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| - The Parlor is a hip spot. The beer selection is legit, the place is clean and furnished nicely, and the staff are great.
Since this place is a pizza spot and has some clout to it's name, I had to check it out.
Pizza is type of food that requires absolute attention to detail in it's execution to cross the line from good to excellent. It doesn't matter how many awesome topping combinations you can come up with, it must come down to the core of the pizza itself, as you could just throw those toppings on a sandwich with the same results if the fundamentals of the pizza aren't nailed. This is where the parlor falls short.
When I roll into a pizza spot like the parlor, I always go for the Margherita. It's super simple, so unless it's prepared by a deft hand, it will be average; however, if it is prepared by someone with some skills, it will blow your mind how incredible such a simple pizza can be.
...So, I went for the Margherita and I was not impressed at all.
The crust is unexceptional. The overall flavor of it was reminiscent a place like Barro's, under salted, a little sweet from something like sugar or honey added in, and maybe even some oil. True masters can take Flour, Water, Yeast, and Salt and put together a crust that will peal your lid off. Also, the hydration was pretty low, I'd say 50-55%, which means they have their ovens at lower temps. My crust was just barely cooked though, with no real color or any char on the cornicione. It was just spongy and bland, which is not the launch pad for amazing pizza.
The toppings, the toppings... I think of Marlon Brando's character from Apocalypse Now saying this.
This Margherita is a disgrace.
They just put sliced heirloom tomatoes on this thing. I love heirloom tomatoes, but this just irks me on three levels:
1. Sliced tomatoes on pizza that aren't par roasted just piss water all over the pizza.
2. For it to be a Margherita they're traditionally supposed to be blanched then hand crushed. I'm not some type of stickler for rules, but if you're going to go rogue, you gotta make it amazing. Adhereing to the crushing of the tomatoes, with the insane high heat of the oven (which this place doesn't have), will create these cheese/tomato chimera areas of wonder. These of course did not exist in regards to the Parlor's Margherita.
3. Without the crushing of the tomatoes, there was no sauce like vehicle to separate the crust and cheese, and I didn't really detect any Olive Oil in there like a white pizza has.
Beyond tomato-gate, the house Mozzarella is uneventful at best, and sprinkling Mozzarella on top of the tomatoes as well is just a waste. It falls right off due to the inherit moisture in the tomatoes and reminds me of something a slice shop would do when they reheat a slice in the oven.
This Margherita gave me some insight into the Parlor. They are either, unwilling or totally oblivious to the fact that at the core, their pizza is rubbish and they're just throwing high grade toppings on it to cover that up. One 700 ft drive up the street to Bianco in Town and Country would give them some serious education in how to kill a Margherita on every level. I see it like this, either they're negligent or incompetent in regards to pizza.
I don't care if this place's "{Inset Name Here}" pizza is really good, because they're just shrouding amateurish pizza with clever toppings. There are many other places around the city that have put some real time in to getting everything right with their pizza besides what they put on it.
If you're thinking about going here, do yourself a favor and move along down Camelback to 20th and hit up Bianco at Town and Country.
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