In our research, my husband stumbled upon this blog where the authors sample the pizza joints in Stamford and around the tri-state area. They ranked these establishments on a scale of 1 to 30, 1 being the worst, 30 being the best. I found it most interesting that the authors described their mission was to benchmark all pizzas against those from Stamford. Why? Stamford is not a culinary capital, as far as I can understand, that it can serve as a benchmark. I had my doubts, but was curious to check out exactly what was behind Hope Pizza's packed parking lot on most nights and what was worthy of its high 24 rating, way above Coalhouse, which I thought was quite good for Stamford.
Hope Pizza had the appearance and the menu of a diner, except with the name that implies a pizza joint. It is mostly a Greek diner that serves diner food and pizza of course, with one of the pizza toppings being gyro. My husband and I ordered a large pie, split between mushroom on one half and sausage & pepperoncini on the other half. When our server brought our pie to the table, my first impression from the buttery, fresh out of the oven aroma and the appearance of the pie was reminiscent of Pizza Hut.
On the plus side, the pie came piping hot and had a crunchy (not soggy) bottom. On the huge minus side, the pizza was topped with canned mushroom, a generous amount of cheese, and an even more generous amount of pepperoncini.
My husband felt adventurous and had ordered buffalo wings that he later regretted. All in all, I can see why families go to Hope Pizza. It's a place where you can bring your screaming kids, make a mess, and have a night off from the kitchen. Its mediocre food serves as a somewhat passable substitute to ordinary week night dinners, canned ingredients and all. I understand that there are different kinds of pizza out there that people prefer, but after having the good fortune of having pizza from many of NYC's finest, the Pizza Hut style simply isn't my cup of tea.
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