Flashback Friday - Toss

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on December 7, 2011.

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For several weeks I kept my eye on a "coming soon" sign on the building at 5716 York Road, just north of the junction of York and Bellona, and right next door to the establishment bearing bold black on yellow signage emblazoned with, "Chicken, Steak, and Chocolate Cake." What was coming soon was Toss, the umpty-umpth pizza joint on the short stretch of road between Bellona and Belvedere. Unlike most of them, however, Toss offers "gourmet" pizzas, on your choice of regular, thin, or wheat crusts. Additionally, they offer sandwiches, salads, and chicken wings baked with olive oil and herbs.

The day after Thanksgiving, I wasn't ready to face turkey leftovers (still not) and it seemed like the perfect time to order a pizza. To be delivered, because Mr Minx was attempting to crank out the remainder of the 50,000 words required to win NaNoWriMo and didn't want to leave the house merely to refuel. We used Toss' nifty online ordering system to try the Pizza Prosciutto topped with caramelized onions, proscuitto, and mixed greens on a "regular" crust.

Toss is smart. Rather than pile the greens on the pizza and have them go soggy on the way to our house, they put a pile of mesclun in a separate container.

DIY pizza topped with greens

The crust was the perfect thickness for us, on the thin side, but not crackery. It had a generous amount of fresh mozzarella melted over sautéed onions and bits of proscuitto. I would have liked the onions to have been really caramelized to a nice dark brown, to add a bit of sweetness to the pie, but otherwise the pizza was pretty good. Definitely one of the better delivered pizzas in the area.

We like fries with our pizza, but Toss' menu indicates that "Mediterranean" fries are only included with any of fourteen sandwiches they have available. I decided that we needed to try the roasted eggplant sandwich with mozzarella, feta, roasted peppers, red onions, olives, and pesto - just to get the fries.

The fries were unevenly cut strips and blobs of potato, flavored with garlic and herbs and fried until crisp. Definitely something that should be offered separately. The sandwich was just short of outstanding. Its roll (probably made from the same dough as the pizza) was lightly crisp on the outside, fluffy inside, and still warm. The filling tasted mostly of pungent kalamata olives and could have used more pesto, but otherwise was a nice melange of soft, melty, and salty bits. Mr Minx, who is not a fan of eggplant at all, happily scarfed up an entire half.

So...so far so good. We enjoyed both the pizza and sandwich and look forward to an occasion to order from Toss again. I'm thinking wings, a meatball sandwich, and a mushroom pizza are in our near future.

Toss
5716 York Road
Baltimore, MD 21212
(410) 433-8677
http://tossthepizza.com

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Hersh's

We were writing a round-up of pizza restaurants for a future issue of a local magazine when we realized we should try Hersh's in South Baltimore. We've heard mixed reviews, mostly good, but one of my co-workers, a now unhappy once-frequent customer, had put me off going there for a while.

Fortunately, his experiences were not repeated on our visit. We loved Hersh's.

We got there at the moment they opened at 5pm and took advantage of the 2 10-ounce draft beers for $5 happy hour deal. The only catch is that both drinks go to the same person, at the same time. So Mr Minx and I ended up with four beers on the table at once.

We tried the Brewers Art Sangreale, which was ok, and the Harpoon Summer beer, which had little or no character or flavor at all. That said, it was still better than Bud.

We were there primarily for the pizza, but couldn't pass up ordering an appetizer. The crispy chicken skins tossed with spicy fennel relish and smoked salt were outstanding - super crunchy slivers of deep fried chicken skin, somewhat like pork rinds but lighter. They were bracingly salty, with a nice hit of acid from the relish. A terrific bar snack.

I had mentioned to our server that it was our first time at Hersh's, so she bought out a complimentary dish of fresh spring peas barely cooked in butter and garnished with fractal-like dollops of housemade creme fraiche. She wanted us to see what the kitchen could do, which was a nice touch. The peas were very fresh, not at all starchy, and paired really well with the crispy skins. So far, so good.

Then our pizzas came.  Mr Minx went with the Tre Porcellini (aka, the 3 pigs). The thin, well blistered and charred Neapolitan-style crust was topped with a trio of porky items (sausage, braised pork, and guanciale), along with provolone, garlic and red pepper flakes. It was, as frequent Minxeats commenter Liz says, "perfection." Mr Minx was in, er, hog heaven. Apparently, Hersh's pizza is the pizza he's been searching for since childhood. After the advent of commercially prepared "fresh dough" pizzas in the 70s, pizzas like these, with real character and flavor were, nearly impossible to find in the Baltimore area. Many of the newer pizza places that have popped up in recent years, while really really good, haven't been close to his Holy Grail.

Congratulations, Hersh's. You win.

My pizza, the Fumo e Fuoco, with fried eggplant, smoked mozz, and chili oil, was also great. Subtle flavors, fantastic crust. And amazing when eaten cold for breakfast.

We shared a piece of chocolate and pistachio cream pie for dessert. Both filling and crust were on the dense side, so we were glad to have shared it, otherwise it would have been too much.

While Hersh's is on the opposite end of town from where we live, I think we'll probably end up going there fairly frequently in the future. Parking was surprisingly easy, service was great, and Mr Minx found his Holy Grail. What's not to like?





Posted on Minxeats.com.

