Garducci's New York Style Pizza

Pizza comes in many different styles: thin or thick crust, how much tomato sauce (if at all), meats, cheeses, various toppings, and on and on. There is no end to the variations of what's become an icon in American foods, and everyone has their favorite. One of the best known styles of pizza is New York style, characterized by a thin crust that's pliable but still firm and crusty around the edge, light tomato sauce, and large slices which can be folded in half for easier eating. There's a new New York style pizzeria in South Austin called Garducci's, and they invited me out last week to try their pie. Disclosure: I was given a pizza but not monetarily compensated.

Garducci's is located at 730 W. Stassney Lane (the northwest corner at South First Street), in the strip center near the Baskin Robbins and Sonic just to the west. There are two high tables, but no chairs; it's very cute inside! They are take out only! No single slices, just whole pies, though they do have a meatball sub and a couple salads.

They only offer one size of pizza, and that's an 18" pie, cut into 8 pieces -- the traditional New York way.  I put in my order for a sausage and mushroom pizza, which owner Paul made himself.

While the pizza baked in a 500+ degree oven, Paul and I chatted for a few minutes, and he gave me one of his meatballs to try. He has a culinary degree, and lived in New York City for a number of years, which got him well-acquainted with the pizza there. A variety of culinary jobs in some high profile establishments kept him busy over the years in Dallas, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Paul heard of the opportunity here in Austin to open his own pizza place, and moved here in February.  Garducci's opened up in May.

Paul gave me one of his meatballs as we were talking. It's a traditional beef, pork, and veal, with a great oregano flavor. The meatball was super-tasty and tender! While I've never been a meatball sub person, they do offer just a side of meatballs or you can get them on your pizza! I could SO eat a side of them right now.

Once the pizza was ready, I took it to my friend Mad Betty's house. She's a New Jersey native, so I figured she'd be a good judge of Garducci's pizzas. And while I am not a New York style expert, neither of us were disappointed. I was particularly impressed with the large chunks of sausage and the generous amount of toppings. Mad Betty noted the crust was nicely charred on the bottom, and the dough was nice and thin. The edge of the pizza was quite crisp, and there was not too much tomato sauce, which I appreciate. We both agreed that there was too much cheese on the pizza though! Paul did tell me he's using whole milk mozzarella, and he's certainly not skimping. While not a bad problem to have, on my return visit, I would ask for a pizza with about half the amount of cheese than normal. And looking at his 4.5 - 5 star Yelp reviews, the cheese seems to be the only complaint.

Thumbs up Garducci's! That area of South Austin now has a great neighborhood pizza joint to call their own, something that was sorely lacking. So call in your orders, go pick up your pie, and sit back and enjoy an authentic New York style pizza pie experience. Mangia!

Garducci's Pizza
730 W Stassney Lane, #165
512/707-1155
Sunday - Thursday 11 am -  10 pm
Friday - Saturday 11 am - midnight
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St. Philip Pizza Parlor + Bakeshop

About a month ago, I met a group of friends for dinner at the new St. Philip Pizza Parlor + Bakeshop in Sunset Valley. St. Philip was the patron saint of bakers, and perhaps coincidentally (or not), the project has been helmed by Phillip Speer, longtime pastry chef extraordinaire of Uchi. And while St. Philip is owned by the Uchi Restaurant group, this is clearly not a Japanese restaurant.

They took the old Cannoli Joe's (nee Wolfe's Nursery) on Highway 290 next to the Toney Burger Center, and converted it into a very modern, streamlined building. In addition to St. P, there's Stouthouse Coffee Pub and a new branch of local spa Milk + Honey. So you can go have a meal (they do B, L + D) at St. P, get all relaxed with a facial or massage at Milk + Honey, and then get caffeinated again at Stouthouse. Good plan! St. P is on the east side of the complex (closest to the Burger Center) and has a lovely shaded patio area as well as some outdoor dining spots. The inside isn't as large as I expected, but at 6ish on a Friday night, they were already packed to the gills with families, couples, small groups, you name it. I didn't get too much of a chance to gawk at the interior given the hustle and bustle, but it's got a warm farmhouse modern appeal to it.

