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| - I have started avoiding all pizza except neapolitan 900-degree wood oven pizza, because making a great neapolitan is an art, and great neapolitans are like radiant mandalas of near-psychedelic ecstacy.
I had avoided Pizza Rock the first couple days staying at the Grand next door, because during the day, the joint was empty - - and loud, and dark - - couldn't imagine sitting there at a table like a stooge.
The last night in Vegas, with the vintage hot rod show outside, needed some tucker so took a stool up front by the slice counter (thanks, Yelper Lauren T for this recommendation!) and ordered the Sicilian slice of the day (deep crust - - foccacia?) and the Picante (basic 'American style' slice).
OH MY BLOODY HOLY MARY MOTHER OF GRACE were these slices great. Pizza Rock is not so much pizza as art - - it is pizza as SCIENCE, and the science at Pizza Rock is not myopic test tube, it is more like transcendent astrophysics.
The Sicilian had a crust that was solid and toothy, but then disassembled as you bite into it - - a crunch and a melt at the same time, with beautiful light delish tomato accent. This is a pizza with a structure like the scaffolding that held Michelangelo up while painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
The Picante presented itself modestly - - simply a thinnish slice studded with eye-poppingly colorful toppings with bright white mozzarella blobs - - a slice from a larger pie, re-heated 30 seconds before being served - - and the message was clear: at Pizza Rock they have the formula. They know precisely what they are doing with the alchemy of crust and topping (and top, top ingredients at that) to create masterpieces of texture and flavor.
Not JUST art. But also science.
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