Pizza comes in all shapes, sizes, styles. What’s your favorite?

Pizza is an American phenomenon.  Yeah, yeah, it was invented in Italy, but there’s more pizza served today in the United States than anywhere else. That’s probably because most Americans consider it a fast food, and we are really into fast food. Good pizza requires special treatment when making and baking, and it doesn’t matter if it’s in a brick oven, a standard oven or your oven at home.  So today, a look at four pizzas from one man’s perspective.

Brixx Wood Fired Pizza (chain): This is a thin crust pizza with ample ingredients that seems to take more time compiling onto the dough than to bake it in the oven. There’s lots of flavors, some with typical tomato sauce base and others not. A favorite is the Bronx Bomber with spicy Italian sausage, mozzarella, prosciutto, gorgonzola cheese, tomato sauce and fresh oregano. Ask for it a little more done, and eat it all there. Leftovers are not as good as it is at the restaurant.

Mellow Mushroom (chain): The crust, whole wheat or white, is the best, but the chef has short arms with the ingredients. It’s not thin crust; it’s not overly thick. Nearly all the pizzas are tasty, but not enough stuff on top. Rephrase: There's ample toppings but not enough of any single topping to bring out its flavor. Ask for a side of the tomato sauce for dunking the crust because there are not enough ingredients on the pizza. It’s tasty and good for reheating but not enough stuff on top.

Daniel’s Restaurant (one location, Apex): This really good pizza with a nice crust and just the right quantity of toppings. The absolute best is the Southwest with blackened chicken strips, black beans, tomato, jalapeno, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, and cilantro on a salsa red sauce. Getting a pizza to go at Daniel’s is worth it but you might ask that it be baked a little longer. Ask for it well-done. Even so, once you get it home, you might want to heat it a little more to crisp the crust so ask that it is not cut into slices.

Papa Murphy’s (chain): This is the best take and bake pizza, though not the greatest pizza. It's convenient. You order, they prepare, you take it home and bake it. Takes about 15 minutes. Ample ingredients. Good for reheating in the toaster oven for lunch or good cold for breakfast. The Herb Chicken Mediterranean is nice with its artisan thin crust, olive oil and garlic, herb chicken, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, feta and zesty herbs.

This is a small selection, just a few of our pizza joints. What’s your favorite pizza; tell us why?

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