Pizza in Howard County

If you want to search for hidden gems, then pizza is a tasty item to make your gustatory grail. It's not that expensive. It is offered in almost every strip mall from Columbia to Ellicott City, and joints offer up an endless number of styles and atmospheres.

As I'm updating this in April 2009, my favorite pizza in Howard County splits between Pazani Trattori in Elkridge and newcomer Coal Fire in Ellicott City.  You need to know that I'm a thin-crust, thin-cheese kind of guy. 

Pazani Trattori serves a crisp, greaseless crust with exceptional, unusual toppings. Too many pizzas taste like canned sauce and bland toppings -- where you couldn't tell if that was

mushroom or chicken with your eyes closed. The flavors at Pazani Trattori are fresh, and they taste like someone picked out deliciously-salty olives and sauteed the peppers there in the store. The restaurant -- which is almost impossible to stumble across but very convenient from Rtes 103 and 100 -- also serves pastas, desserts, etc.

Coal Fire opened just off Rte 108, and it immediately leapt to the top because it pulls off the basics so perfectly.  Thin crusts with slight chars and crisp bite.  Cheese that looks like melted balls of mozzarella, not the shredded stuff you get in a bag.  And sauce that provides the real flavor, especially the sweet and spicy "signature" sauce.  Mrs. HowChow picks Coal Fire without a second thought.  She values crust and sauce over any flashy toppings.  I love the new place, but I'm still holding out for Pazani because I remember some vegetable toppings that tasted so unusually fresh.

Either way, this is an excuse to try those places and to continue the search.  Your tastes may run Chicago-style or exotic like "Peking duck pizza," and there has never been a consensus when people leave comments. For example, I always enjoyed Luna Bella Ristorante in Columbia, although the toppings and cheese can be so thick that slices are actually difficult to lift. I would love more comments because there are just too many HoCo pizzerias to try them all. Highlights in the prior comments included:

• Gateway Pizza in Elkridge off Rte 108 for a soft, thick crust and mild, gooey cheese. An anonymous poster said it was the best pizza he had had outside of New York. I had to visit. I actually went that same day, and the pizza was perfectly described -- and the white pizza with chicken was a really nice pie. Now, I already said that I like crispy crust, but the poster is right that Gateway makes a uniquely soft crust with good toppings.
• Bella Mia in Ellicott City on Rte 104 has had fans every time that I ask. I haven't been yet, but it first came recommended by Nina of Yet Another Food Blog. Last week, an anonymous poster touted the chewy crust and the buffalo chicken variety.
• Trattoria e Pizzeria da Enrico in King's Contrivance also gets recommended. I thought it was nice, and it certainly makes a great warm-weather night out with an ice cream at Rita's. Thin-crust as noted by the most-detailed poster, who also wrote  "The sauce is tasty, a little sweet with an herby aroma. The cheese is very flavorful, a bit on the salty side. They've got a decent-sized list of toppings but don't offer anything exotic like pineapple. I particularly recommend the sausage, which is crisp slices of a spicy Italian sausage instead of bland lumps of pork."

Is there deep dish anywhere near? The Baltimore Beer Guy talked up Uno's. I haven't had pizza there in years, although my nephew loved making his own pie the last time that we went.

I'm still exploring to find pizza worth driving past a half-dozen strip malls -- places with pizza on the level of the best burgers or best Chinese. Based on comments from prior posts, my next stops look like Chef Paolino's, Bella Mia and Vennari's.

If you're looking for more about local pizza, check out the Howard County reviews from the Pizza Blogger -- and look around that site for reviews and tips on making your own pizza.

This is part of the "What I Learned" series of posts. They're organized in rings. See below to continue on the ring about different cuisines. Or click to switch to the posts about shopping in Howard County or posts about areas and ideas.

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