Year Of The Pizza

Gene and Erin

About a week and a half ago, my stepdad Gene came into town for a day.  He’s trying to start up a therapeutic garden at the VA in Dallas for vets with physical or mental disabilities and had some meetings at A&M.  After the meetings he planned to swing through Austin and spend the night before heading back to Dallas.  Sadly, his car did not approve of his plan.  It overheated in Caldwell, and he had to have it towed all the way to Austin.  I picked him up at the dealership and we met up with Erin to grab some pizza.

Gene used to live in Austin back in the day, so it’s fun going around town with him and talking about how the town has changed in the last 30 years.  Answer: lots.  It was weird driving him around, for much of my life it’s been him taking me various places, not vice versa.

It was a little chilly out and I didn’t really dress appropriately because I figured we’d only be outside for the five minute walk to Homeslice before eating inside, but we waited for a while out back and then were seated outside.  D’oh!  They turned on one of those heater lamp thingies when we were nearly done with our meal, but it didn’t do much good.

While we were waiting, we were near a very large group of people that talked very oddly.  We couldn’t tell if they were speaking a different language or were speaking English through heavy quasi-deaf accents.  Perhaps it was a combination.  Erin and I have spent enough time abroad in enough different places that we can usually guess the general geographic origin of languages we overhear (South Asian, Scandinavian, etc), but we were lost with this one.  And we live right across the street from the deaf school, so that’s given us some insight into the variety of deaf accents.  Whatever the spoke, they seemed to all understand each other and have a nice time.

The great thing about dining with parents is that meals become more multi-coursed and fun with them picking up the bill.  Salad?  Sure!  Beer?  Why not a pitcher!  We happily obliged.

Although it wasn’t Gene’s first time at Homeslice, it was still nice to show him a piece of my life here.  When guests I care about come to Austin, I feel oddly paternalistic about Homeslice, like I want my loved ones to be impressed by the place.  Logically I don’t have anything to worry about, as the hour-plus lines attest.  As usual, Homeslice put on a good show, and we had a really nice meal.  The next day the car eventually got fixed and Gene was on his way.  It was nice albeit short visit.

Cost: $25.25
Total this year: $206

Jodi and Adam collecting their fee

I recently screwed up the HTML of this humble little blog, resulting in posts being duplicated and the sidebar showing up beneath all posts.  After I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong, I posted on twitter that I needed help and would barter pizza for advice.  Jodi Bart, a previous pizza guest helpfully suggested her boyfriend Adam, and he dutifully figured out what was wrong in mere minutes.

Last Monday night was the time to pay the piper, so I met Adam and Jodi at Homeslice at 7:30 to even the score.  Adam seemed into the anchovies, but Jodi had learned her lesson and but the kaibosh on the idea.  She’s a “less is more” person.  Such thinking is foreign to me.  I’m a “more is more” kinda guy.  If one is good, eight is great.  But I let them pick the toppings, and they settled on kalamata olives, fresh basil, fried eggplant and garlic.  It was very good, and the basil was less intense than usual.

Adam is a Jew from Houston, so I told him my stories about visiting relatives in Houston for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  He laughed when I regaled him about visits to Belden’s, Seven Acres and other landmarks of the Houston Jewish community.  As we discussed the merits of Dallas and Houston, I grudgingly admitted that I think more of Houston than I once did.  Adam didn’t have a very good impression of Dallas, but that’s common amongst Houstonians.  Jodi seemed baffled at the merits of both, and despite dating Adam, still seems a little surprised that Texas grows Jews.

We had a really nice time.  All of us talked about our entrepreneurial aspirations and enjoyed a nice pizza despite its paucity of toppings.  Best of all, the blog is still up and running enough for you to read it right now.  Thanks Adam!

If you need a web developer or at least a troubleshooter, he’s great.  His price (pizza) seems pretty reasonable as well.

Cost: $23.50
Total this year: $180.50

Erin and Deliciousness

Although I went to Homeslice three times last week, Wednesday was Erin’s first pizza since we got back in town.  Erin is enrolled in a graduate program in Ayurveda, an Indian system of traditional medicine, and one of her more fun homework assignments was to see how different foods affect her digestion system.  Wednesday was one of her dairy nights, where she had to eat a whole lot of “mucus forming” foods like dairy stuff to see what would happen.

