U.S Pizza

please come back, I never stopped missing you.

Welcome back to yet another “Ankita makes her childhood memories into Substack content” write up. Super excited for this one.

This is an ode to the best pizza I’ve had my entire life. I use a lot of “maybes” or “i thinks” with my opinions. But as you might’ve noticed, I haven’t with this particular one. I'll say it again. Louder. I'll shout it from the rooftops actually.

US Pizza is the best pizza I’ve had my entire life.

Here’s a little context - US Pizza, my lovely people, is a pizza outlet just like your local Dominoes or your Pizza Hut. Only a million times better tasting to my tastebuds. And this is coming from probably one of the most cheese/pizza/cheese garlic bread obsessed person you might meet in your life. Pizza is my dream food. So dreamy, I like to gap my pizza ventures because of how much importance I give to the bread. My last pizza venture was probably a year ago. I did learn to make a sandwich that CLOSELY resembles pizza but that doesn’t count.

pinterest

Back to U.S Pizza.

This was the outlet my mother used to take us (my brother and I) to, after work. During the weekends when we didn’t have school, Amma would take us with her to work at the tuition center she taught at. And if we were super lucky, she would drive the car into the turning towards the restaurant and I’d try my best to act all non-chalant so that my chalant-ness doesn’t reveal how much my heart was craving for the car to turn into that very familiar turning.

U.S Pizza in that building, was located at the topmost floor. The way I climbed the staircase to the restaurant would be absolutely disrespectful to the ones at school. It was my staircase to paradise.

Glass door opens, and lo and behold, the best place in the world. It was well spread out, with comfy furniture, and one side of the hall a large glass window through which you could watch the vehicles on the busy highway. We’d always pick the seats next to the window (duh), and settle down as the waiter would come to take the orders. It’s insane how I still remember his face. I know nothing about him, never seen him since (it’s definitely been at least 10 years, if not more), but he still lives on in my memory. Hope he’s happy. He’ll never read this article though (what a bummer).

Before I forget, there was a tiny park beside the multi-storey building. They had a little ducky that worked on a huge spring. Too bad the people who owned the park didn’t really care much for it. After a point, they stopped maintaining the park and it became a mini jungle. I have zero pictures related to any of these by the way. Anyhow the ducky looked somewhat like this —

pinterest - i loved her SO much

---

One thing about U.S Pizza, they took their sweet time with their craft. And I have zero complaints. Based on my unreliable memory from (possibly) 10 year old me who didn’t care much for time, the pizza probably took at least 20 minutes to reach our table. And I didn’t care one bit to be very honest. All the while, I’d fantasize what the kitchen inside looked like.

This is how I imagined it to look like -

pinterest

probably looked nothing like this, but one can dream.

And then, the pizza came. I vaguely remember taking the olives off because of how picky I was back then (cough cough, still am). My companions weren’t half as picky as me and would eat my olives. They still do to this day. This is not looking really good on me is it?

Only, I don’t pick off my olives anymore. Because U.S Pizza doesn’t exist today!!

The outlet left a million years ago. I don’t remember when, but feels like an entire lifetime ago. Google tells me they’re still active in other parts of India, just not anywhere near my vicinity. (at least it wasn’t a fever dream).

I don’t really know why they left but I’ve made my fair share of speculations -

1. Slow business. Which makes sense — it was anything but packed. Makes me think about all the talents of the world that go unnoticed, because that was some great pizza. Nothing short of otherworldly, ethereal, divine — you name it.

2. Yeah that’s about it. It was probably just the slow business.

So here I am. I wonder if the tastebuds that tasted the pizza still exist on my tongue or if they’ve fallen off years ago.

(upon a quick Google search, I learnt that tastebuds get renewed every 10 days. My pizza is LONG GONE. Heck even the pudding I had last week is eternally forgotten. How wonderful.)

I don’t know if I’ll ever find another pizza that can match up to the greatness that was U.S Pizza, but I’m gonna keep looking. I still miss you U.S Pizza

“You were short lived, but you gave me an eternity within a limited number of days.”

- loosely quoted John Green from ‘TFIOS’