Culture: New Haven is Most Typical? Yikes

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The number geniuses on Nate Silver's staff at FiveThirtyEight.com have come to the conclusion that New Haven, Connecticut has demographics most like the United States as a whole. While this may come as a relief to those who disagreed with the long-standing contention that "real America" was a rural town with no racial (or any other, save maybe age) diversity, it may be a bit scary for other reasons.

In a strange quirk of assignment, I was assigned a customer just outside of New Haven, Connecticut from mid-2011 to mid-2013, and traveled there quite frequently.  While my work trips there have become infrequent, because of friends in the region and the world-renowned restaurants on Wooster Street, I have actually been passing through New Haven fairly regularly for this entire century, through to present day.  While I do not have the familiarity of a local resident, I feel like I have a decent sense of the city.

New Haven certainly punches above its weight in education (Yale University being most prominent), in art and museums (the Peabody Museum of Natural History besides Yale-related museums), in Italian food (not just on the aforementioned Wooster Street), and even in soft drinks (Foxon Park beverages is located in nearby North Haven).  What it has come to be most known for, however, is its crime rate.  Take your pick of surveys, New Haven shows up with a violent crime rate in the highest 5-10% of the country (a fast web search showed this one with a highest 6% ranking).

As a visitor, this was not immediately obvious besides the presence of the large police station between the main train station and downtown, but the reality hit home once when I was trying to get to New Haven on a service call in September 2012.  My flight to New Haven's diminutive Tweed Airport had been canceled, and the only way I was going to get there was to take a flight to Hartford, Connecticut and drive.  (Canceled flights at Tweed are a common occurrence, to the point that I would eventually take to flying or taking a bus to New York City and taking the train or driving from there.)

On the replacement flight to Hartford, I happened to be seated next to a law student from Yale University.  A physically small woman of Latina descent from the central valley of California, she was even more upset with the situation than I was and we had a running conversation that ventured into living in New Haven.  She made it very clear that as a short, minority female, she did not feel safe walking around downtown New Haven after dark--and this is someone who described confidently walking around parts of Fresno and Los Angeles that would give me pause.  She was strongly looking forward to graduation and vowed that she was unlikely to ever to return to New Haven afterward because of the safety factor.

Considering that one of the purposes of looking at the demographics was to discredit the conservative rhetoric about "real America," holding up New Haven as the actual standard seems to play right into other aspects of their argument.  One can just imagine the current Republican presidential nominee go off about "if the country is turning in to New Haven, just think of how unsafe it is going to be."   Never mind that it would be a specious correlation--this whole conversation started because of an investigation into a statistically-invalid contention about what constituted "average" or "real" America.

Of course, my mind also went somewhere else in contemplating New Haven as "real America."  Does this mean the rest of the nation is going to get better pizza?

Dining: Began's Classic Italian Pizza

Began's Classic Italian Pizza is hidden away in a strip mall in Tempe, Arizona, as observed on 15-January-2011

TEMPE, ARIZONA - While I can get excited about world-renowned pizza restaurants like New Haven, Connecticut's Pepe's and Sally's, I really appreciate trying out lesser-known establishments and finding surprisingly good pizza. When I received a tip that such a pizzeria might exist in suburban Phoenix, Arizona--which some classify as better than Pizzeria Bianco reviewed last year--it made my agenda for my next visit to the Copper State.

Began's Classic Italian Pizza is well-hidden in Tempe, Arizona. If my "brother" cousin had not known where it was, I might have had trouble finding it--while it has a Baseline Road address, it is not visible from that street, nor it is readily seen from the other streets surrounding the strip mall east of Rural Road where it is located. It seems symbolic--you're not going to find out about this place from world pizza guides; knowledge has to come by word-of-mouth.

Unlike Bianco or the New Haven establishments, there is often not much of a wait for tables at Classic Italian Pizza. While we had reservations, we didn't observe people waiting very long for a table, especially if they were willing to sit outside, which even in January is a comfortable prospect in this part of Arizona. That doesn't mean that one doesn't wait, however. After placing our order, it was over ninety minutes before the pizza was served. That might be acceptable for a special social event, but with young children, it was almost intolerable. Frankly, waiting outside where the youngsters could run around was actually a better experience.


