Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Parlor

4301 B Guadalupe
Austin, Texas 78751
(512)323-0440

100 B East North Loop
Austin, Texas 78751
(512)454-8965

http://theparloraustin.com/


I promised y'all more quickie reviews, so here's another one. A few nights ago I was hanging out with Bachelor #7, who's quickly becoming a regular fixture in my life. We decided to have a quiet evening in and rent a movie. And what goes better with a movie at home than an awesome pizza? Since I live on the outskirts of town, there aren't that many pizza places that will deliver to me. I usually get the option of Double Daves, or Dominos (and soon Little Caesars). And though I do LOVE DD's pepperoni rolls, one can't subsist wholly on those. Its nice when I visit friends in different parts of town and I get to try their local pizza. I mean Austin is full of great small pizza joints producing quality pies: Mangias, East Side Pies, Home Slice, Rounders, just to name a few.

Since Bachelor #7 resides in the Hyde Park area, he suggest we try the Parlor. We called in for pick at at their Hyde Park location. I was really craving sausage and mushrooms and Bachelor #7 wanted anything with olives (on pizza, ew), so we went with an sausage and mushroom pizza with olives on half. See, I can compromise. We waited the obligatory 20 minutes, then drove up to their North Loop location to pick it up. The Parlor's north location is in that stretch of funky coffee shops, record stores and antique shops on North Loop between Lamar and Airport. There's all sorts of great stuff over there and in my opinion is a really under appreciated part of Austin. The Parlor itself is pretty innocuous, located in the middle of a small vintage looking strip mall. The inside is very punk rock chic. The walls, furniture and just about everything inside are dark dark red and black. And the place is filled with pierced and tattooed Austinites. There was even a fun hard rock band playing to set the mood.

We grabbed our pizza then went back to #7's Bachelor Pad to enjoy our pizza and watch House on Haunted Hill. Not the new remake, but the original Vincent Price version. It was eerie 50's horror kitsch at its finest. There was even a great psychologically creepy part that made me really jump in my seat. Of course Bachelor #7 laughed at me, but it was kind of scary! The movie did feature the worlds most awesome (and only) 50's WASP mullet I've ever seen. Behold!

Ok I know you don't really care about the movie mullet. You care about pizza. The Parlor's pizza was pretty tasty and above average. Thin crust with delicious crisp freshness, fresh cheese and nicely spiced sauce. I really really liked their cheese blend. I'm pretty picky when it comes to pizza cheese. Too often it tastes plasticy or cardboardy. But The Parlor's cheese had a nice sharpness that went well with the Italian flavor.

I've always loved the comparison of pizza to sex. I've had very few, ok, no horrible sexual experiences. Most sexual experiences run the gamut from Meh Average to Wow Exception and pizza seems to follow that same trend. If the Parlor's pizza would have been a guy, I'd have been impressed at his skills and prowess but I wouldn't be weak in the knees. However, I would probably call him back the next day.

Bottomline: Quality, tasty pizza with a punk rock attitude

Mariah - 8