Ammazza

First, there was Antico, then the war started with Varasano's and then came Double Zero, Sapori di Napoli, Fuoco di Napoli, STG... And now another army has entered the Napoletana 'Za battlefield. Behold, Ammazza! Well, that's what they want you to feel and say when you take your first bite into their Napoletana style pizza. It sounds like a challenge... So, let's gear up and get ready to bash some heads in.

The space is pretty fucking rad. Love how they kept the warehouse design pretty much intact with all the bricks and shit. You walk in the front, order at the counter and then swing around to the dining room and bar in the back. They're sporting two gorgeous Forno Bravo ovens (what? not Acunto?! so fucking hipster) but I hate how they put it inside a room with glass windows. It should be in open space, so you can have that all important interaction between the pizza makers (not pizzaiolo, not yet at least) and the guests... And also to the feel the heat from the ovens and the smell of the goods. C'mon, that's pizzeria 101. The windows are almost contemptible. Mebbe they should just cover the windows with limo black tint or Venetian blinds (even though they're not of Venice origin). It's spews elitism... Mebbe they can start a club for the "in the know" patrons.

Two Forno Bravo ovens from Northern California (http://www.fornobravo.com/). I fucking hate those windows. You can't smell the shit cooking and barely can see the construction of your goods. Their process of delivering the grub from the oven to the slicing table to your table is a logistical nightmare because you will have too much traffic (guest and staff) going through the same area if it gets slammed, one day. Did I mention how nice those ovens are? Let's hope it produces the goods up to the pouch's standards.

Pretty frickin' cool space. There is a lot of seating and table space if it ever gets slammed packed, one day.

Carnosa, Italian sausage, pepperoni and homemade meatballs. They list this under Pizza Fritta which they claim it's the street food of Napoli. Let's hope they can reproduce it here. I asked the counter staff how do they prepare it, like a fried calzone or a fried pizza... They didn't know except that it was their "favorite". The staff training of the menu seems to be off to a good start. I'm sure everything on the menu is their favorite... Isn't that so with every resto? So, this dish will be a toss up, a mystery, a surprise... Cool. If it's anything like the shuttered Pizzeria Fortunato's (which is now Siracusa's NY Pizzeria- total garbage) fried calzone, I would not be disappointed. But... Look at what came out. It looked like a bloody placenta oozing puss from an incision made by a RIT (Rabbi In Training). It was kinda like a hybrid between a fried pizza and pizza fritta. The fried dough needed more time and color, it was too light and bit undercooked inside. The texture reminded me of the fried crullers that I eat with my congee. Was it bad? No, not at all if I was at Ming's with a big bowl of congee with pork and 1000 yr old eggs. I didn't like how they pour sauce all over it which made it all soggy, it defeats the purpose of a pizza fritta. The shape of this thing still makes me laugh... In Napoli, they are two small round disks of dough pressed and stuffed with sauce, cheese and other fillers inside it. The meats inside this specimen were all pretty good (supposedly all locally sourced), there were just too much dough, hence the frying problem. But I guess beggars can't be choosers in this limited option town.  

Inferno, spicy sopressata, house mozzarella, calabria peppers and basil. Their answer to the infamous San Gennaro at you know where. I didn't say "Ammazza" when it came out, I was like... "A-Hmmm", let's take a look at it for a minute. Dough had nice char to it, the crust had a nice spring, the house made mozzarella looked a bit suspect to me, the Calabrian peppers were acceptable and the basil was baked with the pie which all shrunk and turned black. What bugged me the most was how they sliced it. It was fucked up to say the least... All different sizes. If they did that on purpose to make it look rustic or cut by a blind man, I don't know what to tell ya, yo. How does it taste? Fucking salty as a fucking saltlick. Deer don't eat pizza nor do they carry a credit card, bro. I noticed they folded the edge of the crust over a little like how Cameli's does it... Why on this type of pizza? Baffling. The sauce while they say it's San Marzano (I did see the cans briefly from afar) but it didn't taste like it one bit. The sauce was just too loose and watery, it will just start to separate when it hits that high temp inside the oven. And it did. The mozzarella was too dense so it didn't melt that way it should, it even chewed a bit rubbery. Ugh. The center of the pizza was incredibly limp and soggy and of course got worse with every passing minute (that's what she said)... That's prolly because the dough needs more work, it's not cooking properly in those awesome ovens. The spicy level of this Inferno pie was passable but I still can't get passed the saltiness of this thing. At $21 a piece, the staff needs to get back to work on this. STAT.

Money shot. Reminds me of a Roti Canai.... Where's the curry with cheekan thigh? Looks like the rolls of the fat chick I slayed after that one frat party back in college. She was a beast...It breathed fire.

Margherita, house mozzarella, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil baked to perfection. I, for one would never say "baked to perfection" for anything... Wait, strike that, I have been so baked before that I felt like perfection... But that's another story. Nevermind that and let's get back on track here. Look at this thing, does it even remotely look like a beautiful Margherita with vibrant colors? Yeah, that's what I thought. First off, there's just way too much cheese, this ain't a fucking pizza from Little Caesars. And the cheese didn't melt properly, clumpy and way too dense. My buddy who cooks straight noodles down the street poked at it and said this is basically just a bad cheese pizza. I had no retort. The sauce was even more watery than on the Inferno, it was almost nonexistent. While one side of the crust had perfect char blisters, the other side was not so lucky. I don't know what they're doing but this dough recipe needs work. It's not a bad dough, it's just not working that well with their pies. What they did with the basil is just plain criminal... Has no one ever told them that the basil goes on top at the end and unadulterated?

Given that they don't adhere to the strict VPN standards of a true Napoletana pizza, one would think that would give them some wiggle room to make some crazy sick ass pizza. Double zero flour, bufala mozz and San Marzano are all must haves but everything else is fair game. They state that they source locally for meats and such which is a good thing if they continuously do it. For a brand new place that just opened, you would think the owners would be actively (if not obsessively) involved with the entire operation, but when I looked around one brother is checking on customers while the other is sitting at the bar doing whatever the fuck he's doing but it ain't got anything to do with running a business. What's even more surprising is that the owners who had some level of affiliation with Antico are not even cooking the goddamn pizza... That is just plain fucked up. This is your business! Why wouldn't you want to produce the best product you can with your own hands to christen your new endeavor instead of leaving the ship up to some hipsters sending out Cameli-esque product?

I like everything they have done here and they have everything in here to make a great pie. They're on the right track but it's still a work in progress (long ways from being consistent). Let's hope they (owners) get more hands on and get them a little dirty because the stuff coming out of the ovens were not on my level of crave-worthy-ness, not even close... Like when I first had Antico's San Gennaro on their first day. That was impressive, most impressive and I still remember it to this day. Get to work Ammazza or else you'll become just Anotha-Mess-A like Fuoco.

No wet dreams to be had tonight... Mebbe a soggy one.

Developing...

591-A Edgewood Ave
Atlanta, GA 30312
404-228-1036
http://ammazza.com/