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3 hours ago, Simul Parikh said:

Pizza is 1. Crust 2. Cheese 3. Sauce and least importantly 4. toppings. If you bungle one of top 3 components, you're not making a top pizza and that's that.

I’m generally in the “Simul” camp.  I further believe that crust can make or break pizzas.  OTOH, Fireworks Arlington has pies on the menu where the toppings are phenomenal and I’m less cognizant of the base sauce or cheese.  That makes those pies excellent IMHO.

Their pies are all thin crust.  When they first opened the crust was Terrible rendering those pies objectionable even with excellent toppings.

To each his own...eh?

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There's a rubric. A RUBRIC! 

I'm not saying you can't enjoy All Purpose. I just don't think it is objectively the best.

And, online narrative reviews on a forum from mostly anonymous and untrained individuals is as objective as it gets

So, based on this RUBRIC, I guess it's not a crust issue. The crust tastes good. The objective criteria is the "lacks appropriate amount of cheese". 

I propose we use this RUBRIC in all further pizza discussion. It's a valuable tool and this way we can speak the same language. 

All Purpose - 4 for crust, 4 for sauce, 2 for cheese, overall 3 - 13/20. That's a good pie. Just not the best. 

(Slow day at the clinic. I'm waiting for lunch)

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22 minutes ago, dslee said:

While my go-to pizza is a Neapolitan-style pizza, I especially enjoy Mike Friedman’s pies when perfectly executed. There is no margin for error to execute the perfect crust…from dough to oven to pass to table.  All-Purpose signature crust can offer the right balance of both crisp and chew.  I love alternating bites for optimal enjoyment!  The evening of April 15, 2018 was so enjoyable! I almost teared up like the ending of the movie Cinema Paradiso, there were moments in succession that triggered fond food memories both as a child and adult. 

You already posted this.  

I'm not saying you can't enjoy All Purpose. I just don't think it is objectively the best.

From the picture, the pizza may taste good but it looks poorly executed.  So one can enjoy it somewhat and bitch at the same time.

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A friend and I had lunch at the Riverfront location before today's Nats' game.  We shared the Caesar salad and a Buona pizza (tomato, mozz, pepperoni, Calabrian chili honey, basil).  The salad had a pleasant, distinctive lemon hit that kept the dressing from being too rich. The honey chili on the pizza was fantastic. At first I thought the pepperoni was really greasy but then realized it was the honey drizzled over it. It was fabulous paired with the pepperoni. I liked the bubbles on the crust and thought the char was decent. Good pizza in our estimation. We each had a DC Brau Full Count lager. Service was great. The view of the water from both outside and inside was delightful. For an overall experience, I enjoyed it more than Salt Line. Of course, if I want seafood, I would go to Salt Line.

I'm attaching photos. I tried to make the pizza smaller, but it's not working. The plate shows a fraction of the salad. It came in large bowl and we had 5 - 6 servings each.

Um, Salt Line or the DC government or somebody needs to label more prominently the small curb.ledge/step that goes up from the boardwalk to the pavilion next to the outdoor seating next to Salt Line. The face plant I did when my foot caught the edge of that was not pretty. As I was lying on the ground and trying to get up, I saw two short strips of yellow tape along the edge, which seemed woefully inadequate as a warning.

AP Buona.jpg

AP Caesar.jpg

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50 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Let me try [like the lady in Airplane that speaks jive].  Are you saying you actually like those 2 big uncovered mounds taking up prime cheesy real estate?  

I speak Confucion.

I like the bubbles on the crust. I hoarded the pieces that had the most prominent ones. I only regret not ordering a side of the cheesy dipping sauce (I forget what they called it--fonduta, maybe?) for dunking the bones in.  I like air bubbles in bread too.

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51 minutes ago, Pat said:

I like the bubbles on the crust. I hoarded the pieces that had the most prominent ones. I only regret not ordering a side of the cheesy dipping sauce (I forget what they called it--fonduta, maybe?) for dunking the bones in.  I like air bubbles in bread too.

Bubble pieces are prized in my neck of the woods.  They are always the first ones grabbed.

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I have not been to the Shaw location so can’t speak to the difference in pizza (or anything). But I’ve been meaning to post this since April. This was the beer list when I was there three months ago. I took a picture because there was 11 draft beers and only 2 were IPAs. It made me giddy (and grateful). 

 

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I have been craving pizza like nobody's business for more than 5 months. Early in the pandemic I tried a recipe for a quick baking powder crust pizza, which might have worked except I used whole wheat flour and it was way too doughy and dense.

For my birthday, I wanted pizzeria pizza. Real pizza. I also missed going to All-Purpose before Nats' games. So I ordered from All-Purpose and my husband (bless him) picked up the order. (They do delivery on the toast app and that goes through Door Dash for delivery, but my husband was fine with driving over to Navy Yard to the restaurant.)

I ordered one RW meal (Buona pizza with Calabrian chili honey, which has been my favorite there; AP Caesar with gem lettuces, which I usually order; and tiramisu, which we haven't eaten yet but it's looking seductive in the refrigerator). I also ordered a Childish Bambino pizza (with bacon, sausage, and pepperoni -- and named for, ahem, Juan Soto), a House salad, and a couple beers.

To my surprise, I liked the smoky, meaty Childish Bambino pizza more than the Buono. The heat of the honey pepper didn't come through as much as in the past, and there are too many variables to know why. I will be getting the CB again. Both salads were awesome and ample. This was a dinner, a lunch, and a slice and tiramisu leftover.

