Sinking Feeling at Pizza Bella

Restaurant: Pizza Bella
Location: 1810 Baltimore, KC MO
Food: Wood-fired pizzas
Service: Unremarkable waitstaff
Atmosphere: Tiny. Somehow vibrant & cold at once.
Price: $9 - $14 pizzas. A little steep.
Rating: One napkin. Barely.


Kansas City doesn't do pizza very well.

Now that I have your attention, let me qualify that statement. In other cities across the country, Neapolitan pizza (pizza napoletana) has had a huge uprising. We're talking freshly made crusts, pies with simple, artisinal toppings (and not too many of them), cooked in a brick or wood fire oven at super high heats, not a pizza conveyor. We're talking freshness, chewy-but-crispyness, and hints of char flavor. We're talking long handled pizza boards that slide delicious pies into and out of ovens with a learned dexterity. We're talking pizzas made with love.



Kansas City has a lot of Americanized chain pizza places, but there are really only about three different Neapolitan-style pizza places here: Spin!, Blue Grotto and Pizza Bella.

As I grow older, I find this style of pizza far more refreshing and enjoyable than its thick crusted, heavily topped counterpart that made up such a big part of my childhood (approximately 1/8 of my body is made of Little Caesar's).

So when I found a discounted gift certificate for Pizza Bella online recently, I jumped on it. And last Saturday evening, after taking in "The Social Network" (really good and interesting movie), we went for a long-awaited visit.

Pizza Bella's status has been a bit shaky lately. Its ownership may have changed, but I haven't been able to confirm. Those familiar with Rob Dalzell's other establishments including 1924 Main, Souperman and Yummo know that a run of unfortunate circumstances have led all three to close, so there were lots of rumors Pizza Bella would bite the dust, too.

A quirky location would seem to be bad for business. They're located in a bit of a no man's land half-way between the Crossroads and P&L. I personally like the spot, but there is no foot traffic there and if you're trying to cut through downtown expeditiously, you most likely aren't driving down Baltimore, either. So it's rather hidden.

Those who seek it out, however, find a quaint little spot with big front windows and a modern-chic interior of tasteful wood, painted concrete, white curtains and bright red accent chairs. A tiny bar sits just inside the entrance and the hearth of the restaurant, its wood fired oven, is in the southwest corner wafting delicious aromas that immediately induce salivation. For my taste, the place could use a little more of the wood accents on the walls for increased warmth, and sound deadening materials would be nice, too. But overall, this is a tastefully designed dining environment.

On our trip, we were afflicted with the misfortune of sharing a server with a large birthday party. These were 30 somethings with a white limo parked out front who were clearly excited to be away from their kids for the first time in forever and not used to drinking the amount of alcohol they may have consumed at such parties in their younger days. They were tipsy and unbearably obnoxious. Increasingly so as the night went on.

Needless to say, attention to our needs was lacking. Eventually our water arrived in a pretty bottle and we hastily ordered beers (Boulevard Pale Ale and a Stout). We were elated to find Brussels sprouts among the appetizers and upon our server's recommendation, ordered them plus the Butter Lettuce salad. The server was wrong about the portion of the Brussels sprouts, though, which was large and incredibly filling. By the time we finished them and the salad, we were full.

They were worth it, though. Piping hot, served straight from the oven in a ceramic dish, the Brussels were covered in pancetta vinaigrette and parmesan, flavored with cranberries, almonds and their own char. Absolutely killer. Brussels sprouts cooked this way are my all-time favorite vegetable, hands down (hey family - get ready to see those on the Thanksgiving table, by the way).

The salad was, unexpectedly, overdressed with a creamy white dressing. Described as "anchovy lemon vinaigrette," we thought it would have been less... opaque. Maybe it was the anchovies? Regardless, there was too much of it. Otherwise, the butter lettuce would have been nicely crisp and we could've actually tasted the shaved fennel, sliced radish and chives also mixed in. Great recipe, poor execution.

This unfortunate execution was, sadly, the theme of our mushroom pizza, as well. What would have been a beautiful, thin, crispy crust was reduced to a soggy goo. Caramelized onions, themselves, are a wet, soggy ingredient which would have been okay, but the mushrooms must have gone onto the pie raw and when mushrooms are first cooked, they release most of their water, which makes up 90% of the mushroom itself. This dirty-tasting water seeped into the crust and reduced it to an unrecognizable mush. A tragic murder of an otherwise delicious pizza.

Pizza Bella has all the earmarks of a good restaurant concept that just hasn't been maintained. Nearly everything in our trip was lacking. The entire experience felt like competing in a sports match in which we were losing by an insurmountable margin and failure was a foregone conclusion.

