Chew On This
Carbone’s Pizza just around the corner from the St. Paul Campus

-- Margaret A. Pribel

Across the street from Metropolitan State University’s Center for Community Based Learning on the St. Paul Campus is a pizza joint. It’s a little place conveniently located on the corner of East 7th St. and Maria Ave. My personal rule is to avoid chain restaurants, but I’ve amended that to national chain restaurants. Carbone’s has about 30 locations in the Twin Cities and Hudson, Wisconsin.

Carbone’s décor includes pizza ovens in the entryway of the dining room. The atmosphere is akin to a pizza joint in the 1970s.

I’ll admit I have a fixation toward thin-crust pizzas. And I’ll admit that I have not tried the pan pizza because it is my belief that if I want bread, I’ll go to a bakery. It is also my belief that there are only a handful of really good pizzas made in the Twin Cities. Carbone’s is on the list.

I know I can expect a consistent pie made with a hearty tomato sauce, which ranks up there with a good crust as the most important ingredient. Yes, I do insist that a great crust and sauce make for a great pizza. Heck, if all the cheese were gone would you eat most pizzas in the Twin Cities? I rest my case.

Sauce makes the pizza.

Carbone’s sauce is a thick, tomato paste-like creation flavored with oregano. This is pizza joint sauce, not the new-age gourmet stuff you find in posh dining establishments. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a gourmet pizza here and there, but a good pizza joint pizza feeds the soul.

I think there is a magic trick they pull off with a thin crispy-edged-crust that Goldilocks would say is “just right,” their tasty sauce and a melted, amorphous pool of mozzarella blanketing the square-cut pieces. Like any good pizza joint, the servers bring shakers of crushed red peppers and parmesan to sprinkle on your pie as you like it.

The servers say it takes 20 minutes to make a pizza. However, if it is not busy it can take less than 10. If you’re short on time you can call ahead 651-771-5553 or try ordering a hot hoagie. The hoagie – not on any diet plan that I know of, but it is full of flavor.

Carbone’s has lunch specials that include a fountain drink for $3.99. Pizza prices start at $6 for a small cheese pie and increase depending on your toppings. Spaghetti and a few of its relatives are available and they have several other sandwiches. The salads are made with iceberg lettuce and American cheese I ask them to omit, but they do offer low-calorie dressings, for the times that we do stick to our diets.

Carbone’s Pizza is located at 680 East 7th Street, on the corner of Maria Ave. and E. 7th. Phone 651-771-5553.