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.

Vito's NY Style Pizza & Deli

I was out with my neighbor on Wednesday night.  Heading home to sample a couple IPAs, we were both hungry.  I tried ordering from a couple places online or pulling menus, but it was difficult with the cell reception I had at the bar.  I remembered getting a menu for Vito's in the mail so I googled their number and figured I would order delivery and it would be there shortly after I arrived home.

I ordered a large pepperoni pizza and chicken fingers.  Gave my credit card over the phone.  It was around 7:00pm and it took a little over an hour for the delivery.  I actually called to check on the order and like magic the driver showed up a minute later.  That's always the way it is.

So, I'm not really a chicken finger girl.  I do, however know that chicken fingers can be made from real pieces of breaded chicken or from reformed pieces of chicken meat and chicken byproduct.  The verdict of my guests is that these were the latter.  I thought they were reasonably firm considering that fact, but definitely didn't seem like real chicken.



They didn't ask me about dipping sauces when I called in, but they sent a container of Ken's Honey Mustard Sauce and a barbecue sauce in a little plastic souffle cup.  Nothing exciting about these chicken fingers.  They weren't the end of the world though.

I did not really enjoy the pizza, unfortunately.  It was room temperature...maybe it sat in the car for that hour I was waiting for delivery.  So, the first piece I ate was cold.  The crust was kind of dry, almost cracker-like and crumbly.

The pepperoni was good though, a little spicy. The onions were finely sliced which I enjoyed as well.  Sometimes onions are stringy and pull everything including the cheese off the pizza when you bite into them, but I didn't really have that problem with these.  Once I put the pizza in the oven for a while it was better, but that didn't fix the crust.

Ultimately the food was not my favorite and I won't be making Vito's my first choice for pizza next time.  They were nice when I called in though, that's good.  Getting hungry thinking about my next place 

Mike's Brick Oven Pizza

(menu)

Anyone looking at these posts must think I have a lonely, binge eating life.  Really there are just a ton of takeout places in Pottstown.   I should grab a friend and a sixpack soon and make more of my local pizza places.  This time, though...I got takeout for myself.  Close to my house is Mike's Brick Oven Pizza.  They're right on Charlotte St., south of what I would consider the North End.  I'm sure you're all sick of my pepperoni and plain pizzas.  Sometimes I think the basics are the measure with which to judge these places, but I wanted to mix it up so I ordered Chicken Parmesan on Spaghetti, yum!

Ordered over the phone and went to pick it up.  I was a couple minutes early and it wasn't ready when I got there, but the lady at the counter was nice and said it would be out shortly.  They have an old TV in there and a couple tables.  I hung out for a few and my food came out.  Friendly service.

On to my kitchen where food would be consumed but not prepared.  The Chicken Parm came with garlic bread and a salad.  The salad looked nice.  I have to confess that I didn't eat it, but robbed it of veggies for a later meal.  It had cucumbers, tomatoes, black olives and cheese.  Pretty good for a takeout place.

The garlic bread was made from a long roll - half of one of their sandwich rolls I'm guessing.  That's typical for these takeout places.  It was toasted, nothing special, but I definitely ate it :)

A problem that I have with takeout food is that you take things that are nicely crispy or toasted and you wrap them up so their heat steams away and makes everything soggy.   I'm sure in this case that fact made the bread less than crisp and it usually would overcook the pasta as well. The pasta really wasn't overcooked like that though.  Of course it isn't going to be like it was prepared fresh and served on a plate, but it held up pretty well to the steam bath.  The chicken was real, not reformed patties.  The portion ended up lasting me for something like two more meals so it was definitely worth the price.

I would recommend Mike's. Like a lot of these takeout places, I should go back and try their specialty or something unique and report again.  I will keep you posted.

Paleromo Pizza

(menu)

Alright...I'm going to confess something here.  Please do NOT repeat.  I enjoy eating in public with friends and family, but the real secret is that I am also kind of a closet eater.  Sometimes I eat in my car or at my house where no one can see.  I make bad decisions and they are tasty.

So Palermo has been on my list as a recommendation from a friend.  It's on Charlotte across from the Redner's and North End Wine & Spirits.   They do not deliver so as I was passing through one Saturday on my way to Boyertown's Octoberfest I thought it would be a great place to pick up some dinner.

I called in my order of a small pepperoni pizza and picked it up without incident.  The people were friendly and they have a large selection of crappy domestic beer for takeout. Great if that's what you're into.

What I'm into is eating pizza in my car apparently.  This is the closet eating part.  Not sure what my issue is, but pizza in the car is a bad idea and I do it anyway.  The pizza had a great smell which caused me to eat it in the parking lot of the very building where I picked it up.  When I pulled the first slice from the pie a lot of the cheese came off.  This could have been from the temperature - it was still very hot.  Maybe it should have cooled a bit before consumption, but that didn't stop me.  For the record, the second slice also lost it's cheese in transit to my mouth.

It was a little greasy, but I feel that my vehicular indulgence may have effected the quality of the pizza.  So, that being said, I will report that the pizza was good, possibly loose and greasy, but I will do my duty and go back and report again.  Let's call this a confession and not a review.  Please don't tell anyone that I ate a pizza in my car.

Parma Pizza

(menu)

#14 had to be done.  When you move people send you all kinds of stupid coupons in the mail hoping to gain you as their newest customer.  Most of these I went through and recycled.  Others I set aside only to let them expire before they could be used.  This one was special though.  It was for a whole free pizza.  You don't see that every day and the expiration date was fast approaching.  I called Parma Pizza on my way home one Wednesday evening.  I waited until I was about 25 minutes out and ordered a pepperoni pizza.  The coupon was only for a cheese pizza, but I explained this and they took my order right away.

