The Apple of My Eye: Addie’s Pizza Pie
Last night I went to Addie’s Pizza Pie in Berkeley. It was a return visit having gone there last month. The restaurant is in a nice space on the corner of Adeline and Alcatraz in South Berkeley. There are high ceilings and the acoustics are not so good, but this is a perfect place for families. What kid doesn’t like pizza? And I haven’t even mentioned the frozen custard.
I’ve tried two of their salads thus far. When I have pizza, I try to balance my meal a little by eating a salad. From my recollection, the salad from last month was a winter salad with romaine, endive, pomegranates, and parmesan cheese in a lemon vinaigrette. It was fresh and did what it was supposed to – balance my meal.
Last night, we had the Caesar salad. This one was a bit disappointing as the dressing was not a creamy Caesar. The salad was a little bitter and I am thinking that maybe they put the wrong dressing on, possibly the lemon vinaigrette. I should’ve said something. Oh well, it still did what it was supposed to – balance my meal.
While Addie’s could make improvements to their salads, they have got the pizzas right on. Last month, I tried two of their pizzas. The Southside is one of their specialty pizzas and includes sausage, basil, onions, and olives.
I love pepperoni so I designed our second pizza and added mushrooms to it. This two topping pizza may sound pretty basic, but when you use cremini mushrooms, it turns gourmet in an instant.
The pizza we had last night was a combination of the two best ingredients from last month. We built a sausage and mushroom pizza. This combination is the way to go. Our waiter offered us two different hot sauces and I tried my pizza this way. I love spicy and it made my pizza pop!
What’s so special about Addie’s “pies”? The toppings are fresh and flavorful. The outer pizza crust stays crispy while the thin inner crust is chewy. The crust is just delicious! I can only imagine a baker behind this crust. Apparently there is one. The two people behind Addie’s is Jennifer Millar from Sweet Adeline (bakery) and Tom Schnetz from Dona Tomas, Tacubaya, and Flora.
I was intrigued by their spaghetti and meatballs so we got a taste of that last night. The meatballs were moist and yummy. In the future, I might just order the meatballs without the spaghetti so I can eat more pizza.
I mentioned frozen custard earlier. Frozen custard is not something easily found on this side of the Country. When I lived in New York, I would make special trips to Grand Central Station to get some frozen custard. (Even that is closed now). Frozen custard is similar to soft serve ice cream, but in addition to cream and sugar has eggs in it making it a little richer. Although Addie’s ran out of frozen custard last night, I did get to try it last month. We tried the burnt orange and the chocolate mint. It’s a great way to end a meal.
I might have to make Addie’s a monthly ritual. For a pizza lover, it’s that good.