Careful charging

By Mai Truong

I’m suffocating myself with two large pizzas from West Coast. The one above is No. 7 The Godfather, with tomato sauce, pepperoni, salami, onion, mozzarella, olives (which I enjoy picking off), pepper rings (the yellow thing, very mild), and green bell pepper. No. 3 Pesto Chicken sounds excellent but turns out dry like hay in the shed, I never knew tomato sauce was so important at keeping it wet.

West Coast is good pizza at moderate price in a moderate factory-looking store. There is no chair or table for dine-in, but there’s a wide unadorned counter for orders and pickups, where you can stand awkwardly watching the guys throwing and spreading cheese and sauce on your pies before swifting them into the ovens.

There are two big fridges full of soft drinks, a delivery map of the area, a sign that says “Don’t put pizza boxes on the floor” in English and Portuguese, a few Brazilian magazines scattered in one forlorn corner. They only take credit card for purchases over 10 dollars, something I’m not so fond of at local stores around Berkeley.

There’s really nothing spectacular about this recently opened pizza shack, but what makes me call them time and again is their special deal with cheese sticks: roughly $4 off for one huge crusty cheese pizza when ordered with any other baked pie. And I’m crazy about cheese sticks :-D. I eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Really, the other pizza is just an excuse.

Note: if paying with credit card, show the delivery man your credit card. They’re so careful with charging you they need to get a carbon copy of the card number. First time I’ve encountered this in my years with food-to-your-door. Is it a common thing?