragile!?" (Hope A Christmas Story fans will get my drift!) And on the ride home from work, I got every single green light. That never happens. I got a lot done at work too, and a challenging situation resolved itself in a way that was even better than I hoped for. And a whole weekend with Mathias and the critters without obligations - how lucky is that??

Earlier in the week, my friend and hair stylist guru Dawna (product placement inserted here to thank her for the great color and style ... she used Yo.Color on my hair, yep, hair coloring with yogurt - Studio Hue and Dawna rock!!) had suggested Lucky Man's Restaurant as our weekly blog spot. She loves the butter and garlic wings or mild. I got intrigued with PJ's flavor. Can't get that one just anywhere. So Mathias asked about it when placing our order with Mr. Lucky Man, and it was all my favorite things combo-ed into one convenient flavor. Cajun, Buffalo, Ranch ... kinda on the sweet side. And wet. My choice was an easy one.

Mathias got to pick the pizza topping this week. Guess what he picked? Guess? Sliced tomatoes! Really! I never thought about the tomato as a pizza topping, and it worked really well. For our Saturday a.m. leftovers, he always heats up the slices while I love em cold. Not today, the tomatoes heated up to him sounded creepy, so he devoured the cold slices with me! There were no wings left over - that says something! Something good!!

Mathias said that Lucky Man's is his favorite yet. You can see the problem we're getting ourselves into. Each week is the best until next week.

There was a fantastic coupon online and with tax, $19.03 for a large one topping (hand tossed dough) and 25 wings. Mr. Lucky Man was so nice too. He gave us back a whole dollar in change from our $20 and he said we could save the coupon and use it again.

The 411:

Lucky Man's Restaurant
3651 West 12th Street
464.9194
LuckyMansPizzeria.com

My rating? I'd say an 8 out of 8 ... an overall great experience to wrap up my lucky day. On time, nice people, to die for crust and the best wing sauce I think I've ever had. And remember, I'm from Sharon, home of original Quaker Steak & Lube!

I think that we're going to try Alfee's next Friday. Got a menu and coupon on the front porch yesterday. And a blog reader suggested Sport's Page. Plus Carini's in Waterford and Eli's ... we have a lot in the cue and are excited to discover some new favorites, but then again, we have 10 months to go! Thanks for reading and here's hoping you have a windshield kind of day!

Headed South ... Sort Of

2009-02-27T18:04:00.000-08:00

Mathias: OK, I've been a little slack lately about writing in the pizza blog. Constance is far more the ambitious Amish of the two of us. So, I've asked her to repeatedly swat me with a rolled up copy of USA Today-Amish Edition until I finish this.

OK, so the snow is back and if I were allowed to swear, I would. The best I can come up is "Churn My Butter!" So, in an effort to do our best to stay warm, we head south for our pizza and wings tonight (Feb 27); right to Southgate Pizza, the western version.

Hold on - a trailer for Watchmen is on the tv.

OK, so we bundled up in our best Amish outerwear (Goretex is a sin in our culture) and warmed up the buggy and horses for the quick run to the plaza at 2615 Evanston (Across from Bonnell's Collision on West 26th street). The place has a website(southgatewest.com), so stop watching videos of those crazy Mennonites and take a look at what the place has to offer. Constance had the luxury of pizza choice (cheese and ham) and I got to pick the wings (Buffalo ranch). We had a coupon for large one item and 20 wings for about $19.25 or so.

Now, I've had my share of good and bad pizza and Southgate was clearly the former, not the latter. Same for the wings. The pizza dough was fresh made and the cheese was muy fantastico (I'm taking spanish as Amish U.). And as for the wings, they were the best I've had so far; they had a bigger kick than a ornery Amish ass. I mean donkey, so settle down. Constance must have a greater tolerance for the kick in the crotch that these wings were, as she had five scraped clean before I had two finished. I went through half a liter of fresh buttermilk to mellow out the burn. Oh, but what a burn!!

We've been to over a half dozen pizza joints so far and Southgate so far tops the list, both for pizza and wings. I'm looking forward to getting up early tomorrow (for leftovers, not for milking the damn cows). I give Southgate Pizza 8 out of 8 slices!!! Top of the list!!

Constance: Matthias was kidding about the movie trailer on TV ... of course we don't have electricity! Wait for it ... alrighty then, he's the funny one!!

