The Margherita Wars: Score Settled, For Now....

Yeah, she rocked jewel encrusted crowns, row upon row of pearls and other jewelry to create a mixture of bling that would leave most red carpet femmes envious and harping at their selected jeweler to up the ante of rental wares available for next year’s gala event. She lived in hip palaces, sailed on fancy boats, had personal tailors and such. All that works for some people, but one thing my forty merry-go-round rides around the sun has taught me is that you cannot buy taste. But the Queen had very good taste in pizza….and that makes her A-OK in my book.

Depending on who does the story telling, upon his return to Naples in 1889, the newly crowned prince of then recently united Italy, Umberto I of Savoy and his consort, Queen Margherita, requested a meal of pizzas from Raffaele Esposito of Pietro il Pizzaiolo restaurant. The story tells that in a moment of patriotism, a Pizza all Mozzarella was topped with a few basil leaves so that the pizza bore the three colors of the Italian flag. The Queen liked the pizza so much she wrote a letter to shop owner Don Raffaele, who in turn dedicated the pizza to his queen and called it pizze Margherita. Other pizza makers in Italy quickly adopted the new name and the Margherita has been a benchmark ever since, igniting debate on who actually created the pizza and capturing the hearts of new pizza peeps all over the world. What can you say? The girl had taste!

So, a little than more two weeks ago (I’ve had personal and business matters keeping me from posting lately), after a rash of mysterious letters from persons representing pizza interests in the Baltimore-Washington metro area and under the scrutiny of those powers that be, a few brave souls, including yours truly, ventured out to determine which pizzeria, for one day, was purveying the best example of the Queen’s favorite pizza pie (how about a few more commas while you’re at it, pizzablogger).

The variety of styles and ovens we would encounter over the day added increased interest to the event. Neapolitan inspired margheritas would butt heads against thin style margheritas. Doughs leavened with baker’s yeast would duke it out with a dough leavened with a natural yeast (sourdough). Fresh cows milk mozzarella, or fior-di-latte, would face off against mozzarella made from the milk of the water buffalo, mozzarella di bufala. Virtually every major type of oven would be represented, with traditional wood fired brick ovens, the stalwart Bakers Pride gas fired deck oven, a coal fired oven and even a gas-coal hybrid oven would be used to cook the simple disk of pizza that is a margherita.

L to R: Farina Molino Caputo at Iggies, Margherita at RedRocks, Bottoms Up at Coal Fire Pizza

As I cruised towards DC during the morning of October 24th on an unusually balmy late fall morning, gray clouds sheeting my windshield with the steady white noise sound of rain, my cell phone rang. Upon answering, a gravelly voice simply said, “No disrespect today pizzablogger…..or else”. With a gulp in my throat and a desire to get this over with, I made my way down Connecticut Avenue, past the old space where I used to work at Uptown Bakers and cruised up Macomb through the tree lined streets of Cleveland Park, eventually reaching 2Amys where I met up with DC’s pizza experts, Liza and Gary of Liza and Gary’s DC pizza blog.

Fully recognizing the weight of the event and that our skins were on the line, Liza, Gary and I made our way inside to start the Margherita Wars. Without further adieu, my personal take on the day (as always, keep in mind the following is the opinion of one person):

2Amys (Woodley Park, Washington, DC)
Based on a previous visit to 2Amys, I had a sneaking suspicion the day’s best margherita might come roaring right out of the starting gate. And so it did.

Margherita Pizza at 2Amys

Arriving at our table still slightly steaming from the heat of the wood fired oven, the Margherita at 2Amys looked most like what I picture a margherita looks like in my head when I am having fitful pizza dreams. The cornicione was puffy, rising proudly and forming a protective barrier around the precious inner contents of sauce, olive oil, mozzarella and basil. The cornicione could have used some more leopard spotting and a quick upskirt peek revealed a surprising lack of char….I’m guessing since we literally ordered one of the first pizzas of the day the floor of the oven had not reached it’s peak temperature yet.

Still, the pizza was very good indeed. The DC pizza interests represented by Tommy the Tomato chose well with 2Amys, as it was only one of two places we visited today which offered mozzarella di bufala as an option.

The sauce was used in a minimal amount, but it was definitely the brightest, most potently vibrant sauce of the day, with the natural sweetness and fresh tomato flavors awakening my taste buds in a big way. A sauce this fresh would be overkill if used in heavier amounts and would destroy the balance of flavors in the pizza. Restraint is key and 2Amys had it down cold on this day.

The slight tanginess of the bufala was pleasant, the olive oil of a high enough caliber to retain a subtle fruitiness after enduring the heat of the oven and the crust, while lacking the amount of outer snap I prefer, had some developed flavors from freed-up sugars and fermentation by products to match an inner texture which still had enough moisture in it to result in a nicely airy, lightly chewy, slightly creamy textured crust. Could the hole structure and level of char been better? You betcha. Still, the balance of simple, clean, fresh flavors came together as a whole more profoundly in the 2Amys margherita than any other pizza of the day.

