Interview: Spak Brothers Pizza

In August of the year 2008 A.D. the brothers Ryan and Nathan Spak opened a pizza joint in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The shop offers the usual things you expect from a pizza place, as well as many vegan and vegetarian options. For example: Seitan wings, using their own house made Seitan.

The Egg-shaped Chef recently asked Ryan Spak a few questions:

How long has spak brothers been in business?

We opened the first of August 2008 so it's been about a year and a half although we put in quite a bit of work beforehand too.

What is the worst thing about making people pizzas to eat?

I think it's different for everybody. For me it's having to be nice to everybody no matter what. Almost every one of our customers are amazing but every once in a while someone gets under your skin so it's difficult not to let it get to you.

And the best thing?

Again, I can only speak for myself, but I love it when the young ones are waiting for their pizza. We have a different color tile in the kitchen than the dining room and the kids know not to cross the line. Seeing them slack-jawed in amazement as you flip dough around kind of makes it all worthwhile.

                                          a vegan black olive pizza with soy cheese

What makes your pizza better than other pizzas?

The love. Everything is done with care and that taste comes out in every pie. Everyone likes different things in their pizza obviously but we do a New York style pizza and a ton of our customers are transplanted NY'ers who swear we have it pegged better than anyone else in the Burgh'.

What is your favorite item on your menu?

That changes from time to time. My all time favorite is the pierogies (settle down grammer snobs, it can be spelled five different ways), but lately I have been crushing on the seitan cheesesteaks. We figured out a new sauce for them that does a pretty good job fooling your tongue into thinking it's tasting red meat. That's something that we try really hard to do both taste-wise and texturally. It can really bring you back to wolfing down steak hogies as a kid. (hoagie is Pittsburgh for sub by the by)

I understand you make many of your vegan ingredients in house, isn't that a bit of a hassle?

It sure can be. It took a long time to develop the recipes and get everyone to make a consistant product but it was worth it in the long run.  We produce much less waste that way, which is always a good thing for all of us, and we then have a unique taste to it no other place can have and finally there are way less preservatives and toxins in the food itself. All in all it's a big hassle but the benifits outwiegh the extra work and time.

Does it save you money to make these things in house?

Absolutely, when you buy pre-made substitutes you are paying for so many things other than the product that it is still cheaper to pay your employees to do it. It took a long time to figure all that out but we definately save money on it.

How many employees do you have?

We started out with one besides Nate and I and that number quickly went up because we got crushed right off the bat. Now we have four full timers and three part timers beside us. We were insanely lucky to find some of the best people around to work for us. In a year and a half only two guys left, one to go to college and one just opened his own pizza shop. Go Chris!

Who taught you how to make a pizza?

My old friend Ferdinando at Bravo pizza did, he is a great man and a better pizza maker, skills apon skills.

Where did you eat the greatest pizza of your young life?

Good question. It's hard to peg down a favorite but I think Pietro's in Ingomar makes the best authentic pie in the north hills. They did everything old skool and have been making whole wheat dough and pickling their own banana peppers etc. since before I was born.

Spak Brothers L.L.C.
5107 Penn Ave.
Pittsburgh PA, 15224
412-362-SPAK

Jan 22: veggie sandwich

Having been eating a lot of meat lately,  I decided it was time for something a little lighter. So I made a veggie sandwich tonight.

I used: a white sandwich roll cut in half, cucumber, red bell peppers, provolone cheese slices, roasted garlic hummus, and o/v italian sub dressing.

The verdict: really really good! This will most likely be a regular during lunchtime for me. Very simple, very fresh, and the flavors blend well together.

Expect a lot more in the sandwich department from me soon.

Jan 21: The old lady makes breakfast.

Using the leftover pizza toppings from last nights pizza massacre, the old lady made herself a nice scramble using: Three eggs, italian sausage, garlic, red peppers, feta cheese and fresh basil.

She and I are making an effort to make sure we use all the food we buy before it goes bad, so I am glad that she was able to make such and awesome breakfast from the bones of such a horrible pizza.

This man appears to be a genius

                                                       http://slice.seriouseats.com/jvpizza/

Matt's Bar: Home of the Jucy Lucy

Since we talked so fondly of the Jucy Lucy, I thought you might like to know more about its origin.  Check it out: www.mattsbar.com

To make list

Here is a list of foodage that I plan to attempt in the near future:

1. Frito Pie
2. Poutine
3. Holy Basil
4. Empanadas
5. Cochinita Pibil
6. Chicken Cordon Bleu
7. Cubano Sandwich

Get ready.