So Southgate Pizza rocks! We had been there bunches of times before. And actually this Friday they were our Plan "B" since we've wanted to try new places and discover some new favorites. We wanted to visit Newman's at 29th and Raspberry Streets. But I think they're out of business already. We first went there when they opened earlier in 2008. I remember the food being on the pricey side, but very delicious and worth the extra money. Their hours were very limited too. I think they closed at 8 or some very early hour. So, we didn't go back. It wasn't convenient.

So my point? I think it's important to patronize local businesses. Without our support they don't succeed and go away. It's an expensive learning for the business owner, but more than that, a failed dream. And for the business, price and positioning is important to the customer. Be different! Be smart about it and convenient for customers so they have a reason to come back. Fair prices. Customer service with a smile and convenient hours are the basics. 29th and Raspberry has been a graveyard for pizza and wing places. Having lived in the neighborhood for 20 years or so, it's been a revolving door. The only success story in my memory is Steel City!!

Who knew a pizza and wing blog would turn into a marketing lesson?!

Back to Southgate ... wow, they have the best pizza with hand tossed crust. And the cheese is real and perfect texture and taste. I got to pick the topping and picked ham. Thought it would be a nice complement to Matthias' Buffalo Ranch wings. For the record, they were hot but not THAT hot!!

I'd have to say that the leftovers this a.m. were the best leftovers we've had too. I just had leftover pizza, and Matthias got the wings.

The 411:

Southgate Pizza West
2615 Evanston
838-2377
southgatewest.com

They have daily specials and also extensive information and coupons in the phone book. And my friend's son works there too - small world!

My slice rating - 8 outta 8 - mmm!! If you have any suggestions for next week, let us know. My Edinboro friend suggested Carini's in Waterford. He says their pizza is better than John Wildwood's in Edinboro. We'll just have to see about that ...

My Dad's Pizza & Deli - Check out their Tuesday Special and The Bachelor!

2009-02-22T05:33:00.000-08:00

Constance: What a mixed up week! Pizza and wing blogging night got advanced to Tuesday because of My Dad's Pizza & Deli has a killer Tuesday Special. A Regular Large Cheese & 1 Item Pizza for $5.99 - can't beat that! They do offer fresh dough pizza but we were happy with the special. And Matthias surprised me with jalepeno's - my favorite - he's the best!! And for the wings I picked Bayou BBQ. Not to spoil Matthias' review, but he said the wings were his favorite yet this year of all the places we've tried!!

We didn't have a menu in advance so we stopped and grabbed one and then did our weekly Wal-Mart errand while our pizza and wings were cooking. My Dad's Pizza & Deli does advertise in Val-Pak with regular coupons so for readers lucky enough to live in surrounding zip codes, check for it! Worth mentioning that you DO NOT need a coupon for the Tuesday people, perfect for those like us from a different zip code.

The pizza was really tasty and can't beat the special. Crispy crust. Lots of cheese and the sauce was a perfect blend of sweet-n-spicy. And the wings were just saucy enough to be finger-licking good. We watched The Bachelor DVRed while we "dined" ... a perfect ending to a challenging work day. I was sorry to see Jill go - she was one of my favorites! Matthias doesn't really "watch" just for the record so you know?!

(Note: Photo Credit popculturemadness.blogspot.com)

We also got to see Seinfeld on Thursday night. A late night for a school night :-) And my friend Dan and his wife ended up right in front of us. We were telling them about the 2009 EriePizzaandWings blog we're doing this year. They thought it was a good idea and liked the concept because of the new places we're tried and blogged about.

What does this week hold? Not sure yet. But My Dad's Pizza & Deli was a good week and I'd give a 6 out of 8 slice review.

The 411:
My Dad's Pizza & Deli
4555 Buffalo Road
899-7811

Oh, in case you wonder what we did Friday night? We made homemade calzones - two versions with Buffalo sausage and feta cheese and basil sausage. They were really good - maybe 2010 will be the year of the calzone blog?

Yes, they're back!! Pio's ...

2009-02-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

Constance: I was so excited when we heard that Pio's was open again to have their pizza and wings for our blog. I guess they had a fire in the fall and many people don't realize they're open again. So hope this blog can help spread the word. I imagine all of the struggles they went through without the business income and rebuilding ... but that's one of the things I love about Erie, the sense of community. And the dining room was packed last night, supporting one of Erie's own.

We couldn't find a Pio's coupon, so when I called I asked if there were any specials going one. That's one thing about doing this blog - I've learned that if you just ask about specials they usually have something going on.

$18.99 - large pepperoni pizza and 10 wings. The decision was made for me and my topping week, and Mathias picked Cajun wings. I called shotgun and got the hot pizza on my lap for the ride home.