Toss

For several weeks I kept my eye on a "coming soon" sign on the building at 5716 York Road, just north of the junction of York and Bellona, and right next door to the establishment bearing bold black on yellow signage emblazoned with, "Chicken, Steak, and Chocolate Cake." What was coming soon was Toss, the umpty-umpth pizza joint on the short stretch of road between Bellona and Belvedere. Unlike most of them, however, Toss offers "gourmet" pizzas, on your choice of regular, thin, or wheat crusts. Additionally, they offer sandwiches, salads, and chicken wings baked with olive oil and herbs.

The day after Thanksgiving, I wasn't ready to face turkey leftovers (still not) and it seemed like the perfect time to order a pizza. To be delivered, because Mr Minx was attempting to crank out the remainder of the 50,000 words required to win NaNoWriMo and didn't want to leave the house merely to refuel. We used Toss' nifty online ordering system to try the Pizza Prosciutto topped with caramelized onions, proscuitto, and mixed greens on a "regular" crust.

Toss is smart. Rather than pile the greens on the pizza and have them go soggy on the way to our house, they put a pile of mesclun in a separate container.

DIY pizza topped with greens

The crust was the perfect thickness for us, on the thin side, but not crackery. It had a generous amount of fresh mozzarella melted over sautéed onions and bits of proscuitto. I would have liked the onions to have been really caramelized to a nice dark brown, to add a bit of sweetness to the pie, but otherwise the pizza was pretty good. Definitely one of the better delivered pizzas in the area.

We like fries with our pizza, but Toss' menu indicates that "Mediterranean" fries are only included with any of fourteen sandwiches they have available. I decided that we needed to try the roasted eggplant sandwich with mozzarella, feta, roasted peppers, red onions, olives, and pesto - just to get the fries.

The fries were unevenly cut strips and blobs of potato, flavored with garlic and herbs and fried until crisp. Definitely something that should be offered separately. The sandwich was just short of outstanding. Its roll (probably made from the same dough as the pizza) was lightly crisp on the outside, fluffy inside, and still warm. The filling tasted mostly of pungent kalamata olives and could have used more pesto, but otherwise was a nice melange of soft, melty, and salty bits. Mr Minx, who is not a fan of eggplant at all, happily scarfed up an entire half.

So...so far so good. We enjoyed both the pizza and sandwich and look forward to an occasion to order from Toss again. I'm thinking wings, a meatball sandwich, and a mushroom pizza are in our near future.

Toss
5716 York Road
Baltimore, MD 21212
(410) 433-8677
http://tossthepizza.com


Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Crush

Crush, the new enterprise by Christopher Daniel's Daniel Chaustit, opened yesterday at Belvedere Square, in the old Hess shoes building recently occupied by Taste. As Mr Minx and I were in the neighborhood at dinner time, we decided to stop in and see what it was about. The menu, with its variety of fare both refined and casual, pleased us, so we requested a table.

It was nice to see that they didn't waste time or money redecorating the space. The red walls, striped banquettes, and odd rope-and-ladder decor was the only thing I liked about Taste. I heard that the reason that restaurant didn't succeed was that the neighborhood wasn't supportive. Mr Minx and I tried to support the place, but apart from our initial experience there, we found the food too ordinary for the price. I can make faux Tex-Mex chicken at home, thanks, for less money and with better flavors.

Everything on Crush's menu looked good, and the prices were reasonable. Mr Minx was itching to try the risotto appetizer, but didn't want to eat both that and the hamburger he was also eyeing, so I suggested we share the rice. I loved the combination of al dente rice with the similarly shaped but more crunchy toasted pine nuts. The tiny tomatoes in it gave it a bit of acid, and the shrimp had a nice grill flavor. It was garnished with microgreens, some of which tasted a bit like celery. Was it lovage? In any case, we enjoyed it.

Mr Minx went for the burger, 8oz of nicely fatty meat served with his choice of cheese and bacon for $10. It also came with a generous pile of shoestring fries and mild, mayonnaise-y cole slaw. The burger was properly cooked and had a good, unadorned, meaty flavor. I think Crush could become our new default burger joint.

I had dental work earlier in the day and worried about eating anything too chewy, so I passed on the tempting NY strip with asparagus and truffle fries and opted for the salmon sandwich, served BLT style with wasabi aioli. It also came with a mound of fries and slaw. The salmon was meltingly tender, and the mayo was as good on the fries as the fish. Mr Minx also borrowed some for his burger. My only complaint about the sandwiches is that they were served on Kaiser rolls, a bad idea because they always fall apart when in contact with hot, moist, food. Toasting them was a nice touch though.

Since we were going for the gusto, we had dessert. I ordered the cookies and IBC rootbeer float and received one each peanut butter, white chocolate macadamia, and toffee brickle cookie. They all had nice homemade flavor, but I sadly had to give away the toffee cookie to Mr Minx to save my dental work from the stickiness. He had the warm pineapple upside down cake, which came in a cute little single serving. It was delicious and made me think of my Mom, who loved the stuff.

We washed everything down with a DR Loosen 2007 Riesling, one of our favorites.

Our first experience at Crush, especially considering that it was opening night, was excellent. We loved the food and the service was impeccable. We hope to make this a regular haunt, and encourage those of you in our area to do the same. Support Crush!