So we ordered fresh mozzarella on the pizza to increase the cheesiness factor, along with fresh tomatoes, fried eggplant, spinach and garlic (and anchovies on my half).  We asked Sara if the consistency would hold up with so many watery toppings, and she said that she’d have the cooks keep it in the oven longer.

It came out hot and delicious.  The crust was a little too crispy for my taste, but I hadn’t had pizza since Sunday, and my four day pizza drought was pretty rough.

We usually don’t get dessert, but we weren’t ready to brave the rain right after our pizza and Erin wanted to eat more dairy products, so we ordered cannoli.  I had maintained to Erin that cannoli doesn’t contain ricotta because ricotta tastes bad and cannoli tastes good.  The logic seemed bulletproof, but Erin thought I was full of crap and Sara confirmed.

So the cannoli came, and it was really good.  Maybe ricotta doesn’t suck so completely.  I liked the chopped pistachios all over everything, and the creamy filling was delicious despite its ricotta-ness.

Cost: $28.50
Total this year: $157.00

Krista and Billy

Billy hooked me up with a free week pass at his health club so we could play racquetball more often.  Last Sunday we stayed a little too long, potentially screwing up lunch plans he had with his gf Krista.

I offered to take them out to pizza since I was hungry anyway and knew that dropping me off and then going back would further put him behind.  All parties agreed and we picked up Krista en route to Homeslice.

Billy just bought a house in far South Austin.  Like many folks in Austin, he’d like to live in 78704 but can’t afford a place twice as expensive as one a few miles away.  When he talks about it, he sounds incredulous that people pay double for the same house a few miles away, albeit in a cuter neighborhood with cool stuff close by.  Like the bumper sticker says: “78745, where people go when they can’t afford 78704″.

We get to Homeslice and there’s a huge wait, so we decide to play some ping pong.  The ball that was on the table was deflated, so I went inside and got a new one along with a pitcher of beer.  It had been cold all week, but it was a beautiful, sunny day, and the wait flew by as we drank some Fireman’s #4 and ping-ponged away.  Billy raved about how this was life.  Beer, ping pong, sunny day, cool Homeslice vibe, hanging out, etc.  He saw the value of living in walking distance of Homeslice and its ilk.

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We got to the table and ordered a hefty pizza: basil, fried eggplant, garlic, fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives and sausage (on their half).  It was delish.  Billy’s from NYC, and I always take pleasure in hearing compliments about Homeslice out of New Yorkers.  He’s a big fan.

Over pizza we discussed travel.  Billy and I were lucky enough and had enough foresight to travel extensively when our lives, schedules, wallets and responsibilities (or lack thereof) made it possible to leave the country for months at a time.  Krista wants to travel but is trying to figure out the balance with her responsibilities, job, pets, etc.  It’s much harder to pull off once you’re settled down.

Maybe the best thing to do is to work for an employer like Interplast (or Homeslice!) that has interesting travel as a part of the gig.  But again, once you’ve picked a career that doesn’t have travel baked in, it’s hard to rejigger that to include cool travel.

Hard decisions.  The decision to order a 2nd pitcher of beer seemed much easier and by comparison

Cost: $29.50
Total this year: $128.50

The ricotta is spreading...

I needed some math help recently, so to defray the tutoring costs I took my tutor Paul to Homeslice.  As usual, I let him pick the toppings, and he chose ricotta. I’m used to ordering some different toppings on my half of the pizza, and I’ve never liked ricotta, but this time I thought I’d try it out and not nix it on my side.  Big mistake.

I’ve never liked ricotta since I figured out as a kid that there was some chalk-colored slime taking up valuable real estate in my lasagna.  As I’ve matured gotten older, my tastes have changed and I now enjoy many things that I hated as a kid, like spinach, beets, potatoes, eggplant and most beans.  I hadn’t given ricotta a chance in recent years and figured this would be as good a time as any to try it again.

Wrong, it still sucks.  It doesn’t have much taste, but it’s gooey texture feels like cream-flavored gravy.  It was one of three toppings on our pizza (ricotta, garlic and sausage for Paul and ricotta, garlic and spinach for me), and the white, colonizing blobs just tasted like meh.

Paul thought that the ricotta was simply a wash: neither adding nor subtracting to the pizza.  Good for him, I hope he enjoys the leftovers.

