Vesuvio's Pizza1640 South 4th Street |
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Students have asked us why we don't review the pizza from the major chains. Just look across the counter at the person who takes your order. Can they talka pizza like Salvatore "Toto" (that's pronounced "toe-toe" en pointe, not tu-tu) Tramonte, the proprietor of Vesuvio's Pizzeria in the Mountainville Shopping Center in Allentown?
Our guest-reviewers joined us on our first journey to the Wild West meandering along Susquehanna to Fourth Street, where we skeedaddled to the left. Down the road a piece to the right is a K-Mart, with Vesuvio's next door. Margaret McMenamin, Educ. Leadership, and Natalie Cantor, Elementary Educ., were the grad-student reviewers. Some may recognize Natalie as a former editor for the B&W when she was an undergrad. Both staked New Joisey as their claim to a prima pizza experience. Three other guests with demi-Italian (that's a haffa in our Pennsylvania dialect) credentials rounded out our regional review panel. Kevin Wahila, '02, kneaded dough (who doesn't?) as a high school student at Nirchi's (pronounced like "no cheese") in Endicott, NY. George DuPaul, prof of school psychology, in his early days at Wesleyan, rolled back to his dorm room after manga-ing the Sicilian pie at Giovanni's in Middletown, CT. Deborah Rebore, JD and legal associate to PAZ, forsook her Long Island roots to claim NYC pizza as the best because the wadder makes the dough. Have you seen the Hudson recently?
Vesuvio's pizza came so hot that we needed paper plates as pot holders to carry our trays to the table. After the pizza cooled, we subjected it to our usual tests. One of the four tested slices broke the curve of the Droop Test, although George claimed that I hadn't folded the slice properly. The slices foiled rather than failed the Drip Test; the saving grace, as Margaret tastefully observed, was that the sliding substance was extra virgin olive oil rather than the non-socially and diet-defeating grease found on many pizzas. We queried Frank, Toto's teenage son, about the drip. Margaret was absolutely right. Amerita extra virgin was sparingly put on top of the cheese. We agreed that the oil made a positive contribution (although the meaning of "extra virgin" was subject to a sidebar dialectic).
The crust was on the thinner side and had a nice chew and crunch to it. The edge was clearly define, and there were no crust leftovers. The bottom passed the Volpe test of a fine sandpaper finish; no shellac used here. We all judged the crust to be like NY and NJ pizza.
The toppings were pretty standard and plentiful. Canned mushrooms seem to be the norm throughout the Lehigh Valley, except for Alpha Pizza Pi on Fourth Street. The pepperoni was spicy and generously distributed. We learned a new phrase from Natalie: "border pizza." That's a slice from a half and half pizza that has topping from the half side that you don't prefer. Like being caught between the cusp and the hard place.
We used Olympic scoring, eliminating the high and low outliers, a 7.0 from Kevin, and a 5.5 from George. Two votes were 6.5, and three were 6. The average was 6.2 which in rounded pi terms is a 6 slicer which places Vesuvio's on the better half side of our pizza ratings.
After our judging, we enjoyed an aperitif of two more large pizzas, one red onion and the other with everything. The red onion pizza received exclamations, and the other one, exhalations. George was moved to change his vote but according to the rules of pi, once you center in on your rating, you can't recalculate; i.e., you're enzirkled.
However, the best part of the evening was yet to come. We spent 20 minutes discussing the philosophy and techniques of pizza making with Signore Tramonte, who has run the establishment with his wife (da Boss) since 1975. We asked him whether he made the best pizza in the Valley. Tough question because his son "Nino" also has a pizza house in Allentown. He replied, "I canna not tell you I make the best. You have to taste for yourself." Do the chains, like the Hut or Dominoes, tell you that?
Reviewed by:
Ron Yoshida, Dean of the College of Education
Perry Zirkel, Iacocca Professor of Education
Kevin Wahila, Class of '02
Margaret McMenamin, Grad Student, Educ. Leadership
Natalie Cantor, Grad Student, Elementary Educ
Deborah Rebore, JD
George DuPaul, Professor of School Psychology,
Vesuvio's Pizza,
1640 South 4th Street (Mountainville Shopping Ctr.),
Allentown, (610) 791-2080
About 15 min. from Lehigh
Open Sunday thru Thursday until 11 PM, Friday and Saturday until Midnight.
A large pizza is $7.50; dinners, hot/cold sandwiches, and stromboli also spew forth
from the volcanic hearth on the other side of South Mountain. The small wall-painting of
Mt. Vesuvius explains the choice of the establishment's name; tis better to have a decoration
of Naples than the devastation of Pompeii.
This review originally appeared in The Brown and White at Lehigh University in January, 1999.