Search Results for: howie's artisan pizzeria

Dining Outside at Howie’s Artisan Pizza

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House-made pastas like this fettuccine bolgonese star at Howie's Artisan Pizza.
House-made pastas like this fettuccine bolgonese star at Howie’s Artisan Pizza.

One of Town & Country Village’s most enduring restaurants is Howie’s Artisan Pizza. But now this popular 13-year-old Palo Alto pizzeria has added handmade pastas to its lineup, too.

Chef-Owner Howard Bulka had plans pre-pandemic to expand the compact kitchen ever so much to accommodate a pasta-making station. Of course, those plans got pushed back with the advent of Covid. But now, his plans have come to fruition.

Not only can you enjoy the new pastas served in the dining room, but also on the pergola-covered outdoor dining area just in front of the restaurant. What’s more, you can even buy fresh pasta ($9), sauces ($9.50 per pint), and even frozen baked ziti ($22), manicotti ($13.95), and lasagna bolognese ($23) to take home.

A meatball, mushroom and broccoli pizza.
A meatball, mushroom and broccoli pizza.

My husband and I chose to enjoy our meal outside on a breezy evening, starting with the chopped salad ($15.25), a crunchy mix of romaine tossed with cubes of salami, Swiss cheese, cucumber, chopped egg, and green onion. With the ranch dressing on the side, you can add as little or as much as you want, controlling just how super-leaded you want your chopped salad to be.

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Look What Howie’s Artisan Pizza in Redwood City Is Cooking Up — A Sweet Surprise

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Prosciutto and arugula pizza at the new Howie's Artisan Pizza in Redwood City.

Prosciutto and arugula pizza at the new Howie’s Artisan Pizza in Redwood City.

 

If you’re already a fan of Howie’s Artisan Pizza in Palo Alto, you’ll want to check out its second location, which just opened three weeks ago in downtown Redwood City.

If you’ve yet to experience Howie’s, here’s a great excuse to finally do so.

That’s because the second Howie’s is larger. The dining room is about the same size in both locations. But the Redwood City one boasts an expansive, heated patio that essentially doubles the seating capacity.

Howie’s in Redwood City also has a much more extensive menu. The Palo Alto location only has a pizza oven. The Redwood City location has that same primo oven, plus a full-on kitchen. That means you’ll not only find impeccable pizzas with what I think is probably the best crust in the Peninsula/South Bay, but also burgers, awesome fries, and desserts like banana cream pie and rhubarb crisp.

What’s more, this Howie’s also has a liquor license and a bar manager, Ryan Ingram, with some serious mixology chops. That means he’s making their own grenadine for the Scofflow ($11), a blend of Templeton rye, vermouth and lemon; and his own pineapple gum syrup for his namesake Ryan’s Pisco Punch ($10).

The large, heated patio seats as many as the dining room.

The large, heated patio seats as many as the dining room.

The dining room.

The dining room.

Cocktail action.

Cocktail action.

Chef-Owner Howard Bulka is already contemplating adding nightly blue plate specials. He also plans to start brunch service soon, which will include a very special treat you won’t want to miss. But more on that later.

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At Howie’s, It’s All About the Crust

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Meatballs at Howie's Artisan Pizzeria in Palo Alto.

Meatballs at Howie’s Artisan Pizzeria in Palo Alto.

Howard Bulka is one of those chefs who will get fixated on something, then research and tweak it to death until it’s just right.

Such was the case when he decided to trade decades of preparing fancy, fine-dining, prixe-fixe menus for pizza instead.

Howie’s Artisan Pizza opened in Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village four years ago. Crowds have been lining up ever since for the pizzas, constructed with a bread flour-dough, which takes two days to mix and proof before being turned into pies that are baked in a gas-fired brick oven at 600 degrees for 5-6 minutes.

These are multi-dimensional crusts with puffy edges of air holes that provide chew and crunch, and centers that get thinner and crisper.

The whimsical art work on the walls.

The whimsical art work on the walls.

The dining room.

The dining room.

Recently, I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant. We started with the Chinese Chicken Salad ($10). The generous-sized salad is more than enough for two to share. A mountain of chopped romaine is tossed with cucumber, green onions, peanuts, cilantro, chicken chunks, crispy won ton strips and a creamy, mustardy dressing. It’s almost like an Asian version of a chopped salad.

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Crazy For Cupola Pizzeria

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A meat lover's dream pizza at Cupola Pizzeria.

I don’t know if it’s the 5,000-pound Italian wood-fired oven that they managed somehow to lug up to the top of the San Francisco Centre shopping mall. Or the fact that they’re cooked in a fiery 850-degree heat over almond wood.

But the pizza crusts at Cupola Pizzeria are light, airy and downright ethereal.

When I was invited as a guest of the restaurant recently, our server even joked that the delicate crust makes it entirely too easy to polish off a whole pie by one’s self.

The casual restaurant, done up with bar-height tables for eating, is a great place to take a load off after spending a day perusing all the shops below, especially because it has a good selection of wines and cocktails. Opened last summer, this the Lark Creek Restaurant Group’s first pizzeria. And it does the company proud.

The monster of an oven.

The casual, lively dining room.

Order a la carte or enjoy the “La Festa di Tutte Le Feste” (Feast of All Feasts) for $30 per person. The latter gives you small tasting portions of an assortment of antipasti, starters and pastas, along with a pizza or two (depending on how many are in your party), plus dessert, making it a great deal for those who want to try almost everything on the menu.

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Howie’s Artisan Pizza Delivers on the Crust

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Wild mushroom pizza at Howie's Artisan Pizzeria.

It’s high and puffy on the edges, with airy, rolling caverns that provide great chew and crunch.

It’s thinner, yet still crisp, in the center. And when the wheel of a pizza cutter slices through it, there’s a distinctive “crack, crack, crackle” sound.

“The pizza talks to me now,” says Chef Howard Bulka of the just-opened Howie’s Artisan Pizza in Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village.

Indeed, it does.

After decades of running fine-dining restaurants in the Bay Area, Bulka has what he has always dreamed of — a top-notch pizzeria he can proudly call his own.

It may have opened less than two weeks ago, but Howie’s is already selling up to 250 pies a day now and packing in the crowds for his version of East Coast pizza modeled after Frank Pepe’s of New Haven, Conn., which Bulka worships.

Chef Howard Bulka talks pizza.

The Rolls Royce of New York pizza ovens.

Cheese pizza made with Grande mozzarella of Wisconsin, the cheese of choice of East Coast pies.

But dough is a funny thing. It’s a living, breathing, finicky mass that can be as unpredictable as Kanye West.

“I’ve been cooking 30 years, and I’ve never been perplexed as I have been by pizza dough,” says Bulka, who invited me in for a taste last week.

He’s still making subtle tweaks to the bread flour-dough, which takes two days to mix and proof before being turned into pies that are baked in a gas-fired brick oven at 600 degrees for 5-6 minutes.

The crust is already a winner in my book. This is a pizza crust with real character. It has that nice fermented flavor of artisan bread, and there is a variance of textures that holds your interest bite after bite.

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