Hello pizza my old friend...

Last night we threw pizza dough into the night sky in Jamestown. It's amazing the difference a year makes. On bended knee in supplication we ask the Pizza Gods for permission to bring it back, bring back the pizza, the party, the satisfaction of the simplest food...

Alfalfa's old pizza oven has ascended up to its new mountain keep adorned with beautiful tiles and a new roof care of the friends of The Merc who love her endlessly. It is amazing what happens when the community and the staff wrap their arms around something sacred and refuse to let it go. It is the oldest form of community, the barn raising. You can see the hands that hold it all together pushing from all sides.

Rainbow will be hosting pizza parties every Friday and perhaps every Thursday as well from here on out. As usual there will be live music and it will sell out fast, so make sure you hop on her website each week to reserved your spot. jamestownmercantile.com

Moxie will be cranking up our own pizza parties soon as well at all locations through the summer. Our new Italian Mario Acunto pizza oven should arrive in a week or so. This oven weighs over 6,500 lbs and has a 13" deep base. Straight outta Naples y'all. Rumor has it some sourdough bagels may emerge from its fiery belly soon too. There was a great article in the March Smithsonian about the pizza makers in Naples navigating the pandemic by adjusting their business models for the first time in centuries. I wonder if next time I'm in Naples I'll find some Cosmo's Spicy Ranch as an add on.

The Sound of Pizza, interpreted by Andy Clark

Hello pizza, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of pizza
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of pizza
And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People noshing pizza without speaking
People drinking beer without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of pizza
"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Lack of pizza like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of pizza
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon pizza god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the pizza prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sound of pizza

Let's here some music from Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta a New York native in honor of the adopted American birthplace of pizza. I've been listening to the A Star Is Born Soundtrack...man it is really good...

Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper - Shallow (from A Star Is Born) (Official Music Video)