Pitch Perfect
Why pizza Big Willy style is worth the wait
Pitch Pizzeria, 5201 Underwood Ave., 590-2625
Casual/Italian/Gourmet
Appetizers: $ / Entreés: $$
Lunch: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am to 4:30 p.m.
Dinner: Monday – Sunday, 4:30 p.m. to close
Much to-do was made about restaurant mogul Willy Theisen’s return to pizza last year. An Omaha food purveyor for decades, Theisen became the high water mark for aspiring chef/owners and restauranteurs alike. Today, you can find his barbecue franchise in 36 states – just about anywhere where you wouldn’t get shot for calling barbecue anything less than a religion. Fuddrucker’s is still a mainstay burger location all across the country. Plus, let’s not forget: Theisen is the Godfather.
Amid wide expectations and under well-deserved scrutiny, Pitch opened last fall in Dundee to mixed reviews. The biggest detractors, according to the general public: reports of two-plus hour waits, no lunch, no take-out, and no substitutions. This was all part of the plan, of course. Stepping into the Tuscany-meets-Napa-inspired dining room at Pitch, Theisen explained the method to the madness.
“We weren’t going to open everything all at once,” said Theisen during my visit. “We worked carefully on each aspect of Pitch: each item on the menu, each table location, each interaction with a guest. It takes a long time to do everything right, so, for example, when it came to ordering carry-out, we weren’t going to offer it until we knew it was ready.”
Now, after the staff and menu has settled in, Pitch, clearly a labor of love for Theisen, has struck a beautiful chord with local foodies, pizza aficionados, and neighborhood regulars alike. With these expectations, I and some coworkers were invited for a practicum exam of sorts: has Theisen finally got the right pitch?
We were started with two apps and two salads. From the salads, the hit was Arugula salad ($10) featuring prosciutto, candied walnuts, maytag blue cheese, and pears in a light balsamic vinaigrette. The salad is actually presented rolled inside the generous portion of the prosciutto, like a bale of hay. It’s artfully executed and is a nice wake-up to a combination of classic, balanced flavors. The house Caesar is familiar and fresh, and if it suffered from anything, it was lack of innovation. But, hey, it’s a Caesar salad; you order it when you’re not feeling adventurous or particularly trusting of a chef’s concepts, which, at Pitch, would be a mistake.
Admittedly, I’m not a chicken wings kind of guy, a sentiment candidly shared by Theisen. And, also like Theisen, I made an exception for their Coal-Fired Herb Chicken Wings ($9). It’s a slightly deconstructed version of pizza parlor hot wings: drumettes that are herb-rubbed, and oven-roasted to allow the moist chicken to stand as a flavor on its own. If you’re more of a traditionalist, just dip them in the accompanying cherry pepper aioli, a deceptively hot, yet flavorful, sauce.
Finally, the Calabrese Meatballs ($8) caught my attention if for one reason only: the consistency and execution of a simple meatball can so often be ruined (dry, overcooked, mealy, etc.). Pitch’s are perfect: moist, herbaceous and flavorful, and of great consistency (a smooth homogenous mass throughout, indicative of a proper meatball mixture). A simple thing, sure, but it was executed so well, it gave me high hopes for the star of the show, the coal-fire pizza.
We sampled three on our visits. First, the Mia ($17): indicated as “Willy’s Favorite,” and reminiscent of a specialty pizza I seem to remember from a Godfather’s special long ago, it features fennel sausage (house-made, delicious), pepperoni, fresh mozzarella (also house-made, delicious) and red sauce. For your basic “meat lovers” pizza, the quality of flavor in the ingredients lofted this pie well above delivery standards.
The Bianco Verde ($17) was intriguing: ricotta cream, prosciutto, and caramelized onions are topped with mozzarella and served with fresh arugula. The contrast of creamy and salty/sweet toppings made the cool, peppery arugula a welcome combination.
The one that really won me over was the Shrooms ($16): thyme cream, roasted baby bellas, and oven-dried tomatoes are the perfect vehicle for an often under-appreciated ingredient: white truffle oil. The rich, woodsy, musty flavor is a real hit, and I must say, if you like mushrooms at all, you’re really going to love this aromatic, pungent, and exciting dish.
Naturally, the big draw is the coal-fire ovens: the true stars of the building and the tongue-in-cheek namesake to the restaurant. At times up to 1,000-degrees, coal ovens provide a distinct flavor to pizza dough, often with a signature blistering of the crust. The char, paired with almost a sourdough-like aftertaste, made the crust, and subsequently the entreés all the better.
In a word, Pitch was beautiful. It’s the perfect combination of casual-meets-quality for an area like Dundee. Its marked by an exceptional staff, both front and back of house, and led by a man well-versed in good service and good value. My return visit won’t be soon enough.