Samosky's Homestyle Pizzeria
 Valley City, Ohio        Date of Visit  06/27/14         http://www.samoskyspizza.com/index.htm 

Not too long ago we got a recommendation that sent us out into the country to find a really tasty burger in Lodi. We got another “must have” recommendation for a place in Valley City. Didn’t know there was a Valley City in Ohio, now I know it’s the frog-jumping capitol of the state. I had looked up the menu at Somosky’s HomeStyle Pizzeria and was surprised by some of the options under their specialty pies. We were sold. I didn’t pick up on all of their exploits until later.
 

The Large Smoking Rig Was A Good Sign
 

It was pretty easy to find and we quickly found ourselves seated in a relatively plain but clean dining room with plenty of black clad and young servers, a salad bar and bakery/ice cream counter. Our server was very nice and continuously reassured us our order was not nearly as ridiculous as we thought. The whole team seems to cover each other and multiple plates made it to our table in the hand of multiple employees.

As far as their exploits, it wasn’t til we got there I began to understand things have changed since the bakery opened in 1910. Jason, the fourth generation in the family to helm the restaurant has won first place two years running at the American Pizza Championship and has competed at the World Pizza Championship in Salsomaggiore, Italy. I suddenly understood why some of their pizzas had medals next to them on the menu. Not only did they sound unique but apparently the powers that be find them delicious.
 

We ended up ordering two appetizers, four small pizzas and three desserts. Our fridge is currently full. It was a lot of food but we really would have missed out on some of the magic of the place…good thing the ogre was with us. First the appetizers, we saw calamari and onion rings that looked awesome at other tables but what caught our eyes were the eggrolls. Stuffed in house, there are two options, slow smoked pulled pork and mac n cheese with bacon. We couldn’t split the order nor could we make up our minds, so we got one of each.

The mac n cheese was good and came with a boat of ranch dressing. I suspect they may smoke their own pork bellies on the rig outside, the bacon had a much stronger smoke presence than most you will find. They also make their own cheesy mac for the interior. It was good. I would never order it again. I would always and forever get the pulled pork eggrolls. Served with a boat of vinegary sauce, these wrappers were loaded with incredibly succulent and smoky pork which just melted away with each bite. We never would have tried their Q if there were not three of us and we had not seen the smoking rig...and the world would have been mysteriously drabber not knowing.
 

Then there were the pizzas. We were recommended one winner, had preselected two others and found a special on the sign out front we couldn’t ignore. Again, we were lucky to have added the extra. The two preselected options were my least favorite. All of their pizzas were good, just a couple of the one’s we tried were much better. They season the tops of most of their pizzas with salt and pepper, it helps. The dough has a distinctive yeastiness and chew, indicative of quality ingredients, method and proofing. It’s nice. The Marsala pizza is based on the traditional sweet wine and mushroom sauced dish. This one started with the sauce, added philly steak meat (should be thinly sliced ribeye), red onions, shiitake/oyster/crimini mushrooms, Parmesan/Provolone/Mozzarella cheeses, and it’s finished with fresh spinach. Great crust, lots of cheese, varying mushroom flavors…but I wanted MARSALA. I was promised Marsala and most of the flavor had migrated under the cheese towards the outside ring of the crust and it still had little impact there. Good pizza but my least favorite of the four…bring on the promised sweet wine flavor or make it a mushroom pizza.
 

Just above the Marsala was the Chicken Pot Pie pizza…alfredo sauce, chicken breast, broccoli, peas, carrots, onions and cheddar cheese. I loved the veggies on this one but the alfredo didn’t quite make up for the lack of chickeny veloute that would have made this as stupid good as the next two.
 

We were told to try the Philly Cheese Steak Pizza with the house Alfredo sauce, swiss-American Cheese, Philly Steak meat, onions, mushrooms, green peppers and salt n pepper. Here the cheesy sauce fulfilled it’s purpose. The steak was tender and beefy, the veg worked very well…it’s a tasty treat.
 

Then there was the new pizza, ingredients chalked on the sign outside the door. It’s called the Spinachi and consists of a Garlic Butter crust, sausage, spinach, Feta cheese, Asiago cheese, sunflower seeds, and dried cranberries. Oh, dear. Hard to describe. Eating it I though the name sounded like Fibonacci famous for the Fibonacci sequence…the mathematical equation for determining the Golden Spiral. It goes something like this…

"The polar equation for a golden spiral is the same as for other logarithmic spirals, but with a special value of the growth factor b: with e being the base of Natural Logarithms, a being an arbitrary positive real constant, and b such that when θ is a right angle (a quarter turn in either direction). The numerical value of b depends on whether the right angle is measured as 90 degrees or as π/2 radians; and since the angle can be in either direction, it is easiest to write the formula for the absolute value of b (that is, b can also be the negative of this value)."

It goes on like that for a bit. I just filched it from Wikipedia. I don’t understand it. I know it has something to do with spirals in nature that we tend to find beautiful. The pizza somehow made me think of it. I don’t understand the whole concept or the mathematics of the pizza, but it is beautiful. The crust is awesome, the sausage has serious seasoning and porky deliciousness, Greek and Italian cheeses play well together, dried berries bring some sweetness, while salty seeds delivery some nutty earthiness and the spinach brings fresh greenery into the storyline. It’s a good thing we still have some in the fridge, cause I might drive to Ohio's frog jumping capitol and slap someone for another slice. Or just buy some...pizza doesn't necessarily cause random violence.
 

The desserts were less successful than the first two courses but they were still pretty good overall. The very berry cobbler was functional but needed something for texture and I was surprised to find huge slices of apple inside. Is that normal or did they just run short of berries? The key lime pie was a mildly tangy (at least compared to those we have had in Fla) but a very tasty slice. There were day-glow puddles of green goop that tasted like someone had gelatinized lime flavored nerds candy…if they made such a thing. The bread pudding was probably my favorite, lightly sweet, warm, studded with pecans and raisins and oozing a little orange marmalade, it was dense but savory enough. A pool of sauce anglaise and some caramel brought the whole thing together but next time I would stick to porkrolls and pizzas…I definitely want to try some of their other pizzas…just as soon as I get my Spinachi on. Diane has now hooked us up twice.