In other words, I had high expectations.  There are a few reasons why it took me two years to actually get to Lost Pizza.   For the most part I don’t eat out.  And the few times I passed it, the place looked crowded.  My assumption was Lost Pizza was a sit down place like Pizza Hut where one could only order a whole pie.  But also – let’s be real – I couldn’t imagine it being all that great.

Eventually I realized I had to try it.  Lost Pizza is a Delta establishment and the purpose of my blog is to seek out the whole experience of living in the Delta.   So with my birthday being on Friday, I decided to give it a try.  With Delta State out of session and TFA long gone Cleveland is practically a ghost town.  Besides, it couldn’t be worse than the $1 flavored cardboard I usually buy from the supermarket on Friday night.

Let’s start with the basics.  Lost Pizza is actually one of those fast casual type of places.  You order at the counter and they bring your food out.  As it turns out they offer individual sized pizzas.  So while you have to order a whole pie, the smallest is only 8 inches wide.   Unfortunately pizza by the slice is rare outside the Northeast.   My guess is there just isn’t enough demand in places like Cleveland for the business model to make sense.  Yet given the size of a New York slice the actual amount of pizza in an individual pie is probably the same.   Lost Pizza also does take out so you don’t have to sit there if its too crowded.

The ambiance is good.  The place is set up like a sort of junkyard with all sorts of “lost and found” things hanging from the walls.  On one side they have a VW bus where kids take pictures.  Next to it is a Nintendo Wii hooked up to one of the TVs on the wall.  Many restaurants have televisions, but I’ve never seen a video game console before.  Its a nice touch.    The downside is the place does seem to attract a lot of families and kids.  Thankfully it was not crowded, but I’m not sure I’d want to be here on a busy day.  Fortunately there is always to take out option.

Ultimately I came to Lost Pizza for the food.   It was certainly edible.  I’ve always had a thing for thick crust and ordered their version of the meat lovers’ pizza, known as The Otis.  It packed plenty of flavor with ham, pepperoni, bacon, sausage, ground beef, and chicken.  The size and thickness were perfect.

That said, I’ve had better pizza.  First of all, putting so many toppings on an eight inch wide pizza was a bit much.  The cheese, which for some reason was on top of the meat instead of the other way around, slid off easily.  I don’t mean to say the cheese was in the semi-liquid state it usually is on pizza.  Rather it simple came off the bread along with most of the meat.  Lost Pizza doesn’t say what kind of cheese they use, but it tastes different than what I’ve had up North.   Thankfully they gave me a fork, but pizza is supposed to be a hands on experience.  The bread was better.  It was plenty soft with a crispy outside, but it was kind of dry.  All the meat also made the pizza very salty.  I spent the rest of the night drinking glasses of water.  Admittedly I’d had a salami/pepperoni sandwich for lunch.  So take my complaint with, well, a grain of salt.

Probably the item which stands out the most is their dessert pizza.  No you did not just hallucinate those words.  Lost Pizza has several dessert pies.  They had a standard crust, but rather than cheese and sauce were topped with fruit and icing.  I had their Strawberry Fields pizza.  It was the same size as my dinner.  Surprisingly it was not very sweet and simply topped with strawberries and what tasted a little bit like cream cheese icing.   The concept is innovative.  I liked it.

Overall it wasn’t a bad experience.  Lost Pizza was on par with Sbarro and  Uno Chicago Grill.  Most people from New York would consider those words an insult, but this is not the Big Apple.   Its not reasonable to expect people with no history of pizza to make the best slices on the planet.  The same holds true of barbecue up North, which I suspect many Southerners would not be impressed with.  In the context of the Delta, Lost Pizza is good.  I put it in the same category as the Italian ice one of the local establishments sells from its ice cream machines.  Perfectly acceptable given where we are, but not the real thing.

Some may disagree which is perfectly fine.  As I said earlier the only other pizza available is from fast food places and Pizza Hut.  In my opinion the actual food is not much better at Lost Pizza.  However the place has character the other ones don’t.  It’s also a locally owned and operated establishment.  Down here, that counts for a lot.  Any locally owned business is something to be proud of, especially in a place as impoverished as the Delta.  So while it may not be Valley Pizza or Turiello’s its still a good establishment, one worth visiting again.