We had received a comment last week about Pio's offering rye crust. I'd never even heard of that, so we definitely tried that too. We picked up a menu too, and they also offer wheat crust too.

The rye is dark rye and at first glance looked burnt. But wow, it was to die for. Not too overbearing. Sometimes I'll sneak the pups a piece of crust (they love pizza and wing nights too!) ... but not last night, it was too good to share!

The wings were dry and crispy, the way I love them! I wanted more than my 5 allotted, but it's probably good portion control with the 10 wing piece order. They came with ranch dip too - BONUS, and no extra fee. That was a nice surprise!

And we each saved a piece for leftovers. What a great way to start Valentine's Day - with the one you love and leftover pizza with rye crust. This should be our Valentine's Day tradition.

Speaking of traditions, every SuperBowl, we're going to smash an old HP Printer to commemorate this year's SuperBowl when I spent 12 hours on the phone with tech support in India trying to install my new HP wireless printer - which still doesn't work wirelessly (is that a word?). Not too bitter ...

My slice rating? I'd give a 7 out of 8 ... my favorite touches were the rye crust and the cheese ... and the bonus ranch dip with the wings.

Welcome back Pio's and I'm proud to live in a community where we support our local businesses!!

The 411:

Pio's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria
Since 1970
815 East Avenue
Erie, PA

Ph: 456-8866

What did you think Matthias?

Matthias: I'm playing fact checker today and will add my comments later. As for the question about the Reuben Pizza - Pio's has a Gourmet Specialty Pizza called 'Lila's Reuben Pizza'; it's a Black rye shell topped with their own sauce, juicy sauerkraut, lean corned beef, mozzarella cheese and crispy dill pickles. I am not making that up-seems it's a favorite of people. I cannot fathom why (I abhor sauerkraut).

Time for East Side Respect! Stevo's Pizza!

2009-02-07T05:12:00.000-08:00

Mathias: OK, I'm going to blog first because Constance is spinning some wool from a thing we found in the street this morning. I think it's a collection of dog hair but Constance believes it's the Devil Incarnate. In either case, it's ugly.

So Friday night rolled around and we decided to pay some respect to Erie's east side, but just barely. We chose Stevo's Pizza, located at 1019 State Street. The place was featured in Erie Life Magazine this month. Here's the link: www.erielifemagazine.com/issues/2009-february/food-we-love.php . However, the online version doesn't have the write up.

I pinned Constance two out of three times in Greco-Roman wrestling so I got to pick the topping and this time, it was ham because they don't have mutton as a choice. She won our traditional Friday Night knife fight so she got to pick the wing flavor and chose Cajun Ranch because she used to work for Bubba Gump Shrimp down in the Gulf of Mexico off of Louisiana during spring break and got addicted to that flavor.

In any event, we had a coupon that got us a large cheese and ham and 20 Cajun ranch wings for just $18 bones. Pretty standard price for the area. After doing some doughnuts and fishtails with our supped-up horse and buggy in the Liberty Plaza, we evaded the ensuing chase from Erie's finest and headed down State.

Ok, the place inside is pretty big and had to take a shuttle bus to get from the door to the counter. Seems it used to be a restaurant called the Stafford back in the 20's. After elbowing our way to the front and chatting it up with the man in charge, we caught the shuttle back to the door and our double parked horse and buggy.

I'm of the opinion the pizza was one of the better ones we've had so far. It was a standard crust and reminded me of the pizza from Pizza Boy at the Mall back in the 80's. The cheese was tasty and sharp and the ham wasn't salty or nasty. The crust was chewy as opposed to crunchy. I might add the pizza was well sliced; it was easy to pull apart as opposed to others whereby you need to bring out the Black and Decker to cut apart. I'm giving it a hearty Amish 6.5 out of 8 slices.

Constance: The wings were good. I am not as funny as Mathias this a.m. so continue reading knowing this. I eat one thing at a time (always have and not too many people know this about me), so I started with the wings first last night. The bones on the side of my plate kept track of my fair share and 10 came too quickly. Crispy and flavorful ... mmmm!! They were not as Cajun-y as some of our other places, but had the right crisp to meat ratio going on.

I loved the pizza too. The ham was really nice, especially since Mathias almost picked mutton or pineapple. The cheese was really tasty. I loved that we had extra for breakfast this a.m.

Stevo's was the most interesting place we had been to in terms of building and history. Imagine getting a cup of coffee for only a penny and pancakes for 3 cents. They have the menu in the back, all you have to do is ask.

