So, I’m not actually talking about those delicious little treats that can be found in the frozen food aisle. We know as long as you toast them in the oven and steer clear of the microwave (best-worst invention ever) that they’ll be reliably delicious, in a very cheap sense. I’m talking about pizza and bagels, specifically in Boulder. This will be similar to the sushi post; another rant because I’m not comfortable/in-shape so no fitness posts quite yet.

Now I won’t say that New Jersey or even New York has the best sushi, although Masa is supposed to be top notch, but it does truly have,  overall, the best bagels and pizza in the United States, and from what I’ve tasted, in the world. I’m not talking about gourmet style artisan pizza, for the record, I’m talking about a good old fashioned throw it in the oven family style pizza pie. Some people say it’s the water where we’re from, some people say it’s the dense population of Italian-Americans, and some people say its the climate. I don’t know what the secret is, but there most certainly is a difference. And that has become very apparent in Boulder.

When Alana first came to New York, she thought she had good pizza in the city, but I brought her to New Jersey and had her experience real pizza. She’s stubborn and proud (in a good way) but she easily admitted how good it was. Then we moved onto bagels, where North Jersey took it home again. No competition. So growing up with pizza and bagels all the time, I wanted to keep eating them in Boulder. Alana didn’t object because the ones she had in Jersey made her crave them all the time. Then we got to Boulder and tried…

Cosmos, Blackjack, and Abo’s… and for bagels we went to Moe’s (all of these were recommended by individuals who have lived in Boulder… for their whole lives)… this is how it breaks down. And for the record, Colorado Daily, you had an article last week that talked about Abo’s being New York Style Pizza… you clearly don’t know what it is and you should do some more research before you put it into circulation. Here, I can make a mistake, because no one reads this.

We’ll go from worst to best.

Moe’s – Overpriced in every sense. The bagels are much more expensive than back home, they’re literally half the size, maybe even a third, and they don’t have the proper texture. I saw that a New York Style Bagel Sandwich was nearly $8. It had tomato, onion, lox, cream cheese, and something else. I had never heard of that before… so there goes the authenticity. Even if it is authentic, it can’t be because people from New York would know! Plus, that sort of sandwich wouldn’t be more than $4 back home, and it’d be twice the size. Moe’s bagels are smaller and harder than Dunkin Donuts. We had the Italian and the Pesto, and they were little rocks. I can’t even put into words what it’s like to bite into a bagel back home, but it was the total opposite of this. I got an egg and cheese on the pesto bagel. The egg was one of those disgusting pre-made patties. This was just garbage. Alana disagreed but I gave this place a 0/5, no questions asked. I wouldn’t consider going back there again. But then again, there are several locations. They didn’t even have ketchup so I could drown the taste of that horrible sandwich. Her Italian bagel with cream cheese was better, but still not even good

Blackjack – Horrible Domino’s ripoff. Same style but worse taste and texture. We didn’t know it was like that so it was our mistake. If we want that kind of cheap late pizza we’ll never go back to Blackjack. Domino’s is the easy choice, same price and better quality. Delivery service was good though.

Abo’s – Again, that article was very off in calling this New York style. It’s not. The texture wasn’t bad either… the texture was in fact almost good enough to want to get again. It was the taste that killed it for me. It tasted like… absolutely nothing. Some of the blandest pizza I have ever had in my life. The sauce, the cheese, the dough… all bland. Plus, it was relatively expensive for the size of the pizza. Alana didn’t mind it, but she’s not as picky as I am with pizza. Delivery service was good, but at that price for that serving size and quality, wouldn’t get it again.

Cosmos– There is some real potential here. With the reasonably priced extra large pies, and a solid texture to the pizza, Cosmos is hands down the best we’ve had so far. The marinara is a bit spicy for me, I don’t think it’s the right move, but that’s the chef’s choice and I can’t do anything about it. Even with that spice, it’s still got the texture and flavor to buy again, which is what we did. We’ve already had it twice, and with a jar of spicy ranch in the fridge for Alana, we’ll definitely get it many more times.

Well that’s it for tonight. As we have more pizza and bagels in Boulder and the surrounding areas, I will make sure to update the blog with what we’ve found but until then this is what we’ll have to work with so I’ll be missing Jersey a bit more than normal.

P.S.- This may have sounded kind of harsh, we didn’t hear back from the jobs we wanted today and the darn bulb in the bedroom blew. We love you all! Thanks for reading