ZPizza

My wife was the first to discover ZPizza. She had seen it tucked away near her office and thought that we should try it out. Sometimes she discovers these little pizza places so that we aren't eating the same one over and over again. I'm fine with the same place over and over again, but I guess she likes to have a variety. If I know that pizza is good than I am pretty content with returning a lot!

Upon entering ZPizza we quickly learned their pizza was healthy in comparison to other pizza joints we try out. They use all natural ingredients, have wheat crust available as well as gluten-free. My wife was happy to know she could eat their pizza and feel a little less guilty about it. This would soon become her guilty pleasure with many stops for lunch! She personally orders the Provence which is served on a wheat crust with organic tomato sauce, homemade roasted garlic sauce, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, capers, tomatoes and fresh basil. It's only available for their special on Thursdays & Sundays so it's the only days we are allowed to go.

Likes?

1. Their combo special of 2 slices & a drink for $5.95! Plenty of food for a great price!
2. Plenty of pepperonis & I didn't even have to order double the pepperonis.
3. Wheat crust. Not a lot of pizza places offer wheat crust as an option, especially wheat crust that tastes good. Big plus!

Dislikes?

1. Overall taste of the pizza. Although I definitely like their pizza, if I had to put it up against some of the other pizza places in my area I would probably choose one of the alternatives.
2. Pizza is not made to order. Sometimes the pizza isn't completely fresh when ordered. (Disclaimer: this only applies to the daily special which is what I get)

No Longer With Us: Turner's Pizza Depot

This place has actually left the area, but I still wanted to take a minute and talk about my experience there so you could see that I don't always like every pizza place I try.

From the beginning. One day while driving past Parker Square in Flower Mound my wife discovered the most marvelous thing, a new pizza joint called Turner's Pizza Depot! Being the awesome wife that she is (no, I'm not being paid to say that), she just couldn't wait to tell me about it. And being the awesome husband that I am (yes I did pay her to let me say that) I made sure I was super happy when she told me about her news and that out of respect to her not being that big of a pizza fan, we would wait a week or so to try it out.

A couple of days later when we ventured a few blocks over to Turner's Pizza Depot, we ordered a pepperoni pizza & garlic cheese bread to share. The garlic cheese bread was really good, but the pizza was nothing special to say the least. It was covered in pepperoni (as all of you know by now I love) but something about the sauce wasn't right. Normally I order light on the sauce, but this time I so busy figuring out what to order I forgot to ask. Boy do I regret that! I still can't pinpoint what was wrong with that sauce, other than it just didn't taste good. It was kind of sweet, and much like Hulk Hogan, pizza sauce should never be sweet.

I did however like the atmosphere of Turner's and the staff that worked there, but that was not enough for us to return. We talked about returning at some point to give it a second chance and just order the same pizza with light sauce, but we never made it. As of recently that door has been completely shut as Turner's Pizza Depot has gone out of business. However, I have good news...A new pizza place has moved in to Turner's old building that we recently visited (review to come soon).

Likes:

• The Garlic Cheese bread. A toasted piece of french bread with a light garlic sauce and lots of melted mozzarella cheese.


• The atmosphere. The entire staff was friendly and helpful.


• Location. Parker Square is a fun place to take the family to eat pizza and listen to live music (on Friday nights during the summer).

Dislikes:

• Pizza sauce. As many of you know I'm not the biggest fan of pizza sauce. However, I normally always like pizza sauce on my pizza in small portions, but this particular sauce? Yeah, not so much.


• Price. Its been a while since we tried Turner's Pizza Depot, but I can definitely remember that the price that we paid for our dinner didn't not match the quality of our dinner. Although, in hind sight, that may have to do with the dinner not being good, but I digress.

So now as you can see, I am truly human and I don't like every pizza place I try. Sad day.

Lata Peeps!

Carmine's Pizzeria

I first discovered Carmine's Pizza 3 years ago when I was visiting a friend at University of Texas at Dallas. This specific Carmine's is located at the corner of Coit and Campbell in Richardson, TX. However, for the purposes of this post I will be critiquing the Carmine's I know best, the one located in Lewisville, TX.

