The Pizza War

It has been a long time since I have posted about a restaurant. Yes, I have eaten and if you could see me, you would know I have not gone without any nutrition.

Christmas is a very stressful time for me with the decorations, gift buying and wrapping. I make myself crazy getting all 8 immediate family members even (I went as crazy as to have spreadsheets this year). I also buy for 24 extended family members. Christmas is fun, but it is a beating.

For the past couple of months, I have been working on gutting out the kitchen. I can usually pick stuff very quickly, but I have had a hard time. It took me about a month to pick the floor and I have been to the granite company 6 times in the last week. I am so afraid of making a mistake. All this to say, the floor guys came the morning of December 26th to jackhammer up my old floor. I took down all my Christmas decorations starting at 6:00 a.m. and have been cleaning dust since then and still have more to go.

We always go out of town for a few days after Christmas to de-stress, so this year we chose a Bed and Breakfast in Fredricksburg.

All that said and done, we have been to two new pizza restaurants. By the end of this month, there will be 3 new high end pizza places in the Southlake/Grapevine area and we are going to check them all out.

Saturday night, we went to Coal Vines Pizza and Wine Bar in Southlake. We got there around 6:45 and had to wait about 45 minutes. We quickly realized the emphasis was on Wine Bar and not Pizza. We finally sat down on the patio with the butane heaters. The only problem, out heater just ran out of butane. It was 42 degrees and very cold. The Caesar salad was good, but he pizza was not. Cardboard with a little cheese. All of the employees from the hostess to the waiter could not have been nicer, but the food was not that great. I am sure they will succeed because it will make it with the Wine Bar. We had our first and last trip.

Last night, we went to the new Fireside Pies in Grapevine. They opened on Wednesday. I knew they were opening, but it was not obvious from the outside. The outside lights were not yet working and there is no sign yet, so it wasn't crowded like its sister restaurant in Dallas.

The cheese salad is still one of my favorites. It has a roasted red pepper ranch dressing on lettuce mixed with 4 different kinds of cheese. Very good and very big. 3 of us didn't finish it. We had a pizza with two kinds of sausage and Jimmy's meatballs. Good. But the best part. . . the signature blackberry cheesecake. I know it is January 3rd and I should still be eating healthy, but I just couldn't resist and I am glad I didn't. This is a bold statement, but this is the BEST cheesecake I have ever had anywhere. This is my 3rd time to have it and I have thought that each time. It has a very thin ribbon of blackberry sauce running through the center and on the outside, but the cheesecake itself it just perfect. The perfect sweetness, density, crust (vanilla wafer). It is great. If you don't try anything else, you need to try the cheesecake.

Campania Pizza opens in Southlake in a couple of weeks and we will have to give it a try.