Casa Mia Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant 3711 Rte. 378 Bethlehem (610) 867-6421

For this last site visit of the 1998-99 school year, we had no less than 10 reviewers, contributing to a confidently representative reliability.

After ordering the customary large plain ($8.95), pepperoni and mushroom ($10.70 each), we performed our patented firmness and grease tests. The respective results, concisely announced by Courtney Giuffra ('99 Pol. Sci.), were: "failed the droop, passed the drip.

As a threshold matter, each Casa Mia pie was distinguishable from the mediocre campus and chain fare; in the words of Risa Letowsky ('99 Mktg.), "it looks like pizza, not cardboard." Similarly addressing the gestalt, Courtney described herself as a "huge fan of the entire setup--just the right amount of each ingredient, except for the lack of fresh tomatoes."

As for the components, the crust obtained the most accolades. For example, Kate Chrnelich ('99 Int. Rel.) characterized the crust as "fluffy," and Marie Michalski (M.Ed. - Special Educ.) chimed in that it was "sweet." Food-fussy Angela Petronko ('00 Acctg.), also gave high ratings to the cheese, which is important because she eats little else (e.g., no green things, fruits, or spices). The sauce was, according to Matt Link (M.Ed. - Spec. Ed.), "metsa metsa." (as compared with "matzoh matzoh").

The pepperoni was unremarkable, except for Lauren Allu's ('99 Pol. Sci.) enigmatic sidebar query: "Is it spicy or is it me?" However, the mushrooms were the subject of widespread calumny. Professor Tina Richardson observed that the mushrooms were canned, not fresh. Marie added the astute observation that the mushrooms were ill-distributed, with a skew to the center that was inequitable to polite-edge and thin-slice eaters.

For leftover pizza fans, assistant women's tennis coach Alan Heverly (M.Ed. - Counseling Psych.) ended our extended evening by concluding that the last slice tasted just as good even though it was cold.

We used a modification of Olympic scoring, tossing out not only the outlier high and low scores but also that of Tina Richardson's one-year old son Qobi (because he precociously indicated a score of 5 but hasn't yet mastered numbers 6 and above). The final average rating was a respectable but far from unbeatable 5.7. Thus, it's up to you whether Casa Mia is casa sua.

Reviewed by:
Ron Yoshida, Dean of the College of Education
Perry Zirkel, Iacocca Professor of Education
Lauren Allu, '99 Pol. Sci.
Kate Chrnelich, '99 Int. Rel
Courtney Giuffra,'99 Pol.Sci.
Alan Heverly, M.Ed., Counseling Psych. & Assistant Women's Tennis Coach Risa Letowsky, '99 Mktg.
Matt Link, M.Ed., Special Ed.
Marie Michalski, M.Ed., Special Ed
Angela Petronko, '00 Acctg.
Tina Richardson, Professor
Qobi Richardson, Precocious Pizza-Rater

Casa Mia Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant 3711 Rte. 378 Bethlehem, (610) 867-6421
Large pie $ 8.95

This review originally appeared in The Brown and White at Lehigh University.