Grandpa Gotta Eat—Celebrating 31 Years Of Marriage At Pieology

Welcome to this special edition of Grandpa Gotta Eat.

This coming Tuesday, my wife and I will have been married for 31 years. Since both of us have to work that day, and neither of us relish being out in the dark, rain and cold, we decided to go out on the town this afternoon as soon as I was off work.

I had intended to be home by 11:30 AM. Be it the best laid plans of mice and men, Murphy's Law, Stuff Happens, or choose your own favorite expression to describe when things don't work out, I didn't make it back until after 2 PM.

Since You Asked

One of the larger customers I tend to on Fridays had troubles with their ATM and three games. I temporarily fixed one of the games, and made my boss aware of the ATM and a second game since he was headed to the establishment to resolve another problem (the card kiosk for playing the games went down a couple of days ago, leaving some lingering issues), and then managed to clear the card reader issue on the third with a reboot.

By the time I finally was out of there, it was past noon with one more stop to make. This last place also had a couple of issues—one of the games appeared to be off, but power was running the fans and lights on the back. A power cycling brought it back to life. However, a second game was also off, but this one was not drawing any power at all. I messed around with it for a while and then put in a service call when I couldn't figure it out.

To Go Or Not To Go

When I got home, my wife and I took about 20 minutes to decide whether or not we were going to do anything, then finally ended up sticking to the original plans, with some modifications. The Dolittle movie she wanted to see would have to wait.

She wanted to go to Nordstrom Rack (because that's how she rolls), and after that, we would go eat at a pizza place called Pieology.

After about an hour at the clothing store, where she ended up getting stuff mostly for other members of the family instead of for her, we took the five minute drive back up the freeway to the mall where this particular Pieology is located.

Now, something you need to know about my wife is, she's not a huge fan of pizza. It's not so much that she doesn't like it, but that for her, there's a lot of bad pizza out there. When she finds a place she likes, though, she tends to go wild for it.

Such could be said about Pieology.

This sign of quotes by various and sundry people is the first thing to greet you as you walk in the door. For about a second, I mistook it for a menu or a set of instructions.

If I had to enumerate the appeal for her as far as Pieology is concerned I would say:

• Customization

• Price/value ratio

• Taste

• Leftovers

Some of the more interesting part of the decor at this particular Pieology is the ceiling, with the piping that just ends, giving it kind of a new age Steampunk vibe. I think I was the only one checking out the three TV screens, with two separate basketball games playing and some other program I didn't readily recognize for the non-sports inclined.

Customization

The fun at Pieology actually begins the moment you get to the counter. It's as if someone once came to a Subway and said, "I can do that," only with individual-sized pizzas. There are numerous selections to make, and you can put on all of it if you want. I wouldn't recommend putting everything on, though. My wife tries, and then ends up somewhat disappointed with her creation afterward.

As luck would have it, on this occasion our fun was put on hold, as we had to wait on three other people who were taking their sweet time (I know, deep breaths) with their selections and then wanting to add more of this or spread out something else. Which is actually perfectly fine as far as the Pieology staff is concerned, although one lady did get a warning not to move too much cheese or sauce to the edge or it would ruin her pizza and any other one next to it.

Thanks, Lady!

When they finally cleared enough for us to start our selection process, we were fired up and ready go.

And So It Begins

As you can see from the board above, you start with a selection of crust, which includes white and wheat offerings, stuffed crust, gluten free and cauliflower.

My wife and I both got what they call their Pierise Thick crust. It's not deep dish, but there's more to the crust than either Artisan offering, but not nearly as much as the deep dish, which is basically all bread by the time it's all said and done, since you really can't get much on top of it.

Various hand models were brought in to demonstrate how the pizzas are made.

From there, we both went traditional and asked for the House Red sauce, which is your basic but still tasty tomato sauce. Pesto might have been a good alternative, but I can't say I was much feeling the other options.

Next came the selection of cheeses, which aside from standards like mozzarella and parmesan, also featured ricotta and feta. I asked for mozzarella, while my wife took that, too, then added ricotta and feta, a wrinkling of the nose combination if I ever saw one, but I've learned not to ask.

After the cheese came the vegetables. This is where my wife tends to go overboard. I don't know if it's because she's Mexican, just hungry or both, but she seemed to be intent on getting everything on there, including the roasted red peppers and jalapeños, as if it was actually going to turn into a massive taco. I think the only thing she left off was the red onions, and then she added crushed red pepper on top of that.

