Pizza Sola

Penn Circle South in the East Liberty district of Pittsburgh, once considered a blighted area, has recently become something of a restaurant row that we have been exploring this year.  One of the places it took us a while to get to was a pizza shop called Pizza Sola.  We had walked by several times on the way to other places, but for a long time had not arranged to go there ourselves.  However, I'd always been struck by the businesslike way the employees were tossing the pizza dough around.  Eventually we made it a point to give them a visit.

My relationship with pizza is a bit strained.  Usually I can take it or leave it, but sometimes I get a craving.  Even when I am in the mood for pizza though, I have definite preferences.  Though I grew up near Chicago, deep dish does nothing for me.  I much prefer thin New York-style pizza.  In fact, the best pizza I've ever had was in Greenwich Village in New York a few years ago, baked in a coal-fired oven.  If we could get something remotely equivalent here I'd be happy, and would have pizza much more often than I do.

Their pizza is sold by the slice, for about $3.75 apiece.  Whole pizzas are set out in a display case, and slices are reheated in the oven when ordered.  The slices are substantial enough that I found two to be plenty, though if I had an unlimited appetite I'd have tried more varieties--there were quite a few that interested me.  I settled on the Greco, a white pizza with feta and spinach, and a regular slice with sausage and pepperoni.

The pizza was pretty good, though nowhere up to the standards of the New York pizza I'd had.  The crust was pretty thin, which I did like.  We both found the topping to be just a bit too cheesy.  It certainly didn't sit lightly on my stomach.

They had no alcoholic drinks, so I had a ginger ale, my soft drink of choice unless I'm specifically needing caffeine!  It was a brand I wasn't familiar with, Boylan.  They touted their natural ingredients and indeed used sugar rather than corn syrup.  It was pretty good, and I appreciated their stocking something besides the standard Canada Dry, or even Schweppes.

The restaurant didn't feel crowded but we only just managed to find a seat.  There were signs posted with reviews of the restaurant.  I read the one nearest to us, which did complain about the bright lighting (I didn't think so necessarily but it was neon lighting, which was a bit harsher than it could have been).  I noticed when we left that though they had plenty of garbage cans they only had one recycling bin at the front of the store.  Not seeing it at first I accidentally threw out my bottle.

All in all it was a good experience.  I still am only liable to get that pizza craving on rare occasions, when I do, Pizza Sola is a place where I can get a very good slice or two.