The crowd watching Jerrier's TV debut.

Jay Jerrier invited me (and about 400 other people) via Facebook to his restaurant, Cane Rosso, to watch his debut on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Yesterday morning, I got a text message from Cane Rosso’s automated database system that Jerrier was going to host a watch party at 9PM.  I also noticed several tweets about the party. (There’s a reason he’s a nominee for best tweeter.)

My husband and I got there early. We knew the kitchen would close around 8:30PM so the staff could watch the show, and we assumed the 400 Facebook friends would be early, too. Turns out, we were a little too anxious. Around 7:30, we had no problem getting a seat. Jerrier was cooking up a storm. But around 8:30PM, he took a break and started walking around. At one point he looked out the window, said something about moving his car, and rushed out. Then we saw the food truck Enticed roll up. Next thing we know, SsahmBBQ pulled up along side.  Jerrier came in and announced that it was all on the house. People ran out to get their shaved ice and Korean tacos just in time to watch Jerrier’s performance on DDD.

I wish I could break down the segment for you, but I can’t. There was a lot of applauding and cheers, so I missed some of what was said. And while the crowd was frenzied, Jay stood stoically and watched the show. His wife and kids were there as well. I planned on rewatching the segment when I got home, but there was a little game on and it took precedence. But I can tell you this: the pizza looked amazing, the shots of the pasta made us wish we had ordered pasta, and Jerrier did a great job. Also, he’s a really great host. (He’s even been kind enough to allow people to order ranch dressing at his restaurant. Kinda.)

Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) approved pizza flour.

The most frequent question asked of Dough owner/chef Keith Hall is: “Why does a11-inch pizza cost $16?” I asked the same question and here is what I found.

If you want quality, you don’t start with “cheap food.” Pizza at Dough starts with flour  from Napoli, the ancestral home of Pizza Napolitana. The grade “double zero” reflects the fineness of the particles. Then comes the water used to make the dough (and is also served in carafes at the table). It comes from the City of Dallas and then goes through a filtration system that removes chemical and physical impurities.

Jump for the full story.

"OO" means very fine grind...

Then there are the tomatoes in the topping: they come from the foothills around Mount Vesuvius in Italy. These are a DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) product. That is the food equivalent of wine’s DOC and DOCG classifications that denote a specific place of origin of the product. Even the oven in which each pizza spends a scant 90 seconds was crafted in Italy. The other pie toppings come from a long list of local producers listed on the back of the menu. The burrata, fior di latte, and burricotti, are made in-house. If you order take out, the pizza is not fired until you arrive to pick it up. This is quality control taken to an extreme.

The result is a memorable pizza. Eat them with a glass of wine from what may be the best Italian wine list at any pizzeria in town. Look for producers like Allegrini and Vietti for reds, and varieties like Falanghina and Arneis (or the area of Gavi) for whites. Dodge the Pinot Grigios (the grape is popular, but mundane).

DOP Tomatoes

I tasted all of the following at a media event this week. While the assembled hacks and hackettes dined at one table, the rest of the place was hopping. Dough is clearly a favorite spot for couples, families with kiddies, retired folks, and single diners at the counter watching the gyrations of pizza making. Dough is a come-as-you-are, non-judgmental place: an affirmation that Dallas stands behind no one when it comes to really good pizza. Dough, Cavalli, Il Cane Rosso, Urban Crust, Serious Pizza and others are already here, and there are rumors of NY and Chicago style leaders coming in. I say, “Bring it on.”

Pizza Margherita

Off carbs? No problem. Try the Prosciutto Rose

Coal Vines' pizza with sliced tomatoes, mozz, and parmesan (photography by Micah Nunley)

Good morning. Did you wake up, brush your teeth, and throw on some clothes? Most importantly, did you vote for your favorite pizza place for our Readers’ Choice poll yet? If you’re dazzled by Jay Jerrier’s ability to run Cane Rosso and tweet, like, every ten seconds, or in awe of Urban Crust’s Salvatore Gisellu and his dough-throwing skills, show your avid support for whoever you think makes the best slice in Dallas by voting here.

Get your voting game face on. And repeat once a day until March 25.

Big Cheeses: Evan Grant, Jay Jerrier, Eric Nadel.

Tuesday night, pizza lover and baseball writer, Evan Grant, and pizza maker and baseball lover, Jay Jerrier held the finals of the “Name a Pizza for Mike Napoli” contest at Cane Rosso. Four of the five finalists showed up to sample their until-then-never-tasted pizza recipes. Jerrier went to great lengths to make the pies. “We don’t make an Alfredo sauce, so I had to create one for Jason Joseph’s “Angel Tears” entry,” Jerrier said.

