Ahhhh! Pizza! There is, arguably, no better New York style pizza than that of Pizza My Heart. They start their dough the day before so it has time to rise properly. They throw their dough, their sauce is organic, their ingredients wonderful and fresh and if you can't appreciate them, you have no business eating pizza. But sad times, they are feeling the crunch, and they are telling their stores to cut down on the pizza available at any given moment to cut down on waste.

To understand the implications of this you have to understand that they are creative--no, not just creative, but creative with the abilities of angels behind them. They have created, over and over, amazing combinations of ingredients that how won award after award, and have made a point, over time, to always make premium pizzas available at their stores to educated the palates of the masses, and to satisfy the palates of the initiates.

Now, though, (and there should be dirge music playing through this part--I apologize for its absence), they are trying to cut waste, and normally when you enter into the inner sanctum of the pizza heaven, all you find are pepperoni and cheese. Don't get me wrong, these are amazing pepperoni and cheese pizzas, but if you think that these are all that is in the pallet of Pizza My Heart, you are a heathen.

Now, when you want a premium pizza, and I must tell you that the most premium in my NSHO is the Little Sur, you have to wait for the day of availability. That day is Tuesday for the Little Sur, but of course, today, Tuesday, I went into Pizza My Heart, and no Little Sur was available. Only cheese, and pepperoni, the pies of the masses. If Pizza My Heart is hurting so badly that they have lost their heart and soul, then the universe must cry.

To digress, I must tell you about the Little Sur. The Little Sur starts, as most of the pies here do, with the organic tomato based pizza sauce. To that is added cheese of course, and 40 cloves of roasted garlic, cherry tomatoes, portobella mushrooms, green onions, roasted red peppers, and herbs. This quotidian list of ingredients can in no way prepare you for the experience that is the Little Sur. It is heaven on earth, it is first love, it is your first ice cream. There is no comparison.

I used to be able to call my local Pizza My Heart, and ask them, "Is there any Little Sur up?" , and they would say, "No, but we'll throw some in." When I got there, there would be a half of a Little Sur pie waiting for me, beautiful, petulant, perfect. It only lacked augmentation with the beer of my choice to achieve perfection on earth.

Then, a week and a half ago, I was told that I couldn't have the pizza because it wasn't Tuesday. As I told you, Tuesday, under the new regime, is the only day you can buy a slice of Heaven/Little Sur. I waited, frustrated, enjoying the other pies as they were available. This morning, at 7:30, at a local coffee shop (Roy's which all should worship because it is to coffee what Pizza My Heart is to pizza), a barista mentioned to me that today was Tuesday, that I would be able to have Little Sur today. Heavenly anthems accompanied that announcement.

I waited all of the day, until finally, this afternoon, I entered, with great triumphal joy, Pizza My Heart, only to find no Little Sur. They told me that they had had some earlier in the day, but sadly, all they had for me was cheese and pepperoni. You can't imagine how crushed I was.

So, I'm sitting here, in Pizza My Heart. I don't know whether to tell you to go to Pizza My Heart, or to tell you that it's ruined. I love them. I wish them all the best, but it seems as if the economy has them on their last legs. It seems that perhaps they are about to fail.

Go see them if you can. Even their cheese and pepperoni are wonderful compared to everything else you've ever had.

Myself? All I can do is pray for them.

Patrick out.