Tuesday, May 26, 2009

New Pizza Spots

As many of you know, a few new restaurants have opened recently that feature Pizza. Racks (North Miami), Sosta (Lincoln Road) and Pizzavolante (Design District). The openings prompted Frodnesor from Food for Thought to organize the Pizza Showdown Part I.

I'm a huge traditional NY style pizza fan who has come to the realization that I'm not going to find the NY style Pizza I was raised on in Miami. Nevertheless, there is still good alternative style pizza out there to enjoy.

In my never-ending quest to find great pizza I recently had the opportunity to try Racks and Pizzavolante.

Mozzarella fans should head over to Pizzavolante. They have a mozzarella bar with several options and accompaniments. I tried the mozzarella di bufala from Italy and the burrattatini. Both were excellent but I liked the mozzarella a little more. The organic tomatoes, spinach and zucchini were all fresh and tasty.

The pizza is cooked in a wood burning oven that you can't miss upon entering. I sampled the margherita pizza which I enjoyed. It's thin, light, fresh and tasty. I know, not your typical pizza description but that's exactly right. The sauce wasn't a traditional pizza sauce and sort of reminded me of a vodka sauce. Whatever it was worked.

Pizzavolante will be a winner because of the fresh, high quality ingredients they are using along with the reasonable prices. I'm looking forward to heading back soon and trying more mozzarella, pizza, the accompaniments and inexpensive wine.

Pizzavolante
3918 N. Miami Ave.
Miami FL 33137
305.573.5325

Pizzavolante on Urbanspoon

Racks recently opened on the intracoastal in North Miami Beach. They have a sister location in Boca called Coal Mine Pizza. Both feature coal fired pizza and I found it to be similar in style to Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza but not as good. The sweet sausage pizza I sampled did not have a crispy crust and the dough was on the soggy side. The cheese and toppings slid right off when I attempted to fold my slice(s) and take a bite. The cheese and sauce were fine but the entire package didn't really work for me. It was on the heavy side. It wasn't bad but not great. If you are looking for good coal oven pizza in the area, I would stick with Anthony's.

Racks Italian Bistro and Market
Intracoastal Mall 163rd St and NE 36th Ave
N. Miami Beach, FL
305-917-7225
www.GRRestaurant.com

Racks Italian Bistro on Urbanspoon

I've also been back to Spris(Lincoln Road) and Piola (Hallandale Beach location) over the past two weeks and both continue to serve very good thin crust pizza with several interesting options.

To do list includes Pieducks (Miami), Andiamo (Miami), Sosta (Lincoln Road).



5 comments:

Paula said...

I went to Anthony's in Pinecrest last weekend (my first time at any Anthony's) and was a little underwhelmed. Maybe it's because friends had hyped it up so much. What's your favorite pizza there?

The Chowfather said...

Paula, I agree that Anthony's is not for everyone but it works for me. I like the meatball and ricotta and the BRabe/sausage pies. I'm also a big fan of their wings. I still prefer a great NY slice...

sara said...

Gotta love the Beat the Clock deal at Spris. Except they stopped serving a beer with the deal which is a bummer.

paula said...

CF - We saw the meatball and ricotta pizza at a table next to ours and it really looked good. I think we made a mistake by not trying their specialty pies, which a lot of friends have recommended.

Sara - I went to Piola on Brickell the other day and they had a similar promotion. Basically from Monday through Friday all pizzas are:
$7 between 5-6PM
$8 between 6-7PM
$9 between 7-8PM

The Chowfather said...

Beat the clock works for me

Paula, Piola in Hallandale has the same deal plus all you can eat gnocchi on the 29th of every month.