Little Sicily

Little Sicily online: https://www.facebook.com/Little-Sicily-Pottsgrove-PA-393829480764617/

Had lunch today with Joel at a new pizza place, Little Sicily.  I think the location was a pizza place previously as well, but this was new to both of us and I think relatively new in town.  It is located right on the corner of Buchert and Keim.  I ride my bike past here all the time, maybe next time I'll stop in for a slice.

I called in advance to ask if it was alright if we brought some beers to enjoy with our lunch and there was no hesitation, BYOB welcome. It looks like a typical pizza place.  You go to the counter to order or pick up your food, there are a few pizzas behind glass you can order by the slice and they have a bunch of cookies in plastic clam shell containers that I forgot to ask about.

We decided to order the Margherita pizza and an eggplant parm sandwich.  We sat down and poured a homebrew first.  For two craft beer drinkers there was some concern about what beer really goes well with pizza besides Bud.  I think a belgian/saison or light IPA work well.  Our food was delivered with plates and utensils to our table.

The pizza got pretty high marks from both of us.  The sauce was fresh tasting, not sweet or overly spiced.  There was fresh mozzarella as you would expect on a Margherita pizza and also pieces of fresh basil.  The crust was crisp, but maybe could have been a little less flat - maybe a little more rise?  The center of the pie, like the points of the slices, were pretty floppy and wet.  Overall the flavor and texture was pretty good.

 The eggplant parm sandwich was on a long roll that was toasted and perfectly crisp on the outside.  The eggplant itself was thin-sliced and fried.  It was topped with some melted cheese and finished with a little sauce.  When I squeezed the sandwich there was a little oil coming out of the eggplant and you could taste the frying oil, but it didn't drip so I don't want to say it was overly oily, that was just part of the flavor.  I thought the texture was perfect.  There wasn't too much cheese either which I think can be an issue for pizza place fare.

I definitely want to go back to try their plain pie - or get one delivered.  The service was friendly, the food was good and the place was clean and welcoming.  Now I have a new menu in my drawer for takeout!  Thanks to Joel for the company, the suggestion of a new place and for getting me back to reviewing local places.  It really makes eating out more interesting :)

Nick's Pizza

Nick's website: http://www.nicksstowe.com/

I ordered delivery again - hey, it's winter, who wants to go out?   This time I was laying in bed with my cell phone and I went to Nick's website where they offer an opportunity to order online.  The link to order online is: http://order.ehungry.com/nickspizza/?form=ordering&form=ordering.  This was great, I could lay in bed, order food without even speaking with anyone and maybe by the time I got up and got dressed the delivery guy would be at my door...

The site was pretty easy to use.  I clicked on Italian Dinners and chose Spaghetti and Meatballs.  When you click on the dinner it takes you to a page where you can choose your salad dressing and whether you want garlic bread or homemade bread and butter.  I chose Ranch Dressing and homemade bread.  There was a section for Special Instructions.  Realizing I had no parmesan cheese in the house I entered a request for a side of parm not sure if I would actually get it or not.  Under Appetizers & Side Orders I chose a side of Sausage in Sauce.

The site looked like it was estimating my delivery time at about 30 minutes, but not sure that's actually what it was saying.  The checkout was easy enough for me to do it on my phone and I used my credit card.  There was a section to add a tip as well which I did.

The delivery took more like an hour.  When it arrived the delivery guy handed me my food in a short cardboard box and quickly left.  I didn't have to sign anything, but I noticed later that the tip I had added to my order was not included.  I didn't get the chance to see that before he left - sorry.

The first thing I noticed was the massive amount of bread that was included in my order.  It was a little late so it's possible that they were giving me whatever was leftover at the end of the night, but whatever the reason, it was a ton of bread with a ton of butter.  The bread was kind of dense and chewy, a little crisp in the crust and it was warmed.

The salad had iceberg lettuce, tomato, cucumber, roasted red peppers and a pickled cauliflower topped with croutons.  I appreciate the effort to improve the basic salad with things like the peppers and cauliflower, but it's not really my cup of tea.  The ingredients were fresh though.  The dressing was Ken's, who can argue with that?

The pasta was not spaghetti.  It was more like a linguine which I didn't mind.  And hey, look, they sent me my side of parm, woohoo!  I always think pasta is a risky choice when ordering delivery because the hot pasta is closed up, soaking in it's own steam for an undetermined period of time before it arrives at your door where it will likely be completely overcooked. This wasn't bad though.  Linguine was probably a better choice for this anyway.

The sauce wasn't too sweet or spicy.  It was a little herby and thick.  It's a little generic, but good.

I thought the meatballs were quite good.  They were very light in color inside with some herbs mixed in.  They appeared to be handmade, a little irregular in shape.  Nicely mixed, not too dense.  You didn't even need to chew them, you could just kind of squish each bite in your mouth, they fell apart easily, but didn't quite melt - still maintained some texture.  The sausage was nothing to write home about.  It was a basic, Italian sweet sausage with a fennel flavor.  The portion was good.  It wasn't really browned on the outside or anything so I would guess it was probably boiled vs cooked on the grill.

So, I would definitely order from Nick's again.  Their food was good and the service was decent although the delivery may have been slow.  Maybe the guy drove around with my food extra long because I didn't leave a tip.  The online system was easy to use except, apparently for that pesky tip.  Love that they included my request for parm.  Now, what to do with all that bread?  

