Can Can Pizza (Can't Can't)

A week of journeying through the Baltics later, we came away with one surprising take-away - the Latvian people are not nice.  If you enter their shop, they will glare or sneer at you.  If you do not have correct change, they will not sell you things.  If you visit their tourist destinations, they will try to talk you out of visiting.  And sneer.  And if you show up an hour before a restaurant closes, they will not serve you!


Sorry Latvia, but it's true.


I would love to review Can Can Pizza in Old Town Riga, Latvia, but I cannot.  We showed up at about 10:15 pm.  The hostess looked a little bothered to seat us.  Following being sat, she begrudgingly provided us menus.  When we took a breath to order, she said, "Desserts and Drinks."  We said we wanted a pizza pie, and she said "We are not serving any more pizza.  You can go and come back tomorrow."  We thanked her and promptly left, to never return.


Why seat us?  Why have a sign that says you are open until 11 pm?  Why not tell us before we are sat that the kitchen is closed?  Who knows.  


After we left, we went to TGI Friday's.  We had a bad dry cake brownie sunday, freezer burned oreo madness, but a polite waitstaff. Apparently Americans exported not only "flare" with TGI Friday's, but uncharacteristic pleasantness.  Thanks TGI Friday's, and thanks America!

Please note the judge-y eyed lady, who sells things in Riga, Latvia to tourists 

Serious Pie - Westlake

Serious Pie had a lot going for it. We loved our Westlake experience, which was less hustle and bustle, accommodating, and laid back. Unfortunately, Serious Pie also hit a few sour notes. This is the problem with going somewhere that has a reputation that not only precedes it, but precedes it by blocks. And blocks. And blocks.  (Because it's a Tom Douglas restaurant)

Let's jump right into it. Serious Pie's duck prosciutto appetizer was phenomenal. Slap your mamma good. Write home about it. The prosciutto was arguably the best I've ever eaten. The beets were nicely done and seasoned, and the pistachios added a delightful crunch. 


On the other side, my friend told me the bread soup was under-seasoned and a bit bland - really too bad because it looked so good. Hit, and miss.

The party I was with ordered a number of pizzas amongst the group. If you are a light eater, you might decide to split a pie with a loved one, but generally you need one pie per person. We ordered so many, the waitress got an order wrong. This wouldn't be a problem, if not for how ravenous you are by the time your pizza actually lands in front of you (aka, the wait is a bit long). The waitress thought my friend had ordered a mushroom pizza, which most assuredly she had not because she hates (hate hates) mushrooms. That was boxed, and comped, and her actual order was put in, but it was still 10-15 minutes later until it was delivered.  So that was a miss, and then a hit (because I consider this good customer service).

The Pizza in Question...

The pizzas were good, some even great. For example, the fennel sausage and soft egg with arugula pizzas were great. 

Delicious Fennel Sausage

Delicious Arugula and Over Easy Egg

The buffalo mozzarella pizza was good. 

Good - Meat added

The vegetarian offerings, the squash and a pear special, were also good, even very good. 

Special, Squash and Pear - and YES, these ingredients belong on Pizza!

The Penn Cove clams pizza, however, was only ok. It had a substantial amount of promise, but with the pancetta and clams, along with what seasoning was added, it was almost inedibly-salty. Also, maybe because of the thin crust, maybe because of neglect, a few of the pies had singed sides (read: burnt). This was another round of some hits, and misses.

Over-salty Clam Miss

The desserts were all hit. The budino, coconut cream pie, and ice cream were decadent and delicious. I would call in and take just their desserts on the road with me, and I am a savory man, no sweet.  In my opinion, this is high praise.  My wife still talks about the coconut cream pie...

The final verdict... at the price Serious Pie commands, it must not just be good, or very good, it must be great all the time. You expect orders to be correct, wait time to be reasonable, and dishes to be correctly seasoned. Because of this, I have to say it only merits 3.5 of 5. With proper seasoning and uniform doneness, Serious Pie would sit at a 4, and if everything were as delicious as the prosciutto (about which I still talk and think, and dream), it would be a 5 all the way!

Serous Pie
401 Westlake Avenue North
(206) 436-0050
Seattle, WA 98109
3.5 of 5

pritty boys family pizzeria

alas, this blog also lacks a picture of the actual food.  i'll get accustomed to taking pictures of food sooner rather than later.  let this suffice:

this is an actual picture from pritty boys, just not mine.  but, speaking of deficiencies, you'll find no commentary on soups, appetizers, salads, panini, and pasta.  this is all about the pizza (and service).  having looked in the area for a pizza place on yelp (and seen it a few days before while visiting bistro turkuaz), we decided to give pritty boys a whirl.  we combated the (fairly overwhelming consensus) bad service by calling in our order.  

phone: "ring ring" 

them: "hello"

us: "hello, two large pizzas please"

them: "ok, they'll be ready in about 30 minutes"

us.  30 minutes for two pizzas, for pick up?  wow!  we arrived and asked about our pizzas, and the poor server looked clueless.  two pizzas huh, let me check in the back.  i think i found them. hold on.  oh, -to the other server- your name is on this order, can you ring these people up.  -other server- my name, i don't remember that.  -servers looking confused-.  finally, an intrepid young lad went in the back, another one took our credit card, and 10 minutes later we were out of there with two very large pizzas.  if this experience was indicative of the overall service experience, well, head there ready for a little ???  on the bright side, pritty boys seems ready to combat this with video games for the whole family.

ambiance: the place looked good for family.  a hipster family.  the servers all had plaid shirts on and skinny jeans.  the place was spartan but dig the job.  video games were off to the side, and some flat screens to watch sports.

now for the pizza.  as you can see, it's thin crust new york style.  it seems the ovens don't run quite hot enough to give it a super crisp crust, but it's still good.  they go for the "caramelized" top crust (slightly charred but not offensive).  the cheese is thick and greasy, so if you're a cheese lover you'll particularly like their rendition.  the sauce was tasty, but overpowered by the cheese in my opinion.  the toppings tasted fresh, and they opted for small crisped pepperoni, thin crisped ham, thick dense ground sausage pieces, etc.  $20 for a large is a little steep, but it can easily feed parents and two small kids because the pieces are very generous.  overall, it's a pretty good seattle rendition of new york style pizza.

3.5 of 5

pritty boys family pizzeria

1430 34th ave 

seattle, wa

206-257-1319

prittypizza.com

11-9, 11-10 fri/sat

ps.  i cannot vouch for it, but they have gluten free offerings.