Saturday, July 30, 2011

Pizza Wars: Costco



The contender: Costco

Style
: New York

In your mouth: The sauce and the pepperoni are pretty good but the crust is pretty gross. I like crispier, Maillard-reacted pizza crusts. After the first soft bite there's a sensation that the pie was undercooked, or cooked improperly because the cheese was nicely browned in the right places. The sauce is adequate and the cheese not bland.

The next day: Worse.

Overall: A soggy dough supports something with potential. Kids, who tend to like insipid things, love it!

14 comments:

  1. Somebody has to ghost blog "Living in a Golden Age," while you explore modern decadence.

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  2. I don't want to miss out on "the new" looking at "the old". Not that they're always so different.

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  3. Your Costco experience may not be universal. I had some surprisingly good 'za from there a couple of years ago.

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  4. Your Costco experience may not be universal. I had some surprisingly good 'za from there a couple of years ago.

    Actually, that Costco pizza reviewed here was in Hawai'i.

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  5. Plus, this "bad" review is in no way meant to discolor Costco in any other way. They are a fine warehouse outlet and sell lots of tasty stuff.

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  6. I was nervous to read your review. My first thought was if it is a good review how could I take you seriously about food! Phew! But another question, why Costco on vacation?

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  7. Costco will do. It's not exceptionally good pizza and it's less than perfect next-day pizza when compared to Round Table, for example. But it could be worse...and it could be more expensive.

    For what it is (on-demand) pick up pizza, it will do.

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  8. There was a post I saw (not here), that had more than just the Costco Pizza.

    The thing about good pizza ... is that all it takes is flour and water. Cans of tomatoes. Olive oil. And, salt. (Some people cheat and use sugar. Either in their dough to feed the yeast.) Or in their tomatoes.

    Oh, yeah. And,you need garlic.

    This is one of the easiest businesses to open. Because NO CHAIN does it as good as you can IF you can get your oven to double its temp and go to 1000-degrees. I've read that people who have self-clean ovens cheat. And, break the lock that would hold the door closed. So, they just set their oven on clean. But they don't have to watch their pizza turn into charcoal. (To each his own.) I think, given how easy it is to slip on a pair of jeans ... and a tee shirt. You can go to a place that has these ovens built in. And, you can buy pizza, even, by the slice.

    Here? It's Tony's Pizza. They even have calzones. Heroes. And, strange topings. (Anchovies are NOT strange! Pineapple is, though.)

    Mass made pizza STINKS!

    Home made? Well, if you've got a grill. And, you're outside ... And, you like a really flattened piece of crust ... You could grill a slab of homemade dough ... with "what you like." Even canned mushrooms.

    And, it's very edible.

    Hey, you can take this piece of dough ... and pinch it around a hot dog. It's also edible.

    Costco? Go there for a good buy on canned tomatoes. And, maybe, even mozzarella cheese.

    You know what's crazy about America? We prefer Costco ... to a local store owner ...

    This once happened because the retail store own got ticketed for being open on Sundays.

    In today's world there is no excuse!

    Oh, yeah: A note to store owners. Open your shops near high schools. (My mom's business; where she sold jeans ... before they arrived in department stores. And, she gave a free alteration to boot. All for $3.64) ... Her business boomed because it wasn't just near Midwood High School. It was near enough to Brooklyn College.

    The world is now all in jeans.

    While America gave up the needle trades, first. And, then the mills that manufacture cloth.

    And, that's why we are in such an economic hole!

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  9. Phew! But another question, why Costco on vacation?

    We were staying in a house just up the hill from the new Costco near Kona on the Big Island. One night we were there getting supplies and the kids demanded it.

    I love Costco BTW. Just dropped a couple hundred bucks there yesterday for new tires.

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  10. Costco will do. It's not exceptionally good pizza and it's less than perfect next-day pizza when compared to Round Table, for example. But it could be worse...and it could be more expensive.

    This post is riff off of Jason's blog. He did a whole series of "Pizza War" posts like this one. I asked him to review Costco once and he got all snippy with me. Then, when he came over to my blog and had the audacity to find and point an error in one of my posts--well, I had to do something. :)

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  11. What? SEE SPOT RUN?

    You know, when I was a kid, and very dyslexic ... do you know what I could do with DICK AND JANE? My parents actually gave up hope that I'd ever learn to read a sentence straight.

    But at least, if Jason comes by, here, again. He can see I saw this post. And, I read it all at that time.

    You hijacked a pizza post? Yes. It's a topic that roams the Net. As does burgers.

    Really. No harm, nor foul. "Analysis" comes in great varieties. And, it's even better for teachers! There was a comedian when I was young. (Alas, his name doesn't pop into my head.) But his routines were based on the stuff he collected while he was teaching class.)

    Sometimes the wrong answers are really funnier than reality.

    Oh, by the way, I found Paul Ryan's comments to Speaker Boehner absolutely hilarious! I hope you're motivated to riff on "THROW YOGURT ON THE MOON." Because, I right away thought, this would be so good for Wisconsin.

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  12. I've eaten the Costco Pizza on Kona (you were staying up the hill from there?? - I'm taxing my brain to figure out where that would be since it's kind of on the edge of town, but no matter).

    And I've eaten Costco Pizza on Oahu. There are two Costco's that I know of on Oahu. Both are on the west side of Honolulu. One is on the H2 on the way to Schofield Barracks (near the VW dealership) and the other is in Makakilo (off the H1). I have eaten pizza at both of them at one time or another and the pizza tastes the same.

    The odd thing is that back when I used to work for the Navy and I killed people for a living, there weren't Costcos on the Big Island or on Oahu. If you wanted pizza in Hawaii back then you were stuck with Pizza Hut. I'm sure that nobody cares, but I simply wanted to point that out.

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