Square box. Round pizza. Triangular slices.
Tonight, I think I’ll just stay home and work on my geometry.
At the SMART awards, held on March 30 at La Frontera, most of the buzz was about what restaurant would be ranked number one in San Miguel de Allende. But that wasn’t all that was on the ballot.
Guests were also asked to fill in the blank after My favorite pizza is at (or delivered from).
The reason pizza ranked its own little question is because Don Day gets more comments, more emails, more opinions about pizza than almost everything else combined.
Pizza is definitely one of North America’s favorite foods. Look at the stats: Number of pizzas sold per year: 3 billion. Slices of pizza eaten every second: 400. Percent of all food service sales that are pizza: 10%. Percent of all pizzas consumed that are delivered: 63%. Total number of pizzas delivered by females to Don Day’s house: 0. Please, before I die can I have just one delivered by a woman.
Oh yes, the results at the SMART awards. There were seven different restaurants that did well in the balloting. Five fought it out for third place. There was a very strong second place. And, of course, there was that coveted first place.
Don Day wasn’t particularly shocked by the results but there were a couple of small surprises.
When we did the accounting to determine the best restaurant numbers, Antigua Trattoria Romana was by far the number one restaurant in San Miguel that served pizza so I automatically thought it would also win best pizza. No, it was just one of the five who were so close in that race for third.
There was another close competitor that also made Don Day do a little head scratching. Another of the five in the race for third was Costco. Costco? Then I thought about it. I’ve been served the frozen lasagna from Costco and it was quite good, maybe the pizza’s just as good. Then I did some research. Costco has food courts (that I didn’t know). Costco food courts sell pizza (that I also didn’t know). And if you add up the sales of pizza at Costco it makes them the 15th largest pizza chain (that’s bigger than California Pizza Kitchen which is 18th). Now I think I get it.
Those other three that scored well but not quite well enough were Gombo’s, which has recently added another location on Salida a Celaya; La Grotta, which Don Day thinks was the first Italian restaurant in San Miguel; and the very comfortable and charming Mare Nostrum.
Before I tell you the two top pizza places, I will tell you a couple of facts about them. Neither of them offers delivery (darn) and neither of them scored a single vote in the best restaurant category of the SMARTs. So I guess we can presume great pizza but not quite as great spots.
In second place, was Cent’Anni the new Italian restaurant that’s quickly become a favorite of the in for the weekend crowd and whose rooftop is already the go to place for Don Day’s weekly pizza hit. I’ve written about Cent’Anni recently so I’ll just give you a link if you want to know more about their wood fired, Naples style pies.
http://dondayinsma.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/it-didnt-disappear-into-thin-air-wood-fired-neopolitan-crust-pizza-is-back-in-san-miguel/
And in first place and definitely the most loved pizza in San Miguel. Pizza Pig. It’s the restaurant that, if it was geographically closer, Don Day would definitely have a closer relationship with. And it’s the place that drew comments on the awards ballot like, “If only they’d deliver” and “Please, please ask them to deliver”. Pizza Pig also was reviewed by Don Day recently so, again, I won’t say anymore, I’ll just give you a link.
http://dondayinsma.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/heres-the-skinny-on-thin-crusts-at-pizza-pig/
And one more fact. And one that makes Don (I hate chains) Day a very happy guy. Despite all those scooters that we constantly see winding through traffic on San Miguel’s streets, Domino’s didn’t get a single vote.
Pizza Pig is located on the road to Dolores Hidalgo, about 5.5 km outside of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It is open Tuesday to Saturday from 1:00 pm to 9:00 pm, Sunday 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
Recent Comments