Maffei Pizza

I used to live around the corner from Maffei, but never visited because every time I walked by after work, the place was empty; however, every time I walked by late at night, the place was PACKED. I figured that their pizza wasn’t very good, but read on Seriouseats.com that their grandma slices were amazing. I am a HUGE fan of grandma slices, so I packed up my camera and headed to 6th and 22nd.

The pizzeria is very small – ideal for takeout or grabbing one slice and eating it solo along the windows (besides the four or five bar stools lining the walls, there is no where else to sit). The pizzas are pre-made and displayed for your viewing pleasure:

Aside from pizza, they also sell calzones, salads, and some kind of seafood assortment that looked slightly appetizing. I went with a grandma slice:

I requested the corner slice because 1. it looked the biggest and I was hungry and 2. I like double crusts. The slice went into their oven and 5 minutes later, it was completely gone. I love grandma slices because they’re simple and remind me of the pizza I used to eat when I was a kid; I was a SUPER picky eater and if we ever got pizza, I refused to eat any topping besides cheese. The crust was crispy, the cheese was very salty, and there were small chunks of tomatoes in the sauce – just enough to make me want another slice.

Lou, on the other hand, ordered THIS:

A large slice of eggplant parmesan pizza. First of all, when I see pizzerias displaying huge slices of pizza with every topping on it, it REALLY grosses me out. I mean, pizza is supposed to be bread, tomato, cheese, and maybe some pepperoni, mushrooms, and peppers. It’s not supposed to be a separate MEAL on a piece of bread with tomato and cheese. Doesn’t that just seem wrong to you? Well, Lou’s pizza went into the oven and 5 minutes later, it was still not hot. Back into the oven for another 3 minutes and it was lukewarm, but we gave up on it because it was so incredibly bad. I’m not a huge fan of eggplant parmesan to begin with, but this pizza was an all around failure. Lou blames it on not being able to pick until the last minute and eggplant on a pizza threw him off.

Go to Maffei for their grandma slices and single slices (some have pepperoni, sausage, peppers, etc), but definitely skip the gimicky slices of pizza.