Plain cheese, Diavola, and Cappricciosa pizza slices from Began's Classic Italian Pizza were observed on 15-January-2011

Our order included a plain cheese pizza (er, Margherita holding the basil), the classic Diavola with sausage, pepperoni, red peppers, and jalapenos, and a Cappricciosa with ham, salami, mushrooms, tomatoes, black olives, and artichokes amongst other vegetables. The ingredient quality on the toppings was second-to-none, and I was especially impressed with the sauce, which might be the best tomato pizza sauce I've ever experienced in the world. However, the crust, while clearly baked in the wood-fired oven and of far above average quality, did not stack up to the best of the New Haven restaurants, not being remarkable in taste or texture, and soggier than it needed to be at the very center of the pizza.

Still, Began's Classic Italian Pizza is a gem of a restaurant. If you don't mind waiting for a quality pizza, it's a better experience than its more famous downtown Phoenix competitor, and even if it isn't the best pizza in the world, it is clearly top-echelon and the best pizza in Tempe.

Dining: Today's Frozen Pizza

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I still vaguely remember the first time I had a frozen pizza when I was a kid. I don't remember the circumstances, and I don't remember the brand (though I suspect it was Totino's), but I do remember the taste and texture. Considering that the restaurant pizza I was used to at the time was Pizza and Pipes or Pizza Haven (Shakey's would have been premium to me then), I can't imagine how bad I would consider it today, as even then I thought it was awful. The crust was bland and a little tough, the sauce was borderline sour tasting, the cheese had a texture as if it had been beaten with a meat tenderizer, and the pepperoni topping was made up of eighth-inch cubical squares instead of slices. The concoction made Spaghetti-O's seem gourmet by comparison.

In the intervening decades, much has changed in frozen food. Food engineers didn't stop with the original frozen pizzas; they have worked to improve and surpass the best on the market. After sampling some still very sketchy frozen pizzas when I was a graduate student, I went years without having one, then was shocked when I tried one again while living in Boston. I knew it was going to be different when I looked at the crust and it actually looked like real dough. The crust came out much tastier--and much less greasy--than most corner-restaurant pizzas, the toppings were nearly indistinguishable from average pizza, and the sauce actually had a good taste.

Even more impressive, these new-generation frozen pizzas were less expensive than going to a pizza restaurant, even for carry-out. My tradition of ordering pizza for delivery soon became an emergency rarity. Why spend on the order of $20 to get a pizza delivered from a Pizza Hut or a Domino's when with minimal planning a $5 pizza could be kept in my freezer that tasted just as good, and other than preservatives was likely more healthy?

Today, there are a wide variety of what I call "quality" frozen pizzas--and surprisingly, many of them are store brands. I consider No Name frozen pizzas to be every bit the equal of Kraft Delissio, for example. President's Choice even makes a passable frozen Chicago-style pizza. The cheapest brand names may still be awful, but there are very edible options available.

People find it odd that someone who seems to like pizza as much I do almost never eats at cheaper pizza chains like Pizza Pizza or 241 Pizza (that's "two-for-one," in case you're as slow as I am). The reason comes down to the fact that I consider the best of the frozen pizzas to be better than these restaurants, or at least cheaper. If I'm going to eat pizza in a restaurant, I want it to be significantly better than what I can get out of the freezer, and thus I end up going to Italian restaurants or premium pizzerias like Hubby's or Bianco's that I have highlighted this year.

Of course, considering my current policy of not eating out unless I am traveling, I might not be eating much pizza for the foreseeable future.

Dining: The Longest Wait for Pizza

Pizzeria Bianco was lit up by the sunset in Phoenix, Arizona on 8-January-2010

TEMPE, ARIZONA - Many people regard Pepe's and Sally's on Wooster Street in New Haven, Connecticut as the ultimate pizza experience in North America--something I did a number of times while living in New England. One has to arrive well before opening time or expect to wait in line for a long time, potentially hours (the longest I ever waited was two and a half hours at Sally's), before being seated and treated to exquisite thin-crust pizza from a wood-fired oven. The pizza was so good that Frank Sinatra would send his driver to Sally's to take it back to New York on the nights he didn't have time to go New Haven himself. Because of the long lines, the experience is somewhat rushed (though not quite as much as at the borderline-rude service at the similar Regina Pizzeria in Boston's North End), and one has to pay in cash. Some would describe the experience as an adventure.


