Review and photos by Ted Broussard
All the Right Elements
Chemistry as a subject in school was never my thing. I avoided it till I couldn’t any more in high school and college, and it’s still a mystery to me how I made my way through it. I must have learned something though, because I can tell already that Elemental Pizza got its chemistry just right. By combining the elements of great food, fun drinks and a knock-out remodel of an old Italian grocery store on Pacific Avenue, Elemental Pizza is poised to be another gem in downtown Tacoma.
After months and months of peering into the dirty windows of the construction sight just waiting for signs of life, I was surprised to learn that Elemental Pizza opened quietly on October 3rd. Having enjoyed the food at the University Village branch in Seattle, we were thrilled to learn that Tacoma would be their next location. The actual space that UWT called the “Pagni & Lenti” building to honor the store and its namesake owners, was most recently Grassi’s Garden Café. The transformation is stunning---lots of exposed brick, reclaimed wood and modern-day utilitarian lighting. It spreads out over two floors with a bonus outdoor patio. I’m partial to the cozy and warm second floor with peek-a-boo views of street life and maybe even Mt. Rainier if you’re sitting just right.
Definitions of what makes good pizza run the whole gamut, but for my money, I like a blistered crust on the thin side with interesting toppings creating new flavor combinations that I wouldn’t have thought of myself. Elemental got the formula right on that count. The crust is tasty! The wood-fired oven aces the blistering and a subtle flavor of high-quality olive oil makes it sing. It’s thin enough for me although I’m not a big fan of the large ring of crust around the pie. Nothing wrong with it; I just choose to load my calories from the toppings more than from the bread. Pizzas come only in the 12” size, which they call “individual pizza” and prices range from $13 to $16. You get about six generous slices and one pizza could be shared by two people depending on your hunger meter or your affection for cold pizza for breakfast.
The menu lays out your choices nice and neat --- the classics, just veggies, or mostly meat. They’ll even remove all the gluten for you for a cost of $3 more. We’ve tried several by now including the Flyin’ Hawaiian --- tomato sauce, Zoe's ham, pineapple, shredded mozzarella, garlic & pepperoncini; the Green Goddess --- pesto cream, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, feta, shredded mozzarella, herbs de Provence; and our current champion, Carnivorous --- tomato sauce, Italian sausage, Zoe's pepperoni, salami, bacon, and shredded mozzarella. All of them are interesting, well balanced and delicious.
The cocktail menu keeps up the trend of interesting and delicious flavor combinations for their signature cocktails and we especially enjoyed the Tacoma Negroni, the Blood Orange Margarita and Tito’s Elemental Mule on tap. While I thought they tasted great, I did notice that either they’re using smaller cocktail glasses there or my eyes are going. At $9 a drink, I would think they could give me a grown-up glass instead of a modern day sippy cup. Beer and wine are also available with a good selection of local and other beers on tap.
The menu also offers several good appetizers and interesting salads. We’ve tried the Fire Roasted Cauliflower (delicious olive oil flavor with just the right amount of burnt edges) and the Meatballs served with lots of sauce and a couple slices of bread (meatballs are excellent with delicious smoky tomato sauce and lots of mozzarella). We’ve enjoyed the Big Chop Salad at their Seattle store --- chopped romaine, fontal, grape tomatoes, garbanzo beans, salami, kalamata olives, red & yellow peppers, red onion, creamy dijon vinaigrette, and I’m guessing the Tacoma version will be equally delicious.
There are a few sandwich choices and a grand total of two pasta dishes at $15 each --- Lemon Shrimp Linguini and Spaghetti and Meatballs. I gave the spaghetti a whirl since I so enjoyed the meatballs as an appetizer on a different visit, but wound up being disappointed. The meatballs were very good again but the spaghetti was just shy of being al dente winding up in the almost undercooked category. The pasta was pre-mixed with sauce before it was served and didn’t quite have enough sauce for my taste. I’m willing to chalk it up to maybe it was an off night for spaghetti and I will give it another try some day. Desserts are limited to cookies and gelato sold as an ice cream sandwich for $6.50. The flavors we tried were good but not remarkable.
On our last visit we ran into five of our Esplanade neighbors so I know the word is spreading. One of my buds in the building visited with a couple of friends since then and had these comments to offer: “The three of us agreed that we liked the Carnivorous Pizza (meat lovers) we ordered. It gave us a good sampling of the meats: Italian sausage, pepperoni, bacon and salami, which were of good quality and none overpowered in flavor. We did agree that there seems to be a fair amount of crust around the rim and it would be nice if the toppings went a bit further to edge. But I think it's the standard for this restaurant’s pizza. Pizza is not soupy in the middle, which we liked. We had started with the Caprese salad and shared one large order. The waiter had the salad split into three plates so we didn't have to fuss with dividing and that was appreciated. The salad was fresh, the mozzarella tasty but it needed some other flavor in the mix... perhaps a slightly stronger balsamic? But it was good and a different take on the classic by including greens.”
So what makes Elemental Pizza stand out among all the pizza offerings in downtown Tacoma? I’d say it’s the chemistry --- high quality food and drink ingredients, wood-fired oven, and a gorgeous old building with a nod to history and a wink to modern design. Service is consistently friendly but food did take quite a while on a couple of our visits so far. No points off for that though. They are brand new and finding their way. I’m just glad they found it to Tacoma.
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