100 dishes from bygone Iowa City-area restaurants, remembered by LV readers - Little Village
Tombstone The Primo Tavern-Style Pizza: A Meaty Pizza With Faint Veggie Highlights
Pizza has got a lot of styles, some traditional, some not-so-traditional, with an infinite variety of twists unique to the restaurants, home cooks, and frozen pizza manufacturers that make and serve them. There's New York-style pizza, California-style pizza, Sicilian-style pizza, and that strange concoction topped with spaghetti sauce and hamburger crumbles that my mom used to call "pizza." There is also "tavern-style pizza," which is Chicago's departure from its traditional deep-dish pizza and the style of the latest line of Tombstone frozen pizzas.
Tombstone Pizza has tavern roots, in fact, the name comes from the Tombstone Tap, a bar once located across the street from a Wisconsin graveyard. (Get it? Tombstone?) Tombstone Tap was making pizzas for its patrons way back in 1962, and by 1966 the pizzas were so popular that the owner decided to convert his bar into a pizza factory. So, the new "tavern-style" pizzas are not only based on the tavern-style pizza made famous in Chicago pizzerias, they're also a nod to the brand's origins — though it's probably safe to say that "tavern-style" meant something different in 1960s Wisconsin than it does today.
Tombstone's new pizzas are only available in select locations. Fortunately, I got "The Primo" variety in the mail (the company doesn't yet have the samples of a second variety called "Let's Meat Up"), so I can let you know whether you should be waiting with bated breath for them to arrive at a store near you.
Read more: Frozen Pizzas, Ranked From Worst To Best
What's On The Primo Tavern-Style Pizza?Tombstone 'The Primo' Tavern Style Pizza in the oven - Becki Robins / Mashed
Personally, my favorite pizza is mushroom and black olive, and I've been waiting rather a long time for someone to come out with the frozen version. (Hurry up, please.) I guess maybe my enthusiasm for these particular toppings isn't shared by the masses, but it is pretty nice to see manufacturers adding veggies to their pizzas because not every American is vegetable averse, and some of us like a little something more than just meat, meat, meat, or the usual consolation prize, cheese.
Now, the Primo pizza isn't going to satisfy vegetarians, obviously, but it will satisfy those of us who are trying to eat a more balanced diet (I bet I'm the first person in the world to use the words "pizza" and "balanced diet" in the same sentence). This is a thin-crust pizza topped with pepperoni, sausage, red onions, and (my personal favorite) banana peppers. The cheese is a typical mozzarella, though Parmesan is also listed way, way down in the ingredient list along with stuff like palm oil and degerminated white cornmeal, you know, the ingredients you don't taste and don't know are there. (Did you ever bite into a pizza and think to yourself, "Hmm, needs more degerminated white cornmeal?" Didn't think so.) There's also some pretty standard tomato sauce; in a press release, Tombstone described it as "zesty," which I guess all tomato sauces are, though tomato paste appears to be the primary ingredient.
Price And Availability Of The Primo Tavern-Style PizzaTombstone 'The Primo' Tavern Style Pizza just out of the oven - Becki Robins / Mashed
This is a pretty new line of products, and it might be hard to find for a couple of months. According to a Tombstone press release published on April 3, both The Primo and the Let's Meat Up varieties will be available "at select retailers starting this month." So, if you're in a big city you might get lucky, but I personally could not find any mention of them on any of the online grocery delivery services I searched, so I can't say for sure which big city might have them right now. Take heart, though, because Tombstone's press release promises these pizzas will be available nationwide in July — just in time for it to be too hot to turn on your oven.
The suggested MSRP for Tombstone's Tavern-Style pizzas is $6.99, although we all know some of us get to pay more than others based on where we live and what stores we shop at. Since Tombstone doesn't actually list the MSRPs of its other pizzas on its website, I can't really say how this price compares to the Tombstone pizzas you usually buy, which seem to range in price from around $4.99 all the way up to $7.99. If I had to guess, the Tavern-style pizzas will probably be a bit more pricey than Tombstone's other products.