I’m back!  You didn’t think that last post was me signing off for good did you?  You see this past Friday inspiration struck again.  With my birthday being Thursday, I decided to treat myself and go out to eat. There are a lot of good restaurants around here and it was hard to decided.  In these sorts of situations I usually go to my bucket list.  Eating at The Sentator’s Place was near the top of it.  Several people, including a friend of mine, have raved about.  Then when Anthony Bourdain stopped by, I just had to go.

The place is somewhat bigger than I expected.  It’s a little brick building sitting beside Highway 61, unassuming and easy to miss.  It is neither fancy nor a hole in the wall, but rather informal with a good vibe. Upon entering there is a counter with the cash register instead of a hostess.  When I arrived Willie Simmons himself was standing there and I saw him go in and out of the kitchen several times.  Food is served Buffet style.  However one does not serve oneself.  Rather there is someone standing behind the food counter who gives you what you request.  The only limit is the size of your plate and your stomach.

I cannot say enough good things about the food itself.  The Senator’s Place serves barbecue and classic soul food.  The exact selections vary by day (see menu below) and there is also a selection of barbecue which is served all the time.  I had ribs, beaked beans, grits, hush puppies, cornbread, and a roll topping that off with peach cobbler.  It was all amazing.  The barbecue sauce was particularly good being both sweet and tangy while slightly spicy.  No other place in town has managed to best it although there are still a few places I haven’t tried.  Really everything was excellent.  I can’t wait to go back.

There was also a very inviting feel about the place.  Everyone was very friendly.  They were particularly interested to know I had a blog, which was a relief.  Despite having written for over a year I am still hesitant to tell people about it.  That may be why no one reads it.

All in all it was a good time.  I am beginning to learn that there is a lot more to Cleveland than the area around Delta State.  That really seems to be true of the whole region.  What you see on the surface is only the beginning.  As an outsider its hard to break past that, but I am slowly chipping away and getting beyond the image folks around here want me to see.

Going forward I will be posting intermittently. If inspiration strikes, that’s awesome and if not … oh well. There’s no need to post just for its own sake.

The amazing peach cobbler

Dinner! That thing nearly the size of a tennis ball is a hush puppy.

An important point, however, is that barbecue is not about the sauce.  The word really refers to how the meat is cooked and oftentimes it is served with no sauce at all.  The typical ingredients are pork or beef (although that can vary) and they are cooked over wood in a smoker for as long as a day.  That’s where you get that great smokey flavor from.  The sauce is an addition.  For me it’s an important one.  I’m a huge fan of sauces in general because they add flavor beyond the simple taste of meat.  But others may beg to differ.

The equipment is different too.  This is another misconception people have concerning barbecue.   Up North we tend to equate the word with grilling over an open flame.  However grilling is not the same as barbecuing. The basic difference is that the former is done over a fire where as the latter is more about smoking meat at a lower temperature.  So the barbecues down here look sort of like oil drums with exhaust pipes.  And they never use propane.  No one has told me it’s sacrilege, but you would not get the same flavor with gas.

So by now you are probably wondering where the best barbecue joints are around the Delta.  In the last week I’ve been to two one down in Greenville called the Shotgun House and another on the edge of Cleveland called Airport Grocery (at one time it was located over by the airport hence the name).   They did not disappoint.   At APG I had ribs so tender the meat practically fell off the bone as I bit into them.  They cook there’s St. Louis style which means the sauce is one the side and the ribs are cooked with a dry rub. You’d think ribs cooked without sauce would be dried out but they were actually really good.  Sadly I did not take a picture (yes I know shame on me!).   The Shotgun house also served their pulled pork with sauce on the side.  That definitely seems to be the style around here.  It tends to emphasize the flavor of the meat and the smoke above all.   It’s also less messy.

With warmer weather approaching there will no doubt be more barbecue.  And there will be festivals.  With any luck I’ll be invited to one of those parties.  Even if that is not the case a competition needs judges.  In the mean time here are some pictures of place I’ve been to.

This little place is on Highway 49 just South of Jackson.  The food was amazing.