Since when does every town get its own damn style of pizza? 5th Street Pizza claims to do it St. Louis-style: 1. thin crackery crust, 2. slices cut into rectangles rather than wedges (rectangles? whoo-hoo), and 3. a reliance on Provel cheese, which ain’t even real cheez but is instead what you call a cheese product. (this should tell you sumfin: you don’t gotta refrigerate it.) Here, from Wiki: “Fans consider Provel a delicious, mildly smoked flavor that is softer than mozzarella but that still maintains a cohesive consistency that doesn’t form messy strings when it is cut.” IE, they like this cheese becuz it’s easy to eat. Dude, Styrofoam peanuts are easy to eat. Anyway, 5th street comes from a guy who previously owned upper crust, a mediocre pizza joint in plano which has since closed.

1223 W McDermott Dr. #85, Allen. 972-396-5557

back in 1999 - when dallas was still a pizza hellhole, pre fireside pies + campania + coal vines – Olive Oil’s Pizzeria in garland seemed pretty damned good. Owner Frankie Funaro comes from a pizza-making family outside Pittsburgh (PA), and makes his crust, a-chewy-and-flavorful-thing (’least that’s how it seemed back in 1999). He even makes the bread for the subs. toppings are above average - fresh spinach, not frozen – and some pizzas have alternative sauces such as pesto or garlic (instedda tomato). The only prob was location: waay out at 30 & Belt Line, a hike unless you live in mesquite. Now there’s a new, second Olive Oil’s Pizzeria in Richardson, 1 mile W of 75. hoo-rah. And the pizza thing just keeps on mushrooming

581 W. Campbell Rd. #129, Richardson 972-480-9555

A gift for far-north fans of the Chicago-pizza thing: an offshoot Chicago St Pizza, opening in McKinney sept 1. the 1st branch in plano has earned the praise of sharp-eyed local experts, so mckinney-ites R lucky. (The chain headed north cuz that’s where owners Azir & Resmie Hani live.) DFW looks to be on the front end of a pizza explosion, w/ the fireside pies chain-lette expanding, plus 2 new chains coming to town in 2007: Garlic Jim’s Famous Gourmet Pizza, a WA state outfit w/ “gourmet toppings” such as almond slivers or coconut (and why not, I say); and zpizza, kindof a CPK knockoff (and what better pizza to knock off, I say)

2414 W University Dr, Mckinney 972-548-7050

Brace yourself: There’s no Vinny at Vinny’s New York Pizza. Sorry. They thought “Vinny” sounded Italiany and new yorky. They also say their pizza is true NY-style and w/ a name like Vinny’s, who are you to argue? But hang on, they’re making their own dough/sauce, the crust’s reportedly thin, and for now it’s BYOB, so maybe slack can be cut. Owner Celia Lopez took over Vinny’s from colorful Frankie Carabetta, of Manhattan Bar, Knox Street Pub, Corner Bar, and Rocco’s pizza (next to Club Babalu). Is there all of a sudden a lotta pizza @ knox-henderson?

4447 N. Central Expry. (next to Vermillion) 214-720-0333

As a courtesy to Chicago-style pizza fans and nothing more: Wo-max Pizza, which does the thick, sludgy, multi-crusty “pizza” snort popular in the Windy City. (Almost as annoying as calling Boston “Beantown” or NY “The Big Apple“.) Also at Wo-max: Chicago-style hot dogs (more horrid indelicacy) & Italian beef sandwiches. No restroom makes this not a true sit-down place, tho there’s a few tables, not to mention the obligatory chi-town memorabilia on the walls. Go Cubs, Bears, whatever.

2809 Flower Mound Road Flower Mound 972-691-2101

continuing w/ our pizza week theme. isn’t that logo the most awesome ever?

