Talking Sweet About Nothing

I'm not a pizza snob. I will eat a $1 slice, frozen grocery store pizza, school cafeteria pizza, you name it. I love pizza. But I had to draw the line somewhere as to which pizza places I would write about. I mean, Google Maps claims 56 pizza places within 1 mile of my house (they include Shoppers, which is kind funny). So I decided that the division would be dough. If a pizza parlor made their own dough, then I would write about it. That doesn't mean that I won't eat other pizzas. I frequently do, in fact. I'm just not going to put the effort into critiquing and writing about them. How much could I actually say about frozen dough from Sysco or Nino's? Canned sauce and processed cheese taste pretty much the same no matter who's name is on the awning.

Well here's the exception to prove the rule. I had to break my own guidelines for Today's Pizza (pronounced Toe-day's). This place is less than 200 yards from my house and they're open until 2am, so I can walk/stumble there anytime I want. There's also a little bit of sentimentality in that it was the first pizza I had when I first moved here and lived two blocks over on North Bend (the same street as Today's! man, I lucked out). Many awesome evenings of hanging out with friends have been accompanied by a Today's pizza.

Everyone I know agrees that there's something special about Today's. They're right. The crust is unassuming. It's typical carry-out crust; not as crispy as I usually like it, but you can fold it so it doesn't droop. The cheese does not dominate and they do not overload the toppings. Today's Pizza's ace in the hole, however, is their sauce. I don't know where they get it, but it's unlike any other sauce I've ever tasted. I know it's canned, I've watched them open it. But why no other carry-out has ever ordered this sauce amazes me. How is it unique to Today's? How did I get so lucky? This sauce is spicy. Not hot and not overwhelming, but there's a hint of smokey spice. Everyone comments on the sauce, but no one has been able to pin down the blend of spices in this sauce.

While I love going out and eating "serious" ** pizza, I also realize that I'm very lucky to have a really great, really cheap carry-out pie within walking distance from my house. Thank you Today's.




** Serious pizza in my book means sauce and dough made from scratch from high-quality ingredients and especially fresh mozzarella. A serious pizza oven would be nice, but that's a rare find in Baltimore.