Pitch Pizzeria

Location: 5021 Underwood Ave. - Dundee
Listening to: Padrino - Smashmouth

Pitch specializes in coal-fire pizza and is one of the few Omaha establishments that offers communal dining.  It is the brainchild of Willy Thiesen, the founder of Godfather's Pizza.  Pitch is definitely one of our favorite places to return, but not too many times in one year.  The menu is fairly stagnant, with only a few changes to the starters and salads each season.  Though as soon as we walked in I could smell all the delicious flavors of house-made fennel sausage, pancetta and thyme.  Let's eat!

Drinks

Kasteel Rouge (BEL)

The new drink menu has improved greatly!  We hesitated ordering cocktails the first few visits because the original drink menu was so uninspired.  And the bar was stocked with low-quality spirits that my stomach just couldn't handle.  No seriously, it was pretty bad last year.  It seems they have now jumped on the "Classic Cocktail" bandwagon and started offering libations such as The Aviation, The Negroni, and The Last Word, as well as a premium spirit selection.  Their bar manager just earned a gold star in my book :)
Pitch also improved their beer offerings.  I love to see one particular word after each listing on the beer menu: BELGIUM.  Another gold star!  And a Kasteel Rouge for me please.  Aged with sour cherries, it was light and fruity and paired well with my starters.  Rookies beware, this beer is 8% ABV.

Starters
Peppadew honey glazed carrots
Roasted brussels sprouts with garlic, pancetta and grana cheese
Corn chowder with smoked salmon

Carrots & Brussels Sprouts

The brussels sprouts were divine.  Roasting provides that remarkable charred, caramelized flavor than just can't be imitated.  The pancetta was smoky and chewy, the grana was salty and savory.  I was popping these mini cabbages like candy.  These are absolutely my favorite brussels sprouts in town.
Now some might consider heirloom vegetables a bit passé, but I still thoroughly enjoy them.  They look more appetizing and tend to be sweeter and more tender.  (Commercially grown vegetables are grown for size rather than for flavor.)  I would have been more likely to eat my vegetables as a child if they looked and tasted like this!  The glazed carrots were syrupy and piquant, but I wish they had been cooked a little longer.  The chef came by our table and told us how he pickles his peppadew peppers (shown below), then purées them and reduces that down with honey for the glaze.  The pickling brine was sweeter than I expected with very little bite from the vinegar.  It also had the faint taste of melon, specifically honeydew (perhaps explaining the name?)  Research tells me they are not named for the melon, but my taste buds disagree.

Pickeled Peppadew & Corn Chowder

There was a little mix up with the soup du jour.  Our server told us it was a creamy beet soup with cayenne pepper.  That sounded adventurous enough for a taste.  Alas, we were presented with corn chowder with smoked salmon.  It was a bittersweet surprise as we are always on the hunt for a good corn chowder.  Pitch's is definitely one of the best in Omaha.  I tasted lots of butter and cream, and there were plenty of small corn niblets.  A distinct "chunkiness" helps to discern chowder from bisque (among other differences which shall be addressed in a future post).  There was a hint of smoky fishiness from the salmon, just the way I like it, not overwhelming.

Pizza

Shrooms pizza: roasted mushrooms, thyme cream, truffle cheese, oven dried tomatoes

Shrooms Pizza

Pitch is famous for this pizza, at least, in my circles.  Let me start by saying that I never liked mushrooms until I had this pizza.  Color me converted!  The crust was thin, crisp and chewy, cooked in a coal-fired oven.  This pizza was compounded with plenty of flavor: rich and full-bodied, bright and succulent.  Skip the pepperoni, and give this one a try!

Dessert
We ordered the "Ice Cream Flight" with ice cream and sorbet made by Pitch's Dundee neighbor, eCreamery.  Then, more confusion with the server.  (But she was trying so hard!)  She told us the flavors were vanillla bean, fresh blackberry, and sea salt caramel.  The first two were right, but the last one was straight up butterscotch.  Don't get me wrong, I love butterscotch, but at least know what you're putting in front of people.  If you're not sure, just politely apologize and correct yourself.  Also, if you call it a "flight," I expect three flavors in three separate bowls.  Ours came with three scoops in one bowl, so they ended up melting all over each other.  That's fine when mixing vanilla and butterscotch (or sea salt caramel), but not blackberry!
I must say I enjoyed the vanilla bean.  Most vanillas taste so artificial to me, but this one was obviously made with real vanilla bean pods, not chemically-flavored extracts.  The blackberry was tart and refreshing.  And of course, the butterscotch was my favorite - sweet and decadent.

I loved this entire meal.  Lots of bright colors mean fresh, tasty foods.  I only wish I had more room in my stomach to order one of my favorite salads.  I recommend: Arugula salad with prosciutto, candied walnuts, pears, maytag blue cheese, balsamic vinaigrette.

Other notes:
Visit in the summer and sit by the open garage door for "patio-like" seating
8" pies are available during lunch (perfect time to try the Marsala pizza)
Love the overhead music.  They played all my favorite oldies.

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Kona Grill

Location: 290 N. 170th St. - Village Pointe
Listening to: Sweet Love - Woo Yun Joo

We needed a last minute place to eat on Sunday night. We ended up at Kona Grill via Eat Here, Sunday. Fabulous resource.