WTF, let’s make it pizza week*

VERY HOT PIZZA NEWS: Campania Pizza JUST OPENED (like, hours ago) on the ground floor of Mondrian Cityplace across from the uberbuzzy West Village. Named for the Campania region, it has a guy in from italy doing a temporary consultancy to demo real pizza i.e. not loaded w/ mozzarella or drenched w/ tomato sauce. Everything’s imported from Italy (even the flour!); they’re also selling gourmet foodstuffs. They’ll do salads, specialty pizza rolls, stuffed crust deals, but it’s so new they don’t have all their supplies. The interior’s tiled w/ imported stone & mosaic, and there’s a mural of napoli on the wall.

3000 blackburn st. #150. 214-780-0605

*cool neon-esque logo supplied by, yes, marc, the indian scout of NYCE

Brooklyn’s Pizzeria is a relatively young chain w/ four branches, all far N of LBJ (Plano is the newest), but they do all the right things: make everything from scratch, incl. their pizza dough which they hand-toss, use whole milk mozzarella which they shred daily, etc etc. the family that owns it is in fact from Brooklyn, so this is old-school pizza; no arugula or upscale-type toppings, it’s not that kind of place. They also do calzones, stromboli, pepperoni rolls, lasagna w/ house-made pasta, and so on.

1314 W. McDermott Dr., Allen 972-359-1144
4900 ElDorado Parkway, McKinney 972-540-5561
5729 Lebanon Rd., Frisco 972-377-4410
4637 Hedgcoxe Rd., Plano 214-705-0777

If you have a Pizza Patron nearby, I can clairvoyantly tell you about your ‘hood: It’s >40 percent Latin. That’s the strategy of this Garland-based chain, which will open 100 stores by end of ‘05 across SW: AZ, CO, CA, and of course TX, w/ 16 stores in dallas area. “Mexican pizza” is a buzzy fusion thing with no set definition; it usually boils to “replace Italian sausage w/ chorizo“. Pizza Patron is more about vibe: menus in Spanish, bilingual employees who say “buenos dias” when you enter. Bizness mags love Pizza Patron (”pizza boss”) cuz it was started by whizkid Antonio Swad, who founded (and then sold off) Wingstop. Bilingual or no, everyone understands this: Pizza Patron’s priciest pizza is $6.99.

It hurts to say so but the pizza at Grab A Slice is only fair. On the plus side: toppings are fresh, food’s made to order, nunna that greasy sheen you get at the chains. But if you judge a pizza by its crust (as well you should), the brought-in product here doesn’t cut it, no matter how much care was invested in its selection by owners Tina & Leah Bennett. But the sisters had a reason, and this gets to what’s cool about Grab A Slice: It’s in a kiosk hardly bigger than a closet, 500 sq ft tops, w/ a kitchen shoehorned inside and employees spilling outa the windows. They deliver, of course, but you can stop by and do as the name says: grab a slice, served, they claim, in 2 ½ minutes.

1100 W Main St. (at valley parkway) Lewisville, 972-353-5777 or 1-877-492-6874

FYI, this started out as a tout for California Pizza Kitchen’s new “Neopolitan” thin-crust pizzas, sold at grocery stores, about $5 a pop. But supermkt frozen pizza turns out to be hot + controversial. It’s selling so well (up 2.1% in 2004, to $2.6 bil) that it’s scaring the pizza huts of the world (sales = $20 to $30 bil). Foodies are into it: When I raved about CPK to my pal Stacy, she was ready w/ her new fave, Freschetta (”neither too saucy nor cheezy,” she said. Stacy always has an informed opinion on just about any topic, esp. food). Spookily, Freschetta was just mentioned by D dining critic Nancy N on http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/; her mom hated it. So can we get back to my tout? Thank you. CPK has three flavors: Margherita (tomatoes & cheez), Sicilian (meats), and white (w/ spinach). Like any great saga, this has tragic ending: CPK’s line is actually made by KRAFT. Kraft, the “category leader,” which also makes DiGiorno, Tombstone, and Jack’s. Sigh. Still, this is all better than Red Baron, right?