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.
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.
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