Homemade Pizza Company makes, well, homemade pizzas that you can pick up and take home to bake (they also have seven really delicious salads, cookies and ice cream). HPC has stores in Illinois, Minnesota, and D.C. and uses really fresh, top-notch ingredients. You can select one of their 12 "favorite pizzas," which include fun choices like their B.L.T. (hickory-smoked bacon, fresh spinach, aged Parmigiano-Reggiano, fresh garlic, and tomato sauce) or the Georgia (cumin-scented Santa Fe chicken sausage, poblano peppers and Ricotta cheese). These favorites generally run about $17-$19 for a 14-inch pizza, or $15-$17 for a 12-inch pizza. You can also build your own pizza from a list of 45 ingredients.
I first heard about this place from Mark, who, when he lived in Chicago used to get these Homemade Pizzas all the time. He would go on and on about how great these pizzas were. Eventually we realized that there was a store in upper Northwest at 4857 Massachusetts Ave. NW (over by American University's law school). Because there isn't a close Metro stop, I decided one day to plan my run so that its terminus was the Homemade Pizza Company, and I could pick up a pizza for me and Mark that night and three other pizzas for my poker party the next evening, then catch a cab home.
I made it the the store just fine, and the employees were incredibly friendly and helpful as I ordered 4 large pizzas, a salad and a cookie (for Mark!). Once I got the pizzas, which were a little unwieldy, I spend the next 15 minutes trying to hail a cab (I had very stupidly left my phone at home). However, I did not realize that apparently cabs are kept out of that part of town by a magical forcefield. I'm not kidding. I didn't see a single one.
Next, I tried to get on a bus in the direction of Dupont. After waiting for 20 more minutes at the bus stop, I was finally jumped onto the first bus that came to the stop, eager to finally get home. About 10 minutes into that ride, I realized that the bus was decidedly not going my direction, so I got off and wandered around upper Northwest for the next 45 minutes, trying to find a cab, a bus, a bike messenger, anyone who could take me home. Note that at this time, it was the middle of August's sweltering heat, I had just gone on a 5 mile run, and I was now hauling around 4 large pizzas, a salad and a cookie. Eventually I did manage to get a cab to pick me up and take me home. I stumbled in the door, where Mark was serenely typing away, shoved the pizzas in the fridge, gulped down a beer and growled, "This damned pizza better be worth it."
It was. The pizza was delicious even after my hour-and-a-half trek. That being said, I'd kind of written off ever having it again - it just wasn't worth the hassle. But now, yay! Looking forward to lots of great Homemade Pizza in my future.
Adam and I drove past the upper NW location the weekend before last and I pointed out that that was where you'd run to. He couldn't believe it!
ReplyDeleteRight? It sucked. It makes me never want to venture out of Dupont again.
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