There I was, left on the corner of Santa Fé and Coronel Díaz, where I’d left off on my last pizza series post. Across the street, two cafes, while both offer pizza on their menus, it isn’t their raison d’être, so Ristretto and Tolón, unless someone tells me otherwise, got scratched off the possibles list. I headed up along Díaz, the continuation of the 92 bus route…

…and at the next corner found the Accademia della pizza at #1807, corner of Güemes. I mean, how can you go wrong at the Pizza Academy? Could those be famous last words? Thankfully, it turns out, no. In fact, this was some of the best pizza I’ve had in the last eight years here in BA. The crust is flavorful, with a charred bottom, crunchy surface, soft in the center but well developed with lots of yeasty bubbles. The sauce is zesty and includes fresh chopped tomatoes, the cheese is plentiful but not overwhelming (and for my porteño friends, they offer “double cheese”) and is high quality. It’s nicely seasoned. It comes in three sizes, the individual is a bit smaller than I might otherwise want, but perfect for a day of pizza hopping, I’d go for the small the next time, and there definitely will be a next time. Oh, and friendly, efficient service to boot. It’s places like this that make little research projects of this sort worth doing!

I’d like to say it was just the memory of such a good pizza at the Academy that makes the FuenSanta one, Charcas 3301 at the corner of Coronel Díaz, pale by comparison. But it’s not. This was simply bad pizza. The crust was a “soggy bottom” and uncooked on top in the center, the cheese was oily and poor quality, the sauce was tasteless, or maybe it’s just because there was virtually none on it that I couldn’t taste it. The whole thing was doused with salt. Truly unconscionable in the pizza world. I didn’t even finish the one slice removed from the pie it was so bad. The only thing recommendable was that the service was friendly – though I found it interesting that after I pushed away the pizza without eating more than a few bites, the waiter just brought over the check without a word. I did note that not one other person in this “pizzeria” was eating pizza, they were all eating other dishes. Interesting indeed.

7 down. 85 to go.