On Santarpio's Pizza's homepage there is a big picture of Rachel Ray smiling, and a quote from Rachel that reads "when I'm in Boston and I want pizza, I always go to Santarpio's." Sad to say this quote makes me think less of her taste in pizza now that I've been to Santarpio's Pizza on Chelsea Street in East Boston. The food is really nothing special, and certainly not worth a special trip.
Win and I went to Santarpio's Pizza the other day, looking for a bite near Logan Airport. There are two things on the menu at this neighborhood dive: pizza and sausage. Both were decent; the pizza has sweet sauce and perfectly good Mozzarella cheese. I just couldn't get into the crust, soggy. I've had better frozen pizza from Trader Joe's (by the way, the Italian pizza from TJ's isn't bad at all). The dry sausage had way too many peppercorns. The lamb on the other hand, it had really great flavor.
I don't regret going there though. It provided darn good entertainment. Santarpio's feels like it's right out of the movies, like a place that would be in Martin Scorsese's The Departed (I know that was Southie, yet that's what this place feels like).
There's a serious neighborhood feel at Santarpio's Pizza. We were almost treated to an ole' fashioned rumble. Basically, a couple of men made a racist remark about another guy's girlfriend (I guess these things still do happen). The guy was ready to hurt them (incidentally, he was wearing a wife beater shirt). All the male restaurant staff, the cooks, owner, etc. came out to warn the troublemakers to behave. The guy and his girlfriend were escorted outside to cool off, then led to another part of the restaurant. It was exciting, certainly more so than the food. I wanted to get in there and take photos while it was happening. Instead I remained low key and took a few snaps with my iPhone.
113 Chelsea Street
East Boston, MA 02128
(617) 567-9871
1 comment:
Classic Pizza "Boston" Style. It's not ny, la or chi-town. It's BOSTON... it can't be beat. I've tasted great pizza coast to coast and nothing touches Santarpio's. It is an aquired taste... but you can't teach breeding. As to the more colorful side of the place..."You're lucky we don't charge for entertainment." Tony, once after a 1980's near shooting talking to my ex-mother-in-law who had her doubts returning. Let the Foodies leave... save a rack of lamb for me.
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