Stuffed

I will always remember the first time I tried the Carmine's Pizza in Lewisville. It was a happy yet painful day. I had been living in Lewisville for about 6 months and was in the process of exploring all of the pizza places that the little town had to offer. Jana, my wife, is not the biggest fan of pizza, so most of this exploring has been done on my own time. One Sunday afternoon Jana had a shopping date with her mom and I was left to fend for my self for lunch. After two seconds of contemplating what I wanted to eat, I went with the obvious choice, Peperoni pizza! Shortly after I came to this revelation I was off on my quest to find some of this yummy goodness. At first my plan was to just venture to Little Caesars and get a $5 pizza, but my nose had other plans. Right around the corner from my house, I discovered something that made my day, Carmine's Pizza! There was only one problem, it was 11:30AM and Carmines wasn't scheduled to open until noon, but the owner, Marcio, seeing extreme sadness and defeat on my face, opened the door for me anyways. Like I said earlier, I had been to the Carmine's location in Dallas, but never by my self, so naturally I was hesitant what to order. The owner asked me how hungry I was and I quickly responded with, "I'm always hungry for pepperoni pizza!" so he suggested I get the one slice lunch combo. I just kind of looked at him as if to say "do you know how much pizza that I can eat??", and then proceeded to order two slices of pizza. I was proud of myself, I had stuck to my guns and obeyed my tummy. Now it was time to play the waiting game, and after semi-patiently waiting 10 minutes (seemed like 2 hours) for the pizza to cook it was finally ready and I was headed home to enjoy! By the time I got home the pizza was at the perfect temperature and ready to be eaten. So I started my second quest of the day, eating my yummy pizza! The slices were HUGE each slice was about 6 inches in diameter (from one side of the crust to the other) and 7 or so inches long, so needless to say this quest was going to be quite a bit harder than the first, but I was ready and determined to complete it! By the time I finished one slice I quickly came to the realization that I should not have stuck with my guns and just ordered the one slice lunch deal, but I pushed on. About 20 grueling minutes later I was done with both slices, my quest was complete! However, instead of celebrating all I wanted to do was unbutton my pants and lay down on the couch. I kept thinking to my self, "this must have been how Joey felt after he ate the entire Thanksgiving turkey on an episode of Friends, and man where are my stretchy pants when I need them!" And that's the story of my first time at Carmine's Lewisville and needless to say I was STUFFED!

Yes, I did return and I took my wife. In fact, we spent several Friday nights there where the owner knows our faces. What's Jana get? Canadian bacon.

Now that I'm finished rambling, I will get down to business with the likes and dislikes of Carmine's pizza..

Likes:

• The pizza: New York style thin crust with not very much sauce and a lot of cheese, exactly how I like it!
  
• Garlic Knots: Yummy little pieces of bread tied up in small knots with a garlicky butter goodness draped all over them. (Quick tip; when you order the lunch combo ask to substitute the salad for garlic knots, they are the same price on the menu so you should not have any problems, and I promise you, you will not regret it)
• Atmosphere: Small area with about 6 tables. Very family friendly.
• Owner: Very friendly & makes a special effort to get to know his customers!
  

Dislikes:

• Side salad: Lets just say I would rather have the garlic knots instead of the salad, its better for you ;)
  
• Lack of pepperonis on the pizza. The pepperonis are the sole reason that I eat pizza and in my personal opinion there should be far more pepperonis on the pizza slices.
  

Another one of my favorite things about Carmine's Pizzeria Lewisville is that it is affordable. Below are a few specials that they are offering. Enjoy!

Specials? They have plenty. Check them out here: Carmine's specials. Our favorite? 1 slice 1 topping, garlic knots (or salad) & 1 drink for $4.99 (Add $1 after 5pm)

I was not compensated in any way to share my opinions.

The Food Pyramid

My wife found this t-shirt at Old Navy a year or two ago which simply sums up my beliefs. Unfortunately it was a children's shirt so I don't own it, but it's fitting for sure.

In Memory of Gloria's

Hi, my name is Jana & I am Cody's wife and partner in crime. Cody jokingly told me he should start a blog about his love for pepperoni pizza so I took it upon myself to make it a reality. I am writing the first post as a means to encourage him in his journey. I will say that this man definitely has a love for Pepperoni Pizza! So much so that many of our wedding gifts were pizza stones & pizza utensils.

So this post specifically is in memory of my favorite pizza place, Gloria's. Gloria's was a local pizza joint in Coppell. I don't recall when it opened but I know I've been eating it since I was a wee little girl. Unfortunately this past year they closed their doors.

Gloria's seriously had some of the best tasting pizza. This was one place Cody always knew I'd say yes to if he was craving pizza and thought I might not want it. One mention of Gloria's & I was set to go. The best part? We could get the pizza buffet which meant I didn't have to eat Pepperoni Pizza & Cody can eat as much as he possibly wanted.

(Cody on one of our many Gloria's dates)

I always started off with a side salad with mushrooms & olives plus their delicious ranch dressing. And then it was on to the pizza! Gloria & Hilda both knew our preference on pizza the second we walked in the door, one pepperoni & one alfredo. I loved being known & I loved that they made whatever you wanted for the buffet. Not to mention their Dr. Pepper was always really good! Their veggie pizza was also rather delicious!

This was a place I grew up loving & had taught many of my friends to love. Our family loved going together when my sister was in town. I honestly miss it a lot & crave it often! With all that said...I am okay with Cody finding the best pizza in the metroplex because I miss what I thought was simply the best pizza in the world.

So here's to his journey & hoping I don't get fat in the process...

I was not compensated in any way to share my opinions.