I'm not sure if I've ever had a "double decker" pizza until recently, but I'm starting to notice more and more places that serve them. I recently had the pleasure of trying this style at two different pizza joints in the Midwest: Deerhead Pizza Tavern in Evansville, Indiana, and JJ Twig's Pizza & Pub in St. Louis, Missouri.
Double decker pizza is a style of pizza where a thin crust is covered with toppings, then folded over itself before being covered with more toppings. It sounds like it is huge, but it isn't nearly as thick as a standard New York style crust, because each layer of crust in the middle is so thin. The idea of a double decker pizza seems gimmicky, and maybe it is, but anything can be made into a success with proper attention to details.
Deerhead Pizza Tavern
"Deerhead Pizza Tavern" sounds like an indie band from Brooklyn, and when I found them in the middle of an almost barren part of Indiana, I wasn't expecting an exceptional pizza experience, but they surprised me.
Deerhead Pizza tavernJJ Twig's Pizza & Pub
JJ Twig's Pizza & Pub was born in the Northern suburbs of Chicago, and now has several independently owned locations using the famous recipe across the Midwest. The JJ Twig's that I went to was in a strip mall in Valley Park, MO, of all places. The location isn't the most ideal, but the pizza is GLORIOUS.
JJ Twig's Pizza & PubThis would be a great pizza for someone to use if they were trying to prove in a court of law that pizza is better in the U.S.A. This double decker pie smelled amazing. I could almost taste the tomato sauce before it reached my mouth, it was that fresh and potent. The sausage at JJ Twig's is homemade specifically for them in Chicago, and while Chicago isn't quite next door, it maintains the flavor of sausage made in-house. It's incredibly good when paired with the luscious slab of stretchy mozzarella that sits atop the generous portion of homemade sauce, spiced perfectly. The cheese really helps take this pizza to the next level.
The crust kept this from being a perfect pizza, however. It wasn't very flavorful, and wasn't quite firm enough to hold in my hand when it was first brought to the table. For the first time in my life, I had to use a fork and knife to eat pizza. The horror!!! Subsequent slices became stronger, however, as the cheese cooled off a bit, so it wasn't the end of the world. It reveals a drawback to double decker pizza, though. The consistency often resembles lasagna more than pizza. Does this make it an abomination? I don't think so.....
JJ Twig's Pizza & Pub wins in the overall flavor department, but Deerhead has a superior crust that provides a firmer foundation. BOTH of these double decker pizzas are successful, delicious examples of the style.
Deerhead Pizza Tavern
222 E. Columbia St.
Evansville, IN 47711
(812)425-2515
Monday - Thursday 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Friday - Sunday 11:00 AM - Midnight
JJ Twig's Pizza & Pub
http://www.jjtwigsstl.com
2964 Dougherty Ferry Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63122
(636)225-9944
(636)225-9945
Sunday 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM
Monday - Thursday 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Friday & Saturday 11:00 AM - Midnight
2 comments:
A noble pursuit...
I recall a conversation we had about regional pizza styles. Recently I found this, which is way more comprehensive than our conversation:
I really enjoy Slice, but I think some of those regional descriptions are a stretch or wrong. Authentic Sicilian pizza, or Sfinciuni, is actually one of the most unusual styles of pizza in that the ingredients are actually baked INSIDE the dough. Many American pizza establishments offer what they call "Sicilian" pizza, but those are generally just thicker versions of standard New York style.
Sfinciuni is the only completely original style that I have yet to experience in it's region of origin. There are huge lists of different styles of pizzas, but many of them are just typical pies with exotic toppings. For instance, "Australiana" is an Australian-Italian pizza which is similiar to Italian pizza, but it might have bacon, egg, and crocodile meat.
I would say that there are maybe around 5 or 6 completely different families of pizza: Napoletana, Romana, Sfinciuni, New York, Chicago deep dish, and Midwest thin crust, based on their proportions and core ingredients. Other styles would be variations of these, in the same way that, in the beer world, you have Porters and Stouts, but also Milk Stout, Oatmeal Stout, Chocolate Stout, and so on... By comparison, I feel that designating so many niche styles of pizza is akin to calling "microbrew" a style of beer, when it is really an issue of artisanal product versus industrial.
There will likely be endless debate on this subject, however.
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