Four weeks in!

So we're four weeks into the Cincy pizza quest (Hyde Park Pizzeria, Chinnati's, Mio's Pizzeria, ZZ's Pizza, and $1 Donato's pizza at a Cyclone's game). Hopefully we'll get some pictures up from the various places soon and tabulated values from our spreadsheet ratings. Speaking of ratings, I think it's going to take several weeks to really get the ratings calibrated right for me.

To help understand what my rankings go by, I feel like I should give some personal pizza background. I grew up in the Chicago area, and thus have a special place in my heart for a good Chicago style pizza (hence on my evening I went with Chinnati's). At the same time, I also grew up having Little Caesar's (Pizza Pizza!) when you actually used to get two pies with each order and loved it. So while I think I can recognize a the good from the not quite so good, my childhood pizza memories influence me today such that I rarely meet a pizza that I don't enjoy.

When it comes to the pizza, I personally rate the cheese and sauce higher than the crust. I think that's a fair way to do it too, especially given that the crust can be such a personal thing (hence folks from brooklyn not thinking there is anything but one half-way decent place to get pizza in Ann Arbor, where I've also lived and enjoyed many great pizzas). As for the cheese, I think it needs to be plentiful and gooey (with good flavor obviously). The sauce I'm more open on. I'm not looking for a particular kind of sauce in order to claim that it's good (sweet vs spicy, etc.). It just needs to fit in well with the rest of the pizza.

That all being said, here's where I'd say our current pizzas have stacked up

1) Chinnati's: I'm hung up on the Chicago style, even if it isn't Lou Malnati's.

2) ZZ's Pizza: Recently reopened, with a good specialty pizza.

3) Hyde Park Pizzera: Our first pizza and delicious to boot!

4) Mio's: We just had the thin crust here (they make a Chicago style), it was okay, but not one I'll have a hankering for soon.

5) $1 Donato's at US Bank Arena: Even for $1 a slice I'd say it was expensive (the slices were small too).