I slinked in at the end of the evening to try the pies and I’ve got to hand it to all who were picked in the finals. It was a tough decision. My favorite was Doug Fusella’s “The Cane Rosso Napoli Experience” with Jimmy’s sausage, meatballs, sopressata, spinach, and jalapenos. But Grant and Jerrier picked Joseph’s “Angel Tears,” a pie of Italian sausage, salami, sweet onion, jalapenos, roasted garlic, spinach, Roma tomatoes, and mozzarella dusted with Romano. Jump for all of the recipes and the rationale behind the ingredients below. AND PHOTOS!

Winner Jason Joseph and finalist Doug Fusella. Photo by Jason Acton.

Angel Tears

WINNER!!! Created by: Jason Joseph

Alfredo Sauce (It’s the best sauce.)
Italian Sausage (Hmmm)
Salami (For a Nappy Grand Salami)
Sweet Onion (For the sweet sweet tears of the Angels)
Jalapenos (For the Texas heat)
Roasted Garlic (To ward off injury)
Spinach (For a Napoli power up)
Roma tomatoes
Mozzarella
Dusted with Romano

Angel Tears (left) and Take it Like a Napoli Pie (right) pictured with Eric Nadel.

Take It Like a Napoli Pie

Created by: Camille Broadway

A savory pizza in honor of Napoli’s post-season plate collisions with Sean Rodriguez and Miguel Cabrera.

Tomato Sauce (for Napoli’s willingness to get crushed in the line of duty)
Hot Soppresata, Prosciutto Cotto and Jimmy’s Hot Sausage (three meats representing the collision of three substantive men. The ham is also a nod to the Cuban sandwich in South Florida where Rodriguez/Napoli grew up and to Tampa where the first collision occurred and where Italian salami often gets added to Cuban sandwiches.)
Olives – a light sprinkling (representing that plug of tobacco that Napoli is still looking for after the Tampa collision)
Mozzarella di Bufala (a water buffalo cheese because I’m pretty sure Cabrera is the size of a small water buffalo)

The Cane Rosso Napoli Experience

Created by: Doug Fusella

Gotta be meaty, Nap’s a big boy

Jimmy’s sausage (for the Nap-Nap, um, Winner)
Sliced Meatballs (he is a catcher, has to have …)
Hot Sopressata (that stuff rocks, and Italians need spice)
Spinach (for the strength of the Nap)
Sliced Jalapenos (this is Texas, gotta be hot)

The defining aspect of the Napoli Pie, its missing a quarter, since Mike is a Heat Fan, we know they can only handle the first three quarters.

Max, Jamey, and Erica Newberg with their Napoli Ever After Pie.

Napoli Ever After

Created by Jamey Newberg

Jimmy’s Sausage (commemorating Napoli’s game-tying, two-run single off TB’s James Shields in Game Two of the 2011 ALDS)
Prosciutto Cotto (in honor of journeyman outfielder Henry Cotto, whose home run total in 10 big league seasons was about one-third of Napoli’s total in just six seasons)
Soppressata (because it just sounds bad-ass)
Calabrian chiles (the “No Pepper” rule in baseball does not apply)
Artichokes (“R.T. Chokes” – Napoli went 4 for 5 in 2011 off Angels righthander Rich Thompson, his old teammate . . . with two doubles and a home run among his four hits)
Burrata (fresh Italian cheese – Napoli’s throws to second base)
Sea Salt (short for “See ya, Salty,” as Napoli cured the Rangers’ situation at catcher)

And Evan Grant’s unofficial entry:

The Grand Salami

Start with traditional Cane Rosso sauce and cheese mix, then add:
Chopped fresh basil (It’s got three meanings on this pizza. To represent the green of the field, the green Napoli is going to earn this season and the green of the Italian flag).
Hot Soppresata (t’s the red in the Italian flag, and the spicy salami in this big pie).
Crumbled Jimmy’s Sausage (It’s the dirt for “The Dirtbag.”)
A small thin ring of smoked provolone (It’s the white of the Italian flag and also it could represent all those teams who Napoli, well, smoked last year)
A very slight dusting of crushed sunflower seeds (Well, that’s the magic dust that Ron Washington seems to sprinkle on every former Angel that comes through here to get huge results and it’s a tribute the togetherness of the 2011 team)

Italian sausage pizza (left); Co-owner Sydney Brown (right) photos by Micah Nunley

I stalked TX Delizioso on Twitter all weekend until they confirmed @carol_shih: “Come see us in the Arts District this Tuesday!” There was no way I was going to miss the debut of Dallas’ first pizza truck, so I quickly grabbed photo intern Micah Nunley to take some snaps of Sydney Brown and Lauren Noblett’s newest set of wheels: a truck offering made-to-order pizza and other Italian entrees.