Then she said it would be an hour.  I almost argued with her because that seemed crazy.  "An hour?!"..."Yup."  So, you can't argue with an honest estimate of time and it was a free pizza after all.  What did I expect, special treatment?  Good thing my favorite bar was on the way.  I could kill the extra 35 minutes or so.

When I got to the restaurant to pick up my pizza I was waited on pretty quickly.  My pizza was sitting out, in the box but hadn't been cut yet.  I guess an hour was perfect timing.  They sliced it up and charged me less than $3 for my pepperoni and I was off.  The worst part about picking up a pizza is having to smell it the whole way home so I put it way in the back of the Prius so I wouldn't be tempted to pick on it before I could get a good picture.

Somehow the pepperonis were all askew when I opened the box.  It remained flat the entire time I had it so maybe that happened when they put it in the box.  It's fixable though and I've seen a lot worse.  The cheese was still in place.  I straightened the pepperoni and dug in.  This is everything I have wanted in a pizza plus a whole lot of extra grease.  It was tasty grease though.  The flavor of the pizza was definitely affected by the pepperoni and its accompanying grease.  The amounts of cheese and sauce were perfect in my estimate.  The dough was well done and a little crispy the way I like it, but with a chewy center on the outside.

This is probably the best pizza I have had in a while.  I didn't even try to mop off the grease.  I will return to Parma Pizza as a paying customer one day soon and I will be sure to plan on a little extra time for my order.  No wonder they're so busy.  (Best 'welcome to the neighborhood' coupon ever!)

Mannino's Pizzeria & Eatery

(menu)

#11. This is turning into a takeout tour. So, in this area there are several restaurants that are shaped like cups, like soda cups. From a little looking up, it sounds like they were built in the 1940s as outlets for a local dairy to sell milk and ice cream. There are two others in the area. One of them is on Charlotte Street in the North End of Pottstown and it is operating currently as Mannino's. I ordered a small Vegetarian Stromboli over the phone. The guy that took my order asked me to hold a couple times. I understand he was new. Nothing bad, but it was a little confusing. I ordered sauce on the side. He assured me that all strombolis come with a side of sauce.

The inside of the restaurant had some sit downs tables and a counter up front where I went to pick up my order. It was clean and the man who brought my order was nice. They had a wall of fridges filled with takeout beer. Nothing very exciting, but a couple selections that could be considered craft beer. They were all labeled on the wall above the fridges with prices.

My stromboli was affordable and I was considering measuring it, but I was really hungry. I'm going to call it 10 - 12 inches. The side of sauce was a nice size. Usually you get those tiny cups. This was more substantial. I like lots of extra sauce.



Upon internal inspection there were lots of veggies including broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms & peppers. The flavor was really excellent. There was a lot of mozzarella cheese but that didn't mask the fresh flavors of the veg, especially the bitter flavor of the dark green broccoli and spinach. The broccoli was still firm too which added texture.

Maybe a half-eaten piece of stromboli isn't the most appetizing image so I apologize, but I thought this picture showed the veggies the best. I really enjoyed this stromboli and I'm ashamed to admit how much of it I ate. I will tell you that both ends were mostly bread, but I'm not sure if there is a way to make a stromboli without that happening. Looking at the menu and thinking of the upcoming colder season, I think I will be making use of their delivery services soon. Yum...

Tornetta's Pizzeria

(menu)

#10: Double digits, more takeout.  I stopped by Tornetta's on my way home one afternoon.  I have been to Tornetta's plenty of times and they were also my go to delivery place when I lived in Gilbertsville.  Maybe it's cheating to get takeout from a place I'm so familiar with, but I did say every place in Pottstown.

I suppose it's a little gluttonous to order a pizza all by yourself, even if they don't know you're going to eat it in one sitting.  You do get more pizza per dollar with the larger sizes, but I went with a small pepperoni pizza for my conscience.  I even threw in a house salad to convince myself further.  I ordered over the phone and they said it would be 20 minutes.  It was a little more than 20, but close.

The salads at Tornetta's are pretty excellent.  Better than you would expect from a pizza place.  Their House Misto salad is a mix of romaine and iceberg lettuces and comes topped with cucumber, tomato, red pepper, red onion and sweet peppers.  I'm not a big fan of sweet pepper, but I appreciate that this is not your typical container of iceberg with a couple shaved carrots on top.  The ingredients are fresh and the dressing was good - ranch in this case.  The description of the salad says it contains olives but I honestly don't remember there being any in there.  

I have seen Tornetta's do a better job on the pizza.  It was cooked well, but it looked like someone picked up the box sideways and let the ingredients slide off a little.  The pepperoni was bunched up together leaving sections without any.  I rearranged the pepperoni and ate the pizza.  I like the sauce on their pizza, it isn't too sweet.  The pepperoni was decent, but nothing special.

Overall this was not Tornetta's best performance, but based on past experience I will definitely be back.  I think they make the best buffalo chicken around which you can get on a sandwich, on a pizza or in a stromboli.  I'm getting hungry thinking about it.  Their takeout beer selection is excellent with standard brands and a selection of craft beers that is impressive for the size of the place.  For Eat In you can order single beers, but most craft beers have to be purchased by the six-pack or in the large bomber bottles.  Their history of delivery service has been consistently good.  Not the most glowing review for today, but they are definitely on my recommended list.