Buono's Pizza Friday!

There's not going to be much to say about our experience at Buono's Pizza and the least of those things are very good. First of all, we didn't get there until around 8:30 and we were starving and cranky. This place is in the middle of nowhere (if you ask me) and has the worst layout and the biggest waste of square footage of any commercial space i've ever seen. This shouldn't have anything to do with pizza, but it bothers me and that's all there is to it.

We sat down at our booth and they brought us a bruschetta appetizer, which Lorne immediately converted to wet toast by dumping all of the "gross" tomatoes off of the top. Lorne didn't like it, but I thought it was really good, so I ate all of it (as usual). We then ordered the PizzAndrea from their gourmet pizza selection. It included mozzarella with marinated chicken breast strips sauteed with garlic, onions, mushrooms, and white wine. Topped with olives and feta cheese.

It took forever for the pizza and I don't think it was because we were so hungry. The pizza was actually pretty good. It was really different from anything we usually order and like. The service however, not as gourmet as the pizza. They didn't bring us any napkins or silverware and we never saw our server again. Literally. We had to flag a busser down for napkins and a to-go box, and he only met us half way by bringing us the napkins. Lorne had to go to the register for the box and pay for the check, which I can only assume did not include a tip.

So, that's it. As it turns out, bad customer service can ruin a good pizza.

-Jess

Ferraro's Pizza Friday!

This was a Pizza Friday to celebrate my 27th birthday, so we decided to dine-in at an Italian restaurant called Ferraro's. For those of you that don't know, my first job when I moved to Long Beach in 2005 was at Ferraro's, but at a different location. The location I worked at has since closed down, mysteriously soon after I quit.

This was our first time to the other location and I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a former co-worker of mine from the other location. His name is Mike (the big guy) and he's one of the funniest people I've ever met, so I was really excited to see him again.

We ordered a medium half cheese, half pepperoni pizza, our signature default toppings. Mike also served us a bowl of pasta fagioli soup, an italian salad, warm bread, Lorne a Coke, and me a glass of white wine. The food was all really good, especially the pizza, and we had a really fun, romantic dinner. Lorne told Mike it was my birthday and he brought us a custard filled tart with fresh berries and cocoa on top. When Lorne picked up the bill, a look of pure joy that can only come from a true cheap-ass like Lorne indicated to me that Mike had indeed, to his word, hooked us up really good.

Needless to say, we'll be going back again when Mike is working.

I forgot my phone at home, so this is the only photo we got of the evening.

-Jess

BJ's Cheeseburger Pizza Friday!

What perfect timing to order a cheeseburger pizza! Only days after our cheeseburger foodie experience noted in the previous entry. Believe me, we've had cheeseburger pizzas in the past, but none of them have been worth mentioning. I was skeptical when Lorne suggested we order it, because of other less notable pizzas of its kind.

Let me just say this about our Pizza Friday experience at BJ's: we LOVE BJ's! We went to the location in our neck of the woods on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore. This location is actually kind of strange because it's so small and doesn't have a bar, but that's okay because they always seat us right away. On a side note, it was extremely loud and filled with what looked like high school aged kids, which made Lorne and I seem like an old angry couple (again).

I was a little disappointed at first because I went for my ol' faithful and ordered the Berry Burst Cider, but apparently they were out of it, so I pouted and ordered the Jeremiah Red Irish Style Ale instead. We then ordered a medium BJ's Bacon Cheeseburger deep dish pizza, which according to the menu is, "For the classic burger lover!" It came with ground Angus beef, red onions, Applewood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes and chopped dill pickles. We made sure to 86 the drizzled signature burger sauce. We don't do sauce, unless it's Frank's Red Hot Sauce, but that's a different pizza and a different Friday to come (their buffalo chicken pizza is really good too).

OMG, the cheeseburger pizza was so good! It was a perfect harmony between two separately amazing foods: a cheeseburger and a pizza! And I actually really liked my beer too. But, I pretty much started to like everything once I got down to the bottom of my glass, but that's okay. The crust was so soft and buttery, the toppings were flavorful, distinct, and unique; in particular the dill pickles, which really made the pizza for me.