The wood-fired oven at Pizzeria Bianco was in service in Phoenix, Arizona on 8-January-2010

When I heard that a similar phenomenon was occurring across the United States in Phoenix, Arizona of all places, I knew that on my next visit, I had to see what it was all about. Since moving to the 1929-era Baird Machine Shop building in Phoenix's Historic Heritage Square in 2004, Pizzeria Bianco has garnered accolades as one of the world's best pizza restaurants--and has the lines to match. On Friday, I arrived about 16:45 to find a line of about 80 people already waiting for the 17:00 opening; apparently one has to arrive at 15:00 to be seated in the restaurant's 42 seats when it opens. Rather than having to wait in a line as occurs at the New England restaurants, at Bianco's, they take your name and allow you to wander in the general facility, including their bar next door. In January, this was pleasant enough with mild temperatures, but in the summer with temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, that could be a different story. I went with my "brother" cousin and his family, so the ability to let the kids run around in the courtyard was the only thing that made the wait possible to contemplate. What a wait it was! I was told it would likely be three hours when our name was taken, and the estimate was accurate--the total wait was about three and a quarter hours, the longest I had ever waited to get into a pizza restaurant and start looking closely at the wood-fired oven.


Three varieties of pizza from Bianco's were captured on 8-January-2010, the Margherita, Biancoverde, and Wiseguy

So how did the pizza stack up? We had ordered a variety of pizzas from the menu, from a "basic" Margherita (Mozzarella and sauce) to a "Wiseguy" with sausage, Mozzarella, onions, and no sauce. Bianco pizza may have the best thin crust I've ever experienced. The dough was well-composed and well-treated in the wood-fired oven. All of the ingredients were believably local and fresh, and the sausage and salami had great flavor. Yet, I can't put it above the Pepe's and Sally's, or the best of the Chicago pizzerias like Giordano's. The sauce may be fresh and well-presented, but I just didn't find it interesting. Having just eaten last week at Hubby's and its tangy sauce, perhaps the difference seemed more acute.


Bruce Carson enjoyed a slice of Bianco's pizza on 8-January-2010

Pizzeria Bianco is excellent pizza; it belongs in the high echelons that sites like my favorite Pizza Therapy place it. It might even be worth waiting for--though more than three hours is really pushing it. But the world's best pizza? Not in my opinion.

Dining: Hubby's Pizza

Hubby's Pizza as it appeared in Kennewick, Washington on 22-November-2005

KENNEWICK, WASHINGTON - It's Saturday and I'm in Kennewick, Washington. That can mean only one thing--time to have Hubby's Pizza.

Ever since Ed Gilbert opened Hubby's Pizza on Columbia Drive in 1976, my grandparents have been regulars. Often visiting on Saturday nights, they established a tradition that has spread throughout the extended family and probably was a major factor in creating my love of pizza previously mentioned on this blog. Part of the attraction of visiting the Tri-Cities was knowing that at 5 pm on Saturday, it would be time to meet at Hubby's.


A Hubby's Pizza box was observed on 2-January-2010

Well-promoted over the years, Hubby's has held its own as Kennewick has grown from about 30,000 residents at its founding to nearly 65,000 today. A large children's play area was added in the 1980's, at about the same time as a salad bar. Through it all, though, much has stayed the same. The furniture remains the original, heavy pine wood tables and benches that Gilbert special-ordered from LaPine, Oregon. The giant pizza knife, all 73 inches and 55 pounds of it, remains on the wall.


A medium "Hubby's Special" (now called the "Hubby's Household Combination") was observed on 2-January-2010

Of course, what has most prominently stayed the same is the pizza. Hubby's introduced what I would call thin-crust New Haven-style pizza to the Tri-Cities. Regulars of world-class Connecticut pizza restaurants like Pepe's and Sally's would be satisfied with Hubby's crust, their slightly tangy sauce, their own sausage blend, and use of pure mozzarella. Indeed, Hubby's is listed as amongst the world's best pizza on the well-known pizza site, Pizza Therapy, one of the things that convinced me that the site was trustworthy. My grandparents have always preferred the "Hubby's Special" (currently on the menu as the "Hubby's Household Combination") with salami, pepperoni, black olives, mushrooms, beef, and onions.


