Salvatore Ruffino's 1902 Allen Street, Allentown (610) 437-3621

In our effort to find the primo pizza in the Lehigh Valley, we were prepared to journey up the road a pizze to Jim Thorpe, the home of Lehigh's beloved founder, Asa Packer. Alas, our team of student tasters balked at the prospect of such a long trek -- papers to write and presentations to prepare. Lehigh, we are certainly proud that our students - aesthetes have their priorities straight! So, we consulted Lehigh Valley Magazine, April 1999 issue, p.12 , "ISO the Perfect Pizza," for alternatives. The article must be accurate; it cited our reviews.

Based on its "big raves" in the magazine, we chose Salavatore Ruffino's on 19th Street, one block off Tilghman Ave. in Allentown. Even more importantly, Lisa Joseph, a grad student in special ed, who was inadvertently omitted from our review of the Colonial, reputedly opined that SR is THE BEST in the Valley. Thus, our expectations were sky high.

Propitiously situated, SR is across the street from the 19th Street Theater -- the home of foreign films and Off-Broadway (but On-Lehigh Valley) productions of musical and legit theater. Moreover, if you yearn for down-home food shopping, the Allentown Farmer's Market is only two blocks away -- a homier choice than the millennium trend setter, Wegman's.

SR's is a smallish pizza house with tables for four and two. Since we were a party of six, we sought to put two tables together. With classic chutzpah (a new gourmet topping?), we asked two patrons who were sharing the middle of three tables if they could move. They graciously did so; in fact, they knew review-team member Kira Roitburg, '97 and grad student in school psychology. Greeting her, they waxed wordily about SR's cheese-steak heroes. Was this an un-manna'd (from heaven, that is) sign?

We settled into our tables with beers (for those of age) and sodas (for those more sage). We ordered our usual. The mushrooms were fresh -- only the second of the twelve pizza establishments that we have rated. We were indeed excited about the prospects. Michelle Dippolito '98 took the first bite (before we performed our droop and drip tests) and proclaimed that the cheese was "scrumptious." Several others of us thought it was bland, but one person's meat is another person's poisson (sounds fishy to me).

Alas, the mushrooms looked better than they tasted. Although most of us liked the sausage, Kira Roitburg '97 noted that the pieces were too thick and lacked "tasteful subtlety" (was she talking about us?). We were indeed six tasters in search of that quintessential herb -- fennel. Brandi Starke, a special ed grad student who was munching by proxy (a recognized syndrome) for Lisa, noted that the pizza was a "mixed bag" -- passed the drip but failed the droop even after 3 minutes of cooling.

Chris Walz '99, Engineering, noted that the crust was not crispy en pointe, which could explain the lack of tensile strength in meeting the droop test. At the end of it all, we still had pieces left over the first time in our tasteful history. Quaere: was this because of the high scarfability index of the pies or some other reason? Following our Olympic scoring procedures, we assigned a 5 to SR's.

We found out from Joe Ruffino, a 6'4" left-tackle looking guy -- that his father Salvatore had established the pizza house 32 years ago. Sal still comes in during lunch hours to help prepare the sauce, which is still true to the original, secret recipe. All of the veggie toppings are fresh, and Joe patronizes the local small businesses for his supplies. He particularly complimented Grande Cheese of Wisconsin for not abandoning the small mom and pop pizza houses for the Wal-Marts of the pizza industry.

Joe had great pride in his "wet" dough and left us with words to live by: "Never eat with your pocket book." Rather than referring to a sexist substitute for the standard utensils, Joe apparently meant that one should only eat the best, which in his not-to-be-ignored opinion, is SR's. After listening to Joe, our raters, including noninflationary Perry, were ready to change their votes. But the rules of pi prevailed. It's over because it's over. Sorry, Yogie. Put that on your tombstone, Frozen One.

Reviewed by:
Ron Yoshida, Dean of the College of Education
Perry Zirkel, Iacocca Professor of Education
Michelle Dippolito, '98
Lisa Joseph, grad student, special ed
Kira Roitburg, '97 and grad student, school psychology
Brandi Starke, grad student, special ed
Chris Walz '99, Engineering

Salvatore Ruffino's, 1902 Allen Street, Allentown (610) 437-3621
Open Monday thru Thursday from 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday to Saturday 11:00 am - 11:00 pm, and Sunday, noon - 10:00 p.m.
Plain large pies around $ 8.50

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