Jan 20th: Pizza with red peppers, Italian sausage, garlic and feta

Sauce: For the sauce I used a can of Contadina tomato sauce, and the "pizza" seasoning that came in one of the spice collections the old lady and I received as a wedding gift. Added a little extra basil, some garlic powder and sugar.

Toppings: Italian sausage, Mozzarella, Feta, and Parmesan cheeses, minced garlic and diced red pepper. Also decided to add fresh basil.

Crust: one of the rare times I ever use a recipe is when I am baking something. Because I am a terrible baker, and more often than not, if I attempt to "wing it" when baking the result is crap. So I tried this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/valentinos-pizza-crust/Detail.aspx

Verdict: Mild failure. While the toppings worked out well and all of the flavors were nice together, especially the basil, the crust was crap. I baked this thing for well over twenty minutes and it never seemed fully cooked. This, I am assuming, is my fault.  Try as I might when I cook a pizza, I can never make the crust thin enough. The flavor of the fully cooked portions of the crust was actually pretty decent, its just that there was a layer beneath the toppings of gooey uncooked crust that was really distracting.

If anyone has any tips for baking a nice thin pizza crust, feel free to let me know.

Jan 19th: Jalapeno Cream Cheese Jucy Lucy and Homemade Potato Chips

Today we made Jalapeno cream cheese Jucy Lucy hamburgers and homade cajun seasoned potato chips! If you are unfamiliar with the Jucy Lucy I suggest you visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jucy_Lucy and do a little reading.

As a bonus, my brother made pretzel buns for the burgers, and they turned out great!

To make a jucy lucy, first thing you gotta do is make some seriously thin burger patties. Two patties for each burger. When you have them nice and thin, put a slice of cheese (or in this case spoon out some cream  cheese and spread it) on one of the patties. At this point we also added some jalapenos to the cream cheese.
Next thing to do is put another super thin patty on top of the first patty and seal them up around the edges trapping the cheese inside. You want them as airtight as possible. Then all thats left is to fry them up in a skillet and you've done it.

For the chips, we sliced the potatoes very thin and then sprinkled them with "cajun" seasoning. After that we just threw them into a wok filled a couple inches deep with vegetable oil.

Everything came out perfectly. I threw some avacado and roasted garlic salsa on the burger, and proceeded to eat it mercilessly.

January 18th: A jerk makes pineapple chicken, beans, and rice.

I once again set some garlic and onions to sizzle in my favorite big wok, and chopped up some jalapenos while they caramelized. This time however the little green bits of pepper were added to a sauce pan full of black beans, along with a healthy dose of cumin, onions and chili powder. By the time I had the beans simmering in their own juice the onions were nice and rusty.

In went the chicken into the wok, along with some jerk seasoning. I cooked with a very high heat, browning the bird on both sides. The whole apartment smelling great now, because nothing smells better than meat being sauteed in onions and garlic.

Rice cooking in the rice cooker, I opened a small can of pineapple chunks in their own juice and dumped that over the chicken bird. Turning down the heat I let the ingredients simmer until the pineapple juice had thickened to a nice glaze.

Plopped the rice beans and chicken onto a plate and sat down to eat.

 The beans and rice were great. I would have liked to have some lime to squeeze into the beans while the cooked, but they turned out nice and hearty and while not the best batch I have made (I attempt these beans often, and the results vary), the were still pretty damn good.

The chicken, while not a failure per se, was far from what I had intended. Much more bland than I expected. nice and tender from simmering slowly in the pineapple juice, but it didn't seem to retain as much of the pineapple flavor as I had hoped. I will have to try this one again.

Anniversary Dinner Out: Lula Cafe, Logan Square Chicago

On the 15th of every month the old lady and I go out for dinner to celebrate our wedding. Starting with this post a review of the dinner will be a monthly feature on this blog.

This last anniversary we decided dig deep in our pockets for money that we don't have to spend, and us that money to purchase dinners for each of us at Lula Cafe in Logan Square chicago.

