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

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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 ...

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