Antonio's: My Personal Favorite of Cleveland

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The whole Drew Carey post made me want to get my Antonio's on. When I was a kid, my Mom used to give us five bucks and let us get whatever we wanted at the food court. The choices were like that of most other malls: the Chinese place, the corn dog place, a fast food place, a cheese steak place, and a pizza place. I always spent my money at Antonio's Pizza.

I can remember being overwhelmed by the multitude of choices I had. Do I get the one piece of pizza with pepperoni and sausage and some pizza nuggets? Or do I just go for the two pieces of pepperoni & sausage and forgo the drink? This would go on my head for about ten minutes trying to squeeze every last penny out of the fin my Mom had given me. I think we had to give back the change, that's what made this such an excruciating exercise. We aren't even going to get into the fact you could save some money getting it "to go".

The whole "to go" thing was counter intuitive to my brother and I.

"You mean they charge you more money for putting it on a tray?", he'd ask with a pained look on his face.

"Yeah! If you get it "to go" they don't charge you tax.", I informed him.

I think the 30 cents we saved was the difference between getting one piece or two. Or like my brother put it "giving Mom 10 cents instead of a dollar".

Needless to say, he and I were the only dorks fumbling around the food court with our stuff in paper bags and free glasses of water (spilling all over the place since there was no lids on the free water cups). I think combined he and I would give my Mom a total of 16 cents.

Fast forward twenty-five years. Gone is the Antonio's in the food court. Tonight I ate at the flagship restaurant in the strip mall part of Parmatown. I already know I'm getting a pepperoni and sausage pizza before I even walk into the place. Since my wife is anti-pizza, these days she gets the eggplant appetizer with a side of broccoli. We're not here to talk about the eggplant, though.

Pizza is king here at Antonio's. When I taste the pizza I think the sauce is what makes it truly unique. The sauce is actually a dark red color. The crust is also large and in charge. The crimp the crust much like you would on a pie crust. It is actually quite doughy if it is taken out of the oven too soon.

Is it the best? To me it is. Look it up on the Internet and you'll find there are thousands of other "best pizza" nominations. I guess I'm still just a little nostalgic about my Parmatown food court days.