​Here are the cursory results of my most recent research since the last post about reviews.  Some good, very good, in fact, bad and ugly.  The bad and ugly were one and the same.

Amalfi – Very Good
La Vista – Satisfactory
Palazzo’s (Briargrove) – Good
Pass & Provisions – Very Good / Good
Sonoma (Heights) – Poor
Spaghetti Western – Good
Tasting Room (Uptown Park) – Good
Vincent’s – Fair
Weights + Measures – Good

The margherita at Weights and Measures, consumed.  Such a good place that works well in a variety of ways.

​When I was a kid, pizza seemed to come in just two ways: topped with pepperoni or a plain cheese pizza.  Of course, you could always add other toppings to the invariable New York-inspired crust from a limited array that always included sausage, (canned) mushrooms and anchovies.  There were no margherita pizzas back then; these were just the province of Naples and its environs.
 
The most interesting thing I have found in my “research” into local margheritas has been at Mascalzone and Taverna, two Italian-owned and -operated restaurants.  Though their versions have of the margherita have both been a little disappointing – and I have had a couple of very enjoyable pizzas at Mascalzone before – they give a hint into how the great American cheese pizza came about.  In each of these versions, the mozzarella was diced into small pieces and layered around the top, allowing it to mix with the tomato sauce and creating somewhat of an orange sheen, even a touch of grease helped by some olive oil.  More so, these two versions tasted a lot like the American cheese pizza.
 
So, my thought is that the cheese pizza probably had its origin in the margherita fairly early in the last century.  The gooey, greasy cheese pizza works much better with the sturdy New York-style crust than does the more delicate margherita assembly.  “Cheese pizza” might have been an easier sell to non-Italian-speaking customers, too.

The margherita pizza at Mascalzone recently, looking like a cheese pizza to me.

I just had a margherita pizza at Amalfi, which was very good, as you might expected.  It featured halves of cherry tomatoes, something that is not traditional for margherita pizza, though I am finding sliced tomatoes in a number of local versions of the pizza as I continue my sampling of the genre.  

Below is what I wrote about the noticeable quality of the tomatoes at Amalfi at a visit last year; it's something that can be a good insight into the quality of the restaurant.  To note, Bollo's tomatoes were better during my most recent visit, but not exactly flavorful, much less the level of those at Amalfi.

Underripe, nearly tasteless, and even worse, tomatoes are commonplace across the dining landscape.  To be fair, delicious tomatoes can be difficult to grow in the area and what usually gets shipped to local supermarkets, and restaurant supply stores, are bred for their transit-worthiness and shelf-life rather than their flavor.  When eaten raw in salads, a common occurrence, the quality of a tomato is quickly evident.
 
An appetizing tomato in Houston has become a hallmark for me of a restaurant of some quality and effort, maybe ambition, too.  Tomatoes eaten at two different restaurant on subsequent nights recently drove that point home.
 
On Thursday evening, I stopped at Bollo, the slick, new neighborhood pizzeria on W. Alabama in the space that used to be Sorrel.  I ordered their Margherita pizza, which was served with slices of tomato, instead of the Neapolitan way that features an uncooked, light sauce of pureed tomatoes at its base.  No matter, we don’t have strict naming conventions in this country, unfortunately, the tomatoes had unsightly, large yellow cores.  Obviously not very ripe, these tomatoes were very bland, at best.
 
The pizza was still pretty decent, if not nearly the Mascalzone or Dolce Vita level, and I’ll likely go back for a casual Italian-inspired pizza in a nice setting and atmosphere.  But, their tomatoes contrasted sharply with the tomato I had at Amalfi the next night.
 
You should expect that any tomatoes served at Amalfi, a restaurant featuring the cuisine of in and around the Amalfi coast from a native of the area, would be good.  Tomatoes are a staple of the cuisine there, and are absolutely terrific from the famed tomatoes grown in the San Marzano area to the large cuore di bue to the small cherry tomatoes.  Any decent replication of the cuisine would have to have succulent, flavorful tomatoes when meant to be eaten raw or lightly cooked.  And, they were that Friday night at Amalfi.
 
