Pizza like Uno's used to make: B.J.'s Restaurant and Brewhouse

This is an easy review to write for one audience: the audience that grew up/lived in a city with a Pizzeria Uno. Uno's was a chain of restaurants that served as their specialty a deep-dish Chicago-style pizza, alongside a few burgers, pasta dishes, and soups and salads. I had one in Lawrence, Kansas that I used to visit with some regularity because their lunch special (small pizza, soup, drink, 30 minutes or less) was very convincing at about $8.

B.J.'s Restaurant and Brewhouse is about the same deal, except they focus on pizza and beer. It's got a functional not-quite-sports-bar atmosphere, a crowd that's usually a mix of parents with kids and parents out for a night without the kids, and some decent pizza choices. The deep dish pizzas are baked in heavy, well-oiled pans that should (and sometimes does) result in a crispy outside and bready interior; there's also a gluten-free and thin-crust option, but I admit to having never tried either of those. If you come to B.J.'s, it's probably for the real pizza -- and it should be.

And the pizza is pretty good. It's commercially good, I should say. The Mediterranean pizza (Kalamata olives, peperoncinis, feta cheese, roasted garlic, sundried tomatoes, chicken (optional), and pesto) is a satisfying mess of salty tastiness. Most of the pre-set pizzas offer an overwhelming pile of ingredients, ranging from the Southwestern (chipotle tomato sauce, blackened chicken, green chilies, cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, fresh cilantro) to a three-meat variety or a pizza-like take on Buffalo chicken wings. You can also make your own pizza from a list of ingredients, with each one costing you up to $1.50 more.

The red sauce on the pizzas is usually nicely done, with a few chunks of stewed tomato popping through the cheesy toppings. You can get most of what you'd want on a pizza here -- standard meats, usual veggies, and a few café outliers, like meatballs or the above-mentioned olives in place of the standard canned black.

That said, this isn't a great value for dinner. One medium pizza has about six slices and feeds about 1.25 C and Jenn combinations, and it costs right at $20. Yeah, $20, for a pizza in what's essentially a quieter Applebee's -- that's a hard sell for me, and it's the main reason that I rarely remember B.J.'s when I'm hungry for pizza. However, if you're free for lunch, and already somewhere over the Ferry Street Bridge, B.J.'s does offer some good lunch specials: pasta with soup or salad for about $10; a gigantic baked potato with pizza toppings (I like the veggie Alfredo combination) with soup or salad for about $9; mini pizzas starting around $6 or $7; and an unlimited salad-and-soup combo vaguely reminiscent of the Olive Garden (though without the tasty breadsticks). There are also burgers (real and veggie), main-dish salads, and a few dressed-up fish dishes like Thai Salmon and Shrimp Tacos.

While you eat, you can enjoy one of B.J.'s brews -- though I have to admit, I never have. I've ordered them, sure, but they're mostly unmemorable, with the exception of B.J.'s Jeremiah Red. C has ordered that beer at least three times on the strength of its description and ended up not finishing it on the strength of its bitter taste. The Tatonka Stout pales in comparison to Oakshire's offering, and you're better off with a Widmere than with B.J.'s special Brewhouse Blonde. What can I say? It's chain beer, and it tastes like it.

If you have any room left, try a Pizookie, which is a cookie or brownie baked in a pizza pan and topped with ice cream (and, possibly, Lipitor).

So yeah: it's a mix of food that seems indigenous to the Commercial Upscale Pizza Chain, like Uno's or Old Chicago. The taste is about the same; the service is about the same; and the prices are about the same. Still, if you're a) not from Chicago and b) craving a deep dish pizza, this is about the only place you can turn to in Eugene, and they'll consistently do a good job of curing that craving for you.

A bit of perhaps telling trivia: Pizzeria Uno, now Uno's Chicago Grill, just exited bankruptcy yesterday. Is the Chicago Chain doomed?

A Bite in Review

Saturday, we braved the heat -- at least briefly -- to attend the second Bite of Eugene. There were more people in attendance than I would have expected, given the heat and that the event seemed to sneak up on me with almost no pre-event press. Booths from wine vendors, food vendors, and dessert companies made a neat little J-shaped line of goodness right near the river. Desserts -- including coffee (hard sell on a summer day? Not in Eugene ), Kailua Shaved Ice, Lochmead Dairy Farms ice cream, and Coconut Bliss ice cream from Luna & Larry's -- started things off by the main stage, and then slid easily into a trio of tasty baked goods purveyors: The Divine Cupcake and Holy Donuts! were out for the vegan crowd while The Sassy Cupcake was there for the rest of us.

The Sassy Cupcake may be my number-one favorite discovery of The Bite. They served five flavors of mini cupcake, at $1 a piece, and I went back for seconds. A friend of mine sampled the Peanut Butter Fudge cupcake, which had a fudgy cake base and peanut butter frosting: he called it "intense." I tried, in order, the The Sassy Cupcake -- a buttery, almost pie-crust textured cupcake base with cream cheese frosting/filling and a raspberry on top; the Pink Lemonade Cupcake, which had a lemon cake base and a topping that tasted exactly like the bright, canned pink lemonade of my childhood (in a good way!); and the Smores Cupcake, a graham cracker cupcake with marshmallow filling and a chocolate/fudge icing. C tried the Maple Bacon Cupcake, which was pancake cake with maple frosting and, yes, bacon on top, and said, "I could eat many of these."