Service was very friendly and once we ordered, dishes came at a pretty good pace. I should also add we had to wait about 15-20 minutes for a table, and they had servers outside taking drink orders and also coming around with warm pretzel bites and mustard for nibbling. Once seated, we started with the house meatballs (beef and pork, I believe) and paired them with the brodo sauce (you can pick from three different types of meatballs and three different sauces); these were served with potatoes. They were tasty, but not the most tender, and fairly small (not quite golf-ball sized) for the price. {Looking at their menu online now, they may have cut back on meatball options, as I am now only seeing two choices of each meatball and sauce.}

These ricotta dumplings with corn, Serrano ham, mushrooms were delicious, but the housemade umami sauce was a bit overpowering for the light and tenderness of the dumplings (I'd call them more like gnocchi or gnudi). It was a flavorful sauce, but both dark in color and in taste, and to me it took control of the dish. Maybe a lighter hand with the sauce or just lightening the sauce altogether would have made this one more of a winner for me.

Everyone who I knew who had been to St. P before me said "get the cauliflower." So we did, and yes, it's quite tasty. The cauliflower is lightly fried to a golden brown and served with a Greek yogurt sauce, pine nuts, and golden raisins, which I could have done without. You can now make this at home, as the Austin American-Statesman obtained the recipe for it!

We picked the roasted veggie pizza with its almond Romesco sauce. I liked the chewiness (but not too chewy) of the crust, but felt the Romesco needed more acid (sherry vinegar?) to bring out the contrast. I have heard the clam pizza is quite good.

From the daily dessert board, we went with the brownie a la mode with a salted caramel sauce. Definitely tasty, though certainly a small portion.

Overall, I felt the food was decent, but could use some little tweaks. Yes, I am being a bit picky, but I am comfortable with my palate to know when something needs a little more acid or a little less umami. But I really felt the portion sizes are small for what you are paying, especially the meatballs and brownie. I would like to go for breakfast one day; they have a separate pastry counter for eat in or take out and some beautiful items in there. Given the buzz and hype of St. Philip even before they were open, I am sure this place will do well.

Two New Italian Eateries -- Patrizi's + Umami Mia

In the past two weeks, I have attended two soft openings for Italian places, one a trailer, and the other brick and mortar. Both had their high points and a few things to work on.

Patrizi's is a trailer adjacent to the Vortex Theater on Manor Road; it is run by Nic Patrizi, who also runs the Jalopy trailer downtown. He's very welcoming and passionate about his food, and is sourcing from local purveyors as much as possible, like Salt and Time, Milking, Antonelli's, and Coyote Farms.

His family ran the original Patrizi's in Beaumont for years until they closed, and he has all the family recipes. He's got a nice set up at the Vortex, with a covered seating area, and planter boxes for a garden.

On the trailer itself, he invited local artists to come and paint, and then he's framed them all, including the menu. I loved the eclecticness of the paintings! The one below is actually done by one of my very talented co-workers.

Our tasting started off with a perfectly dressed Italian salad, and some antipasti, which included garlic cloves, confited in olive oil, white anchovies, a giardineria puree, and some tasty bread. Nic then brought us the first pasta dish -- the pomodoro with meatballs. Let me be clear: the meatballs were AMAZING. Some of the best meatballs I have had anywhere. Tender and moist and flavorful, made from pork trimmings and beef. I am still thinking about those meatballs!

Next was the Roma tomato sauce with fresh made ricotta with lemon zest. It was a nice heaping mound of creamy ricotta.

And the third, cacio e pepe, just your basic, clean dish with Parmesan and lots of fresh black pepper.

