31 Days of Pizza: DAY 19, Pizza Month 2009

DAY 19: OCTOBER 19th, 2009

LOCATION: YOLO - You Only Live Once (31st St. near Ditmars Blvd., Astoria, QUEENS)

ORDER: 2 slices of YOLO Fusion, 1 slice of the Italian

GUEST(S): Maddy Mako, Kitzi Taylor, Tony Carnevale

REVIEW:
Greco-Italian appetizers for the price of entrees. You Only Live Once (YOLO) fuses decent cooking with a sports bar. The result is rather confusing. Seated in brand new comfortable white booths with cloth napkins, one would hardly expect to be in plain site of nine plasma screens and a projection. With baseball and football clearly visible and overly audible from every part of the restaurant, table conversation must take place between downs, innings, and outbursts of other patrons. Not the ideal atmosphere for enjoying well crafted pizzas.

Take, for instance, my YOLO Fusion; a pesto and garlic infused sauced with expertly marinated barbeque chicken, spinach, basil, and goat cheese.

"The flavor just explodes in your mouth," our waiter explained and I could attest to.

Soon after "flavor detonation," the tasty dish was gone. My appetite, however, remained. See, the crust is so microscopically thin, the first personal pie you eat serves as an appetizer for the next. Assuming the game is still on and you have another ten dollar bill try bringing "The Italian" in for relief.

The Italian comes loaded with tomato sauce, onions, peppers, cheese and sweet Italian sausage. This, more traditional pie solidifies YOLO as a decent choice for above average tasting pizza.

Open for only a few months, YOLO is likely still trying to find its feet. They definitely have the recipes to be a great pizzeria. They also have the hardware to become a Sport lovers heaven. Assuming YOLO follows the pizza, I am confident I will return. Otherwise, I may just peak through the window and check out the score of the Mets game.

MISC.:
1. Maddy Mako is running in the New York City Marathon this year. She said one of the things that inspired her was my NYC Marathon podcast.
2. After pizza, Kitzi, Tony and I went to my apartment for some post pizza Red, White, and Blue Chili. It's my own recipe that I'm developing to compete in the Rolex Daytona Beach Chili Cook-off in late January.

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