Pizza for Pizza Snobs

       In my extensive realm of food snobbery, my pickiness over pizza ranks towards the top.  I grew up spoiled by good pizza early on in Connecticut, one of the places to claim the original American pizzeria, with simultaneous access to all the great NY pizzerias. While I can appreciate pizza in all of its various forms, deep dish, California style, cheap and dirty, and the big floppy two handed New York slices I fondly recall from my youth, I became increasing spoiled by fantastic pizza in Italy.  While I won't claim a particular preference between NY style or Italian style, I feel I can accurately assess the merits of establishment peddling either style of pie.  I recently joined two close friends on their weekly Sunday pizza night.  Generally they frequent Lilly's or Mellow Mushroom, but were inspired by the recent edition of the Indy to try out the new Pompieri Pizza and see if it was truly the kind of pizza that would make an Italian apply for a green card.
        Pompieri Pizza is the brainchild of the creators of Bull City Burger and Brewery, who have already established a reputation in Durham for well executed comfort food made with local ingredients.  Housed in an old fire house and featuring a wood fire pizza oven, Pompieri aptly translates to "firefighters" in Italian.  Excited for some authentic Italian style pizza, and anticipating the aroma of such, we were immediately thrown off by an unpleasant odor upon entering the firehouse.  We assessed that the smell was emanating from the line of cloudy gold fish tanks separating the ordering line from the dining area.  The tanks appeared to watering the basil plants growing above them.  A neat commentary on interconnectedness and sustainability, but obviously the source of an unpleasant odor for a dining establishment none-the-less. Not off to a great start.   I am a total purist when it comes to good pizza, and immediately ordered the classic margherita with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil, and "Bobby's" salad.
        The salad amounted to some mixed greens you might get out of a bag from a grocery store, no tomatoes, no cucumber, no cheese and no character what-so-ever. There was only the smoked tomato vinaigrette or straight up oil and vinegar to choose from for dressing. I asked for one of each on the side.  I wasn't a fan of the smoked flavor of the tomato vinaigrette, and nor were my friends.  Some might like it, but more options would be advisable. As for the oil and vinegar...it was hardly worth five dollars to order some baby greens with oil and vinegar and devoid of flavor. The only good part about it was the homemade cracker that came with it. Fortunately, we came for the pizza and not the salad.

         The pizza took a long time, but at least we it came hot and made to order.  The personal size margherita pizza was delicious, the crust was appropriately crisp, the sparing smatterings of fresh mozzarella cheese was true to Italian form, there was plenty of basil, and the fresh bright tasting marinara sauce was truly the star of the show. My one complaint about the pizza would be how greasy it was. They had obviously drizzled olive oil on top, which seemed unnecessary. The pizza still tasted good, but had little pools of oil. My friend Kenny ordered a build your own pizza with pepperoni.  The pasture raised beef pepperoni was not of the factory produced packaged variety, something to keep in mind if ordering for kids (or pickier adults) who might be expecting something familiar only to receive something they don't recognize. He said he prefers Lilly's pizza personally. Notably, Pompieri makes their own spicy Italian sausage in house, in addition to a cured meat of the day!  There are a few different sauce options, even a "porky" red sauce. My other friend Emily (of ice cream fame,) who ordered her sausage pizza with the rich red sauce, found the marinara on my margherita pizza to be highly preferable, and I would agree wholeheartedly.  She found the crumbled Italian sausage to be spicier than she had anticipated, but still quite good, and she echoed my thoughts about the pools of oil. The rich red sauce was more subtle to highlight the toppings, while on the margherita the bright tomato flavor of the marinara sauce is meant to be the star.

       A cute (but also practical) shtick of Pompieri's is to serve each individual pizza unsliced (a la Italia) but with a pair of kitchen shears for the diner to cut their own slices.  Cute. Pompieri also features to yummy natural soda fountain, a bar, and of course, the beers created by their sister establishment Bull City Brewery.  My verdict? Overall, Pompieri is very authentic and worth the trip for a solid Neapolitan style pizza, but do yourself a favor and skip the salad.