When we arrived at Lula, it was still before the dinner rush, so it was relatively empty. We were seated at a table in a long row of closely packed tables along the cafes south wall, and were the only people sitting in that section. Our server was very nice, and explained that if we wanted to wait to order our entrees for about a half an hour the dinner specials will be available. Sounded like a good idea, so we ordered a bowl of potato leek soup to share and some drinks. The soup was good, pureed potato soup, nothing exceptional, but certainly tasty with the bread that was provided.

When dinner time arrived, the old lady was quite pleased that we had waited, because it meant that she could order a quail that had been stuffed with short ribs. Damn. I myself had half chicken that is listed on their regular cafe menu.

Both of our meals were exceptional. My chicken was cooked perfectly, layered on a bed of cooked spinach and home style potatoes, slathered in a sauce of pan drippings. Everything was great.

Her quail had a great flavor, the short rib stuffing was awesome and really complemented the gamey taste of the quail.

We will most certainly have dinner at Lula again.

Product Review: Chamucos Tequila

For our Honeymoon the old lady and I shoved ourselves into an airplane and headed for Playa del Carmen,  in the Yucatan, in Mexico. One of my main goals before leaving paradise was to stock up on and bring home a large amount of different tequilas that can be purchased for dirt cheap in mexico and give them to our friends as gifts.

After filling a basket to very close to the limit of milli-liters allowed by customs, I headed towards the register. As I passed the hundreds of bottles of Tequila that lined the walls, my eyeballs got stuck on a little bottle decorated with little prints of flying hell-demon batmen. It cost about eight dollars U.S. so i threw it in with my other purchases and checked out.

I am not a tequila expert, but the best tequila I have ever had in my mouth is called Tequila Chamucos.

Jan 17th: Pork Chops with Orange Juice Pan Sauce and Mashed potatoes

Although this meal was cooked earlier today before I had the idea to start this blog, I thought I would share it with you so that the first meal I write about could be a success story:

Chopped up a massive amount of garlic, I dunno, maybe six big cloves, into fairly small pieces, and tossed that with some diced yellow onion into a big wok with some sizzling olive oil and let that caramelize for a while while I chopped up a pretty good sized jalapeno and threw that in as well. On top of that I shook a generous helping of Penzey's Spices (more about them in a later post) Cajun spice blend, and some black pepper and let that go for a while. When the onions looked good and rusty I added two bone in pork chops (after poking alot of holes in them with a salad fork) and browned them on both sides. When they were nice and tan I poured in some tropicana orange juice so it covered maybe 2/3 of the way up the sides of the chop and let them simmer.

The mashed potatoes were left over from the meat loaf massacre the night before, so I just warmed them up, and steamed some broccoli to get some green on the plate.

When I figured the chops were done I spooned out a heaping pile of mashed potatoes and slapped it into the center of the plate, leaned a chop up against it, took a ladle and scooped up the orange juice/jalapeno/onion/garlic pan reduction and drizzled it generously over the chop and the potatoes. Garnished with the broccoli this turned out to be a really pretty plate of food. Even the old lady thought so.

 Fact: Pork goes good with citrus. Period. The glazy sort of sauce that resulted from slow simmering the chops in orange juice was outstanding. The pork was just the right texture, easily cut with a butter knife. The sauce went great with the mashed potatoes, and the broccoli added a nice clean vegetable taste, steamed, so nothing but the actual taste of the plant.

Next time I think I will try it with grapefruit juice.

First things first

I am not a professional chef. I have no formal training. I do many things incorrectly. I make many horrible mistakes when I cook. Sometimes food turns out soggy or burnt. Meat loaf falls apart, tacos walk of the plate, the sky turns black and and the stars crumble. But I love to cook. I don't like to use "recipes". Instead, I sort of get an idea of what I think the finished meal should be, and then start making things up. I don't measure things, always eyeball it. When things turn out lousy its a bummer, but more often than not the food I make is better than passable, and on the rare occasion the meal turns out amazing, and when it does, it advocates for another dinner experiment the next day.

This blog is not intended as a resource for recipes. I will list the ingredients I used in the meal. I will try and describe the methods of cooking used. I will not offer any specific measurements of ingredients, simply because I will not remember, because I won't have been paying attention.

The purpose of this publication is to hopefully inspire you to recklessly experiment with food in your home, by sharing with you my successes and failures.