My rating ... 6 out of 7.

Pizza for Bubba!!

2009-01-31T05:43:00.000-08:00

Constance: We learned last night that pizza order takers don't have the best handwriting skills - but how do you get "Bubba" instead of Matt? It was just LOL funny! "in economic times like these" (don't you hate hearing that everywhere???), we are doing our part with economic stimulation and our weekly pizza and wing visit; however, we did find an online coupon that was even better than the coupon in Coupon Carnival. Go to Foupons.com - we did and saved about $2! Whoo! Whoo!

This week's adventure was Steel City Pizza and Sandwich Co. I've eaten there over the years beginning when they were on 29th and Raspberry. So many places started there but I can't recall any of them that have experienced the success of Steel City!

My turn to pick the pizza topping ... banana peppers, shocker! And Matthias picked honey mustard wings. Coupon cost $16.99. Large one item pizza and two pounds of wings ... we felt good about everything. My shotgun ride home was warm and toasty too for this record setting annual snowfall 2nd in the nation day!

(Mathias: We received about 16 wings; they were the biggest wings we've had so far. Back in Amish Arizona we grew 'em big too. One of them was so large I had to have Constance act as a spotter for me. The honey mustard dipping sauce was quite tasty and spicy; we used up one of the two containers we got and dipped the Saturday morning pizza in the other. Yeah, it was good.)

The pictures shown will save thousands of words. The pizza was amoeba-shaped but they had me at when the guy was hand tossing the crust! Oh, I forgot to mention, that the place was so busy, it was like the soup Nazi out of a Seinfeld episode. Step up, say name (it takes longer when your name isn't Bubba though), pay, get your goods and go! It was streamlined and efficient. And in spite of this busy Friday evening - only 30 minutes for our pie!

The wings were a surprise. They serve em up plain with a KFC-emulated seasoning and then you get your dipping sauce separately. Matthias was looking forward to wet wings this week. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the honey mustard flavor. But good eats were had by all! (Except the cats and dogs-sucks to be lower on the evolutionary chain).

I don't know about this rating scale we've developed, because Steel City is getting a 7.5 out of 8 slice rating from me. Erie is definitely pizza and wing proud!

(Mathias: The banana peppers were real fresh and had a good kick. I would have liked more sauce and less crust but no one listens to the Amish it seems)
The 411:

Steel City Pizza & Sandwich Co.
4801 Peach Street
In the Peach Tree plaza
866-0337

Oh, KC the kitten even loved Steel City! Maybe Matthias can tell you about the morning after ...

Porky's: Best $14 Ever Spent

2009-01-28T18:31:00.000-08:00

Constance: I began my quest at about noon last Friday as I asked FaceBook friends if anyone knew about the new(er) pizza place down on West 8th Street. Everyone thought I meant Pizza Joe's which had recently moved. But I meant the place owned by policemen. My friend Vik came through - she works in the area and said I was looking for Porky's at 8th and Myrtle, northwest corner. She vouched for me how good their lunches are - good enough for me! (Mathias: the cops are always busting my chops about the horse and outfit-can't we all just get along?)

So, my turn to pick the wings this week and Mathias' turn to pick the topping. Mathias called and asked about any specials d'jour (Mathias: that's Amish for "what can I get for the change I found in the barn?)... as luck would have it, they had a phone special for a medium, one topping pizza and ten wings for $14. Thirty minutes later, a hot pizza on my lap, we headed home and were excited with our latest discovery.

We opened the box. The pizza reminded me of Luchetti's - thin crust, and little pepperoni saucers curled from cooking. The steam rose ... it looked fantastic and smelled even better. Sounds picture perfect, doesn't it? We were so consumed from the presentation and smell and didn't even remember to take a photo. We thought of taking an after photo of the empty plate and wing bones ....

Speaking of the wings?

Cranch should be a new addition in the dictionary ... Cajun + ranch = yummiliscious as my Florida niece would put it. They were dry and I went for the wings first. They even threw in a side container of ranch dipping sauce, included in the price.

I carefully balanced between wings and pizza and when my 5 fair-share wings were gone, I thought about swapping with Mathias for some of his wing quantity, but the pizza was just too good and I didn't want to do that either. So needless to say, there were no leftovers for Saturday a.m. spoiling.

Porky's is getting my highest review yet - 8 of 8 slices!! I highly recommend it. Here's the 411: (Mathias: Constance thinks she's a cop).

