Parlor

Whoa! It's been a minute since my last pizza review. Don't worry, I've definitely eaten more than my fair share of pizza between my last update here (11 months ago... 😬) 

Parlor is a new spot in Beaverdale. They moved in a few months ago where Saints used to be. We've been especially eager to try it because they serve Detroit Style pizza. We've been hooked on Detroit Style since we lived up the road from a Jet's franchise in Indianapolis. Ryan makes it home from time to time. Parlor is also a sister restaurant to Alba and Eatery A -- two of Des Moines' finest, in my opinion. 

We had dinner plans with our friends tonight for Parlor takeout. We ordered three pizzas and our toddlers didn't do a great job helping us get through them. We have tons of leftovers. Mindy and I always lean toward more vegetable heavy pizzas and the guys wanted to get something meaty and spicy. We got:

• Ain't It Fun (Local Mushroom, Goat Cheese, Caramelized Onion, white sauce)
• Proud Mary (Cherry Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella, Basil Pesto, red sauce)
• Evil Ways (Chicken Tinga, Chipotle Buffalo, Ranch Ricotta, red sauce)

Every pizza is one size. I'm not sure the exact measurements but they include eight decent sized rectangular shaped slices. They each run $16.50/pie. 

I didn't get a chance to see the interior, so I asked Ryan to describe it to me: "It looked like Saints with a smaller bar." Super helpful. He said it was moderately busy when he picked our takeout up around 5:15p (on a Saturday, after a huge snowstorm, during a pandy surge). 

What we loved:

• The Ain't It Fun was by far the favorite, toppings-wise, for me, Cam and Mindy. It also had greens on it which weren't listed on the menu. 
• The outer crust of all the pies was a solid Detroit Style. It was crispy with crispy cheese all around the sides, and per crust nerd Ryan, the airiness and volume were correct. It was thick but not dense. 
• Plenty of intriguing options on the menu offer a good wide variety for people with all sorts of tastes. 

What we didn't love:

• The bottom crust lacked some crispy and crunchy vibes. It needed to be a little more greasy, a lack of fat on the bottom of the pan left some toastiness to be desired.
• The Proud Mary, their version of a Margherita, felt like too many competing flavors. I didn't need the pesto, and it also had a balsamic drizzle that was overpowering. It distracted from the fresh mozzarella which is my favorite. 
• I didn't try the Evil Ways (looked like a fancy Buffalo Chicken pizza). Cam wasn't wild about the toppings, saying the chicken was a bit dry, the ranch was overpowered by dill, and it wasn't spicy at all which they were hoping for. Ryan thought it was pretty good but admits that, when reviewing zza, he cares way more about crust quality than topping quality/combo. 

In summary I thought Parlor was decent, I think it would be fun to go sit down and eat there, have it fresh with a few cocktails.

Chelsea, Mindy, Cam Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐

Ryan Rating: 4/5 ⭐

Also, my bad, I only took a few (less than mediocre) pie pics:

"Evil Ways" (Buffalo Chicken)

"Ain't it Fun" (Mushrooms and Goat Cheese)

"Proud Mary" (Margherita)

Winn's Pizza and Steakhouse

“Pizza night! Movie night!” Best Friday night ever. Especially after toddler meltdowns of epic proportions earlier today. Jack’s had a tough day. So he picked the movie. Shocking to neither Ryan or me, he chose Cars 3. 

Tonight we had pizza and toasted raviolis from Winn’s Pizza and Steakhouse. Original location in Indianola with spots in Norwalk (where we went) and Lacona too. A family owned and operated place. 

We ordered Winn’s special: green pepper, onion, and sausage. They have a robust appetizer menu but traveling back from Norwalk I had the most confidence in the toasted ravs keeping their toastiness for the trip home. We got cheesy raviolis but they have meat on the menu too. Oh, and a notable note: I’ve heard from some Winn’s loyalists that the onion rings and crab rangoons are super yummy too. 

The crust is thin, but they they do this cool thing around the edges to give it an edgy rise and give you a handle for your slice. It seems like they roll out the dough for the pie, then separately twist two strings of dough and wrap this “dough spiral” around the edge of the dough circle. It was good, and pretty! 

