The Other Critics

Kauffman Calls Una Pizza ‘Punk Rock’; Reidinger Thinks He Saw Mark Zuckerberg at Ragazza

Photo: Brian Smeets/Grub Street

Jonathan Kauffman gives us his take on Una Pizza Napoletana this week, noting that the transplanted operation of master pizzaiolo Anthony Mangieri — with the sometimes two-hour wait for pizza and nothing besides that on the menu — might not be what we coddled and catered-to San Franciscans are accustomed to. “You have to keep in mind that eating at Una Pizza Napoletana is not about you. To Mangieri’s credit, it’s not about him, either, except perhaps for the four-days-a-week schedule. It’s about the pizza. As I said, punk rock.” He admits to being skeptical about the fanfare that accompanied Mangieri’s arrival, but the pizza quickly wins him over: “I, for one, loved it… That crust — and I’m a crust guy, often indifferent to the toppings — had a honest, wheaty smell, tinged with smoke. Every bite tasted differently than the last… it’s a rare thing for me to eat something done so purely, so right.” [SF Weekly, Earlier]

Over at the Guardian, Paul Reidinger also greets a pizza newcomer: Ragazza, the new offshoot of Gialina over on Divis. He notes the non-pizza-centric menu, and writes, “Herbal perfumes, along with chili heat, are a recurrent theme,” in both the pizzas and other dishes. In typical, equivocating fashion, he calls the pizzas “fine,” and describes a couple of other dishes like the creamy polenta and Corona beans. But he says, “The real test of any restaurant’s food is whether it can hold your attention even if, say, Mark Zuckerberg is sitting at the next table,” and it seems like Ragazza didn’t quite hold his attention, because he spends the last paragraph staring at this Zuckerberg doppelganger, or was it Zuckerberg himself? Oh, Reidinger. You have another crush. [SFBG]

Kauffman Calls Una Pizza ‘Punk Rock’; Reidinger Thinks He Saw Mark