Worcester's Best Pizza: Corner Grille

Worcester, MA. A vast wasteland of New England Greek pizza as far as the eye can see. Is there somebody, anybody, who can do something different? Can somebody deliver some quality za? Thank god for Corner Grille.

Corner Grille has been turning out some of Worcester's best pizza since 1997. But what makes Corner Grille so good isn't necessarily based in tradition. If you're looking for New York, or Neapolitan style pizza you can go elsewhere, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Corner Grille rocks some of the thinnest crust around. I have no idea how they stretch their dough so thin (I could use some tips). This is what some might refer to as "cracker crust" pizza. The kind of pizza that you wind up eating 5 or 7 or 10 square slices of without even realizing it. They make a darn good standard sweet tomato and basil pie, but as someone who has been around the block a few times at Corner Grille I suggest picking just about any of their specialty pizzas.

My personal go to is the chicken pesto pie. There's just something about bacon and pesto that is meant to go extra thin crust. I'm not always a fan of chicken on pizza (it can be too bland) but the chicken here is seasoned better than most chicken dishes at fancy restaurants. It tastes so good you could eat it on its own. It's no wonder they feature 7 pizzas with chicken.

That being said all the pizzas here are amazing. I would recommend picking which ever one best suits your tastes, because odds are you won't be disappointed. Make sure you wash it down with a homemade lemonade in a mason jar and if you have room finish things off with a delicious baked good.

Not all pizza places succeed when they try to go outside the world tomato sauce, cheese, and meat. I have been known to dread places that over think pizza, make it too fancy, and take it too far away from tradition. Corner Grille is the gold standard in how to think outside of the (pizza) box in the right way. I could practically eat there every day.

Remembering Pizzagate in Honor of the Red Sox World Series Berth

At baseball games pizza rarely takes center stage.The focus is always on hotdogs, peanuts, and cracker jacks. During the 2007 season, however, pizza got in on the action. It was the Red Sox traditional Patriot's Day morning game. They were sticking it to the Angels on a cold rainy day. What happened next has lived on in NESN telecasts to this day.

In Defense: Celeste Pizza

My relationship with Mama Celeste goes back a long way. One of my early childhood memories is of eating a Celeste pizza by candlelight that had just finished cooking just before the power was knocked out during a thunderstorm. I was four years old, and Celeste has been in my life ever since.

Maybe that's why I got so worked up the other day when my roommate told me he didn't understand how people can like Celeste pizza, even going so far as saying that Celeste smelt like puke to him.

Review: Portland Pie Co. Beer Dough

I love making pizza from scratch, but my cravings for homemade pizza don't always match up with my planning ability. I found myself in this situation last week and decided to head to Big Y to pick up some dough. I normally just get store brand dough to save money but the dough from Portland Pie Co. struck my eye.

Portland Pie Co. has been selling their dough throughout New England since 2000. They sell five different types: blonde, garlic, beer, wheat and basil. I opted to try the beer since a beer and pizza combination is a no brainer. 

Pizza Power Rankings: Clark University

Despite a plethora of pizza places within a 2 mile radius it's hard to get Clarkies to go 2 blocks to get a pie (and most will still only get it delivered from that distance). That leaves only a handful of choices when ranking the best pizza options that Clark students don't have to go out of their way to get.

1. Brick Oven Pizza 

The only thing around Clark that's close to a New York style pizza. It's not perfect. Often the pies here could stand for a bit more time in the oven, but at $5 for a large cheese pizza it's a great value. Located in a seemingly cursed location (it's the 3rd pizza joint in the space in 3 years) Clark students should hope this place sticks around. It might not be as good as Flats, a previous tenant in the space, but it's the best of what's left.