My wife and I have been dog-sitting for our daughter this weekend. Rather than having her dog over to our house, we thought it would be best if we did the sitting where she would be most comfortable, at home, especially since this would be the first time my daughter would be away for a few days. This is the reason there has lately been a flurry of reviews of places to eat in the Ballard neighborhood, one of Seattle’s hot spots for dining.
Ethan Stowell already has a presence in Ballard with Staple & Fancy Mercantile. We dined there a year ago and had the fixed-price meal, which turned out to be not only delicious but far too much food than we could comfortably stuff in our stomachs, rather unusual for this kind of menu option.
To give customers value for their money, Stowell has decided to try a different concept—”natural fast food.” Think burgers, fish & chips and fried chicken. While “upscale” may not be the right descriptor, maybe “redefined?” Ballard Pizza Company is the first of this kind of venture, located only blocks away from Staple on Ballard Ave.
You can order a whole pie or a slice of pizza. But what a slice. Called a “fat” slice, it is one-sixth of a pie for $4. You can see what’s available along the kitchen-assembly line as you walk toward the cashier at the rear. Add a pint of one of several beers on tap, the combo should be enough to satisfy most modest appetites and eaten at one of the butcher block tables in front. Sit-down tables are reserved for whole-pie customers. For variety, there are several kinds of salad and pasta.
Our two choices were sun-dried tomato-Kalamata olive, and roasted garlic-rapini (both ☆☆½). The crust is New York-style, meaning that it is thin. The underside is baked a deep brown, crispy enough to lift without too much drooping. In fact, the tomato-olive pizza crust was over-toasted, almost crackery, while the garlic pizza was just fine. The topping was tasty with the olives providing the saltiness that the crust was spare on. On the other slice, roasted garlic provided a nice sweetness that was not balanced by adequate saltiness, from my point-of-view, and I scarcely consider myself a salt fiend. Bottom line: nice crusts but hardly stellar toppings.
We also shared an arugula salad (☆☆☆½). A generous mound of arugula leaves were served on top of wonderfully flavorful, thinly sliced prosciutto and drizzled with EVOO and lemon juice. High-quality Parmesan added extra savoriness.
BPC employs an old-fashioned pizza dough maker, one who tosses it into the air. The process involves massaging the dough with all fingers, flattening with palms, throwing the dough back-and-forth between left and right hands, then tossing the dough into the air, catching it with the backs of the closed hands, stretching (again with reverse fists) and repeating until the desired diameter is achieved. The crust maker, or I should say “master,” was able to finish one pie crust in 35 seconds, more if he had to repair tears.
Ballard Pizza Company
5107 Ballard Ave NW
Seattle, WA
206.659.6033
zoomeboshi 
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