South Shore Bar Pizza at Poopsie’s Is in a Class of Its Personal

Earlier than the thought of “South Shore bar pizza” (and the much-deserved enthusiasm that adopted) happened, there was simply “pizza,” or at the least that’s what South Shore native Paul Butler recollects. Rising up in a semi-rural city about 30 miles south of Boston, the Butlers hardly ever dined out. But when they did, it’d be a alternative between a flowery Italian place, Chinese language takeout, or pizza from Poopsie’s. “I didn’t know ‘South Shore bar pizza’ was a factor till I noticed them bought at [hip Somerville spot] Sizzling Field,” Butler says.

The flowery Italian institution with white tablecloth-lined tables has closed; the household that ran the Chinese language restaurant has moved away. However Poopsie’s stays, slinging vodka sodas, Harpoon IPA, and 10-inch pies with barely charred, tacky edges in an ’80s dive bar setting.

The bar pizza itself is unfussy and easy. It’s a 10-inch spherical pie with cheese and different toppings flowing from edge to edge — no border crust sees the sunshine of day. Today, a bar pizza prices round $10 topped with cheese, and every extra topping provides $1.

It’s usually baked in a lipped, 10-inch, well-seasoned metal or forged iron pan, specialty bakeware much like these bought by Lloyd Pans, a producer of regional pizza instruments that features the sq. pans for Detroit-style pizza. However the diehard South Shorers choose their pies made within the metal pans bought by Baystate Restaurant, a meals service provide retailer in Brockton, Massachusetts, for its high quality and old-timey worth.

The very tip of the perimeters tends to be a bit burnt, which the locals endearingly consult with as “laced,” which seems on Detroit-style pizza, too. What creates that impact lies within the cheese mix that bar pizzas name for — primarily mozzarella, with a variable quantity of cheddar blended in. The fatty and nutty cheddar not solely earns a South Shore bar pizza its greasy popularity but in addition lends a depth of taste to the pie; it additionally helps distinguish it from different types.

The crust of a bar pizza is skinny and crisp however with only a contact of chewiness, between a New Haven-style coal-fired pizza and Chicago’s tavern-style skinny crust. The underside of the crust has a buttery, biscuit-like crunch, because of the cheddar fats seeping by the dough and mixing with the butter or shortening that greased the pan whereas baking.

The toppings fluctuate; in style choices embrace plain cheese, caramelized onions, and banana peppers, to call a couple of. Different standouts nod to the South Shore’s complicated immigration historical past and the numerous communities that arose from it: Portuguese linguiça, Italian anchovy, Greek feta, and American “Hamburg,” which is mashed floor beef.

In recent times, extra elaborate selections emerged. Poopsie’s Home Particular, as an illustration, is adorned with mushrooms, onions, pepper, and pepperoni over a mattress of effervescent cheese; the buffalo hen pie is served with a aspect of blue cheese for dipping. The professionals know to not overdo the toppings. Butler, who now helms the kitchen of Spoke Wine Bar in Somerville, says that, relying on the toppings, ordering multiple or two may make the pizza too moist (and due to this fact structurally unsound) as a result of the crust is so skinny and pliant. He usually retains it easy and will get pepperoni and cheese, a traditional combo.

As an iconic dish from the South Shore, there’s little question that competitors abounds over who makes the very best bar pizza. Every spot does its pizzas barely in another way, evoking a way of native pleasure. At Poopsie’s, chef Tony Malaguti ladles a dollop of tomato sauce onto the finger-pressed dough in a metal pan that suggestions and wobbles within the course of; he then lifts up the pan and spins it within the air to unfold the sauce evenly throughout, whereas some escapes to the perimeters and backside of the pan to create a darker and extra crispy model than the traditional charred pie.

“Poopsie” is a pet identify for the restaurant’s late proprietor Don Thompson’s spouse, and the identify rings a sentimental bell to residents of a number of South Shore communities alongside Route 3. It’s additionally a well-recognized cease for vacationers in the summertime who seize a pint and a snack whereas ready for his or her pies to bake on their solution to weekend getaways within the Cape.

The menu is bare-bones and the wait workers totally count on you to know your order once they come to you. Regulars converse in a coded language to customise their pizzas, whether or not it’s “crispy” which implies “a bit of additional time within the oven” or “half-baked” for to-go orders to allow them to end cooking the pie of their ovens.

Buyer Lindsey Mackay dug into her Yesterday’s Chili with saltine crackers and a aspect of vodka soda whereas ready for her pies. Relying on the gang, the pizza can take as much as 45 minutes to make — one thing the regulars anticipate, however out-of-towners might discover inconvenient. Mackay has been coming right here since she was a younger baby, tagging alongside together with her aunt. Again then, they’d be killing time on the storied Pac-Man machine or the jukebox. “I grew up on their pizzas, together with celebrating birthdays,” she says. “I even ordered my first drink right here on my twenty first birthday.”

To Mackay, that is what pizzas from her childhood style like. “I keep in mind liking it a lot that the cheese grew to become the sting and there was the ‘frico’ that’s crispy and charred,” she says, borrowing the time period used to explain the caramelized cheese on Detroit-style pizzas.

To scrub down all of the grease dripping from a skinny slice of pie, the transfer is to order a pint of crisp lager or ask your bartender for one more refreshing drink. Regulars at Poopsie’s like vodka sodas — a mix of a beneficiant pour of Tito’s and soda water — which occurs to be long-term worker Kevin Donlan’s favourite drink to make as a result of it’s simple, as he places it. Teams of consumers might order a pitcher of Harpoon IPA; nonetheless, when you stroll as much as the bar and ask to see the Scotch choice, be ready for a chilly shoulder.

Like many individuals who moved away from their hometowns, Butler finds himself out of the loop from the native meals scene, as a few of his previous haunts have closed. He resorts to Google to search for spots to eat and is usually disenchanted with the solutions. “You get 99 Restaurant, Pleasant’s, and simply plenty of chains like that,” he says. “There are only a few locations left that give a way of place.” Poopsie’s, like different bar pizza spots that stay, is a refuge for individuals who hunt down a real style of the South Shore.

Further picture illustration credit: Authentic images by Justin Kelleher; extra photographs from Getty.