Pizza

The captain and crew of Milagro have a special relationship with pizza.  The three of us, and Buddi is included in this group, love pizza.  Until moving to Mexico I operated under the theory that there is no bad pizza...just gradations of good pizza with some being a whole lot better than others.  That theory has been busted!
While living in the States, whether North Carolina, Florida or, for goodness sake, even in Tennessee, we always made it a priority to seek out the local pizza joints and try them out.  Sometimes the best pizza could be found in a little hole-in-the-wall place and other times the best we could do was a chain =(.  In Linden, Tennessee we had one choice (short of driving 90 miles to Nashville!) and although it was a very "American" version of this delicious Italian pie, we came to love it.  And we were such frequent visitors the young lady who took phone orders came to recognize the captain's voice and would ask, in a delightful drawl, "Will that be the usual, Mr. Roberts?"
Without a doubt the all time favorite pizza could be found at Villa Capri in Raleigh, N.C.  The captain had enjoyed this family run restaurant years ago in another life with another wife and I was privy to Villa Capri delights while a college student.  After we joined forces and discovered that we shared a love of pizza in general and the Villa Capri in particular...well, we knew it was a match made in heaven.
As we fast forward to our stay in Mexico it must be said: the tacos, arrachera, fish and ice cream may be fabulous but the Mexicans generally don't do a great job with pizza.  Early on we passed a little restaurant on the Malecon called Rin Rin (I mistakenly called it Rin Tin Tin and brought forth huge guffaws from other cruisers.) That pizza was horrible.  The crust was practically inedible and the sauce and meat highly questionable. We didn't go back but were often amazed that Rin Rin seemed to draw a crowd.  One night when waiting to see a movie at the mall, we decided to try Dominos, not a favorite but we thought it would at least taste like U.S pizza. We waited for what seemed an exceptionally long time, nearly missing our movie and were rewarded with a pizza that looked like a Dominos pizza and smelled like a Dominos pizza, but had enough hot sauce in it to burn our mouths and lips; and, just in case it wasn't spicy enough for us, there was an extra container of hot sauce on the side!

We've tried a few other pizza joints around the city and frankly none were worthy of a grade of "C" and some failed miserably.  Until last evening. After a long and frustrating week of working on the boat...still, we decided to head down town and try out Tony's Gourmet Pizza on a little side street just off the malecon.  There was one entire block dedicated to outdoor eateries of all kinds: a deli, a crepes place,  an ice cream parlor and several others including Tony's. What a surprise. We ordered our favorite toppings on individual pizzas with a glass of cabernet sauvignon for me and a Modelo Especial for the captain. The server and the cook were friendly and the pizza turned out to be good with a thin crust (which I enjoy and the captain likens to pizza on a communion wafer) and nice fresh toppings.  Like other pizza we've experienced here there is very little sauce but it was tasty, and this time the hot sauce was served only on the side.  We opted not to try it.
So I think we've found a place satisfy our pizza cravings.  Oh, and most important: they told us we can bring Buddi next time. That will put a smile on her beak!