Porky's Pizzeria
302 West 8th
454-5000

I don't know where we will be headed this Friday but I'm already calling shotgun as there's nothing like a hot pizza on your lap on a cold winter's evening. If you have any suggestions as your read our blog, let us know. Places to try? Things to add as we blog? I'd like to start asking each establishment about their "signature" items too. Who will our next 8 out of 8 slice place be ... promise to write as the Saturday morning leftovers are enjoyed (if there are any that is!!).

Mathias: Because of the impending super bowl and defeat of the Steelers, we feel it would sooth the ultimate shame of Pittsburghers if we got a pizza and wings deal from Steel City on Peach street. Hear it first: Arizona cardinals in an upset, 23 - 20. Don't mess with the Amish of Arizona!!!

Valerio's is always great!

2009-01-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

Constance: I called shotgun to have the hot pizza on my lap for the ride home. (Mathias: I see a trend here). WEEK THREE: I got to pick the topping for our pizza at Valerio's. I drive by Valerio's at 32nd and Pittsburgh Avenue at least three times a day on the way to and from work and errands, so it's like a Point-of-Sale subliminal advertising message for me.

It was another snowy night and for a Friday night, during peak hours it was only going to be a 30 minute wait (hey, like Domino's, remember the Noid?) (Mathias: we had Noids back on the Beet farm but my brother Leviticus chased them down with the sythe) till our pizza and wings would be ready. Good thing because I was starving!

So bring on the banana peppers for our pizza. Mathias picked the wings - Mississippi Stingers - Booya! (Mathias: We Amish aren't allowed to cuss, so that's the extent of my potty mouth). We used a coupon for ValPak for about $16 for a large 1-item pizza and 20 wings. We'll get more precise with the details when we get into the routine of writing more timely about our pizza and wing blog.

The pizza was great - I left slices for breakfast the next day. Wish they would have had jalapenos but the banana peppers were suitable. The wings were as Mathias would say, "ooey-gooey" but not too messy. The flavor is like a store brand emulation of Quaker Steak and Lube's Louisiana Lickers (remember, this girl's from Sharon - home of the original, and spoiled by it too!) but the wings were really good too. I've been on a dry kick lately, so I liked that they were just right - not too wet and not totally dry. I ate the wings first and carefully counted out my 10 to be fair. Mathias went for the pizza first. Probably says something about who liked what best!

I will say that Valerio's pizza is great the morning after. I don't even heat it up - just cold, straight from the box. (Mathias: Constance still hasn't figured out the microwave yet)

My rating? I'd say a 6-1/2 out of 8 slices. You just can't go wrong with Valerio's. Side bar: great lunch specials too - must try the rigatoni with salad (hold the chick peas and olives) with their house Italian dressing - did I mention they're a block from my work?

ValPak Brought a Pizza Pasta Coupon; We've Never Been There!

2009-01-10T05:26:00.000-08:00

JANUARY 9, 2009: Pizza Pasta (3018 State Street)

Constance: Even in the middle of a snow emergency, the pizza and wing blog must go on! Mathias drove for pick-up cause he's more fearless than me! (Mathias: she had a musket on me). Our coupon for $9.99 was for a medium 12" pizza with one topping and 10 wings. Mathias got to pick the topping, (Mathias: again, the thing with the musket) and rightfully so, he picked pineapple, his favorite! I picked the wings though. The conversation went like this: what kind of wings? I said ranch. What kind of ranch? Regular? Cajun ranch? Mmm, cajun ranch. Wet or dry? Wow, I remember when there were only 3 wing choices (mild, BBQ and hot!!). So dry cajun ranch. (Mathias: Who's on first?)

I looooved the wings! They were absolutely perfection. Nose dripping hot, but not too unreasonable. Crispy, flavorful ... incredible! (Mathias: Constance did, in fact, wipe her nose after each bite; she is dutifully devoted to etiquette).

The pizza didn't do it for me though. I should mention that my stomach was a little creepy from something I ate earlier in the day though. The cheese was really delicious. The crust was the typical bakery style pizza crust. The sauce was uneventful, except I did like the oregano tang! I managed to eat three small pieces. I picked the ones with extra cheese and few pineapples since I know that's Matthias' genre. And he could have my extra slice for breakfast since he loved this pizza better than I did. (Mathias: and I did have it for a midnight snack as Constance has a habit of getting up in the middle of the night to churn butter; since I was awoken, I figured I'd finish off the pizza).

