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