Having spent a reasonable amount of time in the US, on-and-off over twenty-odd years, fast foods like hamburgers, subs, hot-dogs, burritos, tacos and pizzas gradually turn out to become a sort of escape route from hard-labour in the kitchen where free home delivery is a way of life. Among all fast foods, ’junk-food’ if you want to call it that, the pizza somehow seemed slower of the fast foods and lesser junk. Had it not been for Queen Margherita of Italy (1868) and the US soldiers returning from World War II, who knows, this humble Neapolitan pie, (a flat round bread, baked with a spread of thin layer of tomato paste, with a sprinkle of Mozzarella cheese and some fresh Basil) would have possibly remained the street food for the poor peasants of Naples.
My favorites in the US rested with smaller chains like Little Caesars, Godfather’s, Sbarro’s or Cici’s. They were good and often cost a little more than the big boys. Charcoal or hickory wood burning stoves made a big difference to the flavor, and the smaller or ’gourmet’ guys caught on to this real quick. Among all pizza chains I’ve come across in life, giants like Pizza Hut and Domino’s do provide some decent quality stuff. However, despite their heavy marketing and promotional budgets, they seem to churn out the same stuff day in and day out. No feelings, in other words, missing the "lots of love and lots of butter" factor in their recipe - a total burn-out in a short time followed by ’let’s give something else a try". And in more recent times, the advertisement photos that appear in the media has little resemblance to the stuff you actually get.
On arrival in India (Chennai, 1993), there were very few places that served pizzas, forget home delivery. Shakey’s Pizza was probably the first authentic pizzeria in Chennai that delivered (gone now), then, followed by a bunch of franchises like Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Pizza Corner, etc.
Smokin’ Joe’s (no relation to Smokey Joe’s of Philadelphia or Smokey Joe’s BBQ chain in the US) is the brainchild of couple of Parsi guys from Mumbai and opened their first pizzeria at Carmichael Road in Mumbai in 1993. I think these guys have got it right. Over the past five or six years, our house has consumed more pizzas from Smokin’ Joe’s than all the pizza places in Chennai put together, and I have not tasted every dish on their menu. Take their ’Crisp ’N Lite’, it may look very sparse (a.k.a - rip-off), but the first bite will tell you ’hey, this is the good stuff", Wash it down with a pint of Kingfisher or a glass of Grover’s ’Shiraz’, my dinner is done! To me, it’s that authenticity makes all the difference. This is what I can frankly say to those who have never tried a Smokin’ Joe’s pie in their life: Try it once, you’ll be back for more. Not only that, the chances are you’ll probably never go near any of the other big chains. For those who live in Chennai, apart from Smokin’ Joe’s, only Bella Caio and Little Italy Ristorante can come up with better pizzas. And mind you, both are specialty gourmet restaurants and both are far more expensive.
Smokin’ Joe today has outlets in many cities like Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Nasik, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Lonavla, Chandigarh, Jammu, Yamuna Nagar, Bhubhaneswar, Hubli, Goa and Bangalore. However, one thing I can’t say for certain is, if the standards in all these places are on par with their Chennai’s T-Nagar outlet.
Goda della pizza. Arrivederci..!