How Does The Primo Tavern-Style Pizza Compare To Other Popular Tombstone Pizzas?A slice of Tombstone 'The Primo' Tavern Style Pizza - Becki Robins / Mashed
Tombstone is a little more daring than other pizza brands, which seem to stick with pizza toppings that are already proven fan favorites, like pepperoni (yawn) and cheese (double yawn). Tombstone's regular line of pizzas includes some much more interesting varieties, like chipotle chicken and Canadian bacon ... It even has a sausage and mushroom pizza which is halfway to my favorite (mushroom and olive), and a lot closer than any other manufacturer has ever gotten. It also has a thin crust "Supreme" pizza that has the olives but not the mushrooms, plus pepperoni, sausage, onions, and peppers. That one is probably the closest existing variety to the Primo Tavern-Style pizza I tried.
So, here's where I scratch my head a little ... Aside from the absence of olives, I can't really find the line between the Primo Tavern-Style pizza and the Thin-Crust Supreme. A Chicago tavern-style pizza typically has a thin crust with sauce and cheese covering the whole thing, leaving no bare crust to help keep your fingers clean. It's often topped with extra-spicy toppings like traditional Italian sausage and pickled vegetables. This pizza does have the thin crust, sausage, and peppers, but it does not have the edge-to-edge sauce. More importantly, though, the Supreme pizza has sausage and peppers, too, so I'm not sure how this is the "all-new take" the press release says it is.
What's The Nutritional Value?Tombstone 'The Primo' Tavern Style Pizza - Becki Robins / Mashed
My sample pizza did not say anything about calories, fat, or protein, much to the dismay of my older daughter. It did say, "Do not eat pizza without cooking," but fortunately, this was information I was already aware of. (Do people actually eat frozen pizza without cooking it first or are Tombstone's lawyers just afraid of the very remote possibility that someone will sue for breaking their teeth on a fresh-from-the-freezer Tavern-Style pizza?)
Anyway, Tombstone's website did have product listings for the Tavern-Style pizzas, complete with nutritional facts, which offered no real surprises. Like all pizza, the Primo Tavern-Style pizza is not health food. One serving (about ¼ of a pizza) delivers 330 calories and 16 grams of fat (eight of which are saturated).
If you limit yourself to just that one serving, you'll also consume about 10% of your daily recommended cholesterol and 35% of your daily recommended sodium. There are also 31 grams of carbohydrates and 4 grams of sugar. If you want to pretend like you're eating healthy, you can count 15 grams of protein, 250 milligrams of calcium, and 2.3 milligrams of iron. There is a smattering of other nutrients, too, but not really enough that you can skip your daily multivitamin. If it makes you feel better, serve your pizza with a Caesar salad, and then at least you can say you're also getting your leafy greens.
The Verdict: How Did It Taste?Tombstone 'The Primo' Tavern Style Pizza - Becki Robins / Mashed
Evidently, Chicago tavern-style pizza is supposed to be cut into squares instead of triangles ... Oops. I hope I haven't offended the pizza gods. I'm pretty sure the shape of the slices doesn't have anything to do with flavor, so I'll carry on with telling you how it tasted.
The Primo is very meat-forward. I could taste sausage more than I could taste anything else, even though there were plenty of peppers and onions. I could also taste pepperoni in the background, but I'm afraid both of those meats kind of overpowered the vegetables. There were definitely pepper and onion flavors in the occasional bite, but as someone who likes vegetables on pizza, I can also say it wasn't vegetable-y enough.
If we're going by what a traditional Chicago tavern-style pizza is supposed to taste like, this one had the spicy meats, but I couldn't taste any of the fennel usually present in a traditional Italian sausage. Also, I expected the banana peppers to be pickled, but I don't think they were, or at least they didn't taste like they were. Pickled banana peppers would have at least had a chance against the similarly strong flavors of the sausage and pepperoni. This doesn't mean I didn't like the pizza — I did, and so did my daughter — but I do think it will appeal most to someone who loves a meaty pizza and doesn't really care one way or another about vegetables.
MethodologyTombstone 'The Primo' Tavern Style Pizza - Becki Robins / Mashed
I compared this pizza to pretty much every pizza I've ever eaten, including the hamburger-topped one my mom used to make. This means it was automatically above baseline before I even took it out of the box (I really, really hope my mom never reads this but if she does: Hamburger does not belong on pizza).
After it was cooked, I evaluated it based on how the flavors were distributed, how strong they were, and whether or not they were better or worse than similar pizzas. For this particular pizza, I compared the toppings to what I might expect to find on a traditional Chicago tavern-style pizza since it's important for manufacturers to deliver on their promises.
I will admit that meaty pizzas aren't usually my go-to, so keep in mind that my opinions are not a reflection of the pizza-eating community in its entirety. The peppers and onions definitely added visual interest to this pizza, and it may or may not matter to someone else whether they were a strong component of the overall pizza-eating experience. To me, this does matter, but please feel free to disagree.
