For a well-cooked pizza, try the Park Inn

Several years ago — too many years to comfortably remember — my former Spokesman-Review colleague John Blanchette and I would go to the Park Inn. To drink, sure, but also to eat pizza. In those days, I was a vegetarian, and so we would usually order green pepper and mushroom. And when the pizza would come, in the PI’s trademark Albano’s cut , we would wash it down with cold pitchers of whatever beer was cheapest.

Hey, we were struggling sportswriters. Then I moved over to the features desk, and my tastes gradually changed. I found other pizza spots, and I stopped drinking so much beer.

The other night, though, I met my friend Jim at the PI. His wife had undergone a surgical procedure and was sleeping. So he walked across the street, we took a look at the menu — and then we ordered pizza. Only not the way I once did.

Jim prefers his meat, and I wasn’t about to argue, so we ordered the ML Special, which was a combo of meats and cheese with fresh tomatoes spread over the top. And though it was a bit overcooked (the crust was so crunchy and brown that I could hardly cut it with a knife), and we had to eat it before the cheese congealed and became as thick as bubble gum, the flavor was as good as I recalled.

Oh, and for beer? Each of us had a cold corona. One Corona. Yeah, we’re getting old. So old that the mess in the bowl at the bottom of the photo is the remains of the dinner salad I ordered just to make sure I was eating something healthy — besides the tomatoes.