Here’s how my lunch went down.

Chicken fried chicken breaded in homemade spices

Pros: I didn’t have to wait very long for someone to take my order. There was a good crowd of people standing outside (even though it was cold), and the sausage was tasty. It’s pretty impressive when you can build a pizza with any of the 20+ ingredients they have listed on the menu. In theory, you can order a pizza with ALL the ingredients. Pretty sweet, huh? Plus, there are some exotic items like TX fried bison.

Cons: It was only noon and the truck had already run out of fried bison and gravy for the chicken fried steak. Bummer. I spent $14 total for a small, doughy pizza and four “chicken fried chicken” tenders that I wish came with some kind of sauce. The truck doesn’t give out receipts (not working, maybe?), and the food wasn’t very filling. But perhaps I just eat a lot.

These guys have only been operating for a week or so, which probably accounts for most of those cons I just listed.

Here’s the menu for you food truckies:

After much consideration, pizza-maker extraordinaire Jay Jerrier and pizza-eater extraordinaire Evan Grant (that’s me), have come up with four finalists for our Name a Napoli Pizza contest.Tuesday (Feb. 7 or tomorrow to most of you), we will roll out some samples of these fine entries for you to taste and, as always, the full Cane Rosso menu will be available. One of these fine recipes will end up as a special pie on the Cane Rosso menu for the next month and one of these neophyte pizza creators will walk away with a nice little prize package. Maybe we can come up with some other surprises, too. So, if you are free come on down. We’d love your input here and at the restaurant. Here are the finalists. Be there at 7PM.

I posted a piece over on FrontBurner earlier today about the contribution of Frito Pie, and its forbears, to the history of Western civilization.

So, of course, a reader decided to share with me the above photo of her brother’s Frito Pie Pizza. She writes:

I know it’s a Boboli crust and then I assume Frito pie ingredients.  I haven’t had it but he says it’s amazing.

My brothers and sisters, we are truly living in an age of decadence.

A few years ago, when I first came to Dallas, I was quickly told I had to try Cavalli Pizza.  Indeed, Cavalli may have been the first restaurant I ever ate at in Texas.  It was both a blessing and a curse.  A blessing, for I dreamed and envisioned the entire Dallas pizza scene to be equal to Cavalli in quality and flavor. A curse, for I quickly realized that, for the most part, Cavalli was an anomaly in the pizza world.  My standards were set high, and there was no way I was lowering the bar for the strings of tasteless pizza garbage many other pizza joints presented. Most people know that they were the first in Dallas to throw around the term “VPN certified”, an accolade which at first meant little more to me than a Citysearch recommendation, but which I have now come to associate with quality and a strict attention to detail.

Jump for more.Luckily, over the years, Dallas has blossomed into quite the safe haven for good pizza.  A detailed history of the success of the Dallas pizza scene is surely not necessary at this point, but suffice it to say, Dallas diners need not look (or drive) far to get their hands on a quality pie.  Yet to this day, Cavalli remains a special place to me, and not simply for nostalgic reasons.  I have yet, to this day, had a disappointing meal from the dough slingers at Cavalli, and I have perhaps eaten more pizza here than any other joint in the city.

After plowing my way through a very large percentage of the menu at Cavalli, I feel the need to share with you a pie that truly stands out in my mind, the exquisite “Salami e Funghi.”  It would be easy to dismiss this pie as little more than its rather simple yet descriptive name, but this beauty is far more than just salami and fungus.  Read on, my friends.

The basic anatomy of this exquisite pie is something you have likely come to expect from a certified Neapolitan pie. You know, simply crafted dough from imported Italian flour, yeast, water and salt.  San Marzano tomatoes, simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Quick bake time in an 800+ degree woodfired oven, leaving a good deal of flame kissed blisters on the supple crust. They continue with a spicy salami, mushrooms with sprigs of fresh basil.  But what sets this pie apart is the blissful combination of smoked mozzarella and crushed garlic.  It’s a wonderful blend that tickles the taste buds and arouses the senses.  Whoever decided to first smoke the mozzarella was really brilliant.  I mean, I’ve tried smoking a lot of things in my days, and mozzarella never even crossed my mind.  Let’s just leave that one alone.

While Cavalli is generally a bit of a drive for most Dallasites, it is no less than a culinary savior to the chain infested suburbs around north Dallas and Irving.  And while the entire menu at Cavalli is chock full of delightful dishes, the Salami e Funghi is surely one of the best on the board.

