Round Table Pizza from Ellensburg WA

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J'aime and Gary have had to suffer a disastrous drop in pizza quality. I'm fond of Round Table Pizza. Though individual restaurants vary, when they're on they're one of my favorites. And 40 minutes for good pizza is an easy trade-off.

Besides -- I think it's legal to drive like 150 in Washington if you're east of the Cascades.

Di Fara Pizza

From Brooklyn and New York

Di Fara is two stops away on the Q train. I suspect one of the ingredients is Crack, given that I can't bear going a week without it. This addiction is complicated by the fact that it's pretty much too busy to eat there Friday through Sunday, closed Monday, and can get sorta busy during the weekdays too.

I suspect it might be the best pizza place I've eaten at, since I'd have a tough time choosing between it and Casa Bianca -- but I grew up with Casa Bianca so that gives it a hometown advantage.

San Antonio Improves!

...Or my subjective evaluation of San Antonio increases after discovering a heretofore unknown fact.

While California Pizza Kitchen is pretty decent it's not quite my style -- and, after having checked pretty much every pizza place listed on various "best pizza places" listings in local papers and online sites only to discover that a lot of journalists like crappy pizza, I despaired of ever finding a decent pie.

But Paul's Pizza Roma has just the kind of crust I like -- crispy with puffy air pockets around the edge. It's pretty close to Round Table Pizza (the Holy Grail of pizza chains) but with a little more flavor to the crust (since Paul's brushes it with garlic butter).

So far my preference ranking goes:

1. Casa Bianca
2. Grimaldi's
3. Delorenzo's
4. Round Table
5. Paul's Pizza Roma

While it didn't knock anything off the list, it is nice to have something close.