Walking out, we agreed that despite a theoretically good menu and mostly nice dining room, we weren't likely to return. At least not on our own dime. I'd love nothing more than to hear scuttlebutt that a new owner or new chef was pumping life back into the place, but I fear it's more likely I'll hear of it closing instead. I like Pizza Bella, but I'm not sure Pizza Bella likes me back.

Rating: one napkin. barely.

Take Spin! for a...

This time of year, almost nothing sounds more appealing for dinner than pizza. Nothing smells better than the scent of a pizzeria when you open the front doors and bread, tomato and oregano come pouring out into the stale, cold air. Nothing feels better than a cozy booth, a glass of red wine and the roar of the fire in the kitchen's huge oven.


I have to admit, I've been cheating on the concept of a city-wide artisanal pizza comparison because I haven't come up with a good enough list of local places that meet the criteria. Twice, recently, my mistress has been Spin! Neapolitan Pizza on Main street.


This section of Main between 49th and 51st streets has turned into a cool little strip of restaurants and bars and Spin! is right in the middle of it all, with its own sparkling new dining room. The layout of the restaurant is nice - the entrance features a spread of their $18 bottles of wine - a great idea for a casual place like this - and giant menu boards. 


Seating in the high-ceilinged room includes a mixture of small tables, larger conjoined tables and booths clinging to the outer wall made of painted cinder blocks. The decor is modern sleek and industrial (think Chipotle goes Italian), with nods to cycling like light fixtures made with bicycle gear sprockets and their cycling-themed logo painted into the murals on the walls.


Behind the front counter is the cavernous oven. It's not wood-fire or made of brick, but is the type that that you slide the pie into and out of on a long-handled board, rather than the typical stainless steel conveyor belt type. No pan required, which allows the flour-dusted crust to char and crunch rather than coming out wet and flimsy. It's a good crust, similar to Blue Grotto. I'd like the bottom of the crust to be a little more cracker-like and the top to have softer, pillowy pockets rather than being quite so cardboard-like, so it's not perfect, but still good.


Pizzas are categorized as Pizza Rosa and Pizza Bianca, and feature well-assembled compilations of ingredients, like The Patate - roasted potato, Italian bacon, roasted red peppers, goat cheese and scallions.


On my last two visits, we enjoyed the Pollo Arrosto e Chevre (roasted chicken and goat cheese with caramelized mushrooms and cremini mushrooms), the Cipolla e Chevre (roasted and caramelized onions and goat cheese with  fig jam and fresh mozzarella) and the super-savory Oliva e Carcioffo (olives, roasted artichokes, caramelized onions and capers). I've also had and would recommend the Salsiccia (Italian sausage and caramelized onions) and Polpette (meatballs with caramelized onions and mushrooms). I enjoyed every single bite of each of these pizzas.

The salads are exceptional, too... certainly a cut above what you find at the vast majority of restaurants in the city, including many much higher priced restaurants. We absolutely love the Sonoma and recommend it the highest - beautiful red leaf lettuce and tender baby spinach with grape halves, thin slices of crisp apples, raisins, goat cheese and chopped, sweet-glazed pecans. It's quite sweet, but the blood orange vinaigrette's tart bite keeps it from going over-the-top. The Greek is also delicious, but get the Sonoma for sure.


Spin! is one of those few restaurants that blends its offerings in a way that makes it enjoyable to almost everyone. It's quick and casual, but still special enough to be a good date restaurant. It's inexpensive, but not cheap-feeling. Ingredients are high quality and more unique than the typical lineup available from pizzerias, but not weird at all. So while the level of cuisine or sophistication of its ambiance may not rival that of my other three napkin restaurants in town, Spin! finds itself there among very good company. Check it out soon.


Rating: three napkins

The Pizza Bar - Just Another P&L Bar

The few people I know who were able to make it to Vinino, the Italian restaurant that occupied one of the primo spaces across from the Sprint Center when P&L first “launched”, said that they actually liked the food. It just wasn’t the right type of restaurant for that location. Too fancy-shmancy. Too close to the loud buzz of the raucous sports and concert crowds at McFadden’s, Raglan Road, PBR, and the like. 

Taking a page from its P&L success stories, Cordish closed Vinino and transformed it into The Pizza Bar. Walking in, I was expecting something more in the vein of its predecessor, but Pizza Bar is not dressy affair. It’s just a jumbo-sized pizzeria, replete with a few bars, video games and TV’s on every wall. On the Saturday afternoon when we made our trip, it was nearly a ghost town. Only one or two other small tables of patrons occupied the cavernous restaurant. The scantily clad hostess was lazily hanging out at one of the bars, paying no attention to the front of the house. When the manager on duty noticed we were standing there, unattended and slightly bewildered, I saw her eyes roll in frustration at the poor service she knew her team was exhibiting. We seated ourselves at her request.

