Omaha Pizza

I have long been on record about the merits of Omaha pizza--much to the derision of my local peers--and I have been sour on the Chicago pizza scene equally long. For I didn't realize how easily I found good pizza in Omaha until I had such difficulty finding it here.*

Nowadays, I get back to Omaha less and less frequently. And as my claims continue to be challenged, I have called into question my own judgment, how much hometown bias shapes my opinion. I admit my prejudice. And to my dismay, I've found an old favorite to be wildly inconsistent over my last few visits (though still quite good when it's on). My infrequent visits allow less time for revisiting the pizzas of my youth, so I decided more lasting documentation was in order.

This last trip I set out to boldly prove my thesis--of the widespread availability of good pizza in the Big O--by forsaking my old haunts to try a recommended but previously unvisited location, a local chain in the Vito & Nick's sense, what with a few locations of uncertain relation.

We arrived on a Sunday after church--our lone pizza escape in a relatively brief trip--to find Don Carmelo's closed on Sunday. Luckily, however, they were hosting a private party and chose to let us occupy the other room and order some lunch.

Now this was not the best pizza in Omaha (and word is the original Farnam location is superior in any event), but it was quite good, and if it moved into my neighborhood here, Marie's notwithstanding, this would probably be my default choice:


Fresh mushroom and green olive, sausage on half

Nice fresh toppings, good bready crust, nicely seasoned sauce. The sausage was good too, rich with fennel and a very fine but meaty crumb. The toppings may be too heavy for some, but all in all a good pie. Here's another view:



I think the overall effect would have been better with a large pie rather than a medium--the whole pie may have better supported the toppings. But two smaller pizzas were ordered to accomodate different preferences:


Artichoke heart, tomato, and garlic



(Please indulge the excessive photos...it's a first for me. Thanks, gleam, for the Imageshack link.)

A note on toppings: along with Don Carmelo's, another local chain called Zio's (the aforementioned inconsistent old favorite) represents one popular presentation on the Omaha pizza scene. Both chains are especially big on pizza by the slice, but since you're in Omaha, I guess, and not New York with lots of foot traffic and high turnover, they don't have whole pies made ready to slip a slice back in the oven upon ordering. The most common way of eating at these joints is to order your "custom" slice, or more typically, two.

Coincident with this phenomenon, and not at all unrelated to the plague of chains across Omaha-sized cities, is the ability to customize your slice with one of 30 or 40 or however many toppings they offer now. At one point it seemed like Zio's took it as a point of pride to add a topping every few weeks, like so many pieces of flair. Surprisingly, the gimmick works fairly well, though not as well as a whole pie, I don't believe. These places both promote themselves as purveyors of New York-style pizza. Since, from what I gather, you can never find that outside of New York, I can't vouch for that, though I'm suspect. The crust is appropriately thin, but the pie is cooked a little too well to fold easily--slightly more crisp than pliable, and it doesn't stream grease down your arm or face like I imagine a genuIne New Yawk slick to do. Whatever. It was some good pizza.

I'll try to add here as infrequently as my visits allow.

Cheers,

Aaron

Don Carmelo's Pizzeria (the one visited here)
2647 S 159th Plz
Omaha, NE 68130
(402) 333-5256

3558 Farnam St.
Omaha, NE 68131
(402) 342-1978

3113 N 120th St
Omaha, NE 68142
(402) 493-8595

1024 N. 204th Ave.
Elkhorn, NE 68022
(402) 289-9800



*I don't mean to reignite the debate about the quality of Chicago pizza; I am merely trying to provide a bit of personal context. I've never been to New York. I've never been to New Haven. I once spent a good deal of time in Rome, and mostly ate the pizza rustica so available and cheap. I've never been to Naples. I don't care much to debate style or provenance, which is not to say these features don't interest me (quite the contrary). But it is to say that I don't swear allegiance to a certain style. I would not argue that pizzas, such as those pictured below, which make a claim to being "New York-style" in fact satisfy that claim. And more to the point, I don't much care, but for taxonomial interest.