I, of course, was a little more subdued in my selections, going for grape tomatoes, mushrooms, olives and garlic. I contemplated long and hard adding pineapple, but ultimately decided against it.

Last but not least, the meats. My wife went for Salami, Canadian Bacon and regular bacon, while I also asked for Canadian Bacon but went with sausage.

The Price

In case you missed it on the sign in the image farther up, all of this customization happens at the reasonable price of $8.75 per pizza, which is under what I've paid for individual 6-inch two-topping pizzas elsewhere. Not only is it all the toppings you want, but the pizza, as you will see later, is nearly double that at a whopping 11.5-inches!

While our creations were whisked away from our view (parting is such sweet sorrow) to be properly baked, we got our drinks and sat down at a table. Pieology does have soft drinks available, we opted for lemonades. I got the mango while she got the pink lemonade. In the picture above you can see she's got more crushed red pepper at the ready.

We also ordered salads, a Caesar for her and an Italian for me. Mine is the one pictured above.

A few minutes after we ordered, the salads were brought to us. There was a noticeable difference between her salad and mine—mine had more vegetable variety along with a different dressing, which turned out to be a thick creamy and zesty Italian. It doesn't look all that appetizing, but I assure you, it was. Because I also got some red onion, I handed it to my wife, since her salad was mainly lettuce and grated parmesan.

It wasn't too long after we were nearly filled up with salad that the pizzas themselves arrived. This is not dainty pizza. I should have had something next to it for scale. There were eight slices, and the dough definitely rose. With all the toppings, it was very filling.

What Stood Out

Since I didn't sample my wife's, I can only speak to my own pizza. First, the crust was soft and chewy for most of it, then crispy at the edges. The flavor of the sauce, the garlic and the tomatoes came out the most, then the cheese and the meats. I asked for extra mushrooms, but I don't really remember them that much.

I thoroughly enjoyed the four slices I managed to scarf down before my stomach threw up (bad choice of words) the white flag. My wife maybe ate two slices of hers.

Mine is pictured above, while hers is below.

We ended up getting carryout boxes for the both of us to take home. I'm concerned, though. I will probably need to fend off my youngest son from eating mine, since he often considers everything in the refrigerator to be free game.

I took a picture of the pizza pan underneath the paper since I'd never seen one quite like it before. Most are solid and don't come equipped with heat venting holes. I'm not sure what it does for the pizza, but I think it's cool.

That's Pretty Much All We Did

We did make a run to a friend's house for some eggs, but other than that, our anniversary outing was over.

That's okay. It gave me time to put together this post. I suspect one way or another, my wife will also get to see Doolittle, be it in theaters with perhaps the daughter-in-law, or at home when I inevitably purchase it for streaming on Apple TV.

So, while some of our plans were spoiled, the rest went pretty well. And considering we didn't do anything for our 30th last year, it's an improvement. Maybe things will work out better next year.

As it is, my wife's birthday is coming up, along with Valentine's Day, and then we have a celebrating reprieve for a few months. Somehow, I think we'll manage to get enough celebrating in.

Business Brief

Pieology was founded in 2011 by Carl Chang and James Markham, who also helped develop MOD Pizza, which along with Blaze Pizza is a main Pieology competitor. The first store was opened in Fullerton, California. There are now over 72 stores throughout California, with another 53 to be found spread around 18 other states and Guam.

This Is Grandpa Signing Off

Thank you for stopping by and sharing this special edition wedding anniversary Grandpa Gotta Eat with me.

Until next time...

...Enjoy!

Anniversary Bonus Stuff

Here's the outside of the Nordstrom Rack we went to. I'm not much into shopping for clothes, but I did wander in after a while to see what my wife was up to. I found her perusing the discounts in the shoe section. She wasn't having much luck.

Then, attached to the shelving of the shoe racks I saw this:

There were at least two other different admonitions along the racks, too. I thought this one was the catchiest.

I've heard that many stores just write off shoplifting, but here, at what is supposed to be a more uptown kind of clothing store (albeit the discount rack), they're actively trying to prevent it in an engaging, somewhat entertaining way.

Okay. Now I'm out.

PEACE!

_{All images courtesy of Glen Anthony Albrethsen}

This edition of Grandpa Gotta Eat is published in conjunction with the @foodfightfriday weekly contest, sponsored by @appreciator. Food Fight Friday is an open competition, where the only rules are: write a post about food, publish it on Friday, use the tag #fff, then go and peruse the offerings of other participants. That's because you will have a chance to pick the winners. The top three contestants get STEEM prizes.