Last Saturday, on my way home from a show, I stopped by a decades-old favourite for a late-night slice. It has been on probation for its recent inability to keep regular hours. But the congealed cardboard that I ate finally landed it on my no-go list for next 6-8 months. So this Saturday, I decided that I need to try a quality pizza place.
Tav's (Gnocchi and Pizza Bar) recently replaced an outpost of Pizzeria Libretto at College and Clinton, right next to its older sibling Taverniti Trattoria. Because this Libretto location only did take-out, I never bothered visiting here since it took over from A3 Napoli. I guess other people felt the same as it barely lasted 2 years.
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I chose a Taverniti salad ($13) and a Quattro Formaggi pizza ($18). Overall, it was decent food except for a few details that would bump up the score. The southern Italian salad had a nice mix of arugula, crunchy fennel, olive oil, and tiny salt flakes. But the orange slices were tasteless and watery. That they still managed to enliven the dish made me wonder what better quality citrus could do.
The pizza was a good-sized pie with a nice, gooey mix of mozzarella, gorgonzola, asiago, and brie. There were 2 problems though. First, the brie simply over-powered everything. Second, the crust lacked that wonderful freshly baked aroma. More importantly, it was oddly bland and under-salted. That was only a minor issue for the parts covered with cheese but was noticeable in the end-crust. So much so that I began slicing off small portions such that I could eat the end-crust together with the cheesy bits.
Unfortunately, this wasn't top 10 pizza in the city. The mostly take-out Maker Pizza makes more fragrant ones, and they have regular ovens instead of the fancy brick dome found here. So I won't return to Tav's for their pizza but I might try their home-made gnocchi. Given that's in their name, I hope that those dishes might score a better grade.
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