by Brian Clites and Elisa Lenssen
Staff Writers
Pagliai’s
We headed toward Pagliai’s knowing full-well students’ soft spot for it; we definitely felt the taste and the atmosphere supported the popularity. And we saw other Grinnell people, so it was just like the Forum…only with better pizza and no academic buildings looming nearby. Eat here because you probably already do.
Service
Brian: Polite, friendly, accommodating, young. (7)
Elisa: Those young male workers clad in classic khaki and white get my vote! Overwhelming (10)!
Atmosphere
B: Everything a hometown pizzeria should be: warm wallpaper, dimmed lighting, natural wood tables, leather seats, and open-view pizza ovens. Classic big-band jazz playing over the speakers put me in a social mood while relaxing me into my comfy seat. (9)
E: Is this place owned by the mob? And why is the oven area so glaringly white? Its juxtaposition with the dark dining area is alarming and made me think of life (never go against the Family) and death (go swim with the fishes). Points for the cool mass of free-floating booths, swanky lighting, and let’s-get-it-on jazz music. (7.5)
Grease blot
B: A clear night dotted with stars and accented with a crescent moon. (7)
E: A tuxedo-wearing symphony conductor. Swanky once again. (9)
Taste
B: An awesome crust starts it off right; perfectly crisp, both the thin and thick crust are excellent choices. The sauce is sweet and tangy, the cheese full-flavored. The oven-fired taste is brought out in every slice. (9)
E: Well, despite Brian trying to brainwash me into resounding enthusiasm, the verdict’s still out. Maybe I’m too low-class for the mob, but the pizza felt too pristine to me. I missed the nice lingering taste of grease and mass-produced-products. Bring on the cement shoes, I guess. (6.5)
Pizza Hut
Our first stop and so we were tentative to give high marks, but it received and deserved them. This chain’s been around so long it could be considered our 13th peer institution. So, eat it if you want to be a follower, refrain from risk-taking, and boost the confidence of a mostly-deservedly-so-confident pizza.
Service
B: Exceptional. Very attentive, extremely friendly, undeterred by our mission and the knowledge we were en route to the other five Grinnell pizzerias. (10)
E: Perfect. Even when we revealed our ulterior motives, our waitress was attentive and friendly. (10)
Atmosphere
B: Mmm…smells and looks like every other Pizza Hut, but it’s smaller and emptier. Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” was blastin’ as we rolled up. (7)
E: Well, I’ll say a somewhat paradoxically wholesome-countrified-glowing neon red-70s-love-nest. Give points for the “vino” jug jutting out from the wall. Subtract points for “Say My Name”—I don’t like that song. (7)
Grease blot
B: A full-coated bulldog, but still cute. (6)
E: An obese koala. Made me worry about caloric intake. (6)
Taste
B: Salty cheese with a great crust. (7)
E: Though visually pleasing, the cheese was sort of mealy. The crust was very good if you like butter. In fact, this pizza is a butter braggart. But I like that. (8)
The Forum Grill
A lot of us live, eat, and breathe at the Forum…but maybe you should scratch that middle option. Even though we love Grinnell, we don’t love its Monday night cheese pizza; maybe the Grill was recuperating after the wild weekend.
Service
B: Quick, polite, and friendly. (7)
E: Actually fast. And those uniform t-shirts and ball caps? The staple of any wardrobe. (8)
Atmosphere
B: It made up for a lot of what the pizza lacked – it was clean, bright, familiar, and felt like home. Cool reggae music coming from the billiards. (10)
E: Intelligent, innovative, non-assuming, self-governed…And a palpable sense of administrative desire to keep up with peer institutions. (9)
Grease blot
B: A near perfect outline of a U.F.O. from one side, and a flawless sketch of a pirate when flipped 180º. (9)
E: Fozzie Bear with an Afro. Think that would make the admissions booklet? (7)
Taste
B: Very disappointing. The crust was thick and dry, closely resembling a bunch of stacked raw pitas. The cheese was hard, and cold, and the unidentified spices scared me – they scared me a lot. (3)
E: The cheese gave off a glow that was redder than the sauce. Not good. I didn’t like it so well. I guess it was okay. Oh god, do I need a thesis statement? (5)
Godfather’s Pizza
When we first walked in, we had reservations about its emptiness and its littered tables, but the smell of pizza was wonderful. Eat at Godfather’s if you don’t value style over substance and don’t need the life of the party to be happy.
Service
B: Very polite, down to earth, and accommodating. (9)
E: The cashier seemed anxious for us to pay the bill, but he was nice and apologized for the wait. (7)
Atmostphere
B: As I enter, I breath-in and think, “this place smellslike heaven – or at least what I hope heaven smells like.” It looks like a downtown pizzeria, nothing fancy, but a little
Pizza, cont. on p.10
Pizza, cont. from p. 9
dirty, with un-bussed tables. No music was playing when we entered, but eventually, “Life of the Party” (country) broke the silence. (7)
E: Chucky Cheese minus the happy kids and plus suffocating silence. Add points for reminding me of the hangouts on Saturday morning NBC teen comedies. Subtract points for the unexpected blasting of the really morose country music. That was just depressing. (6.5)
Grease blot
B: An alligator with chomps wide open, eating a wabbit. (5)
E: Eeyore and Winnie-the-Pooh hovering above ancient Greece. Pretty tame. (7)
Taste
B: A full, satisfying flavor with great cheese and good sauce. The crust, however, is too soggy to deserve the adjective “crusty.” (5)
E: Excellent sauce. Points for its seasoning and confident cheese. Though a crunchy-chewy combo has taste-suicide potential, here it actually works. A nice, blue-collar honest and humble slice. (8.5)
Michael’s
We walked in and wanted to leave. We felt out-of-place and struggled to separate Micheal’s mediocre pizza from its menacing posse. We actually ate our slices hiding out in our car. You shouldn’t eat in if you’re a student, but deliveries might be OK.
Service
B: Uh, what service? They were polite on the phone, but would not allow us to eat our pre-ordered pizza inside their snobby elevator-deco restaurant. Perhaps out of spite at this request, they did not slice our pizza at all. (2)
E: Bad. Also, subtract more points for the mysterious troops of young-looking workers crammed into the small kitchen (code violations?). (1)
Atmosphere
B: It looked like a nice interior, with white tablecloths, but no booths. The lighting and wallpaper reminded me of an elevator. (6)
E: Again, I felt like it was some fraternal organization and I wasn’t a member. Stifling, yet oddly pastel—a cheap hotel lobby. Points for weird long slit windows fitted with cool custom blinds. (5)
Grease blot
B: The earth from outer space, but with most of the land flooded. Be ready for a coronary bypass. (4)
E: A dew-covered Ying-and-Yang. It isn’t in harmony with my relationship with the restaurant. (4)
Taste
B: Sweet sauce, salty cheese, crispy thin crust, loads of grease – somehow these all fit together to make a surprisingly ok pizza. (4)
E: Despite not being sliced and so appearing as an ugly and flattened-by-a-semi Frisbee, it wasn’t bad. (7)
Final Pizza Verdict
Name Overall rating Price per slice*
Pagliai’s 8.125 $1.45
Pizza Hut 7.625 $1.05
Forum 7.250 $1.69
Godfather’s 6.875 $1.20
Michael’s 4.125 $1.57
* based on price for a large pizza, except for the Forum
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