Dining

What you missed at last week’s Metro-Wasatch pizza beer dinner

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This wood-fired pizza was a collaboration between Metro Pizza and Mama Napoli’s, topped with mussels, chorizo and fennel.

The lucky few who made it out to Lulu's Bread & Breakfast in Centennial Hills Wednesday night, September 10, enjoyed a true feast, complements of Metro Pizza (which owns and operates the connected Lulu's bakery), Wasatch Brewery of Park City, Utah, and the new Mama Napoli's wood-fired pizza truck. We knew nine courses of beer and pizza pairings would leave us all stuffed beyond satisfaction, but we had no idea what unique flavor combinations would come our way.

Lulu's Bread & Breakfast supplied dessert, a brioche doughnut ice cream sandwich made with caramel-sea salt gelato.

To start, there were slices of fresh pretzel bread from Lulu's kitchen, with plenty of spicy, cheesy mustard beer sauce for dipping. Wasatch's White Label Belgian Style White Ale was mixed into the sauce and served with the dish, a crisp and refreshing blast to cut through the richness of the food. Next was calzone fritti, flaky, delicious dough stuffed with ricotta, Buffalo mozzarella, hot sausage, broccoli rabe and cherries paired with the powerful Devastator Double Bock. Why would you ever eat baked calzone when you could deep fry it? We couldn't help eating it all.

Then the pizzas poured forth, fast and furious. In no particular order, there were three Roman-style pies—long rectangles of crispy, crackly crust—from Metro's ovens and three round, traditional pizzas from the mobile Mama Napoli's oven parked just outside. Each dough was different, allowing the Metro crew to experiment with different recipes and textures. Some of the wood-fired pies came out smoky and charred, like the sublime mussel, chorizo and fennel combo, while others were cracker-crisp and a bit delicate, like the simple margherita washed down with Ghostrider White IPA.

A surprise seventh pizza from Metro's kitchen—roasted carrots, maple and goat cheese.

It was tough to pick a favorite pizza or pairing, but the group adored a wood-fired pie topped with mozzarella, goat cheese, jalapeño, apricots and crispy pancetta, paired naturally with Wasatch's bright Apricot Hefeweizen. Another favorite: Roman pizza with impossible-to-get Bianco Dinapoli tomatoes—crafted by Arizona pizza guru Chris Bianco—plus sopressata, mozzarella and smoked gouda. The rich, smoky Squatters Wee Peat Scottish Ale from the Utah Brewers Cooperative had more than enough malty flavor to match this bold pizza.

My personal favorites were mortadella, toasted pistachios and creamy quadrello cheese pizza paired with the shockingly light and delicious Wasatch Pumpkin Seasonal, and an unannounced pizza topped simply with roasted carrots, maple syrup and goat cheese, sweet and creamy and perfect. You can't step inside Lulu's without doing dessert, so the magnificent meal culminated with a brioche doughnut made with dark beer and chocolate ganache and filled with excellent caramel-sea salt gelato. It was the most memorable ice cream sandwich imaginable, paired with Wasatch's Black O'Lantern Pumpkin Stout, a "frankenbrew" hybrid of imperial stout and pumpkin ale. It was the perfect seasonal conclusion to an over-the-top experience.

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Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of editor-at-large at Las Vegas Weekly magazine. ...

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