It's a commercial/catering only bakery, so there's no danger (yet) of my going on an in-store binge, but through the Sassy Cupcake Facebook Page, I do hear rumors of a cupcakes-by-the-dozen sale. I will be there with bells on, and possibly with Kristen at my side, since she's very good at stabbing others in the name of food defense.

Other tasty nibbles:

• Belly made an appearance, with a small stand selling $2 pork or veggie tacos, watermelon dusted with chili powder, and strawberry agua fresca. I went with the latter two and was extremely pleased -- will have to duplicate the watermelon trick at home.
  
  
• Cornbread Cafe was also there, next to Belly, in a beautiful fusion of pork smoke hovering over your favorite vegan comfort food stand. The flavor of my southern-fried tofu didn't need that embellishment, though C's cornbread -- a cakey mess that looked more like sweet baked polenta than anything in the bread family -- could have stood a little help.
  
  
• Bates Steakhouse made true believers out of two friends with what looked like a juicy, well-sauced tri-tip sandwich.
  
  
• The line at Kailua Shaved Ice, plus the rapturous faces of those who got a cone, makes me believe that they're doing something very good in there. I can't wait to catch them (with no line!) soon.
  
  
• One culinary oddity: There was a booth promoting pickled potatoes. I have to admit, those little things were surprisingly tasty -- like potato salad on a stick! I realized after typing that sentence that few people in the world have the enthusiasm I do for potato salad, but -- what can I say, world, I love it.

Anyone else make it out there? What do you recommend? What makes it worth the trip next year (or what could be better)?

What to do with your weekend appetite

There's a ton of events going on in Eugene involving food. Here's a few I'm intrigued by:

1. Whiteaker Neighborhood River Festival. It promises "free food," which is, incidentally, my favorite kind. Also: gigantic slip-and-slide. Until 11 p.m. tonight at 301 Adams.
   
   
2. Bite of Eugene. Free admission and tons and tons of food vendors and food events and wine and beer? YES. I will be there with bells on, or at least with cash-in-hand and camera and appetite. Included in the mix will be Adam's Sustainable Table, Belly, Cornbread Café, and Olive Grand, among other Eugene establishments that I've been meaning to check out but haven't quite managed to visit yet. I'm most looking forward to the Iron Chef-style showdown between Café Zenon's chef and the eponymous owner of Adam's Sustainable table. And, oh, did I mention food? 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. in Alton Baker Park.
   
   
3. Dairy Free Ice Cream Day. Only in Eugene, right? The makers of So Delicious! Soy and Coconut milk will be distributing free -- yes, there's that word again -- free! coconut-milk treats to those who attend. Music and a prize drawing will also be included, as well as the smug satisfaction that comes from participating in a protest against last weekend's National Ice Cream day. You tell 'em, So D! 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Alton Baker Park.
   
   
4. Finally, this might seem off point, but how about a movie? The Bijou is showing I am Love, an Italian film that stars not only Tilda Swinton but also absolutely ecstatic food scenes. (Maybe send the kids for dairy free ice cream while you go). And then there's that Salt movie... tasty? I'll tell you later.

Food Slideshow!

Well, let's see if this works! If it does, it will have a few photos of our food adventures over the last few months, with more to be added. (If it doesn't, uh, let me know in the comments!)



I'll add more when I can. For now, it's making me hungry just to think back. Mm. Food.

Parking lot pizza party: Hideaway Bakery Pizza Night!

I used to live in South Eugene, and as such the only coffee place of mention near me was the Hideaway Bakery. Thank goodness for proximity -- Hideaway lives up to its name, nestled into the back half of a building shared with Mazzi's only-open-on-the-evenings Italian food. Blink and you'll miss their small, curbside sign -- and what you'll really miss are their pastries.

I spent many a happy mid-morning with a cup of Hideaway's coffee and one of their almond-blueberry pinwheel pastries or their amazing, buttery chocolate croissants. During the rainy season, you can huddle indoors by the smoky fireplace in a mirrored room with about ten sturdy, square tables and take advantage of the free wifi. On sunny days, or lightly misting days, the patio (which is mostly covered with see-through tiles) offers a nice chance for fresh air and is framed with hanging baskets of flowers and small topiaries -- though it's also one of the main Eugene hangouts for big, ugly, buzzing flies.

Hideaway serves breakfast pastries, cakes by the slice or whole that are suitable for service at any dinner party, and a selection of fresh pasta at lunch time. The lasagna was a little bitter (over-fennel-seeded) for my taste, but the ravioli is reliably good (and often interesting, with fillings beyond just cheese). The one weakness -- besides the flies -- that Hideaway seemed to have was its early closure. I was chased from the patio at 4 or earlier on several days by a friendly broom-wielding barista eager to close the place up.

