Onions, Garlic and Decent Pizza
Umberto’s Pizza
It’s official. I can stay here now. I admit it, I was longing for the mom and pop pizza shops that spring up like weeds in the Chicago area. For those of you who are Tulsan, Chicago has as many pizza places as we have donut shops…So I was in mourning. You know, the way the Israelites were longing for onions and garlic. But on Friday afternoon, upon the suggestion of my co-workers, I walked into Umberto’s (which incidentally is just around the corner from me) and smelled heaven.
Tulsa has your average pizza chains, and a “fancy” pizza place Andolini’s. It even has a “Chicago-style” pizza joint, Savastano’s. But I think what I was missing was the whole unassuming mom and pop, non chain, independent pizza shop. As soon as I walked into Umberto’s I knew that I had found what I was looking for. The smell was right, the look of the place was right and the owners were so very friendly.
I ordered a slice of pepperoni while we chatted about my transition to Oklahoma. Expectantly, I waited as they slid my slice into the charred pizza oven (also another good sign). It’s true that this was advertised as New York style pizza, but what most non-Chicagoans don’t realize is that there are many styles of pizza outside the deep dish, in the Chicago metropolitan area. The small Chicago pizza establishment often has thin pizza cut into squares. Sure, the slice cooking in the blazing hot pizza oven was in the shape of a piece of pie, but maybe if I get friendly enough with the staff they’d cut it in square pieces for me.
After chatting for awhile about autumn and pizza, my slice was ready to be withdrawn from the fiery furnace. I was handed the hottest, juiciest, little piece of heaven I had tasted in a long time. It was honestly too hot to eat, but I didn’t care. I shoved it in. For real, I teared up. It’s strange to say, but it was at this moment that I knew that I’d make it here in Tulsa. I could now call this place home. There was a little piece of the Midwest in my backyard, like a picture of my family and friends that I could hang on the mantel, or a warm sweater that can be drawn closer on a breezy day.
It’s been fun that it’s 60 degrees here while it has snowed back in Chicago. I enjoy that the property taxes are a third of what I was paying back east. But with so much unfamiliarity around, having an independent pizza establishment around the corner was just the encouragement I needed to know that all is well.
