Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Alberto's Pizzeria

What do you do when a craving for deep dish pizza strikes but you don't have time to leave the house to go pick up a pie? If you're like me, you head to the trusty old interwebs and google "Deep Dish Pizza Delivery DC." Said search led me to Alberto's Pizzeria near Dupont Circle.

I really wanted pizza from Pi (see our review of their food truck here), but they don't deliver and the other option, Armand's Chicago Pizzeria, wasn't great on our first and only trip there. So even though our house is located just a smidge outside the delivery area, I called up Alberto's and they agreed to deliver a stuffed chicago pie with pepperoni and mushrooms if I was willing to wait 90 minutes (those thick pies don't cook at light speed). 90 minutes later, a friendly delivery driver was at our door and I summoned all my strength to lug the heavy pizza up to our kitchen.

B arrived home at this point and I sheepishly served him up a mammoth slice and told him not to expect much. The reviews of Alberto's weren't stellar and I wasn't sure how a deep dish pie would hold up during delivery. I didn't want to take a picture of it because I didn't think it would be worth blogging about.

We both were pretty shocked at how much we enjoyed the pizza. The crust was thick, without being dense as a doorknob, and the cheese was delightfully rich and stringy. For $22.95 we got enough pizza to feed a basketball team. With each order, Alberto also throws in a complimentary item such as a mini Caesar salad. While my Chicago friends would probably scoff at Alberto's pies, I think he's dishing up pretty good deep dish for delivery in DC.

Second Thoughts from B

Isn't it fun to be pleasantly surprised, especially when that surprise is deep dish pizza?

I was recently reading a piece by Bill Simmons on Eddie Murphy's career. The point was made that Murphy's career was so white hot for the first 7 years that the past 20 have been disappointing. Murphy's early brilliance raised expectations to the point that making hugely successful children's moves seemed to be a waste of his talents. The Shrek franchise would make most people's careers, but for the guy that gave us 48 Hrs and Beverly Hills Cop, we expect more.

So back to the pizza... Expectations can run the other way too. When you're expecting another low brow comedy with Eddie in a fat suit but end up with Coming to America, all is right in the world. That was Alberto's. I came home exhausted one night expecting nothing more than something that would fill my belly. Instead I got a pizza reminiscent of Chicago's best. I'm sure that is an overstatement, but that's what happens when you're pleasantly surprised.
Alberto's on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

VC said...

Too bad you two can't take a trip to Queens and write a post about McDowell's...it's the golden arcs not arches!

Claudia said...

Californians don't call pizza "pie". Come home! :-)

Mark said...

If it is close to Chicago's best it has to be good.