It's also totally and absolutely cut off from us, or at least one aspect of it is. The American Local Pizza place is an amazing thing. I spent a year in England, London to be exact and these places just didn't exist. These are places where you can get pizza by the slice or by the pie, subs/cheesesteaks, chicken fingers/wings, gyros or italian food depending on the denomination. Inexpensive, quick, versatile and usually leaps and bounds better than your chain pizza places (Dominos, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, etc). Almost anywhere I've been in the States has a plethora of them in a small area so you can pick and choose and find the best one. Near us we had one which had this Macaroni Pie which I will actually not even describe to you people, because it would be cruel as most people reading this, myself included, can't have it. Just take my word for it. It was awesome.
Pizza is also one of the most inexpensive dinner options in the world. Those little Totino's party pizzas? They're like a buck, $1.50 each. Sure, they're not great, but you put some Doritos on them and hope for the best and for the price you can't beat that (Did you know we can have most Doritos? We totally can. Not the pizzas anymore, but definitely the Doritos). That's totally cut off to us. Oh sure, we can get a quick little pizza you can get in an oven; it'll be gluten free too! It'll just have a really terrible crust and be something more like eight dollars for a pizza that's even smaller than one of the Totino's sub-two-dollar pies.
But wait, we have more options! There's Domino's. Domino's have Gluten-Free pizzas. I saw it on TV. I read it on the internet. It's true. Alright, look, so I am not the sort of guy who cares a ton about contamination if it doesn't mess me up and I don't think I'm getting hit by it every meal. I'm not someone who is a snob in most ways, and I know that we can't be choosers all the time, or even most of the time. I am not eating Domino's Gluten-Free Pizza. I'm not. It's not happening. I could be desperate and it still wouldn't happen. I don't want to eat Domino's regular pizza. I'd be happy to talk to you about the cultural wonder that is the Noid (and the 7-Up Spot, even though I don't want to drink 7-Up either. Does 7-Up even still exist? Apparently it's owned by Dr. Pepper Snapple group. I had no idea that the same company just focused on Dr. Pepper and Snapple. That's a kind of weird synergy. Ah, anyway.). Yes, I would talk about the noid. No i am not eating Domino's Gluten-Free Pizza. A) That just can't be good for you and B) that just can't be good.
So no party pizzas and no quick delivery pizza. What's left for us? Well we could make our own. It's not hard to buy the materials to make your own dough or even a pre-made pizza crust at the usual suspects for specialty stores, but come on. If you were up for that sort of thing, you wouldn't be here. Granted, it's tempting. it really is. I get tempted by it sometimes, because, you know, pizza.
Thankfully, we have at least one national chain that does a pretty good job with things.
I never liked Uno's as a kid. They do Chicago Deep Dish, all inverted with the cheese mixed in with the sauce and it was not my thing. That is totally irrelevant though. They also do thin slice and more than that, they do gluten-free thin slice. It's just cheese or pepperoni and only one size but they have a pretty great double-deal, at least at my local branch where you can get two for $14 or so which more than feeds my family with some small amount of leftovers for later. The pizza itself is pretty good. The crust is flakier than you'd like but it's not bad at all and it's never triggered me in any way. It's also much, much better when you have it in the restaurant than but the double deals don't apply then. The manager usually comes out to deliver it personally when you order, which is always a nice touch. Unfortunately, for us, the closest one is twenty minutes away and right at the mall, so it's always pretty busy. Still, it's nice to have an option, as I'm sure you all know.
BONUS: They have Udi's buns now too, so if you have an Uno's near you, that's another burger option. I'll do a full write up on various burger places at some point though.
Other Local Places
And that's kind of it for the family dining choices. Bertucci's has a pretty big gluten-free menu but it's totally sans pizza (and anything else you'd actually want for the most part). What's left then is local chains and with this I can only be so much help.
For instance, in DC (and weirdly enough in NC too) we have Fuel which provides a GF pizza that's more expensive than Uno's but also somewhat better and far more open toppings-wise. There are a few other choices like Ella's Wood Fired Pizza which is by the Portrait Gallery and has 10 inch GF pizzas (for two dollars more, of course). District of Pi is right around there too. I always wanted to try the Comet Ping Pong pizza place too but I never quite had the opportunity, and then there's the Open City Coffeehouse and Dinner by the Zoo. So there are options. I'm in a city during the day which makes it a little easier, though all of these places are pretty spread out and Fuel is the only reasonable lunch option for me.
My choices at home are a bit harder, but there are some other ones, usually a little more high end. What I would suggest is that you google "GF pizza" and your town. You might be surprised what you come up with.
And hey, if anyone HAS had a good experience with the Domino's pizza, chime in. I might not believe you but I will at least listen.
No comments:
Post a Comment