Austin Pizza Run

It’s that time of year again… National Pizza Month!

Much like last year, David and I will celebrate with you by going through the ATX’s favorite pizzerias.

When we first moved back to Austin at the start of summer, we spent a lot of time catching up with old friends, which meant a lot of eating out.  One weekend we had plans to meet up with our friends from Bratislava (who had also moved back to Austin), Joey and Jenn.  (You may remember them from our trip to Russia back in 2011.)

Joey and Jenn are big foodies and always providing us with great new restaurants to add to my ever-growing list.  So when Joey asked where we wanted to eat on that Friday night, I sent him my list.  After browsing through it, he suggested that instead of trying just one place, we do a pizza run (without doing any actual running) through Austin.

Nice move, Joey.

Of course David and I loved the idea!  We also loved the idea of only using public transportation for our pizza run.  Although having a car is so convenient and absolutely necessary in Texas, we’ve missed taking public transportation and walking everywhere. 

So Friday evening, we hopped on the metro rail from north Austin to downtown.  It was a quick, comfortable journey.

We met Joey on the rail and Jenn downtown.  First stop on our pizza tour was The Backspace.

Nestled between 5^th and 6^th street on San Jacinto, The Backspace is a small trattoria that only seats about 30 people.  Because it was nearly 7:00 and the place was already full, we grabbed a few seats at the bar and ordered.

The Neapolitan-style pizza is cooked in a large, Italian brick oven.  We tried the Bianca, a white pizza made with a trio of cheeses – mozzarella, ricotta, pecorino, and topped with spicy arugula.  

After one delicious slice, it was all we could do not to order more and more and more.  I also wanted to try all of the antipasti.  From the roasted pears to house-made mozzarella to focaccia, it all sounded so good. 

Joey and Jenn were our voices of reason, though, and reminded us that we had a lot of pizza to conquer that night and we needed to pace ourselves.  So David and I finished off our second slices and then reluctantly headed to stop number two – Homeslice.

Continuing on our public transportation tour of Austin, we took a bus to South Congress. Metro Rail passes are good on all public transport throughout Austin, but it did take us a few minutes to figure out how to buy Jenn a ticket.  Once we did, the bus could finally get on its way.

Homeslice is an Austin favorite that has been around for years.  It’s a New York-style pizzeria serving patrons by the slice or entire pie.  We obviously could not finish an entire pie and continue our epic journey, so we ordered a slice each. 

Joey and I were a bit adventurous and went for the New York staple – eggplant.  The menu tells customers to imagine an eggplant parmigiana pizza.  Sounds delicious, right?  Well… not so much.

Sorry Austinites, but Homeslice did not live up to the hype.  I get that it’s probably the most delicious pizza ever for college students stumbling home drunk and hungry at 2AM.  But for four adults coming straight from a nice restaurant serving authentic Neapolitan pizza, Homeslice did not deliver.

In my opinion, it had the distinct cardboard taste of airport or mall pizza that is chosen by the slice and then reheated.  I’ve read recently that one of the best subs in Austin can be found at Homeslice.  So when a pizza joint is now being lauded for a sandwich, and the pizza is no longer the star, it’s not a good sign.

Maybe if we had sat inside at the actual restaurant instead of trying the Homeslice to-go building next door, we would’ve had a different experience.  But aint nobody got time for that during a pizza run!

Next on our list was Bufalina in East Austin.  When we arrived, it was getting close to 9:00 and the wait for Bufalina (they don’t take reservations) was still more than half an hour, which is saying something.  So instead of heading to the bar and drinking our calories, we walked to East Sixth to try out Via 313.

Via 313 (Detroit’s area code) is a food truck owned by two brothers from the Motor City that started serving Detroit-style pizza in Austin a couple of years ago.  I’d never heard of Detroit-style pizza before, but found it to be a mix of Chicago-style with the sauce on top and Sicilian, as the pizza is square instead of round.

I’m not the biggest fan of square pizza, so I didn’t have high expectations.  I also wasn’t so sure about a pizza with the sauce in one row over the top instead of evenly spread over the crust.  But I must admit, I was so, so wrong and Via 313 was hella good. 

Even though it was getting late and we’d made a horrible mistake at Homeslice by each ordering one enormous slice instead of spitting two between the four of us, we ate all of our pizza from Via 313.  It was that good.  We ordered a simple cheese to avoid getting even more filled up by unnecessary toppings.  The pizza came to us hot out of the oven, and the best part was actually the tangy red sauce.  Even on top, it was in perfect proportion to the dough and cheese.

We were full.  We were tired.  But we pushed on to our fourth and final dinner.

We walked back to Bufalina on East Cesar Chavez and found our table ready for us. Bufalina is famous for its house-made mozzarella.  We wanted so badly to try it, but we knew it would put us over the edge and we were already pretty uncomfortable.  We were on a mission to try pizza, so we saved the mozzarella for next time. 

We ordered the Napoletano pizza with tomato, sausage, garlic, black olive, chile, and basil.  Our pizza arrived and it was everything we’d imagined it would be.  The garlic was zesty, the sausage was meaty and flavorful, the basil was fresh, and the chile added just the right amount of heat.  The best part was the perfectly-cooked Neapolitan-style crust.

Somehow, we managed to finish the entire pizza.  

David loved it so much that he created a double-decker 

pizza for his last few bites.  

The funny thing is that the most miserable person out of the four 

of us was Joey, and it was his idea to do the pizza run! 

I must admit, though, the rest of us weren't feeling that great, either.  To really enjoy the pizza, it’s probably best not to try too many places in one night.  But we had a lot of fun checking restaurants and food trucks off of my list, and the run was perfect for this year’s National Pizza Month blog.