Giuseppe's Pizza

Giuseppe's has a facebook page at:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Giuseppes-Pizza-Restaurant/182623725135386

(menu)

I ordered delivery from Giuseppe's Pizza on a Monday night.  I went out on a limb and ordered the Giuseppe's Special.  It was listed on the menu under "Chicken Steaks", but it was described as Breaded chicken, tomato, onions, bacon, ranch, mozzarella cheese, baked in the oven."  It is not something I would normally order and especially not for delivery because certain things don't hold up well to being wrapped up and transported.  I asked for a side of marinara sauce which the guy on the phone seemed to think was odd, but he did it anyway.  The menu says sauce and fried onions are free for steaks.  I also threw a small salad in there for my guilt over the sandwich.

He said it would be 40 minutes and it turned out to take about 50 minutes.  The delivery guy called me Sweetie which is fine with me.  He was quick and friendly.  The salad was in a styrofoam container.  It was basic lettuce, tomato, cucumber and purple cabbage.  The dressing was wrapped in foil which was overkill, maybe, but better than spilling in the bag.  The veggies were crisp and fresh and you can't ask for much more from a basic side salad.

The sandwich had one of those little plastic sheets on top, then was wrapped in foil and then paper.  I appreciate good wrapping because it does help the sandwich survive that dreaded delivery, staying somewhat crisp and warm.  The outside of the sandwich was toasty and even though there was ranch on it, there was no sogginess at all.  (Awesome!)  

I had a hard time getting a decent picture of the sandwich.   It was just as described.  The fried chicken fingers were still crispy.  The tomato and onion were raw which I found interesting, but they were warmed inside the sandwich and I thought it worked well.  The dressing was in there, it was sprinkled with small pieces of bacon and then everything was apparently baked with the cheese on top.  I am not a huge fan of raw onion so I pulled most of them out, but it wasn't a ton of onion, just a personal preference.  I loved the texture of the chicken, raw onion and crispy bread with everything else.  The ranch was there, but not overdone a little bit of bacon in there, just a nice balance compared to some of the "chicken, bacon, ranch" variations I have seen out there swimming in a puddle of grease and dressing.  This was way better and doesn't deserve the stigma.  

The marinara (also wrapped in foil) was unnecessary but actually went ok with everything else.  It tasted mostly of pureed tomatoes, so nothing exciting, but sometimes that's a good thing.  

Previously I had pizza from Giuseppe's.  I stopped in there and picked it up.  They were friendly there too and the pizza was good.  I will definitely go back.

Cutillo's Restaurant

(menu)

I've been to Cutillo's about a million times.  I actually lived in one of their weekly rental apartments for 6 long strange months in about 2008.  They have a fine dining/white tablecloth dining room that's 2 floors with a nice view of the creek and their landscaped gardens.  They also have a bar with more casual seating and they have outdoor seating which I haven't ever sat at.

Steve and I decided to go to Cutillo's one night.  We usually like to sit at the bar, but when I showed up the bar was very full and loud.  It looked like they were having a business mixer or something so we decided to sit in the dining room instead.

The dining room is still nice.  It's kind of traditional looking.  A great setting for a meal with your parents or grandparents, maybe a nice romantic evening when they have the harpist.  They had a fake flower in a vase on the table with light aimed at it.  Looks nice, but it was fake.

The beer list was not very extensive.  Really just the basics, one or two crafty type beers.  I ordered a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Our dinners came with a choice of salad so I ordered the garden salad with blue cheese dressing and Steve got the Caesar Salad.

The salads came out with a small basket of warm rolls.  I try to avoid bread, but if it comes out uninvited, I'm not going to turn it away.  The butter was in those little, gold, paper wrappers.  The wrappers are terribly annoying.  Your hands get all buttery when you open them and they can rip when you try to get butter onto your knife.  Why not bring out a plate with some unwrapped butter?  The bread was very good, it had a little bit of a raw taste inside, but I didn't mind it.

The waitress offered fresh grated parmesan for our salads and Steve took her up on the offer.  The croutons on both salads were very light and airy.  They must have been made from a less dense bread. Not a big winner for either of us, but just a matter of opinion. The Caesar was pretty standard, not especially exciting and the garden salad was good with romaine lettuce, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes.  The blue cheese dressing was pretty good with lots of small pieces of cheese.

I ordered a special. It was a salmon dish.  The specials came with a complimentary dessert, creme brulee.  It was a nice feature for the price, but didn't influence my decision.  The way the dish was plated was a real turnoff.  Everything was sort of shifted to the right side.  It was like they forgot to put something on the left side or like the person plating paid zero attention.  I know plating does not effect the taste of the food, but it felt wrong, especially in a white tablecloth restaurant.  The salmon was cooked well with capers, tomatoes and artichoke hearts in a white wine sauce.  The potatoes and green beans were standard.

Steve ordered the broiled sea scallops.  The plating of his meal was similarly unappetizing.  The scallops were just kind of dropped on the plate.  There was nothing outstanding about the scallops either.  They weren't over or under cooked, but they didn't have a perfect sear on them or anything.  The white wine, lemon butter, lobster cream sauce was unimpressive. Tasted a little like a seafood bisque.  Not delicate, just one, flat seafood flavor.

Like I said, I'm not a big dessert eater, but the creme brulee was well torched, nice and crispy on top.  It was a little too sweet - even more than usual I think.  Nice presentation here though.

I was kind of disappointed with Cutillo's.  The service was good and the view is nice, but the food - the most important part - left some things to be desired.  I'm not going to rush back there for the next special occasion.