TX Delizioso

We told you about Enticed Shaved Ice in the middle of an extraordinarily hot August.  One commenter wrote: “Excellent product and friendly people.” How right they are. But shaved ice doesn’t sell well when it’s raining and windy and the temperature dips below 40 degrees. So owners and entrepreneurs Sydney Brown and Lauren Noblett decided to sell something hot. Like PIZZA. Today the send word they are expanding their “fleet” to add TX Delizioso, a truck offering pizza and other Italian entrees plus soups and salads.  They are also an official Go Texan partner, using as much local product as possible.  We have mobile pizza ovens–Il Cane Rosso and Cavalli–but TXDelizioso is Dallas’ first pizza truck.

TX Delizioso has already obtained their permits and is in the process of finalizing their menu.  Look for them to roll soon.

Schedule thus far (with more to be announced)….

11/7 – Brian Luscher from the Grape

11/14 – Chad Houser and Janice Provost from Parigi

11/21 – Randall Copeland from Restaurant Ava and soon to open, Left Bank

11/28 – Jack Perkins from Maple & Motor

12/5 – John Tesar from The Commissary

12/12 – Dean Fearing from Fearing’s

12/19 – Daniel Vaughn from Full Custom Gospel BBQ

12/20- Nancy Nichols and Leslie Brenner

Jump

I made the last one up but wouldn’t that be awesome!

Urban Crust's team with Salvatore Gisellu and Nathan and Bonnie Shea pose for their victory shot..

D Magazine intern Carol Shih attended the Pizza Smackdown at West Village shopping center last Thursday. She observed three of the cities’ biggest pizza egos, I mean chefs. Here is here account of the shenanigans.

I am happy to report there were no casualties at the Mobile Pizza Smackdown (except for some bruised egos).  The American Heart Association hosted their annual kick-off event and bravely invited Paolo Cavalli of Cavalli Pizzeria, Salvatore Gisellu of Urban Crust, and Jay Jerrier of Il Cane Rosso to a pizza battle in a corner alley of West Village. It seemed harmless enough to innocent bystanders there to just wine and dine, but unbeknownst to them, this was an epic, all-out pizza war between three rival chefs battling to become the King of Pizza.

Jump for the details.

The weapons? Three wood-burning ovens on wheels, the freshest ingredients, and three different styles of pizza. Current members and non-members of the Society and AHA walked between the chefs, sampling pies and wine provided by Pogos while dropping gold coins at whichever tent they felt deserved all the pizza glory.

Paolo Cavalli of Cavalli's Pizzeria.

Paolo Cavalli of Cavalli Pizzeria stood under the first tent, sweating from his oven’s 700 degree temperature and talking about his pies as tenderly as he would talk about his offspring. Making pizza is close to his heart. Knowing Cavalli’s Pizzeria is the oldest restaurant of the three, I decided to try this pizza first, biting into fresh mozzarella melted inside a light tomato sauce. My first instinct was to shake the slice and see if anything fell out. Nope. This margherita pizza held itself together well despite my abuse. When asked about the pizza feud, Cavalli bluntly stated: “It’s been going on since we opened. More with Il Cane Rosso. With Jay we have a bickering kind-of-forth relationship. Let’s just say he gets a lot of his inspiration from us, if you know what I mean.”

Il Cane Rosso’s owner, Jay Jerrier, had a different opinion. “Well, I didn’t know there is a rivalry!” he said with a big smile. “If there is, nobody told me. The competition really doesn’t mean anything to us. We’re here to support the charity and, honestly, we didn’t even know it was a smackdown.”

The chef and owners of Urban Crust (Nathan and Bonnie Shea and chef Salvatore Gisellu) agreed with Cavalli when it came to Jay, mentioning that Il Cane Rosso now has 4-5 of their ex-employees. Despite this minor issue, they are still cordial with each other – in fact, throughout the evening everyone had been quite well-behaved so far. No shouting, no yelling; just three pizza chefs feeding happy people. Nothing was noticeably tense about the event until Jerrier disappeared thirty minutes before they announced the winner. Noticing Jay’s small pile of gold coins (clearly he wasn’t going to claim any title), I looked over and spotted Paolo Cavalli and Nathan Shea of Urban Crust wildly gesticulating to each other about some matter.

