City Pizza, Front & Snyder

I was heading down to Best Buy to pick up an answering machine when I caught a big staple right in my rear tire (frustratingly; I had spent the morning waiting for this brand new set of tires to arrive, and hadn't ridden a mile and a half before this first flat). Ok, I say, it's a good chance to sit down and check out the neighborhood.

The first thing I do is get off Columbus Blvd. and walk over to Front, which is really a different world. I sit down on the curb in front of a convenient store and fix the flat, and then mosey down a block to Snyder, where I find City Pizza.



I order two slices and a coke, and stand outside on the corner and eat. The crust is sweet and flavorful - very tasty - with a good crispy texture and a chewy crumb. There's little stratification between the crust and the cheese, which is fine but not spectacular. The slices are relatively dry, and drip almost no oil.

The corner is nice. It's the middle of the afternoon, warm but not hot. I ride on.

Mack's Boardwalk Pizza, 10th & Oregon Philadelphia

So I'm biking down Oregon Ave, heading east towards the UPS location and remembering that I hadn't had breakfast yet. It's a beautiful day - a real summer day, in the middle of April - and I'm excited to be outside. Then boom, there it is - Mack's Boardwalk Pizza. I know I have to stop.

This guy is obviously proud to be doing what he's doing. The shop is tiny, but has a little seating area outside. It looks like they might do more sandwiches than anything else, but I'm determined, as always, to get slices. Two plain, and a coke: $3. The guy is sitting there, behind the counter, watching some sort of documentary on WWII, but he seems like he's having a fine time and makes a few remarks about the weather. It feels like summer, and both of us are in the mood. There are only two of us in the shop; the street, everything outside, is alive and in motion .

I sit outside. The slices are crispy underneath, and the crust is a little dense - it creases as I fold the slices. The cheese has a sharper flavor than I'm used to, and the tomato sauce shines through in places. The slices are well delineated, with a dry crust and patches of cheese floating in a mushy tomato sea. They leak little oil.

I finish my meal and throw my trash out inside. As I'm walking out the door, the proprietor asks (almost as an afterthought), "how was it?"

I tell him it was exactly what I was looking for.