Why Café Pizzaria is a tradition

For most New Yorkers, having a slice of good pizza is akin to a religious experience. Nothing is quite like the feel of a slightly blistered pizza crust. The way the slice fits into your hand, folded and cracking on its edges; the way the cheese melts and harmonizes with the tangy sauce that dwells beneath it; the smell of the pizza, fresh and hot from the oven, all come together to form a thing of beauty. \nSometimes, I find myself craving real New York-style pizza. Alas, I feared such cravings would go unanswered. This was until I had the opportunity to try Café Pizzaria. \nCafé Pizzaria is a Bloomington institution, and for good reason. With a prime location, good food, good service and a fun atmosphere, I would not be surprised if they served up their high-quality food for another 50 years.\nThe inside of Café Pizzaria is what a pizzeria should be. Booths fill the restaurant instead of tables. This alone creates a more relaxed setting. On the walls, everything ranging from IU memorabilia to a colorful mural helps to foster a fun eating environment. Although Café Pizzaria is rather loud when crowded, I had no problems maintaining a pleasant conversation with my companion.\nThe menu doesn't have many items on it, but there are still enough options to satisfy even the most meticulous eater. My companion opted to start with a salad with mozzarella cheese ($2.95). \nUsually, you think of salad with a little bit of cheese; instead, Café Pizzaria served up a salad filled with nice fresh greens and a few inches of freshly shredded mozzarella cheese. The cheese was also of the highest quality, which further added to the salad's taste.\nFor our main course, we split a small pie with sausage and onions ($7.95), and I also had half a stromboli ($3.95).\nThe pizza was the closest thing I have had to New York-style pizza since I came to Indiana. For the most part, the pizza tasted right. The fresh mozzarella cheese covering the pizza had a nice smooth taste. It also was melted nicely, so each bite yielded a string of cheese hanging between my mouth and the pizza. This gooeyness is a good thing; it shows that the pizza was cooked for a proper amount of time. Overcooking a pie will leave the cheese dried out, while undercooking it will leave the cheese clumpy.\nThe sauce had the necessary tanginess to it that added more depth to the pizza. The sauce was a good complement to the other ingredients. It did not overpower the taste of the cheese nor did it get lost. \nThe one real problem with the pizza was the crust. Café Pizzaria places their pies in a dish before cooking them. This is normally found in Chicago-style pizzas where the dish supports the pie as the crust rises. \nBecause of this method of cooking, the pizza had an odd crust. It was somewhat flaky and lacked the natural crust overflow at the end. On top of this, it did not have much crunch to it. Because you taste the crust, then the sauce, then the cheese, it is important to have a good crust. While the crust tasted relatively good, it lacked the right feel to it. \nThe toppings literally covered every inch of the pizza. The sausage was sliced open and crumbled all over the top. The onion was diced small and sprinkled over the pie. Although I prefer my toppings to be in bigger pieces because it creates a contrast between bites with toppings and without, the toppings were of a high enough quality that the size did not matter.\nThe sweet Italian sausage had a pleasant and fairly understated taste. This kept the sausage from dominating the other ingredients.\nThe sweet white onions blended well with the sauce. They did not have that overpowering onion taste, which further helps the pie to mesh together.\nAs good as the pizza was, the stromboli just might have been better. It combined the great tastes of the onion, sausage, cheese and sauce while fixing the problem of the mediocre pizza crust by serving it in nice crusty bread. It was amazing and well worth the $4 or so that I spent for it. \nIf you are not familiar with stromboli, here is a brief synopsis. Named for an island off the coast of Italy, stromboli is bread stuffed with meat, sauce and cheese, then baked. \nOn top of the good food, the service was excellent. Not only was the wait staff fast and efficient, they actually apologized for ignoring us. If that is what they consider being ignored, I can only imagine how good they must be when they are on their game. \nIf you have not tried their pizza yet, stop reading this and go grab a pie. It is worth every penny you pay for it. Anything that is under $10 and feeds two people seems like a great value to me. Also, try their stromboli; it's impressive. This is a great place to grab lunch and also someplace I would not hesitate to go to for dinner.