I do not maintain that you can't get good pizza here. Clearly, Chicago bears the standard for the deep dish and stuffed varieties, which I greatly appreciate. And there are worthy flat pizzas to be had...I very much like Vito & Nick's. I like Marie's, fresh from the oven to my table. I liked Pizza D.O.C. before they forgot how to make a good pizza. I like Brick's quite a bit, too, though it's been a couple years.

Back in Omaha recently, I had an opportunity to continue the quest of resampling the pizza of my youth. This trip was to Johnny Sortino's. Pictures didn't turn out so well, so I only have this one.



I had been craving Sortino's pizza, and my Omaha family adjusted their regular Sunday pizza routine to accomodate.

Sortino's pizza falls generally within the Chicago thin crust school in terms of presentation and topping, but the crust is bready, not pastry-like. I much prefer the bread-like crust.

While the crust was appropriately bready, it was unfortunately a bit undercooked. Prior to our arrival, as I searched my memory for the inspiration for my Sortino's craving, I had a vague recollections of a crust softer than that I currently prefer. This recollection was confirmed. The sauce, toppings, and cheese, however, were still much to my satisfaction. This is pretty good pizza. I look forward to trying it again, ordering the crust extra crispy. I'm not sure if they have their oven hot enough to get it where I'd like it, but it's worth a shot.

I also noticed that a Sammy Sortino's has opened, which I presume to be some relation. Haven't had a chance to sample.

Johnny Sortino's Pizza Parlor
7880 L St
Omaha, NE 68127-1836
402-339-5050

Sammy Sortino's Pizza Parlor
1414 S 72nd St
Omaha, NE 68124-1652
402-933-5988

Interesting to see that the second post has the pizza cut into squares. I thought this was a Chicago thing. Is it done elsewhere that I am not aware? The first post shows the pizzas cut into triangles as I thought it was done everywhere else.

Big Fred's Pizza at 120th and Pacific (Yes, in Omaha) also cuts in squares. As did Dave's Pizza, MY childhood pizza place in Bemidji, MN. I think there's always places that do it... Just not a lot of them.

Next time you're in Omaha, try Big Fred's (if you haven't already). And also Angelos (I think that's the name) down in Millard. Not sure of the exact location, but it's around 132nd and Q or so. Only been there once, but it was good.

-T

uosullivan wrote:Interesting to see that the second post has the pizza cut into squares. I thought this was a Chicago thing.

One of the greatest difficulties for me, for a time anyhow, in understanding the concept of Chicago-style thin crust has been that a characteristic and defining feature of said style, namely, the square cut, has never been seemed to me unique to Chicago.

A number of Omaha stalwarts--Big Fred's and La Casa, in addition to Sortino's--cut squares. My favorite joint in a Dallas suburb, I Fratelli, did longish rectangles. Another local Dallas fave, Campisi's, also does squares (thought I honestly don't think much of their pizza).

It's entirely possible that the square cut first gained currence in Chicago, but it has since spread quite a great distance, and it is not only applied to Chicago-style short crusts. I do doubt that square cuts are widespread on the east coast.

Incidentally, and this just now occurred to me, La Casa (in Omaha) and I Fratelli (in a Dallas suburb) both have a more rectangular cut, and both claim to have more "Italian" recipes. Rectangular pizza is of course hardly uncommon in Italy, and while neither of these places produces a pie remotely similar to the sheet pizzas of Chicago or the "pizza rustica" of Rome, I wonder if the rectangular cut is something of an attempted throwback to "the old country."

Both Big Fred's and Sortino's, and to a slightly lesser degree, Campisi's in Dallas, are clearly tavern-style pizzas much closer to the Chicago thin crust tradition, and it is certainly plausible that the square cutting has some kinship to the joints here.