My rating for the wings would be 8 slices and for the pizza, we're only on week two here, so I don't know how my scale will be developing, but I'm going to give it 2 slices, and I would definitely go back for wings, but probably not the pizza, even with a coupon. (What Constance failed to mention was the item she ate earlier that upset her was a Ring-Ding from 2002 she found in the pantry. With that making it's way through "the system", the pizza had an uphill climb. I thought it was decent, the sauce was tasty and I'd give it 4 out of 8 slices. I might add the people at the pizza joint were really nice and easy to chat it up with. Sometimes when I'm in full Amish garb, I get some stares and under the breath commentary, but not here.)

Oh, I admire their marketing too. They have a loyalty card to accumulate purchases for a reward and they also cross-promoted another business on the pizza box, Sam Catania Painting, perhaps another business owned by the family?

Forgot to mention the wait time ... 45 minutes in a snow emergency. Kinda on my long side of tolerance, but not unreasonable. And it was ready when we got there, and I had the warmth of the pizza on my lap on the drive home ...

Valkyrie and Luchetti's ... My Happy Place

2009-01-10T05:05:00.000-08:00

JANUARY 2, 2009: Luchetti's Pizza

Constance: To start things off right, I thought it would be best to start at the top. That meant Luchetti's Pizza to me. I'm originally from Sharon, and grew up with the thick crust of Plaza Pizza, so Erie's Luchetti's crust took some getting used to. And after living in Erie 23 years, I'm a HUGE fan!

We both had time off from work with the holiday, so we went to a Valkyrie matinee followed by Luchetti's. As we start the blog, we're going to use coupons along the way to save as much money as possible on our 52-week adventure. So, we found a coupon from one of the phone books for a large pizza with one topping.

Each week we're going to trade off who gets to pick the topping, so I picked one of my favs, sausage. Luchetti's has a crumbled sausage too, versus some places where they slice sausage like pepperoni.

The wait time for a holiday Friday was 20-30 minutes ... pretty reasonable and perfect distance to get there from Tinseltown. Matt went in for pick-up since my brother just called me on cell. I don't like to be one of "those" loud cell talkers in public places unless I have to!

The pizza was ready on time, and let me tell you, there's nothing like the warmth of a fresh pizza on your lap in 20 degree weather to warm up on the drive home!

Well, my foreshadowing earlier on in this post has already tipped this eater's review of the pizza I'm sure. Still my favorite. Thin, crispy crust. Unique sauce with a mix of spices that add layer upon layer add to a taste explosion in my mouth, and really luscious cheese and crumbled sausage. I ate three pieces to save one for breakfast.

I'd give Luchetti's Pizza and 8 out of 8 slice review! And the extra slice for breakfast the next day - served at fridge temp, did not disappoint! The only sad thing is having to wait a whole year before going back, unless we have pizza twice in a week. That sounds like a plan!

Mathias: Woah, how can I follow that? I'm one of few words and some of my favorites are 'nefarious', 'pragmatic' and 'go to hell'.

I came to Luchetti's later in life, having been raised on Erie's east (worst?) side and never dared dream of crossing the implied border of State Street. I was raised on Pizza Plus, DiMichael's (you old ones may remember that place on East 26th and East Avenue) and grade school pizza from Holy Family. As I recall, aside from the nefarious mental abuses suffered at the hands of loving nuns, the old ladies in the school cafeteria made some hellaciously good pizza. However, it's not pragmatic to review that place as the nun wanna-be's are probably six feet under anyway. Oh, by the way, Sister Salasia, go to hell. There-worked all my favorite words into my review.

Anyway, Luchetti's is probably known for staying open late, coupons, wings by the pound not the quantity and its thin crust pizza. I discovered thin crust a bit ago and use it as an excuse for my diet violations ("At least it's not thick crust!"). My Amish girlfriend Constance really loves the place and the sausage pizza and I've come to like it myself. The pizzas are pretty big, always have a good taste and are a welcome sight at 4 in the morning when I pull a slice out of the fridge for a midnight snack. I'm keen to more sauce than they put on, but until I open my own place, I should just be quiet, especially since Constance used her horse-shoeing money to pay for the stuff.

I'd give the place 6 slices out of 8 (and I'll eat the other 2 for breakfast the next morning).

What this is about

2009-01-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, Constance and I (Mathias) decided last year to create a blog at the beginning of 2009. However, it's primarily going to be our comments and reviews of local pizza and wing joints, as that is one thing (of many) Erie is known for; hence the name of the blog. Every so often we may just add something that's on our minds or things we think are memorable and want to share with whomever may read our entries. Besides, we eat healthy every day of the week (usually)-Fridays we get to fall off the wagon.