I love pizza. It is perhaps one of my all-time favorite food groups. Thin, hand-tossed, or even an occasional pan, it really doesn’t matter what the pizza looks like. It can even be square or rectangular. It’s hard to beat homemade, but when I don’t have the time or energy, takeout will do. Of course, if I lived closer to NYC, I would be eating a slice or two of that big, delicious thin crust pizza on a weekly — if not daily — basis. I’m not sure what that would do for my weight or overall health, but passing up a hot, right-out-of-the-oven slice of NYC’s finest takes more willpower than I think I can muster.
Although I have not tried all of northern Virginia’s self-proclaimed NYC-style pizza eateries, there are a few outstanding ones in the Fredericksburg area. Benny Vitali’s, in historic, downtown Fredericksburg, serves “sizable pizza slices” at reasonable prices. Benny’s is one of those small, hole-in-the-wall establishments that one might see on Guy Fieri’s latest edition of “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.” One slice is about 1 1/2 times bigger than what you would get at your typical mom-and-pop pizza joint in New York. We haven’t ordered the big, 28″ sausage pizza ($35 for eight huge slices), but one of these days we just might. You would need the back of an SUV to haul that monstrosity.
Our go-to pizza joint as of late happens to be the one closest to our house. Because I don’t like to wait the additional time it takes for delivery or pay an extra charge to have the pizza dropped off at my doorstep, I order online, hop in the car, and drive five minutes to the nearest Papa John’s. Yep. I admit it. I eat at Papa John’s. Despite what I wrote in “Papa John’s & the Incredible Shrinking Pizza!,” I have relented and finally gone back to the franchise known for their “better ingredients, better pizza.” Doesn’t hurt that the whole family loves it too, especially when you can dip the crust in warmed up garlic butter. Yum.
I never would have dreamed that my post about the size of a Papa John’s pizza would end up being the highest read post of all time on “From Law to Grace.” Having been away from regular blogging since 2014, I rarely checked my stats to see how many visits the blog was getting or what articles were being read. However, every now and again, I would get a random comment about the Papa John’s post. When I restarted blogging last week, I checked the summary of most viewed posts. Turns out that “Papa John’s & the Incredible Shrinking Pizza,” with 21,299 all-time views, surpassed a somewhat more controversial post about “Andy Stanley’s Soft Landing on Homosexuality,” which now registers 16,454 views.
Perhaps that’s the power Google or maybe it’s attributable to Americans loving their pizza. Whatever the reason, hope you enjoy reading about a slice of pizza. Better yet, hope you grab a slice of your favorite pizza this week. Just don’t use a knife and fork to eat it. That would be bad form and I’m pretty sure the pizza won’t taste as good.