The sauce wasn’t anything special, not bad, not great. Loved how the cheese got nice and crispy on the edges (crispy cheese is one way to my heart). I really liked the sausage. It wasn’t spicy sausage like most local places use. I don’t mind spicy sausage but it was a pleasant surprise. Pretty sure it was homemade and not pre-cooked (as in it goes on the pizza and in the oven raw to bake, which we learned from my brother is an important element of sausage on pizza. At least it’s important to my brother). The sausage was in big crumbly chunks rather than formed into sausage balls. 

Overall it was a pretty decent pie. They have this quote on their website that brings me joy: “So a guy walks in and eats he says great food, great service, "Where are you from?" Indiana, my friend from the Obama Campaign told me that if I am ever in Iowa go to Winn's Pizza and Steakhouse!!” - This is copied exactly from the homepage on their website, grammar and all. Their claim to fame, an Obama staffer who told his friend from Indiana to stop at this place the next time he was in Iowa. So sweet. 

We both rated it 🍕🍕🍕🍕 (4/5). 

If you ever need inspiration for a new pizza place, the Zza Moines data sheet can be checked out any time! 

Franka Pizzeria for Lunch!

Yesterday afternoon I had to run down the the East Village around lunchtime to pick something up (quick details: earlier this week I opened Instagram at the exact right moment to catch Liz Lidgett gallery's flash sale and I nabbed a funky framed print for only $20! anyway, I digress...). Since the gallery is right next to Franka Pizzeria, which I've been very excited to try, I decided a lunch treat of a Margherita pizza was a great idea. 

What I loved:

• The wood-fired crust. Okay, I know I've said that I'm crust agnostic, but I think it's time to fess up about something. I DO have a favorite crust type, and it is totally wood-fired. I love how it chars and gets crunchy, but the right dough still rises and gets all poofy and tasty (yes, this is my v. technical description)
• The tomato sauce. They use san marzano tomatoes, which look adorable in their whole form, and taste sweet chopped up as tomato sauce on a pizza
• Sprinkled maldon sea salt on top of the whole masterpiece. Such a subtle and yummy touch. 

What I didn't love:

• The massive basil leaves, while a visually appealing work of art, were not great to actually eat. They slipped off in one bite. 
• The pizza was ready about 10 minutes sooner than it's promised time, so by the time I got home, the pie was pretty cold. Still tasty, but a bit of a bummer. 
• I knew ahead of time that the prices were on the high-end for this place, but I still wanted to try it. I always leave at least 20% on takeout (especially in COVID times!), so with tip this pizza, which I think was only 10 inches  (or a "big" personal pizza, IMO), was $20.  
• I want to be clear here: I don't mind to pay top dollar from time to time because I understand places like this use high quality ingredients. But given the size/price combo, it's not really accessible for a family pizza night unless you want to spend upwards of $100. Definitely worth it for a date night (or an upscale solo takeout lunch, if your style is like mine) though. 

All that being said it was a very good pizza and I'm intrigued at some of their non-traditional toppings combinations, so I'll probably be going back.  I also had fun having a pizza photo shoot in my office. 

Today was Jack's Valentine party at daycare. Of course I could not resist the opportunity to put him in a pizza-themed outfit and do a photo shoot this morning. Most of the expressions on his face are him asking me for more fruit snacks in exchange for standing still and smiling for the camera.  He's a great negotiator honestly. 

Overall rating: 4.5/5 

Zza Legner

I interrupt this feed of unqualified restaurant reviews to highlight one of my most favorite personal private chefs: Ryan Legner!

Ryan with his hand-tossed special zza.

Ryan’s passion for creating homemade pizzas began when we lived in Indianapolis. He started making his own dough for fun one day and began a years-long process toward what I’m so happy to say is practical perfection now. Our house in Indy was equipped with a convection oven (an oven-sized air fryer, in lay-terms), and our favorite pizza place there was a chain called Jet’s, which specialized in Detroit style pizza. (If you love bready crust like we do, I strongly encourage you to check this place out if you are ever near one. Just thinking of their BBQ Chicken is making me drool). Anyway, I can’t remember the specifics but I think it was the combo of the convection oven + our love of Detroit style that initially sparked his interest in pizzery. 