Our server was a bench-warmer. He didn’t care about us or whether we were having a good experience. No smiles, slow service (though we were his only table), drinks never refilled… nothing to offer.

We ordered half our pizza with their meatballs (cut into thick slices) and the other half with Scimeca’s Italian sausage, peppers and onions. There are no choices of size – if you order a pizza, you get a rather large (16”, perhaps) pie with thin crust. The crust wasn’t bad,.. it was somewhere between “nothing special” and “not great”. But I was expecting a lot more from this single-minded establishment. When pizza makes up half of your menu, you ought to have something more impressive than this crust up your sleeve. 

I don’t care whether a pizza is healthy or not, but the amount of yellow grease standing on top of the cheese was off-putting, both visually and digestively speaking. I blame the excessive grease on head pizza pie-man, Salvatore DiFatta’s method of using raw sausage on the pizza, rather than pre-cooked sausage. All the fat and juices from the sausage end up sitting on top of the pizza when it comes out of the oven and onto your table. It doesn’t taste good, it just tastes like grease.

Our experience at The Pizza Bar was nothing short of terrible. I’m sure I could enjoy the place for what it is – a roomy sports bar with decent pizza – after taking in a game and a few beers at the Sprint Center. But as a restaurant, this place has nothing to offer. Don’t make a special trip down to the tough-to-stomach P&L district just to try The Pizza Bar.

Rating: zero napkins

Blue Good-o

Last Friday my team at work got to take the afternoon off for a fun outing. After a few beers and a severe beating in "fearsbie", as we called it, I returned home and took an uncharacteristic nap. When I woke up at 8:00, a couple hours later, I was completely discombobulated - wasn't sure if it was 8:00 am or pm. The only thing I really did know at the time was that I was hungry.

A light pizza sounded good, so we headed over to Brookside to try Blue Grotto for the first time. Walking in, I immediately felt the name's representation in the decor and atmosphere - dark colored walls with a high ceiling created a cavernous feel, though cozy at the same time.

After checking in at the hostess' stand in the middle of the restaurant (weird, but smart - gets you into the interior where you feel almost obligated to have a drink in your hand while you wait to be seated), we sat down at the long bar in comfortable chairs for a beer, but were immediately retrieved and shown to our seats before ordering.

I have a soft spot for multi-level dining rooms because I like a certain level of intimacy at restaurants. Houston's, upstairs at Lidia's and the second-floor at Blue Grotto, where we had a nice table for two, are some of my favorites. PF Chang's, where it feels like every person in the restaurant is staring at you all night, exemplifies my least favorite type of floor plan.

Forgot to take a picture of our salad, but that's probably a good thing for Blue Grotto. We went with the Greek, and the presentation bears a second-thought. Rather than chopped romaine, whole leaves are laid side-to-side and dressed with plenty of crumbled feta, a pile of red onion slices, a couple olives and cucumbers and a dressing that had more dill in it than any other I've had. It was good, but not befitting of the $9 price tag. The assembly of the romaine leaves gives the plate a very sparse, de-constructed look that says "lack of effort" more than "artful". I can't imagine the typical BG Brookside diner is pleased when this salad is set before them.

Our pizza, the "Funghi" selection, came topped with delicious, large chunks of roasted cremini mushrooms, "champagne marinated onions" (maybe), beautiful fresh mozzarella, tangy, savory fontina and a delicious san marzano sauce. Briefly I'll mention that the crust was nicely done and I enjoyed the pizza very much, but in an admittedly anticlimactic way, I'm going to cut the description and rating short here...

I'm going to find a way to conduct a city-wide pizza comparison in the near future. This might be done as a dinner party where everyone is in charge of bringing a pizza from one of KC's different artisinal pizzerias, or with a one-week tour of my own. Please feel free to leave comments suggesting how I should go about conducting this tasting/rating or different restaurants to be included, but here are the parameters I have already decided: only restaurants focused on pizza will be included. Lots of places have pizzas on the menu. Heck, even Kona Grill does. But I want to focus on the places that hang their hat on their pizzas, so those joints are out.

Completely Americanized or the "non-artisinal" places, I'll call them, won't be included either. So, the major chains like Papa John's and Dominos: no. And even the local places with similarly styled pies won't either: Minsky's. Look, I love all kinds of pizza, down to the greasiest, cheapest types imaginable. But pizza is a huge category and only a handful of pizzerias use fresh enough ingredients or a thoughtful enough approach to warrant a KC Napkins rating, so I'm setting my sights on what should be the best of the best.

A few of the places I know I'll include: Spin!, Blue Grotto and Pizza Bella. I need more recommendations so if you know of others that fit the criteria above, please, please let me know!