A little after eight, the moment everyone was waiting for finally came. Urban Crust amassed the most gold coins and won bragging rights for having the best pizza that night. Of the twelve people I asked, all twelve unanimously agreed that Urban Crust had the best taste, thickness, and a perfect crisp on all sides and the middle – a trait that Jay’s thin, soggier slices couldn’t match up to. But even though Urban Crust told me they were “all about the crust,” I still preferred Cavalli’s crust. It was lighter, more airy, and had just the right amount of chewiness. Still, there is no doubt that Salvatore Gisellu has magical, pie-making hands. His Black & Blue pizza is the best combination of basil pesto, juicy sirloin, baby Portobello’s, onions, and blue cheese this mouth of mine has ever tasted.

Urban Crust's Buffalino pizza (Buffalo mozzarella, teardrop tomatoes, grana padano cheese, basil and garlic

At least all the chefs agreed on one thing: they were happy to help out with charity and feed hungry people; the competition, they said, was just a side thing. It probably didn’t help, though, that Cavalli and Gisellu prepared appetizers and drinks in addition to their pies. Jerrier grumbled to me at one point (before his disappearance) that he wasn’t “bribing people with fresh fruit and sangria illegally.”  Despite one unsolved mystery, I’d say the entire event went smoothly, thanks to bigInk PR for their creative minds and muscles. It’s all in the name of friendly competition, wouldn’t you agree?

So when the Colombo family took a culinary tour of Italy, eating their way through Venice, Tuscany, Florence and the Amalfi Coast, Colombo was inspired to bring another Tuscan dining operation to Dallas.

jump for more…

JonesBaker designed princi | italia to reflect a limestone Tuscan farmhouse with warm and modern elements added. The interior includes a vaulted-beamed ceiling, distressed wood basket chandeliers, Venetian-plastered stone walls, abundant natural light and white-washed wood beams. The restaurant will also feature a large garden patio shaded by two historic live oak trees, steel and wood arbors, fans and built-in heaters for those guests who prefer to dine outdoors at any time of the year.

Executive chef Kevin Ascolese, who has 35 years of restaurant experience all over the nation, and pastry chef David Brawley, who has spent three years teaching at the Art Institute and Le Cordon Bleu and was executive chef at N9NE Steakhouse and Nove, join the team in the kitchen.

The kitchen will offer homemade pastas, seasonal vegetables, light and lemony salads, and Napolitano-style pizzas in the restaurant’s oak wood-burning pizza oven. Menu stand-outs include tortollini fonduta with black truffle and butter sauce; Italian wedding soup with chicken meatballs, pastina, and gremolata; fava bean alla Toscana bruschette; and quattro formaggio “bianco” pizza with mozzarella, parmesan, gorgonzola and goat cheese.

princi | italia will serve only dinner for the month of September. Hours will be from Sunday through Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 4 to 11 p.m.  Beginning October 4, the restaurant plans to open for lunch from Monday through Saturday beginning at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday brunch beginning at 10:30 a.m.

It’s been open for less than 24 hours and this already feels like old news, but allow me to add my two cents.  Unless you have been living under a rock, you don’t need to be told that some place called Dough opened yesterday.  In fact, I’m pretty sure there were some people there last night that do live under rocks, but they still managed to make it.

And in case you haven’t heard them yet, here are two words you better get used to, as I am sure within the next week they will be smattered across every food blog within a 50 mile radius of Dallas:

PORK. LOVE.

A pizza with more pig than an episode of Jersey Shore.  The envy of every Pizza Hut “Meat Lovers” this side of the Mississippi.  The usual suspects find their way onto this pie: salami, sausage, pancetta.  But what makes my heart sing is speck.  Speck’s long, arduous journey from pig to plate begins with curing legs of pork in salt and other spices, commonly juniper, pine, nutmeg and coriander.  After this it is smoked slowly for two or three hours a day, a process which can carry on for months. Sliced thin, piled on a blisteringly hot pizza pie. The result is a sweet, salty, and spicy product that few other meats can compete with.

No need to go on about Dough, I suppose.  You’ve read about it, you’ve known it was coming for months, you are probably on your way there now.  Just know that sometimes you should believe the hype.  And at Dough, the pig reigns supreme.

Jon Battle looking victorious outside of Dough on opening day.

Ladies and gentlemen, and I use those terms loosely, meet Jon Battle. He pestered me for months about the opening of Dough in Dallas. He’s a FANatic fan of their pizza. Well, the persistent Mr. Battle was the first official Dallas customer to enter Dough Pizzeria Napoletana when they opened this morning. He took a bunch of nice pictures which I have entered below the jump.

All photos by Jonathon Battle:

The kitchen crew.

Black truffle rollatini.

Rasberry cream Italian soda.

Large "Pork Love" pie.

Polenta cake.

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