restaurant

Cristino's offers a flavorful marriage of fire and ice

Cristino's coal oven makes delicious pizza, but save room for dessert: The gelato is a creamy scoop of heaven.

By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic
Published August 30, 2007

CLEARWATER

They're fighting words, grounds for blood feuds and simmering, decades-long grudges:

Thin crust vs. deep dish?

Chicago vs. New Haven vs. New York?

Wood-fired oven vs. coal-fired?

Thin-crust purists say it's got to be coal-fired pizza to be the real deal. The difference?

Heat, pure and simple.

Coal ovens get much hotter, cooking a pizza lickety-split in five minutes. The idea is for it to be thin but pliable, cheesy, with those charry black bubbles pocking the crust. The intense heat doesn't dry out the dough or sauce, but gives everything a nuttier, more intense flavor and a chewy texture.

Capiche?

Three Italian brothers, Lenny, Marco and Joe Cristino, aim to set us straight. They opened Cristino's Coal Oven Pizza in February just south of downtown Clearwater. It's not anything fancy - just a dozen or so tables done up casually, with food display cases anchoring the room. Service is friendly and unfussy; the wine list just a handful of unspecified vinos, a few familiar beers.

The big coal oven is unobtrusive, but it's the source of exactly half of the excitement here. There are four basic pies: margherita $7.50 for 12-inch, $12.95 for 16-inch, marinara ($6.75, $11.95), bianca ($8.95, $13.50) and quattro formaggi ($9.50, $13.95).

I'll give you the best advice I have and then you're on your own: Less is more.

You can add all the usual suspects to the top of these pies, but more ingredients means more liquid during the cooking process, which means soggier crust as you get farther away from the exterior edge of the pizza.

If you heed my advice, it's a mega-good pizza. The margherita, no extra stuff, is a bright, acidic tomato sauce, a heap of molten fresh mozzarella and a sprinkling of chopped basil topping a chewy-crisp crust with a nice, fat border (that's called the cornicione).

The bianca eschews all red stuff in favor of a layer of rich ricotta, more mozzarella and basil. Pizzas come on those tall metal stands (the ones you can knock off the table without even trying), leaving the table clear for appetizers, salads and another house specialty, the panzerotti ($6.95). It's like a calzone, only the dough is a little more fragile and almost doughnut-tender, the filling a melange of tomato, moz, ham and basil.

Salads aren't going to win any awards, but they're a healthful foil for the pizza. Perhaps a better choice is the assorted grilled vegetables dish ($6.50), a pile of thin-sliced zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant topping mesclun mix. You get cruets of olive oil and balsamic to drizzle over the pile - just a bit of salt and a twist of pepper and it's perfect.

Fried mozzarella sticks ($6.50) might be gilding the lily if you're having pizza, but I say gild away. The accompanying marinara has a delicious, sweet-tangy balance.

This brings us to the second half of the excitement at Cristino's.

The house gelatos are spectacular.

The staff brings over little tasting spoons to tempt you - not hard to do with a dab of bacio (chocolatey-hazelnut with crunchy wafer cookies in it), or vanilla stracciatella swirled with a chocolate ribbon, or mascarpone.

I could go on.

The soft, velvety-textured gelato comes in two sizes ($3.50 for the regular size, which is plenty big, and $4.75), heaped drippily in the classic plastic gelato cups. It's not long on presentation, but whoa is it good.

There are other desserts (a notably good cannoli, its crisp shell cradling a cinnamony ricotta filling), but I'm afraid they're eclipsed.

Cristino's gelato and pizza - maybe it doesn't hit every food group, but to quote Dean Martin, that's amore.

Weigh in on your favorite pizza at Laura Reiley's new blog: www.blogs.tampabay.com/dining. Reiley dines anonymously and unannounced. The St. Petersburg Times pays all expenses. A restaurant's advertising has nothing to do with selection for review or the assessment. She can be reached at (727) 892-2293 or lreiley@sptimes.com.

Cristino's

1101 S Fort Harrison Ave., Clearwater

(727) 443-4900

Cuisine: Pizza/Italian

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon-9 p.m. Sunday

Details: MC, V; reservations not necessary; beer and wine

Prices: Appetizers $6.50-$8.95, entrees $9.50-$15.50, desserts $2.50-$4.95

[Last modified August 29, 2007, 15:10:02]