Savastano's

[Conan71]

We went back yesterday with my Italian friends from Belleville, Ill.  They love the place.  High compliments considering they owned an Italian restaurant for 25+ years.  This time we tried the thin crust "City Dump".  Much more manageable, and I didn't feel like I weighed 500 pounds when we left.  Love their home made sausage.

[Hoss]

We went back yesterday with my Italian friends from Belleville, Ill.  They love the place.  High compliments considering they owned an Italian restaurant for 25+ years.  This time we tried the thin crust "City Dump".  Much more manageable, and I didn't feel like I weighed 500 pounds when we left.  Love their home made sausage.

Last time I went there it was four of us, and we had the 'Sears Tower' pizza?  I think that was what it was named.  Appropriate.  I could barely eat one piece of it.  It was good, don't get me wrong, but it was a lot.

EDIT: Ugh, just realized how old this post was and also realized I just repeated myself...oh well, age.

[DolfanBob]

Last time I went there it was four of us, and we had the 'Sears Tower' pizza?  I think that was what it was named.  Appropriate.  I could barely eat one piece of it.  It was good, don't get me wrong, but it was a lot.

EDIT: Ugh, just realized how old this post was and also realized I just repeated myself...oh well, age.

Hoss your starting to sound more like Little Joe. If their crust wasn't so darn flimsy I probably would like it. I just don't like loosing all the toppings while trying to serve it from the pan to my plate. It looked terrible after scooping them back on but it was tasty. I was one and done.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Hoss your starting to sound more like Little Joe. If their crust wasn't so darn flimsy I probably would like it. I just don't like loosing all the toppings while trying to serve it from the pan to my plate. It looked terrible after scooping them back on but it was tasty. I was one and done.

There is a new invention - just within the last few hundred years - that works wonders for that problem.  Fork.  I have tried it a time or two and love it!!  (Just the kind of smart-a you needed today, I bet...)

[DolfanBob]

There is a new invention - just within the last few hundred years - that works wonders for that problem.  Fork.  I have tried it a time or two and love it!!  (Just the kind of smart-a you needed today, I bet...)

Ya I know back East they call it a pie. I just don't really like eating one that way.

[Red Arrow]

Ya I know back East they call it a pie. I just don't really like eating one that way.

From the Phila PA area:
I remember calling it Pizza or even Pizza Pie (which is actually a bit redundant).  i kind of remember the loaded down versions sometimes having a name of their own.  That was a long time ago though. 

One of my cousins was in Italy during his hitch in the USAF in the 60s.  He said that most Italians considered what we call Pizza to be poor peoples' food and it typically was not served in "better" restaurants.  That may have changed by now.  When I was in Germany in 1995, my German friends all ate Pizza with a fork after cutting it with a knife.  It was not picked up and chomped on like most of us eat Pizza.

[DolfanBob]

That sounds about right Red. We are the Barbarians of the food World.

[Conan71]

From the Phila PA area:
I remember calling it Pizza or even Pizza Pie (which is actually a bit redundant).  i kind of remember the loaded down versions sometimes having a name of their own.  That was a long time ago though. 

One of my cousins was in Italy during his hitch in the USAF in the 60s.  He said that most Italians considered what we call Pizza to be poor peoples' food and it typically was not served in "better" restaurants.  That may have changed by now.  When I was in Germany in 1995, my German friends all ate Pizza with a fork after cutting it with a knife.  It was not picked up and chomped on like most of us eat Pizza.

It's been over 30 years ago since I was in Italy, but my recollection is similar.  Seems like theirs was served on rectangular sheet pans with sparse ingredients and that a round pizza piled high with everything in the fridge is an American thing.

[cynical]

It perhaps began here, but it definitely didn't stay here. Many years ago I had a very nice, upscale pizza in Vienna, of all places. Great toppings and an appropriately subtle use of tomato sauce on a hand-tossed crust.

From my time in New York I recall a difference between Neapolitan pizza, which I think is the kind we are used to, and Sicilian pizza, which used a thicker crust and was baked in a square pan. I stuck to the old reliable "slice of cheese pizza" that you could get everywhere on the cheap, the kind with a crust so thin that you had to fold it before eating it.

It's been over 30 years ago since I was in Italy, but my recollection is similar.  Seems like theirs was served on rectangular sheet pans with sparse ingredients and that a round pizza piled high with everything in the fridge is an American thing.