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When Condiments Took Over Their Tiny Portland Apartment, This Chicken Dish Came To The Rescue
Chicken Vinegar Bread. Photo courtesy of Rachel Getz
I want to address the dilemma of an unruly condiment collection. There are two of us in my household, and we love food, but I might say that we love condiments most of all. This includes pickles, mustard, syrups, sauces, squeeze tubes, anything jammed, canned, brined or fermented.
We spent seven months between 2021 and 2022 in a one-bedroom apartment with a mini fridge and two hot plates. Our greatest lament? Not the short shower stall or child-sized kitchen sink. Rather, the lack of space for sauces. We seriously considered getting another mini-fridge just for the bottles and jars we collect. (I promise, there are reasons one needs four to five types of mustard at all times.)
It's not an issue of forgetfulness, no, there are no doubles in our collection. And I don't see this as a bad thing. I like to think it's an ever-present excitement and opportunistic outlook. Something comes home with us wherever we go. We'll say, "It's local!" "It's a regional favorite!" "It will go really well on eggs!" to justify the purchase of yet another $8.99 bottle. We can't escape this habit. And if you're someone like me who gets fixated on the next bottle you've acquired, that sixth jar of smoked mustard is going to sit there for many, many months more.
To deal with this ever-growing collection, I have to find ways to fit this assortment of jarred goods into more meals. I was inspired to make Providence-style calamari after watching "The Great American Recipe" on PBS. One of the contestants routinely makes that dish for his fellow firefighters, and he talked about it enough that I had to try it. It was a success, and the only thing left after devouring the crispy tentacles and caps was half a jar of hot cherry peppers.
In turn, that inspired the recipe for Chicken Vinegar Bread. In addition to that mega jar of hot pickled cherry peppers, you'll use half a sourdough loaf and bone-in chicken thighs. This recipe has turned into a comfort staple. It's schmaltzy, vinegary, crunchy and soft, burnt and browned, with just enough heat to warm your face and belly.
I recommend any whole loaf of bread for this recipe over pre-sliced. This is for two reasons: 1. Getting to rip and tear the bread is truly cathartic, and 2. It's a bit like the joy of English muffins, where most of the pleasure comes from the peaks and valleys, the nooks and crannies created from tearing the bread apart rather than slicing through the crumb. If your loaf end got stale, sprinkle it with a bit of water and set it in your oven at 450 degrees F for 5-7 minutes until it's crusty and soft enough to pull apart.
This recipe would work for any spicy pickle kicking around in your cabinet or fridge. Pepperoncini, giardiniera or drop peppers all work. I would avoid standard pickles as cucumbers are 96% water and will steam rather than brown.
We pull this recipe out whenever the dreamy thought of schmaltzy bread chunks crosses our minds. Or, when the spicy pepper collection has gotten out of control. Like many favorite dishes, you can make it in an hour and it requires only two pans.
The bread salad on a roasting tray. Photo courtesy of Rachel Getz
Chicken Vinegar Bread
I use coarse kosher salt for this recipe. If you only have table salt, or another variety, I would season this dish to your liking and scale back my recommended amounts.
Serves 4
5 cups torn bread, 1 ½-inch chunks (about half a baguette)9 whole garlic cloves1/2 yellow onion, sliced thin1 small red bell pepper, sliced thin1/2 cup sliced hot banana peppers8 pickled whole sweet cherry peppers5-6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil1 teaspoon butterSalt and pepper4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Heat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Toss together the bread, garlic, onion, peppers and olive oil in a large bowl. Season the mixture with salt and pepper, roughly 1 teaspoon of salt and 12-15 cranks on the pepper mill. I like to mix this with my hands to make sure the bread fully absorbs the olive oil, but tongs also work well.
Spread your bread and pepper mixture evenly over a large sheet tray and bake for 12 minutes while you prep the chicken. I used a 12 x 17 standard tray, but any large, flat dish with sides will do. You want the most surface area to avoid steaming any of the components.
Set a large sauté or fry pan over medium-high heat. I used a non-stick pan, but a steel pan or cast iron will also work. While the pan heats up, pat the chicken thighs dry with a towel, rub the skin side with a teaspoon or less of olive oil, and generously season both sides with 1-1.5 teaspoons of salt total and a few cranks of pepper per thigh.
