We’ve been trying to check out ZAZA for quite some time now. Since meandering through the doors of the yet-to-open restaurant back in May, we’ve stopped by only to be turned elsewhere by huge crowds, long waits, and the will of the famed Pizza Tour fedora. But at long last, we finally found the time to venture over to the former home of 122 Pizza Bistro for one of Stamford’s newest (at least relatively speaking) pies.

Establishment. ZAZA never struck us as a traditional pizzeria, mostly because it isn’t one. It’s a “gastrobar” by name, with all that it entails: a mozzarella tasting menu, Italian tapas, a huge wine bar, trendy clientele, and a lot of dark paint and red leather.

While a little off-putting and distinctly not our speed at first, ZAZA drew us in with super comfortable seating (save for the table sharing thing, which is weird), decent service, and an inviting—albeit a little vampirey—atmosphere that we really warmed up to. It didn’t hurt, of course, that their menu was anchored by a very familiar menu centerpiece—brick oven pizza.

Pizza. Typical Pizza Tour fashion, we ordered a plain napoletana pie and one with sausage in the name of science and consistency (don’t call it boring).

What was immediately striking were the vibrant colors and strong aromas of this pizza’s fresh components. On top of an expertly cooked, golden brown crust was a fresh, tangy, chunky tomato sauce; smooth, delicious mozzarella (also browned to perfection); and just enough fresh basil to give the pie a very bright flavor profile. The sauce was almost too subtle, however, as most of us felt that it was a bit under-seasoned.

The sausage pizza left a little to be desired, as our favorite topping was pretty stingily and inconsistently sprinkled across the pie (which is unfortunate because its saltiness really highlighted the subtleties we missed on the plain pie), but most of the high spots from the napoletana pizza carried over to this one. A minor knock on both pies is that their delicately thin, airy crust cools really fast—not a huge problem seeing as the three of us wolfed down these 12” personal pies in about 6 minutes, but still worth mentioning.

Also worth mentioning is ZAZA’s unusual subversion of our stupid square slices pet peeve in which a square pizza is cut into wedges, as one would expect a round pizza to be served. Mind-blowing, we know. Fortunately, the inverse of this Greek abomination of a cutting technique is hardly offensive at all and didn’t stand in the way of the top-notch flavors and textures of a really good pizza.

Bottom line. ZAZA is packed to the rafters on the weekends and it’s pretty obvious why: an inherent trendiness gets people in the door once, but dedication to clean, fresh flavors across the menu (but most importantly with pizza, of course) forces them to return.

Establishment: 22/30
Pizza: 22/30
Hits the Spot: 7.3/10 
Large cheese: $10.50 (12")

Another newcomer to the Stamford pizza scene is Rizzuto’s, a local chain with locations in Westport, Bethel, and West Hartford, in addition to their new digs in the old Route 22 in Stamford.

Establishment. Rizzuto’s is a peculiarly Olive Garden-y restaurant. From its dubious location in a strip mall to its highly polished décor and menu items with no fewer than 8 vowels per word, this is every bit the spitting image of nobody’s favorite Italian restaurant. Aside from all of the uniform gloss, this restaurant does have some character, be it manufactured or not. With its open kitchen, comfortable and plentiful seating, and attentive service, Rizzuto’s has a friendly air about it. The menu is what you’d expect of an Italian restaurant—antipastos, pastas (avoid eating simultaneously), salads, and entrees that end in parmigiana—as well as a good selection of traditional and signature pizzas.

Pizza. Our pizzas of choice were a plain and a meatball pie off of Rizzuto’s Neapolitan menu (they also offer margherita-style pizzas that omit tomato sauce in favor of plum tomatoes).

The crusts were wood-fired and blistered to oblivion, with a nice char, chewiness, as well as an unfortunate and peculiar popcorn taste that we haven’t come across before (and hopefully won’t have to again). The sauce was bright and fresh but bland for the most part with only some subtle tanginess begging to be noticed. The high spot on this pie was without a doubt the cheese—a house made fresh mozzarella—lending a delicious creaminess and welcome stringiness to an otherwise middle-of-the-road pie.

Our meatball pizza had the same weird popcorn crust dealbreaker as the plain cheese pie, but the saltiness of the meatball brought out some of the subtleties of the sauce for a better overall taste. Despite looking rather stout and robust though, the crust couldn’t hold up to the the toppings and made for a more cumbersome pizza.

Bottom line. Despite a nice, welcoming atmosphere, Rizzuto’s puts forth a mediocre pizza that’s far from bad and just as far from good.

Establishment: 25/30
Pizza: 16/30
Hits the Spot: 4.5/10 
Large cheese: $10.95 (13")

Every year around this time, the Stamford Pizza Tour wakes from its slumber to give you its take on a few new pizzerias in our fair City that Works. Of course, this year (technically last year) will be no different. We give you, a mere two months after its doors opened, La Bellezza Pizza Restaurant.

Allow us to take you back to a kinder, gentler time: a few weeks ago, when the holiday spirit still carried some weight, strangers spouted “Merry Christmas” at passers-by, and the lighting in a certain pizzeria made all of our pictures completely unusable, save for this next shot of an elaborate cave manger scene outside the front door.