His zza zest deteriorated a bit when we moved back to Des Moines. Our oven here is just not quite the same, and a few attempts at making the same crust style he’d gotten used to with the old oven turned out… interestingly. I think he lost his luster for a little while. He’d try it out every few months but never with as much enthusiasm. It was disappizzing (ugh, sorry). 

Everything changed last summer (thanks COVID) when he obtained recipe book Flour Water Salt Yeast, James Beard award winning chef and author Ken Forkish’s guide to the fundamentals of artisan dough & crust. 

Game. Changer. Legner was BACK baby! 

Enough boring back story: let’s cut to the good good. Ryan bonded with Ken and got acquainted with his methodical and well-timed dough strategies. Over the past 6 months he’s been fine-tuning his dough, figuring out what our moody oven needs (basically a helluva long time to preheat properly), and has perfected two different crust styles:

1. A pan style baked in the cast iron skillet. End result is outer-edge crunchy cheesy crust and inner pillowy doughy goodness. Yummo.
2. A hand tossed, thinner crust dough that he bakes on a standard issue pizza baking pan. Drool. 

That yummy pan pizza. 

Now let’s talk toppings. After several frustrating and disappointing homemade sauce attempts, I strongly urged him to give up on making sauce. Ryan’s a go big or go home guy. He really wanted his whole pizza to be homemade. But eventually we figured out that stressing over homemade sauce took a lot of magic out of pizza night. It takes tons of time (which he already spends on the dough), makes a huge mess, and is a big bummer if we can’t get it right. Plus, we can buy jars of Gino’s sauce at most local grocers, it’s delicious and way easier. Cut your losses and you’ll win, that’s what I always say (I have never said this before in my life). 

Usually we top the pan pizza with Gino's sauce, green peppers, onions, and a meat. The hand tossed we've been doing a bit more bougie, with an olive oil crust, usually some wilted spinach, goat cheese, and sundried tomatoes. 

YOU GUYS. It’s sooooooo freakin’ good. Like, so good that I am sometimes overwhelmed on pizza night. Should we get takeout and continue the Zza Moines tour? Or should we have chef Ryan cook for us? It's so stressful.

At this point I’m eating pizza once a week && honestly, I’m not worthy. 

If COVID ever ends and we can socialize with you again, please make plans at our house for pizza night. That way we don’t have to get a sitter AND you can enjoy the pies of his labor like I get to. 

Family pizza night feat: Ryan's homemades!

Paesano's Pizzeria

"mmm..." declared Jack, as he took the first bite of Paesano's tonight. This, of course, was before he discovered we had asked them to hide peppers and onions underneath the cheese. 

Walking in to pick-up our pizza and wings from Paesano's tonight (they're rightfully only open for carry-out or delivery) made me desperately miss going out to eat. It couldn't have felt more classic Southside Italian in there, but modernized from some of the older spots around Des Moines. Red leather booths, checkered tablecloths, a counter on the back wall piled high with empty constructed pizza boxes. But, the lights were dimmed over the dining room, which unfortunately is not common enough around here these days. The host taking orders and ringing people up called me "hon" no fewer than six times between my order and pick up. A delightful experience. 

After reviewing the antipasti menu we quickly agreed wings sounded delicious tonight. Keeping it simple, which I appreciate, they only offer BBQ or hot sauce. We got BBQ and as Ryan said "these are the best wings I've had from a pizza place around here!" They were fat wings, and even though homeboy ate more than his fair share of drummies, I still enjoyed the flats. 

As y'all know by now, super thin crust is not our preferred but this was about the best it could get. If anyone reading this knows what kind of roller or tool is used to make crust like this, please hit me up. I'm curious, but too lazy to research it myself. 

