Classification: Traditional
Location: Maple Grove, Minnesota
If you've been following along here at Pizza100, you'll quickly be able to recognize that this is a fake photo. Oh, it's from Angeno's, but it's just an online facsimile of the "Chuck Tinkler Olive Craver", and besides a handful of notes and a brief snippet from a podcast recorded in 2015, I have literally no recollection of this place. For that reason, I considered not even including it among the listings here, but after some reflection, I realized that forgettable pizza plays a huge role in all of our lives, and demands inclusion.
If you saw Trouble with the Curve in which Clint Eastwood starred as the crusty veteran baseball scout, you noticed how he could recall in amazing detail the nuance in a batter's swing or a pitcher's delivery. After all, it's his job to detect the tiniest of detail and in some cases, be able to quickly and precisely pull these facts from memory. Maybe some people carry around the gift of total recall, or at least laser-like focus, but I am not one of those people. It's a funny thing that I can walk upstairs in my own house and by the time I get to the top step, I don't remember what I'm supposed to be doing. But if I tune it to 70s and 80s classic radio, I can pick up the lyrics of a song I haven't heard in 25 years like I've been playing on auto-repeat for a week. Anyway, I thought I might have this tendency when it came to pizza, but the fact is...I don't. I can forget almost anything—even pizza.
All these points are borne out of the fact that I needed to consult my notes and re-listen to my podcast with my brother and Swen to recall some of the details about our visit. Apparently not very memorable, but worthy of a closer look because this is science, my notes indicated we gave it a decent but unspectacular review, but our commentary was a little more generous. After having my memory jarred a bit, I determined a few things: 1.) that we all shared an appreciation for their generous distribution of cheese; 2.) the environment and ambience were very pleasing, and; 3.) that the sauce was top shelf. But it took a little ding on the final rating because they cut the pizza into wedges—a real no-no when you're in the Midwest.
So it wasn't very memorable, but here's where it gets even stranger: it's like they're in Pizza Witness Protection Program. Since I needed a little extra boost in my recall, I tried using The Google, and it barely registered anything. Sure, they have a less-than-robust website, but it's still the norm to generate a lot of reviews and online photos. I guess I'm not the only one who is forgetting them. It's hard to give them a huge recommendation, but the info I have suggests that it was pretty acceptable.
So it all makes perfect sense that the longest review I've written thus far is for the restaurant that I remember the fewest details about. And my final thoughts about the motion picture? I thought Trouble with the Curve was just OK, mostly on account of the idea of Amy Adams being able to catch 95-mph fastballs in a motel parking lot seems pretty far-fetched. Also, any scenario in which Boston and Atlanta have the first two picks in the MLB draft certainly doesn't represent recent history, or even anything in the near future. See? I can still remember some important things. (6 of 10 stars)