My grandmother Pat Gleich enjoyed a slice of Hubby's pizza on 2-January-2010

Ed Gilbert's son Monty officially bought Hubby's Pizza in 1995, and the founder tragically passed away in 2008 (as previously reported on this blog). I noted a tribute on the wall of the kitchen, visible from the order counter, during my visit today. Had I not known, though, I would not have guessed that anything had changed since 1976--and hopefully, Hubby's will continue to provide quality pizza for decades to come.

Dining: Pizza and Pipes and Organ Stop

Organist Charlie Balogh performed at Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona on 20-December-2008

TEMPE, ARIZONA - Today, I had the opportunity to visit Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona. The restaurant is touted as the world's largest organ theater restaurant, featuring a Wurlitzer organ with nearly 6,000 pipes. For my cousin Bruce Carson, his wife Julie Malloy, and me, it was an opportunity to re-live our childhood at Pizza and Pipes in the Pacific Northwest.

Pizza and Pipes neatly paralleled my childhood. Its Bellevue, Washington location opened in 1977, early enough that I could not remember a time when there was no Pizza and Pipes. For family events, and even a few times on school field trips, I remember sitting at tables in a tiered layout so that everyone eating would have a view of an organist performing on a 1,200 pipe-Wurlitzer organ. While the pizza was cheap and forgettable, the organists were quite talented and there was plenty to keep a child entertained, from lights going on at whatever instrument like bells or percussion that was currently performing to black and white silent movies being accompanied to a disco ball reflecting about the room to a bubble machine blowing bubbles around the room for popping to Dirk the Duck walking through the audience. It was really quite a show.

There was more than one Pizza and Pipes. The chain actually started in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1962, eventually numbering four restaurants in California, with the first Pacific Northwest location in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle--not far from where my cousin Bruce lived--opening in 1973 later joined by Tacoma and Bellevue. The Greenwood location would be the first to close, disappearing while I was in high school in 1989. The Bellevue location was closed because of highway construction in 1992, and the Tacoma location burned to the ground in 1999. Only two of the California locations remain, Redwood City and Santa Clara (which now operates under the name of Pizza Party), and neither had the near-theater seating style of the northwest restaurants.

Yet, Pizza and Pipes was far from the only restaurant to combine organ entertainment with pizza. Organ Stop was founded in Phoenix in 1972, and the current, enormous Mesa location opened in 1995, capable of seating over 500. As we ate dinner there today, Bruce and I could not help but to compare it to the Pizza and Pipes locations we remembered.


Some of the nearly 6,000 organ pipes were visible at Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona on 20-December-2008

Physically, the resemblance could not have been stronger, even though both the room and the organ were clearly larger at Organ Stop. The bells, horns, xylophone, and percussion additions to the organ all looked exactly as I remembered from Pizza and Pipes. The same kind of keno-style number board displayed when pizza orders were ready. The dancing cats on the wall were a bit different than Pizza and Pipes' puppets, but served the same function.


A set of dancing cats joined the performance at Organ Stop Pizza on 20-December-2008

The performance took me back to the old days, with favorites like the Mickey Mouse theme song (during which a Mickey Mouse banner was unveiled) and the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Some songs I doubt I ever heard at Pizza and Pipes (like the Raiders of the Lost Arc theme and the Phantom of the Opera theme) but were well-arranged on the organ. Of course, it being December, a variety of holiday songs were included like Jingle Bell Rock, White Christmas, and a great rendition of the Carol of the Bells.


Bruce Carson enjoyed Organ Stop Pizza on 20-December-2008

The food was actually quite a bit better than the Pizza and Pipes of old with its super-thin crust and textured cheese--the crust was the same style but more substantial, and the toppings including the cheese were more than sufficient. Organ Stop's pizza would stand on its own without the organ.

When the organ descended and brought organist Charlie Balogh out of sight to end the opening act, we chose to leave Organ Stop Pizza, but not before having fully relived a portion of our childhood.