Fun With Carbs

Cheese and pepperoni nirvana

Ask anyone in the area what the city of Springfield is known for  – and if their immediate response isn’t “violent crime” it might be “hoops.” And their second answer might be “Red Rose Pizzeria.”

The city that’s home to the Basketball Hall of Fame also boasts what many agree is the best pizza in western Massachusetts. This family-owned Italian restaurant hosts guests in a huge, open dining area illuminated by large crystal chandeliers. Pizza is the main event, but there are also enormous pasta dishes with a variety of sauces and toppings. Red Rose also serves massive hot and cold grinders, so big you can’t wrap your mouth around the first bite.

Sick of turkey and stuffing, we asked our pizza-loving friends to join us for a pie last night. Half of Pioneer Valley had the same idea, apparently, as we waited 45 minutes for a table. Red Rose has ample bar space, so we were able to sit, enjoy a beer and watch UConn lose in the final minutes to Duke.

Ridiculous potato goodness

My plans to start with a salad went out the window as soon as our friend Del started talking up the French fries. Of course, on a night I swore I wouldn’t go overboard, two big plates of some of the best fries on the planet then arrived at the table. They were fresh and crispy, cut to  perfect thickness, smelled like heavenly carnival food and needed the lightest sprinkle of salt.

Then the waitress brought out our half-cheese, half-pepperoni pizza behemoth, and a hush fell over the table. For this pizza deserves its reverence. Unlike its Connecticut counterparts, it’s not super-thin and baked in a brick oven. It’s simultaneously bready and crispy on the bottom, and the edge crust is blistery and airy with the ultimate chewy texture.

My three dining companions wanted to let the pizza sit and cool for a minute or two, but I dove right for a small triangular corner piece. Square-cut pizzas frustrate me because the center pieces are often sodden with sauce and grease with no bready crust to even it out. But even the center pieces are damn good at Red Rose.

The dough is made fresh daily and hand-stretched in the open kitchen, where you can see the staff tossing pizzas in the air. They’ve mastered the art of sauce and cheese balance, in that the sauce doesn’t overwhelm the crust and the cheese stays intact. The red sauce is light, tangy and tomatoey. We all agreed that the pepperoni had just the right amount of spice. There’s a reason this place keeps earning ‘Best Pizza’ honors by local publications. In an area of the country where good pizza is no surprise, that says something.

A meal at Red Rose is laughably affordable. Four of us had beer and wine, a large order of French fries and a large pizza for a grand total of $45. The 20-slice pizza rang in at $16. We split six slices to take home.

Maybe the best news of all? It reheats amazingly in your toaster oven. Often it’s even better the next day.