It wasn’t the best margherita I’ve ever had, but the day’s pizza at 2Amys was very high up on the quality list. An excellent pizza. Another visit here is in due order.

RedRocks Firebrick Pizzeria (Columbia Heights, Washington DC)
We boogied up to Columbia Heights to hit up the pizzeria currently rated #1 on Liza and Gary’s DC pizza blog. I thought, “better than what we just ate? Man, am I in for a treat!”

Margherita Pizza at RedRocks Firebrick Pizzeria

Brunch was starting to swing at RedRocks and the bloodies and egg pizzas were in effect. I resisted the urge to order a Bloody Mary and we proceeded on with Act II of the wars.

The pizza arrived and I immediately was drawn to the look of the crust. Definitely more brown overall than the 2Amys crust and riddled with more of the leopard spotting which, when viewed close up, looks more like some pizza lunar landscape, craggy, pocked, blistered and proudly covering an inside you can only hope is that airy, light, yet chewy at the same time inner crust which contrasts the outside so well and, quite frankly, drives me friggen crazy (in a good way).

The sauce at RedRocks did not match up to the level of vibrancy in the 2Amys sauce. The RedRocks sauce had just enough additional sweetness that it tasted like a small amount of sugar may have potentially been added to it, but it was still of a good quality. The cheese was not quite as firm as the some of the mozzarellas at other pizzerias, but the crust was among the better crusts of the day, certainly from a textural standpoint and it had some flavor to it as well, definitely having a more smoky note to it than the 2Amys crust. Act II at RedRocks delivered another solid, well balanced margherita of good quality.

I left RedRocks happy, thinking I had just experienced a pretty damned good one-two punch in my pizza stomach from the DC pizza interests. It was a lot to live up to, but I was pulling for my home town to be on point today, because they were gonna need it.

We left DC behind us and headed north towards Ellicott City, where we would also begin a style change for the remainder of the day’s pizzas. The puffy rim of il cornicione would be left behind as we were set to begin variations of thin crusted pizza for the remainder of the day.

Coal Fire Pizza (Ellicott City, Maryland)
Liza, Gary and I hooked up with HowChow blog for the Coal Fire Pizza (CFP) visit. HowChow had been appointed to make sure Howard Country was properly represented in the wars and as a huge fan of HowChow blog, I was excited to finally meet.

Pizza wise, CFP was a letdown. The pizza was overcooked, with the top of the pizza being burnt in some places. The extended time in the oven completely dried out the inner portion of the end crust and the tomato sauce had cooked too much and had taken on more of a marinara sauce note to it. I could tell that Liza and Gary were also wanting alot more.

Still, there was promise and good points to the visit. CFP is now making its own mozzarella cheese and I did not notice any significant let down in quality from the mozzarella they were procurring from Ceriello Fine Foods when CFP first opened.

Margherita at Coal Fire Pizza

As far as the pizza not being up to par with my previous visits to CFP, usual pizza maker and General Partner Steve Santos came to our table after we had eaten and informed me he did not cook the pizza, as he is training a few people. It was very evident Steve cares when he asked if he could open our to-go box to see how the pizza came out. Steve immediately mentioned “ah, it’s overcooked”. I’m betting there may be some short-term inconsistency issues at Coal Fire while the new trainees get their pizza legs under them, but Steve cares a lot about the quality of the pizzas and these newer trainees will most likely soon be cranking out the goods on a consistent basis.

I bid goodbye to Liza, Gary and HowChow after the visit to CFP and enjoyed meeting them very much. I’m definitely looking forward to hooking up with Liza and Gary again over some pizza and meeting HowChow again for some food and laughs in Howard Country.

With the good-byes taken care of, it was time for me to go it alone towards my home town.

Joe Squared (Penn North, Baltimore, MD)
As with Coal Fire Pizza, owner Joe Edwardsen did not cook the pizza for today’s event, as he was preparing for two catering events that evening.

The margherita at Joe Squared had its usual good balance between the thin, tangy sourdough crust, fresh and bright tomato sauce, creamy mozzarella di bufala and fresh basil, which is added post-bake at Joe Squared (Joe has a large rooftop garden that provides fresh herbs and some veggies during warmer months).

With thin crust becoming popular in Maryland, the merits of a high temperature oven are displayed very well at Joe Squared. Where as the lower heat in many pizzeria ovens results in a crust which is mostly, if not completely, dried out (both inside and out) and lifeless, the high heat of Joe’s coal fired oven cooks the pizza much faster. This shorter cooking time, in combination with the moister cooking environment of Joe’s oven, results in a thin crusted pizza with a softer, more pliable and springy crust which is much more full of life than many thin crusted pizzas which sometimes resemble more of a lifeless, lavash type cracker than a pizza. Joe’s pizzas have always had a very thin veneer of outer snap and a surprising amount of inner spring, given how thin the pizzas are.

Margherita Pizza at Joe Squared

The sourdough tang of the crust was there, but today Joe’s pizza could have used some more salt. Mrs Blogger, upon eating some leftovers I brought home, first mentioned this as what she also noticed.

