Paolucci’s Pizza Pie Company
Fireside Food Court - Parker Ranch Center
(Will Deliver!)
{written July 2008}
{pretty sure they’re out of business, but I haven’t been in town for a while...}
Us folks in Kamuela don’t have very many options when it comes to pizza -- or if you want to argue the point, I could just qualify the statement and say, we don’t have very many option when in comes to good tasting -- like edible -- pizza. So when I’m in the mood for some thin curst pepperoni goodness, I usually just go down the hill to Kawaihae and hit The Pesto Café, but that might change in the years to come, because we now have Paolucci’s in the Parker Ranch food court.
Believe it or not, I like to give balanced reviews, that is to say, I like to point out both the good and the bad. So I will start by saying I wasn’t overly impressed by the look of either the crust or the sauce at Paolucci’s, and if you ate them separately, I’m sure that they would be simply mediocre. The crust seemed a little flat and doughy (go figure), while the sauce was pastier than I typically like (as in it has a heavy tomato paste base), but that might be because in the past I’ve been building my pizza’s too conventionally (think pepperoni with maybe some onions for a little pizzazz every once in awhile).
I mention this because after lengthy negotiations with my girlfriend (the details of which I shall not bore you), we decided on a 12” (small) pizza with artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, Italian sausage, and pepperoni (with 2 soda’s we paid $18 odd). The pepperoni was money down the tube. I barely noticed it, but the rest... What a combination! The tomatoes pulled out the flavor of the sauce and cheese, and well, I can’t harp on the artichokes enough. Granted, they just came out of a can, but it was a good can, and the folks at Paolucci’s know how to work a can opener! So kudos to them for that! Perhaps, I am being a little facetious. The one thing they did custom was the Italian sausage. It looked to be precooked, sliced cold, and added to the pizza in nice hefty chunks (and a generous portion too, I might add) to be cooked once again. I can heartily recommend the sausage with no reservation or qualification required.
I don’t really know what I expected from our concoction, but bottom line, the pizza was simply divine--nice and greasy, and everything one could hope for in a pizza pie, but then it only gets better. We only ate a little more than half of it--a small 12”--which is either (take your pick): an indication of high they piled on the artichokes and sausage, or how little grease me and my lady can handle before feeling bloated). Either way, definitely top notch and well worth the price of admission. I can assure you that I will be going back to Paolucci’s again real soon, and when I do, I going to be sure to order the dried tomatoes on anything, and I do mean anything that I order (otherwise the sauce could be a little too tame), and I’ll skip the pepperoni in favor of the sausage.
Maybe I’ll try a sun dried tomato, Italian sausage, garlic, artichoke heart, onion deep-cleansing gut-buster. If that doesn’t clear out my innards and give me the olive oil enema of a lifetime, nothing will.
{The aforementioned sun dried tomato, artichoke heart, Italian sausage pizza became a more or less regular menu item for us for a few years there. Then I moved away and I guess the loss of patronage was more than the business could handle... or maybe they’re still in the food court. I haven’t been in town for a while. So, what do I know? Rumors. Only rumors.}