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.