While the day’s margherita was not quite as good as what I’ve previously had at Joe Squared, this was still most definitely a solid pizza. The tanginess and slight smokiness of the coal-fired sourdough crust added a distinct and welcome note to the day’s pizzas.

Iggies (Mount Vernon, Baltimore, MD)
Without anyone to help me finish the day, I ordered an 8″ small margherita at Iggies and grabbed a seat at the long communal table in what is my favorite space for eating pizza in Baltimore. It’s got just the right vibe of casual, relaxed and fun. (To be fair, the large sized margherita at Iggies is much more attractive than the 8″, with more separation between cheese, sauce and basil)

But enough about spaces, today is about pizza. To anyone that has not noticed yet, there are some changes going on with the Iggies pizza…changes that may have actually been somewhat unforeseen, but have resulted in a meaningful improvement to what is already one of the city’s very best pizzerias.

Iggie’s is another great example of the impact heat has on a pizza. Iggies employs the standard gas fired Baker’s Pride deck ovens to cook its pizzas. However, unlike countless pizzerias which fire their gas fired deck ovens somewhere between 450°F and 550°F, Iggie’s actually runs their oven at its maximum setting of 650°F.

The result? Even though Iggie’s is one of the thinnest pizzas in the city (indeed about as thin as you will find anywhere), it’s crust has been consistently more plaint than many other pizzerias offering thin crusted pizzas. Guess what peeps? With the change to the dough at Iggies, the crust now has more spring, is airier and slightly more chewy, reaches an overall more golden brown color with significant charring on the undercrust and it is more flavorful than ever before. Check out the upskirt of the second piece I lift up on the video. Looks a lot like my Friday Night Takeout from Iggies a couple of weeks ago and very similar to the gas-fired char Adam Kuban of Slice encountered at highly regarded Apizza Scholls in Portland Oregon.

I’ll mention more details about Iggie’s as it is one of my next pizzerias to visit for a formal write-up, but today’s margherita did not disappoint. The sauce, while always applied just a tad thick for my personal tastes (but reflects the preferences of the owner) was vibrant and fresh tasting as always, being my second favorite sauce of the day behind 2Amys. The mozzarella had its usual creamy texture. Whole leaf basil, a somewhat judicious amount of olive oil and the improved crust at Iggies all met together in the seasoned medley of the fresh, clean and delineated yet well balanced flavors that make a good margherita.

While both are thin crusted, the differences between the sourdough crusted pizzas at Joe Squared and the baker’s yeast leavened crust at Iggies are definitely worth trying out. They’re different, which is good for variety, and both have been consistently good during my visits to each place.

The Verdict
Even with the misstep at Coal Fire Pizza, all of the visits today were fun, informative and good eating. I met some fellow food enthusiasts and bloggers, enjoyed catching up with some of the owners and pizza makers at the various locations and, for full discolsure’s sake, I even got a very nice tee-shirt at my last stop of the day. Thanks Lisa!

On this one day at least, the minimalist, very well balanced composition of fresh, earthy and smoky flavors and wet and chewy textures of the 2Amys margherita were, speaking only for myself, the clear “winner” of this round of the Margherita Wars. It was a step up from the other places and captured the rustic artisinal flavors of good pizza more arrestingly than the other pizzas, at least on this day. Another visit to 2Amys to check consistency in definitely in order.

However, the real winner today is all of the people living around these five pizzerias, because all five of these places are making pizzas which are a welcome reprieve from the typical every day slice of pizza.

I’ve had Coal Fire Pizza on a good day on more than one occasion and until further consistency issues show otherwise, I still contend it is one of the better pizzas I’ve had in Maryland. The vibe of the space and the pizza at 2Amys is definitely worth making a trip to check out. Residents in Columbia Heights have a nicely renovated rowhome offering very good pizzas and brunch, with outdoor tables at RedRocks to boot. Along North Avenue in Baltimore, the unique tang of sourdough crusted pizzas of high caliber can be sampled while listening to one of the many types of live bands playing at Joe Squared, not to mention arguably the city’s best rum selection and good beers as well. And just a short hop away from Joe Squared, local residents and theater goers seeing a play at Center Stage have Iggies to spend time in, catch-up and enjoy the casual vibe while eating some of the best pizza in Baltimore.

The phones have already been ringing with some discontent from Benny Basil, Sourdough Sal and Tommy the Tomato all wanting a “re-do” and mentioning other pizzerias that need to take part in round two of the Margherita Wars. With colder weather at our doorstep and my love for margherita pizza, I can’t think of a more perfect time to have round two of the Margherita Wars than when daylight begins to lengthen once again, the promise of Spring is in the air and brackets are filled out for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. A month long, bracketed Margherita Madness tournament pitting more area pizzerias against each other in a battle for the championship could be in order! Stay tuned for details……

(note: I had one concerned reader lamenting that I would “forget” details about the event because I had waited so long to post this. A valid concern Bruce, but I use a mixture of taking notes at the pizzeria, doing a brain dump into a composition notebook while in the car afterwards and using a digital voice recorder. Such notes are then put into the computer, via stream of consciousness, usually on the same day as an event. It’s the editing/orginization of the info that takes the most time)