Nic told us upfront that the pasta we were being served was not the pasta that he would be serving once the trailer opened. He just got a new pasta machine that he hadn't even taken out of the box yet; the pasta we had was certainly on the dense side, but I heard from other bloggers who went to the next night's tasting that the pasta was really good.

I have high hopes for Patrizi's! The hospitality was all-around great, there's parking (at least when the theater isn't in session), and recipes that grandma used to make. Will certainly go back for the meatballs and I spied carbonara on the menu too!

Then last week, it was the media tasting for Umami Mia, in the old Romeo's on Barton Springs. Fun, funky design, but a lot of concrete inside. Clean lines, little pops of color.

The cocktail menu was spectacular as were the drinks themselves! From left, we have Hibiscus Nectar Cosmo, Thyme Will Tell (I think) and the Blackberry Italian Soda, adult-style.

Once we were seated, the owners and chef introduced themselves and talked about the concept of umami -- that somewhat elusive fifth taste (along with salty, sweet, sour, and bitter). It's sort of hard to pinpoint WHAT umami is, but it's that savoriness, that flavor that just fills your mouth and makes you want more. It's found in foods that are high in glutamates, things like mushrooms, dairy (particularly cheeses), meats, nuts, and so on. Umami Mia wants their dishes to be an "umami bomb" in your mouth. They are also trying to source local, like Vital Farms Eggs and Johnson's Backyard Garden, and practice nose to tail butchering.

We started off with a roasted peppers and coppa salami appetizer, which had nice big shavings of Parmesan and white anchovies. This was a good dish! Great flavors, and you really can get the umami concept with this one.

Next up was the Italian Salad with large slivers of watermelon radishes, and hiding under there was some crispy pancetta, fried croutons, and a very light salad dressing; I would have liked a touch more of the dressing on it to bring everything together.  Love that they use sheet trays to serve some of the dishes.

The meatball sandwich with mission fig sauce and Gorgonzola cheese was a bit of a miss for us. For starters, ours came without the Gorgonzola, and the fig sauce was too sweet for this particular dish, though perhaps if it HAD had the salty cheese, it would have been a better balance. And while they're using oak to grill their meatballs, it just couldn't compare to the one I had the previous week at Patrizi's.

The pizzas were a little bit of a mixed bag. They are cooked for 4 - 5 minutes in an oven that runs about 600 degrees, and they will have a "slice window" for walk-up customers.  Their crusts are soft and a bit chewy. My hands-down favorite was the prosciutto and fig with Gorgonzola, with it's copious amounts of arugula. You really got the umami bomb flavors here, though I would have loved loved some extra Gorg on top to really kick the umami up! 

The mushroom pizza with shitakes, creminis, and caramelized onions might be a good option for the vegetarians, but it seemed a bit heavy. That's balsamic glaze drizzled across the top along with goat cheese.

Our table found the Mexican pizza to be a bit strange. Described as their house adobo sausage with corn, tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime, and queso fresco, there was WAY too much going on here, but not enough flavor, especially from the sausage to associate it with Mexican foods.

Now the pasta itself was really nice -- thin, uniform strips that easily twirled on your fork. But when I think of carbonara, I really want the pancetta, egg, and Parmesan to shine, so the pine nuts, lemon, and herbs were a bit of a different take on it for me. It was hard to find any pancetta in this dish, though it tasted good. I don't know if this is the actual serving size you would get if you ordered it; I think for the price ($16) I would be a bit disappointed in the portioning of this dish.

