Pizza Review: Chubby’s
Pepperoni and Onion Pizza
Yesterday morning, a coworker mentioned pizza, and I was also reading a blog which led me to a website called Worst Pizza, which is a pizza review site of a guy based on the east coast of Florida. Reading the review site, it made me in the mood for some pizza. I decided to go back to my favorite pizza place south of New England (I haven’t tried that many places down here yet, to be honest).
This was my second trip to Chubby’s Super Subs and Pizza for a lunch break (it’s about 5-7 minutes from work). The first time I heard of Chubby’s, a coworker mentioned it. I happened to find their website after we ordered the food, and saw that the owners founded the place using a pizza style from Massachusetts. Being from up north myself, and absolutely LOVING the pizza made at small scale places in MA (like Espresso in Fitchburg, or the Gardner Ale House in Gardner). This certainly got me pumped for when my pizza showed up in the office.
I got a 10″ Pizza with Pepperoni and Onion both times. This helped for me to check for consistency for this review, though it wasn’t my intention.
The first time lived up to my desires, and blew me away. It was loaded with sauteed/cooked onions, the best kind of onions for pizza, in my opinion. Sauteing is definitely my favorite way to cook onions. It had just the right amount of cheese, and the pepperoni was scattered but fresh, and in every bite. The crust just the right amount of fluffiness, thin, and crispy. The pizza was otherworldly and I devoured it so quickly I guarantee you I probably set my gastrointestinal health down deeper than it ever has been… Heaven on Earth!
I’ll have to admit, the pizza I had yesterday was not as amazing as the first time. The onions looked a little over-sauteed, starting to caramelize. The first time they were just softened, but clear white. The sauce did seem to stick out a LOT more on this second trip out, as well, at first ruining my interest in the first slice, but quickly forgotten by the time I took a bite in my second. The crust was the same as the first time.
Overall, it is my favorite place for Pizza down here in Tampa, thus far. Due to the slight lack of consistency between both of my trips, I rated it a little bit lower, but it still remains freaking awesome!
****
This review is going to be submitted (slightly modified version) to Worst Pizza, and I’ll update this post if it ever gets posted on their site. I actually decided to put the review on Blackened Sun because why not have it on both sites, in case the other doesn’t actually post it? For it to go on Worst Pizza, I need to rate it on a scale of 1-8 slices… I’m giving it a 6. It’s amazing, but I feel that this pizza isn’t as good as some others I’ve had, and I do believe that there’s no such thing as a “perfect” score.
Progressive Nation Tour!
My reviews of concerts are never that impressive (in my opinion) as I don’t know song names for most of the bands I check out in concert. I just know I love the music.
It was a last minute concert this time. I was supposed to go see Aerosmith last week (postponed), and I’m leaving for a week-long vacation this week, so I originally said no to Dream Theater in an bid to not spend too much money prior to the trip. However, I was on my way home from visiting family as my friend messaged me telling me he got the “green light” (from his wife) to go see Dream Theater, and he already bought a ticket. I was anxious to go to a concert since I didn’t get to go to Aerosmith, so I decided to run along.
I didn’t get there until after both the openers played, so I don’t know how they sound, and I can’t make any comment on them. BigElf and Scale the Summit were the openers. Only slightly disappointed I missed them, as I like checking out new bands.
We had amazing seats, about halfway up the theater – Ruth Eckerd Hall – and literally dead center (there was even a line on the floor right in front of me that represented the center of the theater). My only disappointment is that it was a theater, as I prefer general admission shows. Assigned seating just doesn’t have the same vibe as being in a packed group of people on the floor.
We did talk amusingly to some of the ushers in the theater. The place really seemed to be more “upscale” than it should for a band like Dream Theater to play in. Most of the ushers were old (I’d put them at 60+), and they really looked like they were a little out of place among all of the prog rock fans.
Zappa Plays Zappa came up next. I honestly can’t think of a single Zappa song as it is, and I don’t know if I EVER listened to his music, so I didn’t know what to expect. It started poorly and I just really didn’t have a high opinion of the group. It was just very slow, and the first song they played all I could think of was “is the song going to pick up?? come on… more beat! MORE SPEED!”
Thankfully they read my mind, and they certainly kept improving with each song, and I did enjoy them by the end of their set (atleast, the first half). We ended up going downstairs for a couple more beers, picked up the Dream Theater tour shirt, and talked to some random fellow concertgoers. I picked up the black tour shirt with brown “Dream Theater” written going up the left side, with of course all of their Tour information on the back. Apparently Florida is the first stage of the US tour (they just came from touring in Europe).
After Zappa Plays Zappa ended, we went back to our seats to get ready for Dream Theater.
Dream Theater played an awesome set, and the crowd was going almost the entire time. During a couple slower songs the majority of the audience actually sat down… I was a little surprised at that. I honestly only have their Train of Thought album, so I didn’t know a lot of songs, and I wasn’t expecting to figure out any of the songs. My friend said earlier today, after listening to one of the songs on Pandora, that he DID recognize, possibly “Endless Sacrifice”. Beyond that, we don’t know what songs they played. It was all very good, though, of course. I’ll definitely try to see them again next time they come around. Also, I definitely need to pick up more of their CDs.
They had a very short break (not even 5 minutes…) between their main set and their encore.
One of the coolest parts was that I noticed that the keyboardist had an iPhone/iPod Touch on his keyboard, and during one of the songs, he started doing a “solo” using the iPhone. I was completely blown away and thought that was so cool that he used it in that way. The guy in front of me actually heard me say “what app is that??” and he showed me on his phone. So if you want to spend 1.99, check out “Bebot” app for the iPhone/iPod Touch. It’s basically just robot (synth) sounds depending on where your fingers are on the screen. Very fun to play with. The default sounds that I used didn’t sound like what he played, so I’m sure he fidgeted with the settings quite a bit! Jordan Rudess actually has a video demo of him using it.
A great show overall, that I’m glad was “early” (ended at midnight)… as it WAS on a Sunday and I had work in the morning. I’m certainly glad I sucked it up and went!
I certainly hope a friend will update this blog entry in the comments section with a setlist when he sees the band this coming weekend, to fill that missing bit of my review! Though I’m jealous of him because Queensryche is on the bill for that show, as special guests. I saw them once a couple years ago and I’d love to see them again.
UPDATE 2:15 pm -
Here’s the setlist!
[source] – Thanks to John Z for the link