Soon after the start of what was an excellent meal, I noticed a purple half-sphere left on the plate of the nearly finished appetizer of luscious buffalo’s milk mozzarella, lettuce greens and at least a couple of different types of heirloom tomatoes.  I had almost missed it, a succulent, absolutely delicious tomato.  It was terrific, and a reminder of one the joys of southern Italian cooking, no matter the provenance of the tomato.  Something I wish more restaurant would take care in provisioning.
 
Amalfi
6100 Westheimer (between Fountain View and Hillcroft), 77057, (713) 532-2201
amalfihouston.com

Initially published on July 11, 2015.

The Regina Margherita at Amalfi on a visit last week.

As part of my fun, ongoing research into local margherita pizzas, I discovered that the two Sonoma wine bars serve them.  I hadn’t been to Sonoma in years.  An old girlfriend liked the place, but I never did, with its emphasis on fruit-forward, often obscure New World wines at the time that were served in a setting I found kind of cheesy.  At least that is what I had remembered about the original Richmond location.
 
Checking the website, I found that the wine list had expanded from what I recalled that was far more interesting, too.  And, their food options had gone well beyond just cheese and crackers and the like.  The newer Heights location was open for lunch, with margherita pizzas on the menu, so I went the other day.
 
Unfortunately, it proved to be just the second bad margherita pizza I have had from a restaurant since my “project” has begun – Trader Joe’s frozen version excepted.  Sonoma’s thin crust was like a flatbread, a lame flatbread that was too often reminiscent of cardboard.  I did not want to, nor did I, finish all of the crust, unlike all of the other versions I have eaten apart from the disaster that was Frank’s Pizza.  The deep garnet-colored cooked tomato sauce slathered above the hopeless base at Sonoma had a clear and unpleasant industrial quality to it.  There were sliced tomatoes, too, which were tasteless, but less offensive than the sauce and the as cheap-tasting mozzarella, which was the worst cheese I have had thus far.  A lot of grated (Parmigiano?) cheese helped as did red pepper flakes, but not nearly enough.  Plentiful mediocre toppings do not make for a good margherita pizza. 
 
As bad as this version was, it was expensive at $16.  Even bad pizza is usually good enough, but this wasn’t.
 

Do not order this pizza at Sonoma.  It was even worse than it looks.  It is probably much safer sticking with wine while you are there.

Below is an update on the Margherita Pizza Project.  Employing the terms used by the New York Times in their restaurant reviews, from best to worst (Extraordinary, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Satisfactory, Fair, Poor), here are ratings of the margherita pizzas I have eaten through today, the ones since last time are in red:
 
B&B – Good
Bollo – Fair
Brandi (Naples) - Extraordinary
Cane Rosso – Satisfactory
Coppa – Good
Crisp – Satisfactory
Dolce Vita – Very Good
Enoteca Rossa – Fair
Frank’s Pizza – Poor
La Grazie (Sorrento) – Excellent
Luna Pizzeria – Fair
Mazcalzone (Shepherd) – Satisfactory
North Italia – Good
Nundini – Satisfactory
Piola – Satisfactory
Pizaro’s (Memorial) – Good
Pizaro’s (Montrose) – Satisfactory
Solario – Good
Taverna – Satisfactory

Dolce Vita remains the local champ so far followed by Solario.

Here is the somewhat different version from B&B that was still fairly enjoyable:

​An article posted on the website this morning for Houston Press rates margherita pizzas.  I wonder there they might have got a notion to do something like that.  Well, it is re-heated margherita pizzas that they were offering opinions on – along with those for what they describe as New York style.  Re-heated is little different and a quite a bit odd.  I don’t believe that you will be ordering a pizza at Pass & Provisions or Dolce Vita primarily concerned how it tastes re-heated. 
 
If you want somewhat more interesting and certainly more useful information about the subject, you’ll want to continue checking my site as it gets filled out and the research continues.  Pizaro’s had little trouble with quality control the other day, mentioning the most recent example.  Naples, it wasn’t, unfortunately.