Vanessa, our last waitperson (we started with Shane but ended with Vanessa due to a shift change) suggested that ricotta balances out more intense flavors, like anchovies and basil.  Maybe it does for her and others, but I’m not a fan.

Cost: $19.50
Total this year: $99.00

Pedicabbers like pizza. Who knew?

Welcome back! Erin and I spent some time visiting our families and eating lots of non-pizza, and we just got back in town on Tuesday. Homeslice had the nerve to be closed that day (as they are every Tuesday) and we got a little distracted by the 99 cent sandwiches at Which Wich yesterday, but today I ate my first pizza of 2010 in Slicey’s warm embrace.

Pedicabber and general adventurer Russell boldly asked via twitter if he could trade pedicab rides for pizza. Well, that part wasn’t terribly bold. But then, in his next tweet, he asked if he could have the blog after he beats me next year! Such verve, pluck and cojones. I figured I had to take him out to pizza to see what he was like (and to earn a free pedicab ride).

Russell is from Houston, and has been all over the world thanks to the Navy and western Alaska thanks to the fishing industry’s unbelievable thirst for oil.  He worked on a tanker tug that would top off fishing trawlers to the tune of 100,000 gallons of oil.  He made some sweet coin but had to be in freezing, skewed-gender-ratio’d western Alaska, so he eventually settled in Austin.  Now instead of tugging fuel tankers, he tugs drunks on his pedicab. It’s not quite as well-paying, but it does have its perks.  He gets to live in one place with friends nearby, and communicate frequently and predictably with said friends.

In my life I’ve vacillated between having too much money and not enough time and vice versa.  Russell seems to have found a nice balance right now.   When I asked him if he likes his domestic life, he said “I have a dog now.  I mean, how cool is that?”

He ordered pepperoni, sausage, onions, garlic and roasted red peppers.  I ordered the same but instead of the meat, fried eggplant and anchovies.  After a while, our waiter* came by and said that they had made it without the roasted reds, so they were making it again and we could take home the insufficient pie, which was boxed away in a corner until we were ready to leave.  Russell and I looked at each other and said that we’d be happy to eat the pie anyway, but he proclaimed that it was already in motion.  So that was really nice of them.  It’s one of those times I wonder if I get special treatment because ‘Sliceys are scared that I might blog their misdeeds or whether they’re just always as cool as they seem.  My money’s on the latter, but who knows.

On a related note, Terri (an owner) came by my chair and said it was nice to see me, she hadn’t seen me in a while.  Maybe Homeslice had an especially profitable couple of weeks that gave away my absence

The pizza came out steaming hot, literally.  I’d never see so much steam from a pizza.  I excused Russell from the “beer on you” part of my mantra because it’s freezing in Austin today and cold beer didn’t sound good, but I encouraged him to grab the tip.  When the bill came ($0), he laid down a $20 bill for a tip.  No change needed.  I told him that it was a mighty generous tip.  He said that he doesn’t mind tipping great for great service, and he felt like he should leave the value of what he received.  The waiter* didn’t mind.  I hope the waitstaff don’t always expect $20 tips when I walk through the door.  Then again, maybe he makes up for others I’ve taken who have not been nearly generous enough.

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Russell regaled me with stories from the Navy, Alaska and the pedicab world.  I was especially intrigued by the pedicab bits.

Erin and I used to live in India, and rickshaws were a horrible annoyance, right up there with mosquitoes and giardia.  People who made their living pedaling/motoring people around in three wheeled contraptions tried every avenue to cheat us.  It didn’t matter how much of the language we spoke or how long we’d been there, they would insist on some ridiculous price quintuple what the locals pay, and then bitch and moan if we wheedled them down to a reasonable rate, and by reasonable I mean 100-200% of the true cost.

Generally, the pedal-rickshaw wallahs were kinder than their motorized brethren.  Pedicabs are essentially pedal-rickshaws, so an insight into his world was fascinating.  It seems like it costs more to ride across downtown in a pedicab than in a taxi, but folks do it all the time.  Do they think it’s ironic/hip, or actually faster than a taxi?  Is it environmentally minded?  Probably not, my hunch is that pedicab patrons don’t have second thoughts about drinking imported beer/liquor rather than local options.  I don’t know why they do it, but I have to admit, it looks fun.  Maybe not on nights like tonight though.