And finally, the desserts. It's almost better if we don't go there because these were both very strange. I am noticing they do not have desserts listed on the menu that's on their website, and these were not the desserts that were originally planned for our meal (Citrus Prosecco Jello with Poteet Strawberries and Pop Rocks). What they served was a tiramisu with matcha tea powder and I believe chestnuts or hazelnuts inside, and then a chocolate pot de creme with orange, malted milk balls, golden raisins and togarashi, a Japanese condiment of chile flakes.  The tiramisu seemed like heavy whipping cream with squishy nuts mixed in; the matcha flavor was pretty minimal and got lost with the dense mouthfeel of the cream. I am not a huge fan of chocolate and orange together, so that was strike one, but it had a granular texture for strike two; pot de creme should be silky smooth. I hate to say this, but someone is trying WAY too hard with the desserts. Maybe the matcha and togarashi are a nod to the Japanese researcher who scientifically discovered the taste of umami, but I was not a fan. And it's not to say that Italian-themed restaurants all have to serve standard tiramisu or cannolis, because they don't, but golden raisins (strike three), really?

The waitstaff at Umami Mia hustled throughout the night, and were very professional and friendly. There will be an outdoor bar, as well as an herb garden, and the aforementioned slice window -- lots of possibilities there on Barton Springs!

So please take both of these reviews with a grain of salt because they were both soft openings. Patrizi's and Umami Mia both have tons of potential and once they each have a couple months to shake things down, I will happily go back to both and try them again. And while they are both Italian, they have very different focal points, and should both do well.

Lamb Meatballs

I love lamb.

I especially love lamb when I can get it locally at the farmer's market. I've bought lamb a couple times now from Loncito's at the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market. The first time was earlier this summer after Loncito himself and Lou Lambert taught a class on lamb at the north Central Market cooking school. They made a lamb rillette with the shoulder, but after talking to him at the farmer's market, he suggested the neck bones. You basically just plop the bones in olive oil, and let it simmer for a couple of hours. The meat fell right off the bones, and it was to die for. Particularly when served as suggested as a little sandwich with some mustard and chutney; the acidity in the chutney helps cut the fat while enhancing the flavor. It was, in a word, incredible.

This past Saturday, I got a pound of ground lamb from them. (Also fresh mint from one of the stands, and I can't remember the name, oops!) I made a meatball recipe that I have made a few times before, but never with the locally procured lamb. It's a recipe from epicurious.com, and I've adapted it slightly over time. One of the key things to remember when making meatballs is to not overwork the meat, as that will make them stiffer. The currants add a nice touch of sweetness, and the sesame seeds nice texture.

This recipe also makes me reminisce, as I was in Morocco exactly a year ago, eating lamb and seeing sesame plants for the first time. :)

Sesame Lamb Meatballs with Mint Yogurt Dip, makes 18 golf ball sized meatballs
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, minced
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/3 cup onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. fresh mint leaves, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 lb. ground lamb
1 cup fresh bread crumbs, finely ground
1 large egg, beaten lightly
2 - 3 Tbsp. dried currants
1/4 cup black sesame seeds
1/4 cup white sesame seeds

-- In a small bowl, combine yogurt, mint, lemon juice & salt. Combine well and set aside. This can be made ahead and refrigerated. Best when made at least 30 minutes before eating so flavors can meld.
-- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
-- In a medium skillet, heat oil over med-low heat, and saute onion & garlic until softened. Let cool slightly.
-- In a large bowl, place onion mixture; add mint, salt, allspice, & cinnamon and combine well.
-- Add lamb, bread crumbs, egg, & currants. Mix thoroughly (with hands is best), but do not over mix or squeeze too hard.
-- Form balls; I make golf-ball sized ones.
-- Combine both the sesame seeds on a small plate. Roll the meatballs in the seeds, lightly patting them on and shaking off excess.
-- Place on a wire rack that is set in a baking sheet (so fat can drip into the baking sheet). Place the meatballs on the rack, evenly spacing them.
-- Bake for about 12 minutes, or until just cooked through. Let cool slightly before serving with the yogurt dip.

* I think I may have cooked these in a skillet once, rather than the oven, but not totally sure. I think it would work just fine. I did manage to set my smoke detector off when I made them the other night, as the dripping fat was apparently getting rather hot in the oven!