Dishin’: Via Tribunali and Pizza Memories
We’ve got fond childhood memories of going to the local pizza joint. We hated delivery, as we wanted to actually GO and see the process, which was mesmerizing: tossing/stretching the dough, spreading the sauce, sprinkling the cheese, shoveling into the oven, retrieving the finished product, and dividing into eighths with the pizza cutter. If we ate at the restaurant, we’d race back to the table just ahead of the server to eat our pieces of the pie.
Admittedly we prefer New York-style, but wanting to be open-minded (unlike our dim sum disposition) and find the best of what’s here, we recently trotted to Via Tribunali to give them a try. It’s a fun place. We felt like the pictured boy, watching the workers from above as they quickly cooked the pizzas (in little more than a minute, as the wood-burning Vesuvius brick oven packs a lot of heat). We’re told everything comes from Italy—the oven, the pizza ingredients, and even the tiramisu. (The salads are about the only local items, and they’re prepared at the only other food station there.)
One salad and a couple of pizzas make for a nice dinner for two. We honored the colors of Italy in the insalata tricolore, a fresh start to the meal. The piazza dante is one of the most popular pies in the place, with smoked mozzarella and prosciutto nice toppings, but trying to come close to our New York roots, we especially enjoyed the Margherita—upgraded to D.O.C. status with buffalo milk mozzarella.
Unlike New York-style, these pizzas don’t come pre-sliced. We cut into them right from the large pans. And while they’re a little softer and less cheesy than our hometown preference, they’re made with good ingredients and have great flavor and texture of their own. Besides, Seattle’s our new hometown, so we’re delighted to have vivacious Via Tribunali as one of our newer neighborhood joints.
