The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit 2013: Bagby Pizza Company

The rules of The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit are simple.  Each category is worth 2 points (allowing for half points). The only pizza I'm considering is the basic slice of cheese. At the end of the year, the highest score wins the coveted Baltimore Bistros and Beer's Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit title. This week's entry is Bagby Pizza Company. Click here to see how the last entrant fared.

Droop Factor - I was impressed with the strength of the crust on Bagby's pizza. The crust is paper thin and topped with A LOT of cheese. I had my doubts about it standing up to the awesome force known as gravity, but stand it did and came through with an impressive droop score.

Score - 2

Greaseification -  Just by looking at the picture above you can see the shimmery grease atop the pie. Thanks to a pizza topped with plenty of cheese there was plenty of grease but it never got out of hand. Could it have done with a little less? Sure, and that's why it only comes through with an average score here.

Score - 1

Aroma - The aroma of this pizza was a little different than what I usually get. Normally, I'm catching whiffs of sauce, herbs, or garlic. Bagby Pizza is unique in that the bready smell of the crust is what I noticed the most.

Score - 1.5

Cheese - Bagby Pizza Company tops their pizza with a lot of cheese. On the positive side, the cheese tastes really good. On the negative side, it's a little out of proportion with the rest of the pie. The crust is super thin and it's sauced very lightly. At times, the cheese gets to be a bit much.

Score - 1

Sauce - As I mentioned above this pizza is sauced very lightly. Sometimes that's not a bad thing, but with so much cheese I would have liked a little more sauce to balance things out. I'm guessing they go light on the sauce because the thin crust couldn't stand much more on top without completely falling apart. With that said, the sauce has delicious bright tomato flavors that can stand up with any pizza in the area.

Score - 1

Crust - For me, the crust was the best part of Bagby Pizza. There is a very audible crack when you bite in. No other pizza can match the cracker like crunch they bring to the party (at least those I've tried so far). I loved the crunch and I also loved the charred flavor they impart into the crust. Bagby gets a perfect score on the crust, and if I could give them higher than a 2 here I definitely would.

Score - 2

Overall Score - 8.5 out of 12

Bagby Pizza has the makings of one of the top pizzas (if not the top) in Baltimore. The sauce is delicious, the cheese is flavorful, and the crust is great. I'd like to see the cheese to sauce ratio adjusted a little bit, but even if they never changed a thing it's really hard to find a pizza as good as this.

The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit 2013: Verde Pizza Napoletana

The rules of The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit are simple.  Each category is worth 2 points (allowing for half points). The only pizza I'm considering is the basic slice of cheese. At the end of the year, the highest score wins the coveted Baltimore Bistros and Beer's Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit title. This week's entry is Verde Pizza Napoletana . Click here to see how the last entrant fared

Droop Factor -  Verde pizza passes the droop test with ease. I should have made this clear in my earlier posts that the way I eat my pizza is always folded in half. It's the civilized thing to do, and if done this way, Verde's pizza shows rigor mortis what stiffness is all about (in a good way). 

Score = 2

Greaseifcation - The grease was minimal here (if it even exists at all). As you can see in the picture above, the fresh mozzarella was distributed with care, thus, reducing the risk of over greaseification.

Score = 2

Aroma - Verde's Margherita Pizza smells outstanding. You get a little bit of wood from the brick oven pizza,  herb from the basil, and the crust just smells wonderful and bready (how else is cooked dough supposed to smell).

Score = 1.5

Cheese - It's a fresh mozzarella. Do I need to say anything else? It's creamy, slightly salty, and it's placed on the pie in perfect amounts allowing the dough and sauce their time to shine.

Score = 1.5

Sauce - Verde has a great sauce if you like an authentic tomato forward sauce (and I do). But, the sauce here seems to get lost in the shuffle. That may be by design so that the other elements of the pie have an equal shot to light up the stage, but I was looking for the sauce to grab my attention just a touch more. In my opinion, the acidic tomato sauce could have used a bit more sweetness.

Score = 1

Crust - This, my friends, is what Verde pizza is all about. Good god, this crust is good. It's nice and crunchy on the outside from the brick oven, but it's still a bit chewy on the inside. And it only gets better as you eat. You're hit with a little smoke and the browned bits of bread are little bites of nirvana. Two is the highest score I give for a category, but this Crust far exceeds any rating I can give it and needs to be experienced to do justice.

Score = 2

Overall Score -  10 out of 12

It's still early in the game, but Verde has jumped out to an early lead in The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit. Regardless if there is a better pizza out there (and I'm going to have fun looking) this is definitely a Baltimore pizza you need to try. Go and get you some!

The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit 2013: Pasta Mista

The rules of The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit are simple.  Each category is worth 2 points (allowing for half points). The only pizza I'm considering is the basic slice of cheese. At the end of the year, the highest score wins the coveted Baltimore Bistros and Beer's Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit title. This week's entry is none other than Pasta Mista (Towson location). I've reviewed them in the past, but it was a review of the restaurant as a whole. Today, I'm only focusing on their slice of plain cheese pizza. Click here to see how last weeks entrant fared.

