A short walk from this park is the main north/south road through town. It's a busy road, fairly easy to cross despite the traffic, but there's also a path under the nearby bridge. During the busiest times that's my preferred route to the other side. There, one finds some of the aforementioned not-Cooper's restaurants, a museum, the Visitor's Center, and a lovely botanical / sculptural garden that improves each time we visit. This curious sculpture appeared recently.
Next to the sculpture is Tommy's Mesquite-Fired Pizza.
I've been curious about them for a long time. I'm not sure I've ever had wood-fired pizza, as opposed to what gets delivered from Pizza Hut or Domino's when we're traveling and staying in hotels. I've been wondering what the fuss is about, but they're only open on Fridays and Saturdays and we've never managed a visit.
We checked it out earlier in the day, when the pizza oven was getting going and the staff had their own separate grilled foods ready for snacking.
"Help yourself to some asparagus!" said the proprietor. This pencil-thin asparagus had been a bargain find at the grocery store. From what I could tell it was simply the untrimmed spears laid on foil and generously dosed with butter. I'll try that in the future. I think I might trim the stems, but that's a minor quibble. It was good. (He didn't offer me any of the pork tenderloin!)
Here's their menu, printed on the business card he gave me.
When the time came for dinner, I walked back under the bridge and placed an order: Pepperoni and Italian Sausage on the entire pizza, jalapenos and mushrooms on half. He only charged me $13, since I was only using half the extra toppings! I'd been prepared to spend $14, so the extra dollar went into the tip jar. (I might note that this was an extra-inexpensive dinner, since I'd scooped up $7 in found money during trash pickup earlier in the day!) They also offer salads and drinks, but I didn't investigate them.
While I waited for my pizza, I took pictures of the outside dining area. It was cool and windy, and I think everyone else had done as I intended: taken their order to go. I carefully photographed around people; it wasn't as deserted as my photos seem to imply. I enjoyed watching the oven operation. In between pizzas the cook would rake coals forward over the front bricks to reheat the surface, then scrape them back and brush the bricks to clear ash before laying down the next batch of pizzas. The proprietor kept the storage area under the oven chamber filled with fresh wood. I heard the occasional admonishment to "watch the fire and don't let it go out" so it's possible the cook was in training.
This wood-fired pizza oven procedure may be common knowledge for most of you, but I'd never seen the process before yesterday evening. It looked easy but took a lot of attention.
I went to check out the sculpture more carefully.
The placards made it all clear: it was a collaborative effort on the part of some local Junior High School and High School students, with guidance from very good teachers. The creativity and multidisciplanary nature of this is wonderful.
There's a solar panel atop it with LED's running in strategic locations. Maybe tonight I'll go back after dark to see how it looks.
I finished admiring and photographing this project at about the time my pizza order was ready. They handed me this box...
...I went back under the bridge and to the Princessmobile...
...and deliciousness ensued.
The pizza had a thin crust, crisp on the bottom, with a bit of charring that seems to be the main goal of our die-hard pizza fans. I liked the bite. I loved the tang of the tomato sauce beneath the topping. There were no leftovers for breakfast this morning.