This summer, though, Hideaway is (again, I believe) offering pizza nights. A large but somehow portable stone oven has found a home in Hideaway's little parking lot, and on Tuesdays when it doesn't rain (so: now until September?), it gets fired up -- and so does a whole crowd of Eugenians.

Gyros Magic: Poppi's Anatolia

So, there's a place to get a great New York gyro here in town. I love Albee's for their New York gyros, but when I am craving something a little more Greek, I go to Poppi's Anatolia.

Poppi's has the strangest menu of just about any place in town that I can think of. They're a combination of Greek/Mediterranean and Indian food. I confess I cannot really tell you how the Indian food is. Every time we come here, I want their gyros (they say "yiros") sandwiches. They're really good: tomato slices (always passably ripe or better), good flavorful tzatziki sauce, thinly sliced onions, and a dusting of cayenne that really works for these. I almost always go with the traditional yiros, though G's been brave and branched out to try the kotta, which is also delicious. They're both really affordable choices for lunch at 5.75.

Other standouts on the menu so far are adorable little loaves of bread they call Greek Peasant bread; it's whole-wheat with whole fennel seeds for flavor, and it's amazingly tasty. They sell it as a side for a whopping forty cents, and they could easily charge more. It's delicious with cold butter. I would also recommend the Potato and Onion Bhajias, spicy garbanzo flour fritters, which come with a dressing of what we think was chopped coconut and mint. It was really different, and so, so good.

Special note: the service at Poppi's stands out among downtown restaurants. They're always pleasant, knowledgeable, and unobstrusive.

Location: 992 Willamette

Hours: Monday - Thursday: 11:30 - 9:30; Friday 11:30 - 10:00; Saturday 11:30 - 3:00, 5:00 - 10:00; Sunday 5:00 - 9:30

Hot hot hot: Dizzy Dean's Doughnuts

^donuts.

The reigning champions of Eugene donutry have already been crowned: Kristen votes for Lee's; VooDoo is practically (hey!) a religion; and Holy Donuts wins the vegan crowd, known in Eugene as "everyone else." There are, however, trusty, traditional, mediocre donuts available in Eugene outside of a Safeway: They can be found, all day long, at Dizzy Dean's.

This place is everything that doughnut shops have always been. It smells like sweet dough, too much glaze, fry grease, and the smoke of a 1970s diner. Did anyone ever smoke here? I have no idea, but they should have. The place makes me want to smoke.

It is, in a word, unpretentious. Donuts are $.80 to $1.35, depending on their degree of dress. Dizzy Dean's has been (the times I've visited) staffed by a single person who's frantically trying to do eight things at once: make the donuts, sell the donuts, pour the coffee, answer the questions. It is stuffed into the space leftover when Staples took a spot on West 11th, and it has mis-matched dining chairs set up against tables that would have been comfortable in a 1980s McDonald's. There's six kinds of coffee being served from big, heat-retaining carafes, but you know without trying they're all going to be strong, dark, and kind of bad.

Dizzy Dean's serves Hot! donuts at different times of the day. You can tell whether there are any available because they actually light up a neon sign outside, saying "HOT DONUTS!" The donuts are kept in a warmer, next to the other donuts, the oldies that didn't make the cut.

Here, in the oldies case, there's at least substantial variety. All of the traditional favorites -- bars in maple and chocolate; plain glazed and cake donuts; chocolate-frosted cake donuts; twists in plain and cinnamon -- are here, but they're joined by their desperately over-done friends. Damn you, VooDoo Doughnuts, for this: Dizzy Dean's now has a Bacon Maple Bar, and a purple-frosted donut with a piece of taffy stuck in the middle that resembles the Grape Ape. It has donuts with crushed Oreos and donuts with Butterfinger candy on top. The chocolate donuts sometimes have sprinkles, nuts, and stripes. Those donuts have their place -- and it's in the stunt bakery downtown.

What you could come to Dizzy Dean's for, instead of the eye-candy (sure to disappoint once you take it home; aw, isn't that always the way?), are two things: the filled donuts and the crullers. In the filled donuts, I applaud the lean toward variety, because these all seem like natural extensions. Raspberry, hurrah! Lemon, sure! Marionberry? Why not. Bavarian cream? Fine by me. There's also chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla, and those are all welcome varieties that seem exactly in line with the mission of a small-time doughnut place.

The crullers, too, are something. They have an eggy, almost custard-tasting dough inside, hidden under the shelter of glaze so crisp and enthusiastic that it calls to mind the mechanical glee of Krispy Kreme. They come with a variety of flavored toppings, but why, oh why, would you put maple on this? Why raspberry? Why anything?

Dizzy Dean's is clearly a store that wants to catch up to its big, famous, beloved rivals. The path to that, though, is focus on the fundamentals. I think that's within the store's grasp, but right now, it's too busy having its head spun -- and trying to spin those of its customers -- to settle down and excel at the everyday.

Location: 2380 W. 11th

Hours: 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.