Establishment. With deep roots in the New York pizza scene, La Bellezza takes its act from the streets of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn (home of some of the best pies on the face of the earth) to its new location on Atlantic Street in Stamford. La Bellezza struck us as a charming little place with a handful of tables, a welcoming staff, and rich, wooden furniture that would make Ron Burgundy blush.

Between the brick, the chalkboard menu, and the bright, open, counter service kitchen, this was as New York a pizzeria as they come—save for the whole “being in Connecticut” thing. The service was prompt, courteous, and extra attentive being as we were the only party in the restaurant at the time. That said, their menu was complete with what one would expect of a pizzeria and then some, including dinners, sandwiches, a surprising wine selection, and of course, pizza.

Pizza. As usual, our two pizzas were a plain cheese, and one with sausage. The pies came to the table steaming hot and were doled out by the slice to each undercover judge by our waiter, fully unaware that he was about to pose his pie in one of the less flattering food shots we’ve ever published.

Abysmal washout and color temperatures aside, this was actually a pretty good pie. The pizza’s thin crust held up reasonably well to a healthy amount of creamy, stringy cheese with its dense, yeasty bite; at the end of the day it wasn’t all that easy to keep this one from slip sliding away, though. The quality and quantity of La Bellezza’s cheese—while sacrificing something by way of texture—kept this pizza steaming hot until we had demolished the whole thing (we’ll be the first to tell you that there’s nothing more taxing than trying to finish a pizza that’s devolved into a gob of cooled cheese).

Cheese points notwithstanding, the sauce didn’t blow us away. Its subtleties were a bit too subtle, and there was really nothing there—good or bad—to go by. Fortunately, both their topping selection and specialty pizza offerings were quite good, making up for lost ground on La Bellezza’s shortcomings.

Bottom line. La Bellezza is a friendly, personable place to grab a pretty decent pie in an unfortunate area that doesn’t get a ton of foot traffic; welcome these guys to town, they’ll be happy to serve you.

Establishment: 21/30
Pizza: 20/30
Hits the Spot: 7.8/10 
Large cheese: $12.00

You’ll get a good pizza at Michelina’s before this blog ever posts anything that even remotely resembles a political statement, but we couldn’t pass this one up.

For those living under a rock (or those too preoccupied with actual news), there’s a new pizza in town and it’s rattling some cages. At the helm of Rico’s kitchen are two former employees of Stamford’s iconic dive, Colony Grill, and they’ve (allegedly) brought the pizza with them. Normally, we like to give new places time to settle in so that the inconsistencies, growing pains, and stupid waits normally associated with new places have a chance to die down. This time, Stamford’s newest rivalry didn’t afford us that luxury.

Establishment. Plainly put, Rico’s is a takeout/delivery joint with a few tables in it. At best, they’re a counter service pizzeria with a 45 minute wait (partially due to the buzz surrounding the “illegal” use of Colony’s recipes, partially due to the curiosity that comes with having a new pizza in town to try). We tried to call ahead four or five times to place our order before we got there but the phones kicked us straight to voicemail despite them being manned by at least two people at any given time. Nonetheless, were were taken care of by a friendly staff without having to look at creepy painted wood cutouts while delivery orders went flying out the door in the interim. While we’re talking about differences between this place and another place, it certainly bears mentioning that Rico’s menu includes calzones, empanadas, wedges, wraps, and salad offerings in addition to the contentious little pizzas that brought us there.

Pizza. The minute these pizzas hit the table, we were thinking the same thing that you are looking at these pictures, “Boy, that pie looks familiar…” Upon further investigation, it also tastes familiar. Rico’s crust is super thin with crispy edges, a hearty crunch, and a surprisingly chewy bite that you wouldn’t expect from a cracker-thin pie (unless, of course, you’ve had some exposure to pizzas like this…) that contributes chiefly to the overall flavor. Rico’s sauce and cheese meld together in an intricate lace that yields a big texture and a not-so-special flavor. While adding a stringy, satisfying snap, the cheese seems like an afterthought with its flavor. Moreover, the sauce is noticeably underseasoned and carries an unnatural sweetness beyond what we’d naturally expect from tomatoes. Couple that with the breakneck speed at which the pizza cools and you have a recipe for a pie that doesn’t hold up very well after it’s been out of the oven for 10-15 minutes.

At it’s heart, Rico’s Pizza is about the toppings. With small, cookie-sized pizzas (okay, admittedly a big cookie), it naturally follows that they become customized to the individual with ingredients that fill the gaps left open by the lackluster sauce and cheese elements. We ordered a hot oil and stingers (hot peppers) pie and one with sausage. The hot oil was bold, spicy, and most importantly, used in moderation to complement the peppers for a considerably less greasy texture than an oil topping would lead you to think (in fact, all of the pizzas were considerably less greasy). Additionally, the sausage added much needed heartiness and saltiness to the pie that it was generously strewn across. Rico’s enters the Stamford pizza scene as a solid competitor to other thin crust bar pies, with subtle improvements that set it apart, albeit slightly.

Bottom line. Rico’s is the quintessential bar pie without the bar. If you’re looking for a good, traditional pizza, there are other places to go, but if you’ve got a Colony addiction, Rico’s is a viable substitute.

Establishment: 16/30
Pizza: 21/30
Hits the Spot: 7/10 
Large cheese: $8.50 (13")