We were comfortably parked in a booth at a place called PIZZA CRAFT — 330 Himmarshee Street in Fort Lauderdale — a self-described “cozy Italian restaurant, serving old school Italian specialties and award-winning wood fired-pizzas (Barstool rated 8.1).”
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Interestingly, when it came to finding out the basis for Dave Portnoy’s “8.1 Barstool” score, his YouTube video is scant on details, other than some short descriptives, like “super crispy,” “very good,” “right up there with Tucci’s,” (over in Boca Raton), “8.1.”
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Given that hype, we decided to go for the “TOMATO & BASIL (pie) — red sauce, mozzarella, parmigiano, basil” ($17 pre-tax/tip).
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Now according to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, the secret to great wood-fired pizza is the pizza dough. He notes on his website, “Homemade pizza dough makes all the difference[.]” And to that end, he suggests you use strong white bread flour (or strong bread flour mixed with semolina flour), fine sea salt, dried yeast, golden caster sugar, and extra-virgin olive.
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Some foodies are also of the view that to make the classic version of this pie, the crust needs to be about 1/2 centimeter thick. Right off the bat, we noted that the crust here was thicker than we would have preferred; it almost had a Chicago-deep-dish kind of texture. And while it had a nice char, it lacked crispness. And since neither the sauce nor cheese popped, it all made for a “bready” kind of experience.
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Since we were expecting better, particularly for $21+ (post-tax/tip), we ranked this dish a “C.”
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(Talk about humble pie.)
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