The Artichoke Fail (And Truly Great Pizza)

For Christmas, my boyfriend gave me a written note promising to take me to a local pizza place that he'd been to and really liked.   (He got me a couple other things as well...not just an IOU).  This past weekend, we finally had the chance to go.  I got my mouth all set for pizza, and we headed over there.  Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered that they had gone out of business! What a bummer! I hate when little local places can't make it.  :(  We were both really disappointed, but I think he was even more so.  He'd been so excited to take me.  After deciding that we still were in the mood for really good pizza, we headed over to one of our favorite pizza places.  Tony Sacco's is a chain, but they make some amazing pizza.  They use a big coal fired oven, and the crust is perfect.  We perused the menu for a bit, and then settled on the Marco Polo pizza. 

Let me tell you, I find going to new pizza places so much more exciting than I used to.  A couple years ago, it would not have mattered what the place was, I would have been ordering a cheese or pepperoni and cheese pizza.  There are so many more options open to me now! It's a good thing to because Mr. Boyfriend doesn't think a cheese or pepperoni and cheese pizza is worth much.  He needs more interesting toppings. The Marco Polo pizza held tomato sauce, chicken, artichoke, and sundried tomato.  I think I had artichoke once before on a pizza at Big Al's, but I couldn't really taste it.  It had been the most bland pizza I'd ever eaten.  I've had stuff made with sundried tomatos...flat breads and feta and stuff, but I'd not had them on pizza before.  This pizza was a whole new experience for me.  When it came out, I ate several bites of the pizza all together. (I've always been one to eat the toppings first, then the cheese, then the crust...I'm growing out of that on really good pizza, but I still do it at someplace like Domino's or Pizza Hut.) The crust, sauce, chicken, and sundried tomatoes were all amazing.  Honestly, I think Tony Sacco's is my favorite pizza place I've tried yet.  It was so delicious.  However, the more I ate it, the more the taste of the artichoke bothered me.  I picked a little off to try on it's own to make sure that's what it was, and yes...ick.  My boyfriend, who loves artichoke, said it had a funny taste to it, so I'm hoping that there is still hope for me to like artichoke someday.  Saturday was not the day though.  I ended up picking most of the artichoke off the pizza.  Thankfully, the pizza was delicious enough to make up for the icky artichoke.  We even ate the leftovers warmed up for dinner that night.