BUDGET BITES
Review by ROBIN T. REID
Photos by FERN SHEN
Whoever first brought melted cheese, tomatoes and dough together should reside in the poshest corner of heaven. Pizza, as the trio is better known, takes so little to be uniformly scrumptious. And whoever sells it by the slice deserves some prime celestial real estate as well.

In Baltimore, one has to hunt some to find places that offer N.Y.-style pie-by-the-slice (I don’t count the glop-on-dough that chains in food courts peddle).

Oddly, the best place I’ve found so far hereabouts bears little resemblance to the archetypal noisy, stand-up Mid-town Manhattan joint where such pizza is typically found.  It is,  in fact,  in . . .

Towson!

While I enjoy the occasional quest to find pizza in the ‘urbs,  I always return to this place in the  ‘burbs:  Italian Gardens in the Shops at Kenilworth where they make top-notch pizza, the kind you fold in half and devour by hand. Toppings run the gamut: chicken, sausage, eggplant, pineapple, ham, spinach, you name it. Crusts come thick (Chicago style) and thin (New York style). Eat in the restaurant or out.

I keep it simple; a slice of cheese, bubbling-hot like some oven-born Vesuvius, is worth any burn the roof of your mouth suffers. The sauce’s sweet-savory mix is spot on, and the thin crust has that Saltine-like crunch that contrasts nicely with creamy cheese. Pepperoni slices are fine too.

The vegetarian pizza comes only Chicago style – kinda hard for a New Yorker accustomed to slices that can and should be eaten without any cutlery. But this veggie pie is worth the breach of loyalty. Tiny sautéed bits of onion, slivers of green pepper and mushrooms are strewn across the peppery sauce and then smothered with cheese. The dough is sweeter than its skinny cousin and truly thick enough to warrant a real knife (the plastic ones don’t cut it).

The Quest Continues
But surely, my editor said, this Perfect Piece of Pizza (PPP) must be served locally somewhere else — somewhere (ahem) inside the city line?

So, reader, help me out here:  show me where in Baltimore to find the quintessential, grease-running-down-your-arm kind of pizza that we Tri-State area types crave. (We are not, of course, talking about that goat-cheese gourmet variety. The editor comes from Jersey, trust me, she knows the difference.)

My first attempt to branch out had mixed results.

On the east side of town, Pizza John’s has garnered some good reviews for pie-by-the-slice. The Essex emporium’s reputation is somewhat deserved, and the cavernous space itself makes it ideal for children’s birthday parties. The slices were loaded with whatever goodies desired (except sausage – we were told that sausage has to be cooked on the pie and so the short heating time for a single slice wouldn’t be long enough).

The pizza here is heavy on cheese and light on sauce. The dough was crispy enough, but didn’t have much taste or give. The mushrooms, billed as fresh, did not appear to be sautéed. Nor did the diced onions, which were almost raw. Pepperoni slices didn’t have much pep.

Pizza John’s is a business with a capital “B.” In addition to pizza by the slice, you can buy containers of the restaurant’s sauce, frozen pies, ice cream, baked goods, T-shirts and hats with Pizza John’s name, and a gift box of champagne with two flutes. No free drink refills here, and no plates if you get slices (they come on sheets of foil).

This place might be great for Baltimore families, but it didn’t cut it for me. And so, lest I enlarge my carbon footprint chasing another false lead, I will turn to you Budget Bites readers. Where, in the city, should I go?

Meanwhile, here’s what we got so far:

Italian Gardens
Shops at Kenilworth (first floor)
Kenilworth Avenue
Towson, Md.
410-821-0292
www.italian-gardens.com

Pizza John’s
113 Back River Neck Road
Essex, Md.
410-687-7733
www.pizzajohns.com