Friday August 11: Union on Yale (Claremont)
Ordered: 1 margherita (13″, $15).
Unlike Pappas (click here), we’ve never been big fans of Union on Yale. They suffer the Claremont curse of bad service, specifically being terrible at bringing your check even if you’ve long finished your meal … and they don’t keep their bocce court clean (I can give you pointers, guys) … and really, they just have, as someone we know has described them, a kind of a ‘douchy hipster Claremont vibe.’ But: we wanted to end with a restaurant that many think makes good pizza … and here, at the end, we were just so, so sick of pizza. So: fine. Let’s go to Union on Yale and suffer through our final bites.
Then we got the pizza.
Does Union on Yale have the best crust, non-Philadelphia category? Crackling on the bottom and edges while still having a bit of soft chew? Absolutely. The sauce, while not quite as acid-bright as we prefer, tasted of entirely fresh tomato; the enormous and generous basil leaves ensured both yum basil-fragrance and basil-taste with every bite; and the cheese … could have been better. Maybe it was fresh mozz, maybe not, but it didn’t quite reach peak meld-with-sauce harmony. Next time we go: we’re getting a tomato pie. Pretty sure they’ll make it, pretty sure it’ll be tremendous.
Summary: outside of San Biagio, best local pizza. (The panzanella salad was even better.) And: they do takeout (pizza only).