Gallicchio’s perfect pies, a monthly review: Papa Giorgio’s
Born and raised in Columbus, Mike Gallicchio is first and foremost an entrepreneur. You might be familiar with some of his work. He’s owner of the Columbus Food Truck Festival, Columbus Wine Festival, and Columbus Fiery Foods Festival, as well as a food truck fabrication company, Titan Trucks. His father (Pops) is the real pizza connoisseur of Columbus—He owned several Domino’s Pizza franchises. Once he was old enough, though, Gallicchio spent many a night makin’ pies and traveling from store to store proofing dough and slapping sauce. While he’s since eked out a living in a different part of Columbus’ cuisine scene, Gallicchio’s love for all things pizza has remained, and searching out perfect pies is something he’s passionate about. Every month, you can count on Gallicchio to share one of his favorite pizza places. Will it be one of your own favorites, or a new place to try?
Papa Giorgio’s
Pizza for breakfast rating: 3
I’m going to focus on some of our better New York style slice pizza shops in my next three write ups, so be on the lookout for those. Columbus is the pizza capital of the world, and New York style slice pizza in my opinion is very underrepresented here is the land of the square cut pie. It’s high time to give some of our fantastic NY slice pizza joints some love and Papa Giorgio’s is one of them.
I’ve been going to Papa Giorgio’s since they first opened locally a couple years ago. Papa Giorgio’s has two locations, one on Bethel Rd and the other on Indianola Ave. in Clintonville.
The Papa Giorgio’s I frequent is the Bethel Rd. location, situated in a small nondescript store front in a large heavily trafficked strip mall.
According to Papa Giorgio’s website, their dough recipe comes from a master baker in Italy, they use Grande Cheese Company, and being the smart operators they are, they use hometown heroes Ezzo pepperoni and sausage.
Papa Giorgio’s has a large menu featuring appetizers, salads, a ton of pizza combo options, calzones, pastas, subs and deserts. It’s also worth mentioning that Papa Giorgio’s has a lot of unique pizza toppings like fresh mozzarella, ricotta, Black bean corn salsa, roasted red peppers and the always maligned pineapple.
Papa Giorgio’s crafts a very fine and beautifully made pie. The crust is thin but still chewy with plenty of extra puffy crust space to tear off those delicious chunks of cooked to perfection dough. This is a must since these chunks can be dipped in the extra sauce I always order. The slices are pliable and the cheese and toppings didn’t fall off with that fold. I like just cheese on my NY sliced pies and Papa Giorgio’s cheese is plentiful and tasty. I always order a large pizza so I can share with the familia and usually get some toppings on one side. The toppings were plentiful. The sauce was a little sweet for me, I like a more robust and savory sauce.
Papa Giorgio’s has all the elements of a solid pizza joint with primo ingredients, and the service is always awesome with a super friendly staff. Put Papa Giorgio’s on your NY slice must try list, you won’t be disappointed.
If you like this, read: Gallicchio’s perfect pies, a monthly review: The Pizza House
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