Grubby Pizza - finally open

Allie was craving pizza - and Grubby Chicago Style Pizza finally opened last week, so we decided to hit it to celebrate someone *finally* signing a lease on our Monona house.

It wasn't the full-service restaurant we were expecting, but it was fine by us. Kinda spartan and Chipotle-esque in decor (metal chairs, exposed HVAC and lighting), you order up at the counter and wait about 40 min for your pizza.

Just in case you forgot what they serve

The pizza was pretty dang good - and a true traditional Chicago deep dish. Good sauce, the right amount of gooey cheese and a fair amount of our spinach topping swimming in the mess. The crust, while Chicago-style in shape and depth wasn't quite spot-on, needing some corn meal to give it a golden glow and a nice crunch. I bet some nicely aged pizza pans would do wonders as well as deep dish in Chicago are generally served in blackened pans.

Yes, it was ooey, hot and chewy. Dig the eye channel too.

And even though she'll kill me for posting a pic of her eating a slice of pizza, here's Celeste...

The three of us managed to kill a large. I probably ate half of it myself. Good thing I went for a mountain bike ride an hour later to burn off that gut bomb. Four hours later I'm still stuffed.

I'm certain we'll return to Grubby Pizza about once every 4-6 weeks or so.

Mmm... Pizza Port

With the absence of true deep-dish Chicago-style pizza here in Carlsbad (well, at least for the next ten days until Grubby Pizza opens), we hit the 'Port.

iPhones + low light = fuzzy pix

Pizza Port has three locations in the area - downtown Carlsbad, Solana Beach and one in San Clemente (southern Orange County). Even though it was founded in 1987, it feels like a place from 1967. Crowded, noisy, and seating done via picnic tables, the Port serves up "tasty grub and grog" with a vintage surf decor. We ended up sharing our picnic table with two guys in their 20s.

A friend of mine, Adrien, turned us on to the joint as he had lived here years ago. Allie and I hit it back after moving here in September, but we took Celeste to her first visit tonight.

Being the only kid we've ever known to *not* like pizza, we simply told her we were going out to eat at "the Port" and that they had lots of choices. Well, she ended up settling for a small pizza (with pineapple and Canadian bacon - her first Hawaiian pizza) and ate most of it. And loved it. Allie and I chose spinach and artichokes on our pie.

Classic California-style doughy crust and (sadly) cut into squares, the Port dishes out a mean pizza. Multiple thumbs up.

Oh, the beer's pretty good too.