Bottom line, it sounds too weird to be good, but don't be afraid to try this one.

-Jess

Cheeseburger Sunday!

I know, I know...Finally! But we've been really busy lately; needless to say that's why we haven't posted anything in the last two weeks. But don't worry, we weren't too busy to eat! We're here to apologize and to catch you up on all of the foodie adventures we've been on since our last post.

Over the last couple of months, we've been frequenters to Abbot Kinney in Venice due to an amazing paper boutique called Urbanic, where we're getting our wedding invitations made. We could easily have gotten our invitations online and saved ourselves the drive up to LA, but the foodie adventures on this strip are just too much to pass up.

After our quick consultation at the paper store, we headed to the food truck lot across the street and found a bright pink truck called Baby's Badass Burgers. If you thought we liked pizza, you should see the look on Lorne's face when he knows there's a good cheeseburger in the vicinity. (To give myself a little credit in the cheeseburger department, my grandpa used to call me Wimpy when I was a little girl. You know Wimpy, of the "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" fame).

Lorne wasted no time ordering the largest item on the menu called "The Bombshell" which is a 1/2 lb Maneater burger sandwiched between 2 bacon grilled cheese melts, topped with grilled onions. I ordered "She's Smokin!" as two Baby Burgers (sliders), which includes smoked cheddar, bbq sauce, crispy onions, and bacon. We also ordered a yummy side of "Pig Tails" which are their seasoned curly fires.

We took our burgers and walked down to the corner restaurant called Lemonade and ordered a large Ginger-Peach Lemonade and a Strawberry-Kiwi Lemonade, and washed down our tasty burgers.

-Jess

Marri's Pizza Friday!

Slow week here at the PizzaFridayToday offices. With so little work, I may just start thinking they pay me too much for this job! This week we went to Marri's Pizza. This place has been recommended to us by a few people who said they have really good pizza, so we figured we'd try it out. This was actually our second trip to Marri's, the first time the place was packed. There were people everywhere and when I asked for a seat, they were very rude and refused to take our name down, so we left never to return again. Tonight we had originally planned to go to The Long Beach Pizza Co. but after they refused to accommodate us for parking (couldn't find a spot,) we headed to Marri's. We were seated immediately and began reading the menu. Their prices were very fair, topping out at $20 for a large with everything. They had a wide assortment of dishes, which I didn't know they had, not just pizza. Then I noticed the drink section. A warning said that each soda was allowed only TWO refills. The soda was $2.50 and came in a regular sized glass. I mean really? $2.50 for at most 60 cents of soda seems kinda steep, but whatever I only drank about a third of the last glass. That'll show 'em. Limit MY soda will they!

Lorne noticed that they had a Family Special on the pizza menu, which included a large pizza, large salad, pasta with choice of sauce, and garlic sticks for $23.99. Typical Lorne and Jessica move to assume that this was a completely normal amount of food for two people to order, and so we did. I don't know what we were thinking, it was WAY too much food! Like comically too much food! But that's okay because we love leftovers. We ordered the Marri's Special pizza, which included peperoni, sausage, and mushrooms. And this pizza looked amazing! The first thing I noticed was that the cheese was on top and was nicely browned to a well done perfection. A single slice was literally heavy with all of the juicy, chunky toppings loaded in between the crust and the cheese. It reminded me of a  Chicago style pizza (minus the extra layer of crust like a pie). It tasted really good, but this crust was nothing to write home about. Also, because the cheese was on top, the toppings in the center were not cooked well-done enough to our liking. We each only ate ONE slice because we were so full. Just to give you a frame of reference, Lorne and I used to finish an extra-large pizza all by ourselves in the early days of Pizza Friday. So white flag, pizza won. And then we we asked for a box to go.

Family Special for two.

Cheese on top, toppings underneath.

So full!

Happy camper!

Can you believe that this was what was left!?!? We barely made a dent!