Although D’Amico & Sons is one of the fastest growing chains in the Twin Cities, I had never visited. In fact, I have barely been to any of the D’Amico and Partners properties. Ed Kohler and I decided to try D’Amico & Sons’ pizza for lunch at their Grand Avenue location in Saint Paul.
After ordering at the counter and taking our numbers, as much as I was drinking slowly I almost finished my Izze Pomegranate drink before the pizza arrived. It’s not to say the service was slow, but it wasn’t all that fast either.
I ordered a Margherita and to my surprise, there weren’t any tomatoes. I looked up at the menu to find out that I didn’t realize it said “tomato sauce.” For a place that prides itself with and is apparently known for its Italian traditions, this was strike one. The crust was crispy and overly fluffy around the edge. I couldn’t put my finger on if it was too sweet or if there was some other flavor I was picking up. Either way, the crust was disappointing. Strike two. The mozzarella cheese was strongly overpowered by the dumping of parmesan on top of the pizza. In fact, the parmesan overpowered the whole pizza except for the bites of basil which didn’t seem very fresh. I didn’t order parmesan on top of my pizza and even if I wanted it I wouldn’t want a liberal dumping of it.
Not only is it a wood-oven pizza that’s trying to mimic a Margherita pizza and failing, it’s not really good as a pizza standing on its own.
If you want pizza of this style, skip D’Amico & Sons and go three blocks east to Punch Pizza. In fact, I’ve had better pizza than this sitting at the bar at Axel’s Bonfire two blocks away.
As well, after noting some of the questionable employment practices of the D’Amico empire that was pointed out to me after I got home, I don’t have much of a reason to go back.
D’Amico & Sons
975 Grand Ave
Saint Paul, MN 55105
651-227-9933
Comments 4
My first bite had a piece of charred wood. That was a bit of a surprise.
For Neapolitan style, the crust was pretty heavy.
Out of D’Amico locations I’ve been to, this one on Grand has the best layout. Downtown is kind of hectic and Hennepin feels crowded.
Posted 13 Jan 2009 at 20:17 ¶I really seriously love the Neapolitan pizza (they have an actual separate “flavor” called Neapolitan) at the downtown D’Amico. I haven’t been to the Grand Avenue placed, or tried the Margherita (which shouldn’t be too much different), though, so if you tried the downtown Neapolitan you might not like that much either. But it’s the closest thing to a Manhattan pizza I’ve had in the Twin Cities.
If you’re ever in the mood for trying some new fast-food pizza by the slice, check out Torby’s in the downtown skyway. The preparation is nothing special, as they don’t even have a wood oven, and their most exotic style is a Hawaiian with ham and pineapple (still great) but the ingredients are high quality. It’s similar to Mama’s in the downtown skyway but better. And that’s not just because Mama’s forces their customers to watch Fox News on a big old plasma screen.
Posted 14 Jan 2009 at 10:31 ¶Their pizza may suck (I’ve never ordered pizza there), but I love the rest of their food.
Posted 14 Jan 2009 at 15:54 ¶D’Amico does take the honor of making the only mediocre creme brulee I’ve ever had. The caramelized sugar wasn’t crisp, and the custard portion was more like vanilla Jell-o pudding.
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 07:40 ¶Post a Comment