I wanted red meat on my pie tonight but wasn't excited about pepperoni or sausage, so we got a hamburger, onion, and green pepper pizza.  The sauce was delectable, the right blend of sweet with a hint of spice.  The crust light and crackery thin with a good amount of chew. A perfect ratio of toppings, sauce, and cheese delighted us for this pizza evening. 

Ryan rating: 4/5 (but "great for this style of pizza")

Chelsea rating: 4.5/5 

Sonny's Pizza Bistro

A beautiful yet dangerous pre-Christmas blizzard is blowing across Iowa today, but Ryan still agreed to head up to Saylorville to pick up Sonny's for our pre-family-Zoom-Secret-Santa-Christmas getogether. 

Lately I've only been craving Margarita (Margherita?) pizzas.  Maybe I've watched Home Alone too may times since mid-November and I just want to be a step above a plain cheese pizza. I don't care for a red meat and red sauce zza because of the acidity, but Ryan still likes a meatlovers every once in a while. Since I wanted a marg, I recommended we also get an Italian Meat.  There are only 2 size options, 10" or 12". 

If you're one of our seven readers you may have noticed we tend to prefer a fluffy crust.  Ryan especially; the thicker the better. As a crust agnostic I don't have any problems with any types. 

It took Ryan over 30 minutes to get the pizzas home (an hour round trip) in the winter storm and the crust was still crispy! It was a bit toasted around the edges, but had that delicious buttery home-made crunch that makes a zza so yummy.  

The Italian Meat was topped with  italian sausage, capicolla, meatball, and pepperoni. The Margherita was what you expect on a marg, it had red sauce and red onions too. Whole chunks of tomato too! Delicioso. 

I'm beginning to wonder if I should've structured my pizza-rating criteria more specifically.  Like a rubric: toppings 33%, crust 33%, sauce 33%, all the factors that go into our score.  But since we don't have any credibility as food critics (other than we love pizza), we'll just keep going with our gut instincts when we give a score. 

This was good pizza. If you are in the Saylorville area or close by and want to switch it up, check it out. Since we had takeout I can't speak much for the ambiance, only the pie. 

4/5 from both of us. 

DOUGH CO. PIZZA

Earlier this year when I started this project, I was sad to learn that Papa Keno's didn't make it.  I'd had it once when I was on campus for a business meeting, and found the lunch special to be delightful. My sadness has subsided now that I've tried the new pizza place in that spot: Dough Co. Pizza. I later learned that the guys who were franchising that Papa Keno's had opted to cut ties with PK to open their own pizza place, and keeping their lease in the same location. 

Dough-ly moly, this place was yummy. 

"New York style thin crust pizza with a Midwest twist..." 

I probably wouldn't call this thin crust, but maybe that's because I'm still accustomed to thinking of thin-crust like cracker thin pizza from Domino's or something. The dough was definitely crispy, but it had a thickness to it too.  But I've also never had real NY pizza, so I don't know what to compare this to. 

We ordered two pizzas: a Giovanni (Roasted chicken, house pesto, cream cheese, Roma tomato, parmesan) and a Margaret (classic Margherita).  Both were very tasty.  I was skeptical about the cream cheese on the pizza,  it was pretty good, but I preferred the Margo. Ryan absolutely loved the Giovanni. 

On this day, 12/14/20, when the first COVID-19 vaccine doses are being administered across the country, walking into a pizza joint made me feel so hopeful and excited for a future when we can go out to eat again. When we can order a cold tap beer or glass of wine to be served while we wait. To banter with friendly wait staff. Especially this place, which had an adorable mural (you know I love a good pizza pun, in fact, I almost named this blog Dough Moines) and plenty of tables. It will be a great college pizza joint when late night slices are a regular thing again (they probably still are, but I'm a littttttle far removed from late night slices at this point in my life). 

Anyway, back to the pizza. We loved it. I don't actually have a single complaint, which is a welcome change from my last review. Crispy and puffy crust, sweet tasty red sauce, good spice mix. Jack kept saying "more pizza!" but when I tried to get a video of it, he got camera stubborn. 

Here are some photos of my very happy pizza eating family. Way to dough, Dough Co. DSM!

Ryan's rating: 5/5

Chelsea's rating: 5/5