Austin's Pizza

Now, we have said before that our biggest competition is the fact that crappy pizza is still pretty good. After having the pizza at our hotel, we stand corrected. It was so bad for so many reasons. This was only emphasized by everything else at said hotel being so nice. So, we will spare you the details, including names etc. Just know that your hero had some really awful pizza.

Then we went to what was is our favorite pizza joint in all of Colorado. This statement may imply that we’ve had a lot of Colorado pizza. We haven’t, but experience aside, it is a factual, accurate statement. It’s the only pizza in Colorado that we remember eating in the past or even pre-Austin’s Pizza. [We all had lives etc. before Austin's Pizza, but like life before kids, dogs, etc., it's certainly hard to accurately remember what our particular reasons for living were.]

The Slopeside Grill has fantastic pizza. And the best news is that it is just as we remembered; a brilliant and simple  hearth-baked pie. Depending on who you ask, most folks will tell you that pizza is all about this or that (the cheese, the crust, the…). We’re here to tell you it’s all about balance, and this is one balanced pie.

They have a simple dough that’s fresh, a sauce that’s appropriate, they use good cheese, and they use a great pepperoni. We always like to try someone’s pepperoni pizza. Many people judge a pizza by eating a slice of cheese. Many people are also jerks. Plain cheese folks aren’t jerks, they’re just wrong when it comes to testing. We try pepperoni because it’s the most important ingredient (most used), and it isn’t susceptible to daily or weekly variations (like produce). Since there are about 1,000,000 pepperonis out there, typically you can judge a joint by the quality of the pepperoni it uses (quality pep = quality pie). [The darker the pepperoni the more funny bits in it. And that's not ha-ha funny.]

Slopeside’s pepperoni is great. It goes well with their cheese (also great). In fact, the whole pizza even  looks great. It’s one of those orange-tinted greasy jobs. It reminded us of one we had often as kids in Houston from the long-shuttered Panjo’s.

An aside: The other thing Slopeside does is make their own ranch. This is a small detail, but it’s one that is a true mark of care. Using pre-made ranch is like using frozen cheese. Both are nasty and offensive.

We love Slopeside. As it was the last meal we ate before skipping town, it was a fitting end to a nice vacation.

Who stole my name?

Your friends from Austin’s Pizza were in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for a little R+R last week. And, coincidentally we were there during what the locals call ‘Texas Week.’

During this Texas Week several acts from the still-thriving Texas Americana scene take over the venues at the Mountain Village and play music for a few days. Lots of super-engaged fans from Texas and its surrounds come in and take over. This crowd mostly consists of late college-age to mid twenty-somethings. Oddly, this festival is only pitched to out-of-townwers, and I think this is part of the reason the locals are so guile-ish about it. That and the mostly-harmless drunkenness, the door smashing, and the occasional snow vomiting.

We were fortunate enough to catch Ray Wylie Hubbard. Having never seen him, we now certainly understand the draw. He’s literate, smart, and a great entertainer. And, of course, the songs are solid as well. He’s known as a patriarch to this scene–a position that’s made completely obvious when set within the context of this festival. He’s Texas Classic for sure. Not that the other artists are bad (only some).

And speaking of Texas Classics, former Artist of the Month Bruce Robison was at the festival as well. Both He and Hubbard have new releases forthcoming, with Ray Wylie’s coming this month and Bruce’s next month.

All release will be available form our fiends at Waterloo. In fact, Ray Wylie has a signing tomorrow at 5.

Music Fest outdoor stage = very cold.