Simone F.
Yelp
Warning: This is a shapely review.
Pizzas are a lot like donuts, round, not too healthy, hard to resist. I like pizza and I've ordered a few since moving to Oxnard, November 2020. Pizza Man Dan sends me coupons so Dan is, indeed, the man.
Other things I like about this place:
1. The name. Sound play, memory aids.
2. I like locally-grown businesses; not huge, soul- and neighborhood-gobbling chains like, say, Papa John's.
3. Their delivery Corvette. It's brave.
My son places orders on-line. He reads my options. "You want basil? Bell pepper? Red onion? Tomato sauce--"
"Tomato sauce? Of course I want tomato sauce. What kind of question is that?"
"Thin crust?"
"I prefer thinner crust. It reminds me of when I lived in France," I tell him. "Much better pizza than in Italy..." I drift into my reminiscences.
Those food trucks. More like traveling restaurants. In France and its territories you often get plastic seats and tables set on the cobblestones or strips of grass. Wood-burning ovens, a spicy olive oil in glass bottles. Neighbors commuting home wave, sometimes pulling over to join us.
"Red pepper flakes...?" asks my son. Then, "Is $41 okay?" My son is so thoughtful.
"If you have to ask," I tell him to make him laugh, "you can't afford it."
He types on a tip for the driver even though a delivery fee is included.
"Is $44 okay?"
I grumble. Drivers should be mad at multi-million, multi-billion dollar companies not paying fair taxes, not at me for pinching my singles.
Whatever, my son is home and I feel like celebrating. A pizza to go. Brunch on the docks. Something, anything. Plus, I haven't been feeling well enough to cook. I got a negative on the Covid test so it might be the 'flu.
"Alright," I say. "$44."
"Cut into squares?"
Now, why on earth?
"I just want pizza," I tell him. "Round pizza in triangle shapes."
I dated a guy in France whose mother was an alcoholic, poor thing. (It started during WWII, running from Nazis, seeing her brother shot dead in the street.) When I knew her, she ordered beer with her pizza (and you can, too, from Our Man Dan. Beer and wine.). She ordered it with a side of straw (another something that should always be round). And, so she wouldn't feel subconscious in front of guests, did we. We all drank our beer through a straw.
That's the shape of love in some families.
But damned if I'll square-cut my pizza.
The pizza boxes make good time and the individual size is perfect for me. My son is nearly 6'3'' so he gets a large.
Hot. Steam billows when we lift the top. Amazing how green pepper smells, isn't it? They should make that scent into a candle.
I ordered thin crust so maybe it's my fault the edges are crispy black. Still, the inside of the cheesy circle is good.
Dan's chocolate cake is pretty great, too. Moist and gooey--and also in the shape of a triangle, since it's cake, not a donut.
