It's hardly the worst pizza in town, and if you're throwing a party and need some pies to feed the hungry masses, Pizzicato is more than up to the task, though I do think they charge a bit much for what they're offering. That's really all I have to say about it. I had mistakenly presumed it was mass-produced in a Pizzicato warehouse somewhere, but an employee (see the comments below) informed me that it's actually made fresh everyday, which I do appreciate. The dough used for the crust is almost completely devoid of flavor, standard for this type of pizza. As you may have surmised, the pizza is a tad on the salty side, but that's a good thing, because without the salt this pizza probably wouldn't taste like anything. Nothing amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but a pretty standard NY-style slice nonetheless. Tough to say, as the herbs held virtually no flavor as far as I could tell. The tangy, heavily-salted tomato sauce hides beneath a layer of salty aged mozzarella, salty grated parmesan, and what the Pizzicato menu calls "herbs," which as far as I could tell consisted primarily of finely-chopped bits of parsley and maybe some oregano. No matter char is hardly necessary on a NY-style slice. I don't really walk into places like Pizzicato expecting char, and apart from some browning on the bottom of the pizza, there isn't any. The crust is dense, chewy on the inside but crispy on the outside, and dusted with cornmeal, presumable to slide it into and out of the gas-heated ovens more easily. It becomes pretty clear early on that Pizzicato is striving to replicate a NY slice with their pies. As soon as I got it home I flipped open the box, snapped a few shots, then dug in while it was still hot. Tonight, though, I stuck with the simple plain pie. Pizzas come in small (10"), medium (12"), and large (16") sizes, and often come with a wide variety of toppings, such as barbecued chicken, artichoke hearts, and garlic-marinated shrimp. Pizzicato was established in Portland in 1989 (good year for music!) and has since blossomed to 23 locations, including one in Denver, Colorado of all places. No, last night was all about picking up the phone, calling my local Pizzicato (only a few blocks away!) and ordering a large cheese pizza ($17) which I could pick up in only 20 minutes. This was the case last night when I was craving pizza but really wasn't up to the physical drain that came with waiting for a table at the uber-popular Ken's Artisan. Sometimes, though, you just don't feel like waiting in line for pizza. I'm naturally inclined to expect pizza below the caliber of Portland's best from them, but considering the franchising and sheer volume these chains put out, I don't think that's unreasonable. My dinner partner pulled a hair out of the pizza crust.Maybe other Pizzacato's have better customer service and do a better job of cleaning the dishes and keeping the hair out of the pizza, but I can tell you that I will NEVER go back to this one.In the realm of local pizza chains, Portland's got a few: Pizza Schmizza, Hot Lips, and Pizzicato spring most readily to mind. One of the plates had old cheese still stuck on it. After more waiting, he brought out our pizza with two plates. After looking in the oven, he said ours would come out next. He snapped at me, "I don't know what you ordered! I don't know what your table number is!" I was totally surprised by his rudeness and complete lack of customer service, but told him the details of our order. I went up to the counter and I asked the person I think was the manager if he knew about how much longer our pizza was going to take since it was already over a half hour. Literally, a half hour went by and we noticed that people who came after us were all eating. We got there before the dinner rush, ordered a pizza, and took a seat. This was my first time to a Pizzicato and I was pretty excited to try it.
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