On the Yahara A-Z

W.

Welcome to the Soft Parade, Pea Shoots and Pinnochio pizza at Grampa's.  Before we fully moved to Madison, we couldn't help but assume that Grampa's Pizza, only a few blocks away at the end of

Willy Street, was the great pizzaria in town.  Run as it is from a great chef who is fully committed to the elevation of the pizza, Grampas pizzas are simple tasting but complex in variety.  Since then, we've now sampled from the woodfire of the great Pizza Bruta, another group that takes its za as seriously

as you can, using Italian tomatoes and certified in the rules and regulations of the Neapolitan recipe.  Gates and Brovi, one of the three great restaurants owned by a tandem, makes a pizza that easily is in the running.  A full circle visit to Grampas just a couple of night ago, though, keep our vote in the ballot box of the Willy institution.  The Pinnochio pizza is a jazzy concoction of homemade tomato sauce, a house blend cheese, bits of sausage, chips of fennel, slips of anaheim chiles.  As with all

great gourmet food, its not so much about how much of the fine ingredients are laid onto a dish, but really more about the restraint: how little of such and such an ingredient can I get away with putting on the pizza while carrying the most potent flavor? The touches of fennel and the bits of chiles are

understated and perfect.  Crust quite crispy, even blackened on the edges, hold firm the ingredients above, lacking virtually any unnecessary grease.  To supplement, a great little beet salad that is served with a mound of pea shoots, a light, fibrous and really nutritious green that compliments the soft chevre cheese.  To drink, a new kind of craft brew called the Soft Parade by Shorts Brewery out of Michigan.  Fruity to the extreme, the Soft Parade is a stew of fruit rye ale, pureed strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.  This one happens to be a fruit juice with hints of ale, not the other way around, and a great pairing with an earthy pizza and salad.