Droop Factor - The crust on this pizza defies gravity. As far as droop factor is concerned, Pasta Mista cannot be beat. The pizza is layered with the perfect amount of sauce and cheese to prevent the oh so annoying droopy crust.

Score = 2

Greaseifcation - I like made up words here at Baltimore Bistros and Beers. I also like when swimming classes aren't mandatory in order to avoid drowning in grease. Pasta Mista manages to keep the grease to a minimum thanks to the proper portioning of cheese I referenced up above.

Score = 2

Aroma - Just like the score indicates, the smell of Pasta Mista's pizza is ordinary. In other words, it smells great because it's pizza, but it's lacking the celestial pizza scent that Pizza Johns had to offer (and to which all shall be compared).

Score = 1

Cheese - I focused really hard on the flavor of the cheese trying to find something that would stick out, but I just couldn't come up with anything. It wasn't great, it wasn't bad, it was just cheese and because of that it's getting a middling rank of 1.

Score = 1

Sauce - Just as with the cheese I focused on the flavor of the sauce hoping that some specific feature would jump out at me. But again, the sauce was just "meh''. I like a bright, acidic pizza sauce and I just wasn't getting that last night. The flavors were all kind of muddled together.

Score = 1

Crust - The crust of Pasta Mista's pizza is by far the best feature of their pie. When you fold the slice it stays there without swaying back and forth. The crust is thin, light, and crunchy, falling just short of having the cracker like crunch I'm looking for.

Score = 1.5

Overall Score -  7.5 out of 12

This week's review of Pasta Mista made me laugh a bit. Almost everything good about last week's pizza (Pizza Johns) ended up being mediocre at Pasta Mista. And everything weak about last week's pizza was strong at Pasta Mista. Pizza Johns had an excellent sauce and cheese, but a crust that left a little to be desired. Pasta Mista offered sauce and cheese that was pretty forgetful, but their crust was excellent. Would I recommend a slice of Pasta Mista cheese pizza? You betcha. But do they have what it takes to called the Best Pizza in Baltimore? I'm not so sure. Only time will tell.

The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit 2013: Pizza Johns

The rules of The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit are simple.  Each category is worth 2 points (allowing for half points). The only pizza I'm considering is the basic slice of cheese. At the end of the year, the highest score wins the coveted Baltimore Bistros and Beer's Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit title. The first slice up is Pizza Johns located in Essex.

Droop Factor - This might not be the most important factor in a great piece of pizza, but it is the first thing I notice when grabbing a slice of pie. When you fold the slice does it stand at attention? Or, does it hang there like Peter North on his day off? I like one that stands there so that you aren't sitting there holding the slice above your head trying to get the first bite in your mouth. In this category, the entry from Pizza John's falls a bit short. The pizza is super droopy, even while folded.

Score = .5

Greaseifcation - Another basic category, but one that can make or break the experience. There is a very fine line between greasy lusciousness and greasy slopfest. Pizza Johns walks the line, but happily they end up on the greasy lusciousness side of things.

Score = 1.5

Aroma - I wasn't going to use this as a category, and while I agree that it's kind of a whatever type thing, after smelling this pie up close yesterday it smelled so good that I decided that smell need not be forgotten. This pizza smells delicious. If you go to eat hungry, you'll leave starving. Even after you annihilate the entire pie, the smell that hovers around you long after it's gone is intoxicating.

Score = 2

Cheese - Now we're getting into the, uh, meat and potatoes of pizza. If you're evaluating a slice of cheese pizza, cheese is probably pretty important. Pizza Johns tops their pie with plenty of creamy milky mozzarella that tastes great. However, no matter how long you wait to eat you end up running into some sort of annoying problem. If you try to eat it when it's at it's hottest you'll burn the ever living shit out of your mouth. So, why don't I just wait a little while? Because if you wait for it to cool down the cheese tends to all come off in one bite leaving you with nothing but sauce and crust.

Score = 1

Sauce - To put it simply, the sauce at Pizza John's is the highlight of the pizza. It's bright. It's acidic. And it has good tomato flavor. Best of all, they aren't shy about the portion they use. The only thing I would like to see is a bit more herb flavor present and maybe a few specks of red pepper flakes here and there to liven things up.

Score = 1.5

Crust - Pizza John's has a great tasting crust. With that said, I think it suffers a bit from the large of amount of cheese/sauce they use which leads to the drooping issues I mentioned earlier.

Score = 1

Overall Score -7.5 out of 12

And there you have my evaluation of Pizza Johns' cheese pizza. Flavor wise, this pizza tastes GREAT. Yes, taste is super important but there are a lot of things one must look for while on The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit. If you ever find yourself in Essex, don't be afraid to stop in for some damn good pizza.