Add your teaspoon of butter and nestle the thighs in the pan skin side down, turn the heat down to medium and sear until golden brown. Don't touch them! Seriously, unless you need to take a little peek towards the end, or want to swirl the rendering fat around the pan, leave them be. They need time to do their thing. This should take roughly 8-9 minutes. Remove the thighs from the pan and deglaze with a bit of the banana pepper vinegar from the jar, just a couple of tablespoons. Stir around to remove the fond (the browned bits stuck to the pan), and pour the reduced liquid over the bread.
Pull your bread tray from the oven and give it all a good stir. Spread the mixture evenly across the tray again and place the chicken thighs, placed a few inches apart from one another, on top of the bread. Return the tray to the oven. When stirring, I try to pull the darker, crunchier pieces of bread from the edges back to the middle to make sure they absorb more of the chicken juice and fat.
After 10 minutes, pull the tray, give everything a good stir again, and check the temperature of the thighs. Whatever hunks of bread were under the chicken, make sure they rotate to the edge of the pan to cook through.
Bake for 5-10 more minutes, or until the thighs reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. Pull your chicken onto a plate to rest, and continue roasting your bread and peppers until the bread has golden brown bits and the garlic has completely roasted. Pour a couple tablespoons of water over the bottom of the pan while still hot and scrape up the pieces of bread and onion that are sticking. This isn't a saucy dish, but you do want to get the best of the browned bits!
Divvy up the bread, peppers, and onions on your plates and serve with the thighs. If you can resist eating the bread chunks while plating, all power to you! I've yet to make it to the table without snagging bite after bite of these chickeny, bready delights.
Rachel Getz Photo by Nick Rimsa
MEET THE COOK, Rachel Getz
Food has always been a big part of my life; my parents baked bread, made cheese and continue to ferment and create magic in the kitchen today. I grew up with elaborate family holiday meals, all of the table leaves were needed for the gathering of extended aunts, uncles and cousins.
Now, I cook for my partner and myself at our home in Portland where we eat at the sweetest little table for two. We pull from all sorts of cookbooks, our shelves heavy with a variety of cuisines waiting to be cooked. My favorite lately has been "The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking," although it can't fully solve the creative dilemma of tackling multiple pounds and varieties of potatoes from our winter CSA. I might have to look at other Home Plates recipes for inspiration!
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Dine Out Maine: Squeeze into Mazzat or take its Middle Eastern menu items to go Short on yard space? There are plenty of vegetables you can grow in potsNew Fast-casual Mediterranean Restaurant Opens In Springboro
Hummus Mediterranean Food allows customers to build their own bowls for $11.99 with hot toppings such as rice, chicken shawarma, beef and lamb gyro, falafel, corn, red kidney beans, fajita and cream peas and carrot. Cold toppings include tomatoes, red onions, red cabbage, lettuce, pickles, Turkish salad, banana peppers, black olives, feta cheese, coleslaw and turnips. Bowls can then be topped off with tahini, tzatziki, garlic or hot sauces, as well at Greek or vinaigrette dressing.
The restaurant has sandwiches and wraps, as well as sides like fries, baba ghanouj, grape leaves or falafel.
Customers can also build their own hummus by adding garlic oil, cilantro, jalapeno, lime, nuts, veggies or meat.
Odeh said the hummus recipe is a labor of love that he has been working on for a long time. The hummus takes three days to prepare and starts with chickpeas being soaked in water for 12 hours. It's then cooked with spices and set aside for an entire day to cool down. Once the hummus is made, it then goes into a refrigerator for a minimum of four to five hours before serving.
He and his staff are at the restaurant two to three hours before they open and after they close to make sure everything, from the toppings to the meats, are made fresh for the customers.
"Basically the idea of the restaurant is that we're leaving the customer to choose their flavors," Odeh said.
He opened the restaurant after working in a variety of other restaurants for seven years and noticing that people needed a fast-casual Mediterranean option.
ExploreCenterville Taco Trail kicks off this week with 8 participating restaurantsOdeh was born in Dayton and grew up Jordan. He's had a passion for food since he was seven years old, which resulted in him studying culinary arts at Sinclair Community College.
Odeh plans to add additional items to the menu like beef shawarma. In the future, he said he would love to expand by franchising.
Hummus Mediterranean Food is open 11 a.M. To 9 p.M. Daily. For more information, visit the restaurant's Facebook or Instagram pages.
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