Below is my response to Cliff Bostock, the local food/restaurant critic for Creative Loafing Atlanta.
Seriously?
How many people have you met in your entire life that didn't like pepperoni pizza?
Those people were pretty much a giant pain in the ass, weren't they!?!
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Ultimate flattering insult: I'm a pepperoni pie at Timone's
Posted by Cliff Bostock on Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 7:28 AM
Pepperoni of the gods
Happy days for the Pizza Philistines. I reported recently that finding pepperoni on the menu at Timone's required a magnifying glass, then entailed a special request. My dinner companions were irritated. I couldn't have cared less.
Ron Eyester, Timone's owner, Twittered me that he's changed that. You can now order a pie, um, named after me: Cliff's Pepperoni Pie. That's kind of like having garbage named after you. Yeah, I know. I'm a garbage mouth. I'm waiting for a pie made with Popeye's fried chicken.
In reality, I grew sick of pepperoni about the same time I burned out on Jack Daniels 20-plus years ago. The sausage is actually an American creation whose biggest producer is Hormel. In recent years, serious chefs have developed greater interest in it, due to artisanal production and, I imagine, profit margins. (It's available, for example, at Antico, too.) You can read all about the sausage in aNew York Times piece from Feb. 1, 2011. A sample:
Pepperoni certainly has conquered the United States. Hormel is the biggest-selling brand, and in the run-up to the Super Bowl this Sunday, the company has sold enough pepperoni (40 million feet) to tunnel all the way through the planet Earth, said Holly Drennan, a product manager.
Michael Ruhlman, an expert in meat curing who is writing a book on Italian salumi, doesn't flinch from calling pepperoni pizza a "bastard" dish, a distorted reflection of wholesome tradition. "Bread, cheese and salami is a good idea," he said. "But America has a way of taking a good idea, mass-producing it to the point of profound mediocrity, then losing our sense of where the idea comes from." He prefers lardo or a fine-grained salami, very thinly sliced, then laid over pizza as it comes out of the oven rather than cooked in the oven.
You can also now build your own pie at Timone's, as well as order one of the super-stoned gourmet pies.
Anyway, thanks for the epitaph, Ron!
TAGS: TIMONE'S, RON EYESTER, PEPPERONI, PIZZA, CLIFF BOSTOCK, IMAGE
COMMENTS (3)
Showing 1-3 of 3
"Artisanal production" - I'm having a hard time typing because I'm laughing so hard. What a crock. I can assure you that throughout NY and NJ great neighborhood pizza joints are neither using artisanal nor Hormel. They are using the great ubiquitous small slices that when heated curl up with a little pool of oil and give a nice spice snap when you bite into them. I suppose if there's some guy named Sal in Newark who has been cranking out 100s of lbs weekly of pizza pepporoni and sausage for the last 40 yrs we can now call him an "artisan." LOL.
Posted by Jadzia on 09/13/2013 at 8:43 AM
Ummmm.....
First, I wonder why you're putting yourself thru such hardship finding the thing that you say you don't like(?)
You tired of pepperoni pizza 20 years ago, but you bitch about the trouble of seeing it on the menu?
Now you're all butt hurt about the owner giving you the proverbial finger, visa vi, naming the lost pie after you?
Good on ya', Ron!
By God, I'd hang it out on a shingle so you'd see it every time you came slumming it over to the Highlands.
Hint: Don't bother.
This is what everyone despises about critics: You have shitty attitudes in general and it seems that very often you don't like much at all.
You'll never hear a rock critic give it up for Steve Perry, or actually say, "Ya' know. Journey: not a half bad band."
They're always in love with the band that recorded half a demo in their parents basement before they ended it all by sucking on the tail pipe of grandma's station wagon.
God F'ing forbid that you like something that other people like or you enjoy something at face value.
P.S. The pizza, whether pepperoni or not, at Lil' Timmy's is great. I've had several and enjoyed the hell out of each. You're just wrong on that score but we can agree to disagree.
Did you bother trying the custom sodas or the milkshakes Tim is making behind the bar?
Goddamned works of art.
Incredible.
You tired of pepperoni pizza 20 years ago, but you bitch about the trouble of seeing it on the menu?
Now you're all butt hurt about the owner giving you the proverbial finger, visa vi, naming the lost pie after you?
Good on ya', Ron!
By God, I'd hang it out on a shingle so you'd see it every time you came slumming it over to the Highlands.
Hint: Don't bother.
This is what everyone despises about critics: You have shitty attitudes in general and it seems that very often you don't like much at all.
You'll never hear a rock critic give it up for Steve Perry, or actually say, "Ya' know. Journey: not a half bad band."
They're always in love with the band that recorded half a demo in their parents basement before they ended it all by sucking on the tail pipe of grandma's station wagon.
God F'ing forbid that you like something that other people like or you enjoy something at face value.
P.S. The pizza, whether pepperoni or not, at Lil' Timmy's is great. I've had several and enjoyed the hell out of each. You're just wrong on that score but we can agree to disagree.
Did you bother trying the custom sodas or the milkshakes Tim is making behind the bar?
Goddamned works of art.
Incredible.
Posted by Joey Rodriguez on 09/14/2013 at 1:36 AM
It is hard not to see Bostock's grumpy attitude come through in all of his columns.
So Far we have learned,
1. Life is hard/sucks.
2. Hospital/diseases suck.
3. CL cut your salary by 2/3rds.
4. You have spent your life in an industry that is shifting dramatically.
Just call it for what it is. You do what you love for a living. You basically eat every meal for free, and prepared and served to you. You have an opportunity to become part of literary history in the likes of the great L Grizzard.
Life is always challenging - RISE UP !
So Far we have learned,
1. Life is hard/sucks.
2. Hospital/diseases suck.
3. CL cut your salary by 2/3rds.
4. You have spent your life in an industry that is shifting dramatically.
Just call it for what it is. You do what you love for a living. You basically eat every meal for free, and prepared and served to you. You have an opportunity to become part of literary history in the likes of the great L Grizzard.
Life is always challenging - RISE UP !
Posted by atlfoodsnob on 09/14/2013 at 11:48 AM