…and wine.
I need to get this off my chest first (and why “off my chest”? Why not “off my shoulders” or “off my brain”?): Calgary has some excellent pizza. There, I said it. One of the most recurring complaints on chowhound (for example) is that Calgary sucks for pizza because it doesn’t emulate some example that’s usually eastern, and eastern US at that. Now, I grew up with outstanding pizza done in the Chicago style. That’s the REAL Chicago style, meaning a fairly thin (but not ever remotely crisp) crust, a savoury garlicky sauce, a ton of cheese done brown, topping UNDER the cheese and preferably and always with a layer of crumbled, never sliced, Italian sausage, and importantly, squares, not “slices.” This was the pizza of my youth and I do miss it desperately. I also miss what tourists think of as “Chicago style” pizza, which is stuffed or deep-dish (but not stuffed), and yeah, I love that style too. But it’s not available here, so we make do with what we have.
And a lot of what we have is delicious. I know that if I moved back to the Chicago area, I’d miss the best examples of Calgary’s Canadian-prairie-style Greek pizza (what somebody on chow called “bar pizza,” which is a good term): It has a thick buttery crust that’s a sort of foccaccia, a sauce that tends to the sweet side with cinnamon (see, Greek) and is generally one heavy-ass pie. Among some of the best purveyors of this style in Calgary are Nick’s, Sophie’s, Spiro’s, and The Ship and Anchor Pub. I order most often from Nick’s because it’s nearby (the 14 St SW location), fast, well-priced, and most importantly, fantastic.
BUT let’s say you don’t want a Greek-style Calgary pie. Well, the pickings get slimmer. There are some very nice “flatbreads” at some finer restos here- some tasty examples are the ones at Olives and Cilantro- but the specialization at these sorts of places is not “pizza.” We have at least one dedicated pizza place that serves authentic, “certified” Neapolitan pizzas (Pulcinella in Kensington) and Brian and I both like it a lot, but that style is not to everyone’s liking with its soft, almost wet crust (you have to taste it to see what I mean), and my thin-crust tastes are a little more, well, crispy.
Enter UNA PIZZA AND WINE. This is a new restaurant (it’s been open about three weeks as I write this) at 618 17th Avenue SW, and it’s replaced the venerable and (in my considered opinion) extremely overrated Wicked Wedge, which was notable for being open laaaaaate and, well, not a hell of a lot else. WW is now in Chinook Centre and initially I was a little disappointed that WW, for all its mediocrity, was being replaced by yet another wine-focussed place (this was just judging from the name). I mean, I have a partner whose passion is wine, but what I want(ed) was cheap and cheerful- maybe a BETTER pizza-by-slices place or or a burrito joint or whatever.
I changed my thoughts about the place when I started to pay attention to the posts on its blog, with pictures that were mouth-watering. Early reports on chowhound and elsewhere looked positive and so I decided the week before last to check the place out for lunch.
First impression: WOW, what a physical transformation. I’d have never known that WW was hiding a long, long skinny room that has dimensions I can describe as Toronto-esque (if you know inner-city spaces in Toronto, like in the Annex, you know what I mean). All of this was masked by the way the kitchen and seating were apportioned at WW. Una has exposed all of this space and it is just magnificently URBAN. Sweet. I sat at the bar and ordered three “pintxos” or tapas (3 for $5, 5 for $8) of white anchovy, bocconcini and roasted red pepper with dollop of a basil sauce (not a pesto per se) and they were utterly delicious. I also got a pizza, potato (yes, potato) with a schmeer of honey, a challenging pizza but a tasty one with a crust, oh, a crust, a crust that I fell in love with. One of the finest I’ve ever had. ANYwhere. Add to all this deliciousness the fact that this is the first resto I’m aware of that’s taking its coffee program seriously (Intelly Black Cat for espresso!) and I knew this would be one of my local faves.
Two days later I went for dinner with Brian. We had more of the same pintxos, two tasty appies (especially a raw zucchini salad that was just stunning), split a magnificently flavourful mushroom pizza, and had a desert each (both spectacular) as well as a couple glasses of wine, and not only was everything spot-on perfect, but also the bill came to a very reasonable $80 with tip.
Add to all this the fact that the resto was PACKED packed and has a great, lively, fun urban vibe. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
We’re in the big leagues, pizza-wise, Calgary. Celebrate.
