Trying to find the perfect Margherita pizza in Jacksonville
by Jeffrey Spear
Pizza is amongst America’s favourite meals. After all, regardless of the place you reside, or who you ask, everybody has an opinion about the place to search out the perfect pie on the town. Whereas making an attempt to agree on probably the most excellent pizza in Jacksonville, at the least amongst my circle of meals savvy buddies, it grew to become obvious that all of us had preferences and none of us shared the identical opinion.
To settle our variations, I steered a pizza crawl, sampling slices at every of the spots we believed have been among the many finest on the town. As well as, to make sure constant experiences at each cease, we agreed to restrict our choice to Margherita pizzas, made merely with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, contemporary basil and olive oil. On this regard, our evaluations would deal with a restricted set of variables, permitting us to extra precisely evaluate and distinction taste, texture, look and general enjoyment.
After ten locations, ten pies and loads of beer on the facet, we discovered so much concerning the parts that contribute to creating a very nice pizza. Right here’s a glimpse into what we found.
Our journey started at Bones Pizza on Mayport Highway. Co-located with Reve Brewing, the one-two punch of wood-fired pizzas accompanied by a formidable number of craft beers was a wonderful option to kick-start our investigations. Their model of a margherita pizza—the Mayporita—was glorious, arriving completely baked with a pleasant contact of charring on a crispy but considerably chewy crust. Suitably impressed, had this been our solely vacation spot for the day, we’d have been more than pleased to order extra of every thing and make ourselves at residence.
The remainder of today’s tastings occurred inside a stone’s throw of the Atlantic Ocean, together with visits to Joseph’s Pizza in Atlantic Seaside, Mezza Luna Ristorante and Al’s Pizza in Neptune Seaside, and V-Pizza in Jacksonville Seaside. Whereas every of us had expectations of how good these pizzas have been going to be, we didn’t discover a demonstrably higher pie amongst them. Sure, the pizzas have been gratifying. Their crusts—generally skinny and crispy, different occasions thicker and chewier—have been the largest differentiators. When it got here to general attraction, all of us commented how properly the Margherita at Al’s was introduced however this alone was not sufficient to win everybody over. Finally, we have been hard-pressed to select a pie that out-performed the remaining.
Figuring out that we had 5 extra pizzerias to go to, we remained optimistic. We have been starting to suspect, nonetheless, that had we ordered pizzas with a bigger variety of toppings, we would have preferred them much more. After all, we held to the opinion {that a} stand-out Margherita was positive to be discovered.
Having recovered from our first day of gluttony, we have been able to set out as soon as once more seeking an undeniably spectacular Margherita pie. Our locations this time have been Rodrigo’s Craft Pizza, Pie95 and Carmine’s Pie Home in Riverside; Moon River in Murray Hill; and Bella Vista in Fruit Cove; all properly regarded with loyal followings. To our shock, as with the day past’s findings, it was tough to differentiate one pie as noticeably higher than the others. Whereas the wood-fired pizzas at Pie95 and Rodrigo’s had crusts that made them particular person favorites, and all of the pies had benefit, nobody pizza outperformed the others.
After so many pies, it was clear that discovering Jacksonville’s finest was not going to be simple. Plus, figuring out there have been a lot of different pizzerias that got here extremely advisable, our concept of a complete pizza crawl was wanting like a endless endeavor. Having been unable to discover a clear winner up to now, we agreed that conducting extra tastings, whereas gratifying, would most probably ship comparable outcomes.
Figuring out how passionately folks spoke about their favourite pizzeria and their favourite pie, we determined figuring out Jacksonville’s finest can be higher left to particular person preferences. We’re nonetheless huge followers of all of those locations and keen to go to them once more. So many pizzas. So little time.