|
|
|
|
This is a NEIGHBORHOOD restaurant. The owners live in the area. If you've read my "Dishwasher Confidential" column then you'll know one of my first rules of picking some place to eat by answering the question: "Where are the owners." Unless there's some Earth shattering cataclysm, the Panopoulos are there every night working shoulder to shoulder with their employees. You place an order and it's a safe bet they're either answering the phone or making the food. They'll greet you from behind the counter as you come through the door with a genuine smile with a warmth that's rivaled only by the pizza ovens. If you've been there more than three times they know you and what you like to order. They're the genuine article, the real deal. They treat their customers like local celebrities while their product speaks for itself. When your slogan is "Pizza With Attitude," and your logo could double as a crescent moon that conjures up images of mystics and magic then you better deliver the goods. And they do. Perfect example of this is when my wife and I ordered our first Chicken Pesto Pizza with onions and mushrooms. It's exactly like it sounds - replace the tradition tomato sauce with pesto and you essentially have the idea. If there's only two of you, don't order the large unless you haven't eaten for days because you can and will eat the whole thing. My own battle of the bulge is fought (and lost) thanks to them! We also like to order their supreme that has some combination of onions, peppers, black olives, mushrooms and sausage. I'm not a huge fan of pepperoni, and the sausage they serve here has some extra spice and kick that makes the absence of the pepperoni for everyone else a distant thought - you don't even miss it. There's also enough spice in the tomato sauce along with a smokey flavor that's hard place but is welcome non-the-less. Editor's note: Their Hawaiian pizza is awesome, too. It can be made with regular ham, Canadian bacon or bacon. All are wonderful. We add onions, green peppers and mushrooms to the ham and pineapple. Mmmmm! The backbone of any pizza is the crust. This doughy concoction can either make or break a pie. Never have I received a bad crust from these people, and it's always come off as freshly made. As an aside - a really BAD pizza usually has a lot of oil on the top which eventually seeps through to the bottom of the crust and then finally through the cardboard box the pizza is delivered in. This usually means that the pizza was cooked long enough for the cheese to separate. With the exception of the Pesto Pizza that has olive oil as one of it's major ingredients - there is hardly ever any oil at the bottom of the box when you get a Pizza Haven Pizza... If you're in Southern New Hampshire, you going to have to frequent Pizza Haven simply because they're the best in the region. |
|
Rindge Pizza Haven Route 119 Serving Pizza, Subs, Salads, Grinders and Fried Foods |
||
Your thoughts? Drop us a line on our forum.More articles from Ren can be found here: The Rant Archive
|
||
|
|
||
Here
I'm going to lay out my argument why you should almost always frequent your
friendly neighborhood pizza joint. Not only because you should support
non-corporately owned business and support your neighbors who own local
restaurants, but because they're simply better most of the time.
Those
are the reasons why I like The Panopoulos' - not just as the owners
of my favorite pizza place but because of the type of people they
are.
