Pizzeria Fortunado - Smyrna

My research team (my wife Karyn) tirelessly scoured the Internet for our next test case. Pizzeria Fortunado (http://www.pizzeriafortunato.com/) was voted best of Atlanta in 2008 and the reviews and pictures looked promising.

We set out for the approximately 30 minute drive (from our house). We arrived and from the outside things looked promising as it sat as an end-cap to a strip shopping center with a big white "suburban eyesore SPECIALS sign" that Kids Eat Free on Mondays, and discount Beer and Drinks on other nights. We walk inside and the interior is understated with high stools to sit at the bar and grated Parmesan, oregano, and red pepper flakes on the table. We are off to a good start. I happened to catch a glance of an already made pizza behind the counter and although the size of the pizza looked promising I could already tell something wasn't right with the crust. The bubbles were on the back end of the crust but the back crust itself wasn't defined enough. Too flat. the crust needed more elevation.

The ambience we liked. They had great wooden high rise tables and it was a nice day so the patio was open and we sat at a half inside/half outside table. I felt like we were in a NY pizza place. Nothing overly exciting. The way it should be.

We ordered. The usual. Pizza and salad. An 18" pizza. None of this 10" nonsense. The only other choice was a personal or a 20". A real man's pizza. I wanted to try the white as well as the plain cheese so we ordered a half and half.

The salad arrived and it looked and tasted great. Shredded mozzarella (which bodes well that the pizza would also use shredded mozzarella vs. strips or blobs), ripe tomatoes and excellent balsamic vinaigarrette dressing.

If I was writing a salad blog this blog would be nothing but postives. But this isn't a salad blog so back to the pizza.

Soon into eating the salad the waitress brought out the pizza rack. It was great to see the pizza rack as I knew a proper sized pizza was on its way.

The pizza arrived. The size as expected, proper. The crust though, something wasn't right. Like the pizza behind the counter, the bubbles were there but the elevation was wrong. I took my first piece, folded it in half and it made a slight cracking noise. Uh-oh. It shouldn't really crack it should bend with a slight tear at the back portion. It should also drip some oil. That didn't happen. I took a bite.

The taste of the cheese and the sauce was about right. Karyn said it had a strange perfume taste. I did not agree with her on this one. The crust was too chewy. Karyn and I both agreed that perhaps the crust was overcooked. We held the pizza up and looked at the pizza from the side and we were able to see the crust sidewall browned too far up towards the top of the pizza.

The white pizza was only OK. Same crust issues and as Karyn said "its like they used some kind of cheese spread vs. different types of cheese and globs of ricotta." I thought it was OK. Karyn is a harsher critic, her response "It's crap, it's all crap".

Well it looks like the quest continues. My research team is back at it again and my waste line is in jeopardy. It appears Karyn won't stop until we find one that we can both agree is worth going back to. We most likely won't be back to Pizzeria Fortunado although we do wish the waitress the best of luck with her pregnancy and pending new arrival. The service I might add was excellent.

Note: If anyone from the restaurant reads this it might be helpful if you add the street address of the restaurant to your website.
=============================================================

Feel free to submit potential targets to our research team at atlantapizza@ymail.com. We will be sure to give credit where credit is due if your selection proves a winner. There will be some type of reward I Just don't know what that will be as of yet.