Gracie's Apizza
★★★★★ 4.5 (71)
"Hoooo boy. This place is special. Maybe the best place I've been to in Portland. Maybe the best in my life.Walking in, it's got a great vibe. Empty cans of tomato sauce on the tables. Modern, but not pretentious. Nice bathroom. Window pane showing the kitchen in the back. Not one of those chaotic kitchens. Very clean, spacious and professional looking.My favorite part was probably that, behind the cash register, you can see the big pizza oven and the guy making the pizzas. So cool. They've also got a lady making salads and stuff in the open.The menu is small. Only a handful of items. Which I think is awesome. It points towards a focus on quality.Oh, and tips are included in the prices. When was the last time you saw that? I thought it was great. It's how things work in most of the world outside of America. More importantly in my opinion, is that it demonstrates a deep care for the customers experience, and a prioritization of it over (short term) profit. That sort of thing really gives off good vibes to me, which contributes to the whole experience.Anyway, let's get to the food.My girlfriend and I got a margherita pie, the daily special pie, and special ice cream sundae. It was all incredible.My favorite was the margherita pie. It was so good that I had to get a second one after we finished desert.- The dough was great. Pretty good crispy on the outside and softness on the inside. I would have preferred the crust to have been a little puffier though.- Nice amount of charring. It added a little pop, but only a hint. The right amount.- A little dusting of flour left on it, if that makes sense. I really liked it. Kinda gives a bit of a raw, organic vibe to it.- The non-crust dough had a nice bend to it. It's not one of those pies where you can hold a slice by the crust and it stays straight. Which is usually what you want, I think.- I really, really liked the sourdough flavor it had. Very fun and pleasant. Somehow it comes through mostly as an aftertaste, which is perfect. Like when you take a bite it doesn't distract from the sauce and cheese, but then as you're finishing chewing, those sourdough notes come through.- Moving on to the sauce. It was excellent. Very fresh tasting. Not one of those cooked-all-sunday, sweet, deep, red sauces. No. There's a lot of pizza places with sweeter sauces that I've really liked, but this was not one of them. I've also had spicier red sauces that I've loved, but this wasn't one of them either. It was just a very simple, fresh, high quality, tomato sauce. I don't know what a "fresh" taste actually means, but it doesn't matter: this still tasted fresh. Something with a little acidic pop to it, but not too much. It was good. It cuts through the dough, oil and cheese.- It was very slightly chunky. Tomatoes were probably hand crushed. Personally I prefer sauce to be completely smooth, but this was also fine. Probably added to the experience of freshness.- The cheese was nice. Not your traditional fresh mozzarella. It felt like it had a little bit of tang to it. Maybe mixed in some sort of cheddar? I dunno.- It also had some saltiness. Which was good. The pizza in general had enough salt to bring out all of the flavors, but not really to the point where it tastes salty, which is perfect. I feel like other pizzas tend to be undersalted.- The basil on top was perfectly crisped. Not burnt, not uncooked.The daily special pie was also insanely good. I forget exactly what it had. Something like: pesto, garlic, zucchini, red onions, hot honey, some sort of cheese. I dunno. What I do know is that it was a huge flavor bomb. It smacks you in the face with all of those flavors.The pesto, the roasted garlic comes through. Red onions are cooked but also have a little bit of bite and crunch left in them. The sweetness and heat from that hot honey. Mmm. The sourdough from the dough comes through at the end. I did think that it was a little too sweet overall, but still incredible.The ice cream sundae was awesome.- That burnt honey ice cream was awesome. Creamy, salty, a little sweet, maybe a little savoriness.- The whipped cream or whatever that was on the side was clearly high quality and freshly made. Delicious.- The bread crumbs felt like they were toasted with butter and a bit of salt. Very good. I think they were a little too broken down though. I would have preferred bigger chunks so that you get a little more crunch in the dish for that textural contrast.- The blueberries were pretty good. The warmth was a great contrast to the cold ice cream. However, they weren't excellent. A little mild in flavor. I would have preferred more tartness and sweetness.Prices were incredibly reasonable. I forget exactly, but pies are something like $15-20 including tip and feed one person. For this quality of food, it's 100% a total steal. I'd pay like $50-100 for one of these pies, no joke.Like I said, this place is special and possibly the best place I've ever been to."
"We've been here so many times on our way to Al-Amir Bakery. Last time we came here the bakery was out of business. We decided to give them a shot since we watched the restaurant come together from the beginning. The place is immaculately clean. It feels like you're eating in someone's kitchen which for all practical purposes you are; since, it's a family business and the dough is made by the mother... Everything we've tried so exceeded expectations. We liked it so much that we came back two days later. We also wanted to support a growing business."