Oh, and my husband started to leave the pickup window and the employee handling the order realized the beer wasn't in the bag and chased after him.

Birthday stars for AP.

 

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The staff at All-Purpose Riverfront went above and beyond yesterday. We were at game 1 of the Nats - Mets doubleheader (April covid-postponed game) and I had made a reservation for 4:30, nearly 3 1/2 hours after the 7 inning game was supposed to start. The game moved very, very slowly. The stands were emptying of Nats' fans as the score ticked up relentlessly to 9 - 0 in favor of the Mets and time dragged and dragged. Then...the Nats came back and tied it! About 4:15 we called AP to explain we were at the ongoing game and would be late, and it sounded like they said they would try to seat us when we got there, but it was hard to hear.

By the time the Nats were breaking my heart by losing in 9 innings, I was famished. Thinking back, I realized I'd eaten very little over the previous 48 hours. We arrived at the restaurant 45 minutes late, and they knew who we were just by our mentioning we had called. (Could we be the only people with reservations for the projected between-games period who had called?) Our outside table was waiting for us! Soon after, there was an hour-long wait for tables.

I was unbelievably grateful they had held that table for us. So grateful. So hungry.

I ate half of a Bueno pizza and most of a gem Caesar salad, and my husband polished off the Sanrdinian tomato salad with toasted fregola and herb vinaigrette (very green!) and an entire Childish Bambino pizza. Their salads are always good and ample enough to be a whole meal sometimes, but not yesterday. I could have eaten even more of the pizza but decided it would be wise not to overstuff myself.

Anyhow, before I head back over for my 5th game in 7 days, may I take a moment to say (or type): "Yay, All-Purpose!" (FWIW, I noticed a while back that they now have a sign out that says "watch your step" right by where I tripped a couple years ago.)

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We were also at the early Saturday Nats game and also planned to go to AP after the game before attending the second.  I used Resy to 'join the waitlist' before we tied the game.  I got an automated text in about 10 minutes offering us a table - extra innings, so I replied to cancel.  As the game was ending I used Resy again to join the waitlist.  We rushed over and presented ourselves at the host stand.  The moment I said Resy waitlist they greeted me by name and offered us a choice of tables in the auxiliary outdoor seating.  It was beautiful, there was a view of the river and we were in the shade.  The food and service were excellent as usual.  We heard the national anthem as we waited in line to reenter the stadium.  All Purpose for the win.

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8 minutes ago, aivlys said:

We were also at the early Saturday Nats game and also planned to go to AP after the game before attending the second.  I used Resy to 'join the waitlist' before we tied the game.  I got an automated text in about 10 minutes offering us a table - extra innings, so I replied to cancel.  As the game was ending I used Resy again to join the waitlist.  We rushed over and presented ourselves at the host stand.  The moment I said Resy waitlist they greeted me by name and offered us a choice of tables in the auxiliary outdoor seating.  It was beautiful, there was a view of the river and we were in the shade.  The food and service were excellent as usual.  We heard the national anthem as we waited in line to reenter the stadium.  All Purpose for the win.

That's interesting. I didn't know there was a waitlist option. I have the Resy app but could not get it to recognize this reservation, even though I got confirmation texts via Resy to acknowledge making the reservation. It wouldn't show any reservation history for me at all, despite using it a number of times. While I didn't use Resy to make the reservation initially because the relevant time slots were all gone when I tried to make a reservation several days beforehand, everything integrated with Resy after I made the reservation via phone, except for the crucial detail of the app not working properly.

(Playing around with it later at home, I finally got it to work by signing out and back in again. Functional equivalent of rebooting, I guess.)

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This time I got the Riverdale and my husband got the Marinara (no cheese except some Parm scattered over at the end--one of the deck oven pizzas). He got the Caesar salad and I had the Italian. Their salads are huge and a great value.

Salt Line was completely slammed (maybe there was a Zimmerman event there?), but we probably didn't even need the AP reservation, which I stressed over as the game went longer and longer. Wait til next year or something.

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A little story. I hadn't been in for a while and they sent me a $5 off takeout or delivery code. I was going to be near the Navy Yard location around dinnertime so I put in an order. I would have liked pizza and it would have been much cheaper, but I had a long walk home and holding a pizza box flat that whole time seemed too much. Since I usually get pizza when I'm eating in and sometimes salad too, I went with items I may or may not have had at some point but which looked good and would travel in bags.

The order was for a Caesar salad and a house salad and eggplant parm. I could not decide if I should get the meatballs or not. After dillydallying, I decided against and put the order in. Then, D'oh!, I realized I forgot the $5 code. So I put a second order in for the meatballs and used the code. It looked okay, but it didn't take. Ugh.

I got to the restaurant and signs they were closing in a bit for a private event, so just asked for a manager. It didn't seem like the simplest process for her, but she was able to take the $5 off. I brought the food home and reheated the eggplant and meatballs for a little while in the oven. We enjoyed it. I really like their salads.

Each of the four items was in the $16 - $18 range, whereas one pizza with extras would be about $22, so I wasn't too bargain savvy here. But the nice manager did get me the $5.

 

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This is our go-to spot before DC United and Washington Spirit matches. We're always able to grab seats at the bar, and the service is very good, and pre-match we get happy hour prices. I'll also note that a few months ago they expanded the Navy Yard location's menu, adding items that previously were just on the Shaw location menu. 

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