Friday Night Pizza

If I'm not teaching a class, Friday night means one thing: Pizza Night.

Moving to this pretty little hamlet from NYC, you can imagine the difficulties the husband and I initially encountered finding decent, not good, but just decent pizza around these parts. It took years of sucking it up and buying crappy pizza from crappy chains before my dear friend Erica introduced us to Bellisario's, over at 934 North East Street.

Bellisario's? FANTASTIC pizza. The best around in fact, and I have eaten more than my fair share of pizza around here, so I know what I'm talkin' about.

Bellisario's has real pizza made from homemade dough and sauce, and blood, sweat (lots of that) and tears from owner Nikki and her crew. If you are looking for excellent pizza, every single time, tell Papa John to bite it, Pizza Hut, uh, yeah, no, and Dominos, I mean really? You're ordering from Dominos? Come on now. It's time to grow up a little, right? And let's not even get into supporting the local guy, or gal as the case may be.

Now don't get me wrong - this is not some froofy goat cheese and arugula grilled pizza place (You can go here if you're looking for that). This is authentic pizza with the basic toppings (ham & pineapple is about as exotic as it gets), subs, calzones, and the only Wedgie you'll ever want (as opposed to that underpants-related wedgie, which no one wants).

Size vary from the 10" mini (4-slices-$6.35 and great if you have someone in the family who loves anchovies on their pizza because you just know that anchovies infect the entire pizza and ruin it for those of us with good taste, eh-hem, but I digress) the whole way up to the 20" Killer (16 slices-$13.35). It's economical and tasty, which is sort of a win-win, dontcha' think? Plus, there are often some sort of specials during the week.

Here are the quirks: CASH ONLY. Forget about credit or debit cards (plus, the fees small businesses pay for credit card processing are insane and on a $10 pizza, well, that just won't work). There are no exceptions to this rule, so don't bother. Hit the cash machine before you head over. I'm the queen of the debit card and I make it work, so you can too.

SALADS. Never gonna happen. Nikki wants to focus on one thing, and that's pizza. She doesn't want to whip up some chef salad for you, even if you are a regular customer and beg her just a little bit every single time you go in. Let her do what she does well and don't even think about asking her.

NO DELIVERY. I know that we're in the age of everything being brought right to our doors, but it's really not that difficult to drive right over and pick-up the pizza yourself. It keeps costs down and lets them focus on making the pizza, not bringing you the pizza. The result? Hotter, fresher pizza. And that's good enough for me.

You better not hate the STEELERS. See Nikki? HUGE Pittsburgh Steelers fan. And she's not shy to let you know it. So if you're a fan of the Ravens or the Browns, suck it up and wish her well, because Bellisario's is a shrine to all that is the Steelers. You can put a rivalry aside for good 'za though, can't you? If not, you have bigger issues than pizza my friend.

CLOSED ON SUNDAYS. I'd like to say that even God rested on Sunday, but deep down I'll bet it's probably got something to do with catching Steelers games. But I'm just guessin'.

Bottom line is this: Best pizza in Frederick? Hands-down, no-contest, it's Bellisario's. Give them a call at 301-662-9233 right now and order yourself a little lunch or dinner. You can thank me later.