Of course Vegan D decided to be vegetarian again, "just this once." But I managed to get him to eat some fish AND chicken. I'm such an evil omnivore :)

Let's get to it...

Hibiscus Cocktail

Cocktails
I chose to start with the Hibiscus Cocktail.  An effervescent drink containing Absolut Pear vodka, St. Germain, Lunetta prosecco, and a sugared hibiscus flower.
This libation was pleasantly sweet with very faint floral notes from the St. Germain.  I loved watching the bubbles rise from the base of the glass.  Dinner and a show!  Of course, it tasted mostly of champagne, in fact, so much that the pear and elderflower were totally eclipsed by the heart prosecco.  Still, a good starter drink.  Eating the flower afterward was a delight.  It tasted quite fruity after its bubbly bath in my glass.  Definitely worth a try!  And the champagne will go straight to your head :)

I also enjoyed a Strawberry Basil Lemonade.  It was very refreshing, and one may be tempted to guzzle it down.  Don't be fooled, this drink isn't virgin.  Bacardi Dragon Berry Rum, lemonade, strawberry, basil, Sprite.  This drink was incredibly cloying and tart, like liquid Smarties.  Strawberry and basil made a cameo on the back end.  The blend of herbal and fruity flavors added a mild complexity to a classic favorite.

Starters and Maki

Angry Edamame & Cold Seaweed Salad

The edamame was angry indeed!  The blanched pods were coated in what tasted like lime juice, chili paste, and garlic, with nutty soybeans on the inside.  Edamame is definitely one of the better beans in the world.  They're not mushy like pinto or white beans (blech!).  This dish left my lips and tongue afire, and consequently almost as angry as the aptly named appetizer.

The seaweed salad provided excellent contrast to cool my temper.  It was slimy and crunchy, coated in glorious sesame oil and seeds....mmmm!  I saw chili flakes but didn't taste them.  One might hesitate to try this salad, but I say go for it.

Volcano Roll

The Volcano Roll is one of my favorite cooked sushi rolls.  It comes garnished with daikon (bitter and starchy) and eel sauce.  Soft shell crab and whitefish on the inside, tender yamagobo and seaweed on the outside, and topped with motoyaki sauce.  A single drop of sriracha lends a hint of spice which is quickly dissolved into creamy, sweet, sinful goodness.  These are small and easily swallowed, so don't eat too fast.  Be sure to savor them just a bit.

The Checkerboard Roll is a whimsical, raw sushi roll of alternating flavors and textures....crisp asparagus, creamy avocado, and spicy habañero tuna on the inside.  The outside was topped with either tuna or yellowtail and spicy motoyaki sauce.  This roll comes with plenty of flavor and isn't dry at all.  I never use soy sauce for maki (unless it's terribly bland), and only then do I choose low sodium soy sauce.  I'm a firm believer you should always try a roll as it comes before drowning it in liquid brown brine.  But I digress...  The roll is marked as a Kona original, so again, a must try.

Checkerboard Roll

Entrées

Dustin ordered a veggie flatbread.... which was unimpressive.  Covered with asparagus, squash, red peppers, mushrooms, pesto, mozzarella, and balsamic reduction.  Ah, balsamic reduction, its saving grace!  Great dish for someone who likes to stick to the same old, same old.  I'm all for eating healthy, but throwing a bunch of "fresh frozen" veggies on a pizza lacks imagination and effort.  And the pesto...ugh the pesto.  Looks a bit nauseating, wouldn't you say?

Grilled Veggie Flatbread

I was feeling adventurous and thought I'd try something new.  Well, new for me.  Disclaimer: I am not a fan of bananas.  And I have been on an anti-chicken crusade for the last three years.  (I mean, really, a white chicken breast is rarely cooked properly and is the blandest meat in existence.  It's simply a vehicle for whatever sauce it's been drenched in.  Why bother?  You're better off with soup and a few chicken bones.)  Anyway, I ended up with Caribbean Chicken, "Pan-Asian Ratatouille," and caramelized bananas.  Talk about a stretch!

This dish smelled more like Thanksgiving turkey than anything from the Caribbean.  The aromas of garlic, sage, and brown sugar were very apparent.  There was a little kick at the end, a bit of jerk spices lay hidden underneath - allspice, scotch bonnet peppers, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, salt, thyme, and scallion.  It was salty and picante!  Not bad for chicken.  I was pleased to see the meat was roasted still on the bone, not drowned in sauce.  The ratatouille comprised of squash, tomato, eggplant, onion, zucchini, pineapple, black sesame seeds, and lots of cilantro.  I guess "pan-asian" meant regular ratatouille with pineapple salsa.
So I've hated bananas my whole life, but these were surprisingly good!  The skins were still on, but the flesh slid out easily.  There was a thin, delicate, crispy layer of sugar on the top, just like crème brûlée.  More of a dessert if you ask me, but tasty nonetheless.

Caribbean Chicken

While Kona Grill is not an Omaha-based joint, it is still a great place to try new cuisine and indulge in island flavors.  Let me know how your next trip goes by commenting below!