A few weeks ago, John and I grabbed a pizza to accompany our almost-nightly Star Trek experience, and John, Bill and I noshed down. Unfortunately, I have to be honest to myself and my pizza study, and I was frankly too distracted with my just-ended work day to really experience the pizza. John’s thoughts were “nice smell, good consistency on the crust, not enough grease”. Bill’s thoughts were “It’s pizza and pizza is a good thing”. But I realized that I hadn’t fully pulled together my thoughts on it, and I knew deep-down I had to try it again. So I ordered Leonardo’s Part Two: The Pizzaing last night with James and let it stand the test again.
Smell : Nothing special that wouldn’t smell like a pizza boat in high school. A simple, almost sugary tomato smell. But hey, at least it was there. I’m learning that’s more than I can say for a lot of pizzas. 2/5
Appearance : Blagh. Nothing to write home about. A similar situation with Bonobo – the colors mesh together too easily and creates a light-red/yellow tone to the entire pizza. This was slightly better than Bonobo, however. At least you could tell the distinguished slices, and see the melted cheese spread over them. 2/5
Cheese: Cheese had a real yummy taste, but we had a cheese flap situation like crazy. I couldn’t even pick up the first piece without all the cheese sliding off the pizza. So, a good taste, but not good enough to make up for the poor texture. 2.5/5
Crust: I liked it! It was almost *too* thick. However, I really liked that it was thick enough to really get some earthy flavors of the crust out. They take their crust seriously there. It was *almost* perfect consistency. No bend-y situation. It was not thin enough that the crust bended in half or flopped down (it’s amazing how often I used the verb “flop” when discussing pizza), but it was not thick enough to overpower the other flavors (which, given the other flavors, I sort of wish was the case). Good crust, team. 4/5
Sauce: Ugh. This is where I really think Leonardo’s lost. Too sugary, not flavorful, and evoked exactly the kind of high-school-pizza experience that the crust did. James called it “cafeteria pizza” and I think that assessment comes mostly from the smell, look and sauce. The cheese and crust as isolated components weren’t terrible, but did not save it from the fucking sauce. .5/5
Overall experience: I mean, it wasn’t as bad tasting as Sam’s, I will give it that. But Sam’s is bar food, served with two dollar pints. Leonardo’s is supposed to be up there with Bonobo’s and Otto’s as some of the classiest pizza in town. Furthermore, you get nothing in terms of atmosphere and experience, because Leonardo’s is just a white box on the side of Forest Avenue. You can’t even sit there, really. You basically have no other option than to come home and drink a bottle of wine with it on your bed while watching Batman. It’s that kind of pizza. Although those are nice things…I’m still gonna have to go ahead and award the entire experience with a 2.3/5. I’ve had nice experiences there before, and I love their pesto pizzas, but the cheese did not hold up.
So, a 2.2 for all components, with a 2.3 for overall experience, brings it up to a 4.5. Is the famed Leonardo’s really not as good as Samuel’s bar and grill? This is where context plays a huge part. It was about on par with Sam’s – Sam’s pizza had better cheese, but a terrible crust. And cheese is very important. However…Leonardo’s doesn’t even offer me any beer to wash down my pizza with, leaving me with gas station wine and sadness. Unfortunately, the atmosphere, and the purported style of pizza not matching with quality, brings Leonardo’s down to be the worst pizza thusfar. This surprises me, but I have to loyal to my rating system.
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