On May 21, 2009, I took the family on a trek from our home in suburban Kansas City back to the land of my father and mother: Dixon, Illinois. This was to be a rather somber family occasion over the Memorial Day weekend, with some added stops thrown in. To add more fun to the 6-day trip, I proposed the following: we eat at different pizza restaurant in every town that we make a major stop.
The rules were stated in my previous post.
The cities we would be stopping at stretched across the Midwestern corn-belt from Des Moines, IA all the way up to Milwaukee, WI. I chose a different pizza restaurant from each city. The basic toppings would be my go-to standards, 1 meat and 1 non-meat item: Italian sausage and mushrooms. Beyond that, other pizzas could be selected but were not required for the purposes of this trip. By the end of the trip, I planned on ranking the 6 places of their delectable delights that we sampled. As an aside, you will probably notice that most of the pizza restaurants we tried served a particular style of pizza pie. I call this version a Midwestern bar pizza style. Some people refer to it as south-side Chicago style, but the style expands well beyond the windy city. It is typified by the following:
1) thin crust (but not necessarily paper-thin or cracker-style),
2) lots of cheese using predominantly mozzarella, but often incorporating a blend of cheeses,
3) a fair amount of toppings, and 4) party-cut (that is, cut in squares instead of slices).
This style seems to have gotten its start or became very popular first in bars as something to eat while guzzling down pints of brew. It later expanded to more family-style pizza parlors where beer was still an oft seen and mentioned accompaniment, but was served well with other beverages and typical Italian-American restaurant fare like garlic bread, salads, and spaghetti with meatballs.
Our first stop was in Des Moines on May 21. The place: Bordenaro’s Pizza As they say on the Chicago Pizza club blog, where it went down: http://www.bordenaros.com/
As for the pizza, as you might be able to tell from the pictures, it is a standard Midwestern party cut pizza. The crust was on the crunchy side, but not as crunchy or as dry like a cracker. I suspect some form of fat in the way of shortening, butter, or oil. As you can probably see from the turned over square/slice, they use pizza screens. I saw a few deck ovens going hot and heavy in back with restaurant, take-out, and delivery orders.
Overall the taste of the crust was good, but more like a biscuity texture than a cracker. I had asked for Italian sausage but the flavor was not quite what I was expecting. I suspect they use pork sausage lightly seasoned to pass as Italian sausage or they simply make their sausage without fennel. The mushrooms looked like the canned variety. The sauce was good but after a few bites, both my wife and I detected some added heat. It tasted to me like some form of pepper. I noticed on the menu they offer a milder sauce, which I would like to try if I ever make it back.Overall, the flavors mixed together well and I generally liked this pizza quite a bit. As for our daughter, well, she had her own ideas as to the flavor and what would make it taste better.
The house salads were unremarkable - the bagged variety.
Their cheesey garlic bread was very good - plenty of cheese and greasey flavor.
Overall, I am going to be generous and give Bordenaro's in Des Moines 4 out of 5. They made the 4th pizza-star by a hair, but it was our first stop, it was getting late, and our hunger probably added to my judgement. I would say it is certainly worth a stop if you are in the Des Moines area. You can see these and other pictures on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38582842@N07/
Next stop ... Dixon, Illinois
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