The Bufala Margherita at Dough is topped with slivers of basil and olive oil.
Chuck Blount/Staff file photoWhen you think of the San Antonio dining scene, pizza doesn't exactly come up as the popular favorite. We love our barbecue, Tex-Mex and other regionally embraced dishes.
So don't shoot this marinara messenger for reporting some disturbing news. Apparently, the pizza scene in this city stinks, at least according to the Clever Real Estate company that poured gas on our gastro greatness by listing San Antonio dead last out of 50 major cities in the country for its pizza scene after getting feedback from 1,000 Americans.
"That's just an opinion, and you have to just shrug your shoulders and carry on," said Alejandro Perez, co-owner of the Last Slice pizzeria next to MacArthur High School. "I have not seen any lack of demand for our food. We have actually expanded."
Perez has taken over a space in the strip center that has increased his dining space from next to nothing to a full-on restaurant.
READ MORE: 52 Weeks of Pizza
Pizzas at Goodfellas Famous NY Pizza on Jefferson Street in downtown San Antonio include, clockwise from top, the Fat Bastard, meatball and onion, Prosciutto Paradise and La Bamba.
Mike Sutter/Staff file photoNow it's true that most people in this city don't associate San Antonio with pizza, but I would be hard-pressed to say it's bad. In 2020, the Express-News did a 52 Weeks of Pizza series with restaurant critic Mike Sutter and myself scouring neighborhoods for the best pizza pies. We found them, but I sort of understand where the knock is coming from because pizza is more of a northern food in cities like Chicago, Detroit and New York.
If a Texan were to hear that the best brisket in the country was located in Maine, there would be definite outrage. So, I get it. But dead last?
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The Philly Steak Pizza includes steak, mushrooms, onions, sweet peppers, mozzarella and cheddar at Ray's Pizzaria on Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio.
Mike Sutter/Staff file photo
Clever used metrics that were generated from Google and found that San Antonio only had a "passion" score of 17 out of 100 for online search traffic; only seven pizzerias exist per 100,000 residents, which is probably accurate; and apparently, the average large pepperoni pizza costs nearly half as much as it does in Cleveland.
But pizza is generally pizza, and San Antonio should not be overly upset with this designation. It's tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and toppings with olives, sausage, pepperoni, beef, peppers and perhaps onions, properly cooked in a scorching-hot oven. There is a science behind it, but making a good one is more of a process than treating it like a culinary masterpiece.
Here in San Antonio, we have the best Tex-Mex, breakfast tacos, invented chili, and some would say we have the best barbecue scene in the nation. So there is little need to sweat about pizza, although I am right now craving one from San Antonio out of spite.
Not that we really care, but Detroit came out as the winner, while Pennsylvania and Phoenix, of all places, got high marks in the survey.
cblount@express-news.net | Twitter: @chuck_blount | Instagram: @bbqdiver
