Benny Blanco's Slice of the Bronx - Denver, CO

616 E 13th Avenue
Denver, CO 80203
Phone: (303) 831-1346
info@bennyblancos.com
http://www.bennyblancos.com/

Style of Pizza: New York-style thin crust (slices and whole pies)
Service: carry-out, delivery

Standout Tidbit: As they claim on the website, "The Largest, Latest Pie in Town!"

Review: This should be a short and sweet review, but that's appropriate considering a trip to Benny Blanco's can be very brief. There is no atmosphere to speak of at this tiny, Capital Hill, counter joint. All there is to Benny Blanco's is a kitchen with a small counter one step from the front door. You just walk in, place your order, and get out. If you order a whole pie during the day, you can go next door and shop for music at Wax Trax while it cooks. There is a TV mounted on the wall, but I get the feeling that is more for the benefit of the pizza makers behind the counter.

Benny Blanco's pizza tastes pretty good, but there are a couple factors that can kick the ranking a little higher. The first is that the medium sized za is 18" while their large is a whopping 20". As far as I know right now, this is the largest in town since Papa Keno's left town and took their mammoth 26" pizza with them. The second plus is that they are open and delivering till midnight Sunday and Monday, and till 3am the rest of the week.

As a good New York-style pizza should be, the crust is pretty thin and the larger slices fold nicely. The toppings seem fresh and spread evenly and in a decent quantity, while the sauce-to-cheese ratio was quite nice. Everything had a good flavor to it, although the sauce seemed to slightly edge on the salty side.

Without the benefit of any seating, whole pies must be carried out or delivered, so slight cooling is expected. A Benny Blanco's pie remains quite tasty as the heat diminishes.

In summary, this is good NY-style pizza that graduates to great when you have a craving to satisfy after that late-night concert on Colfax.

Gavin

Peppino's Pizzeria & Restaurant

12201 E Arapahoe Rd
Suite A1
Centennial, CO 80112-3918
(303) 799-9409

Styles of Pizza: Thin crust (slices or whole)
Service: Counter service, carry-out

Standout Tidbits: Hmmmm... not so much.

Review: Peppino's is located in a standard, unassuming strip mall-style building that looks like it could have been built anytime between now and 1980. The state of the restaurant inside tells you that it probably opened closer to the 80's, and the Peppino's staff hasn't changed anything or done any fixing up since then. I wouldn't go as far as to say the place was dirty, but, it certainly wasn't fresh and clean. The ceiling tiles were way past yellow and well into brown. The vinyl booths had deep dips in the seats. The ceiling fan had mismatched light bulbs and its blades were wilting more than the fake flowers on the tables.

The team of older Italian gentlemen behind the counter didn't do much to warm our hearts to this place. In fact, they didn't do much at all besides guard the soda fountain against refills and pressure us to make a choice and move down the line. Along the line you can pick from the pastas, iceberg salads, or slices under the glass display. Customers can also order fresh, whole pies or calzones. We opted for a large za with mushrooms and made our way to the droopy booth.

Although we were initially unimpressed with Peppino's, we started adding things up. The pizza oven was well-used. There were thin slices behind glass. The guys behind the counter were grumpy. The table cloths were plastic and red-checkered. Had we stumbled on a true "old-school" pizza joint? Were we about to be treated to some great, East-Coast za?

The pie itself was unimpressively fitting for the place. As soon as it arrived we were aware of the canned 'shrooms. They were laid too thickly on the entire pizza and then buried under just as much cheese. Although the cheese tasted ok, it was overly chewy and too elastic when trying to separate one slice from the rest.

Please don't misunderstand me here. This was not like a nice, gooey slice where the hot cheese is almost dripping. This was closer to the consistency of stretched Silly Putty. Silly Putty that at least tasted ok.

The canned mushrooms didn't seem very cooked and were quite rubbery. Underneath them was a minimal amount of red sauce, which, like the cheese, tasted just ok. I really have no big complaints about the crust. It had a decent taste and wasn't too crisp or too chewy.

When we first arrived, it was early in the lunch period, and we were almost the only ones there. When we left, the place was about 60% full. The curious thing was that it didn't seem like anyone was talking or enjoying their lunchtime. It just looked like they were there to eat out of necessity, before heading back to their hopefully more enjoyable jobs.

Overall, Peppino's gets a sub-ok rating. 2 out of 5 whatevers (if we had a ranking system established). I have no idea how the pasta or calzones are, but I also have no real desire to go back and find out.

Gavin