Russell makes okay money most nights, but he banks whenever anything big is going on, like SXSW, ACL, Halloween, etc.  If UT wins tonight, he’ll do great.  So root for UT, Russell could use a big night.  And if you see him (he’s really tall), tip him well to reward him for his good tipping karma.  Hook ‘em!  And tip ‘em!

Cost: $25.25
Total this year: $79.50

* Sadly, I don’t know the names of everyone at Homeslice, even though most seem to know mine.  Sara(h?) called me out on this one time after I referred to her in the blog by her nickname many times over.  She’s totally right, I only know the names of about a dozen employees although I should know more.  You know those people you meet at a party and then see around town a whole bunch but you guiltily never remember their name even though they know yours?  And you’re too embarrassed to ask?  That’s me with 2/3 of the Homeslice staff.  My usual trick of introducing the person I’m with and awkwardly waiting for the unnamed person to break the silence with “and I’m so-and-so” doesn’t really work because they all know Erin by now.  So if any staff are reading this, feel free to oh-so-naturally drop your name into conversation next time we’re chatting and I’ll try reeeeeally hard to remember.  Tell Erin too, she’s smarter.  And I won’t blog anything that will get you in trouble (I think) unless you’re Mark and you deliberately mislead me with false info about HOES competitors in an all-too-successful attempt to freak me out.  Every time he pours a pitcher of beer on someone or snap-kicks a child will be duly noted.

More Mohrs

Erin’s youngest brother Jeff and his girlfriend Kelly came to visit us/Homeslice in Austin this past weekend.  They loooooove to eat and were dying to try Homeslice, so we introduced them to ‘Homey on Saturday night.

The line was horrendous and I really wanted to watch as much of the Cowboys game as I could, so we put our name on the list as the game started, watched the first half at Doc’s and went to Homeslice at halftime.  Kelly (the waitress) asked us what we wanted, but we had a hard time deciding.  So we each picked a topping or two, finally settling on basil, garlic, fried eggplant, fresh mozzarella, green peppers, black olives and artichoke hearts.

They absolutely loved it.  Jeff worked in Phoenix for the last year and a half and had been to the legendary Pizzeria Bianco and said that Homeslice was easily at the same level.  That’s big.

Kelly had a hard time deciphering the bathroom signs, so the waiter asked if she “had a slice or was missing a slice”.  She figured it out.

There were no leftovers, only happy bellies.  Throughout the weekend we hit most of our favorite eating places in or around Austin: Taqueria Star, Snow’s, Gordough’s, Kerbey Lane, Torchy’s and more, but Homeslice definitely stood out.  Maybe because it was free.

After leaving Homeslice we caught the end of the Cowboys game and got to see them hand the Saints their first loss.  Man, I was pumped!  What a great night.

Cost: $30 (I think)
Total this year: $54.25

Snoopy is as happy as Erin

Erin and I needed a nice little break after winning the 2009 Hands on an Eggplant Sub contest before coming back to Homeslice.  Standing near where the pizza oven heat/smell escaped out of the slices window bathed us in pizza aura, and we needed to wait a full week before venturing back.

Once we did, it felt like we never left.  Erin said Homeslice felt like home.  I wish I could just order what I wanted at home and someone would magically make it and then clean up after me.

Erin felt like ordering a simple pizza, so we went easy on the toppings and only chose roasted red peppers, garlic, fried eggplant, anchovies on my half and fried mozzarella on her half.  It was more cheesy than what I’m used to, but maybe there was the same amount of cheese and a heightened cheese-to-toppings ratio.

One of the waiters who was friends with one of the other HOES competitors came by to wish us well and say no hard feelings.  None taken.  While I think the owners are happy that I won because this blog gives them good Google juice, some of the waitstaff probably wanted others to win.  I don’t take it personally.

Erin asked if the pizza tasted like victory, and while I can’t say that it tasted quite so grandiose, it tasted like something I plan on eating quite a lot of this upcoming year.

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I’m looking to make some changes to the blog, so if there’s any new or improved feature or idea that you’d like to see, lemme know in the comments.  It’ll be a fun, pizzatacular year, this year two of the pizza.

Cost: $24.25.
Total this year: $24.25