It’s been some time since the Pizza Snob snobbed over a new pizza joint in his home spot of Nashville. With urban growth continuing like there is no end in sight, I reckoned that I had some catching up to do. Investigation revealed that three new places have sprung up in the Nippers Cornea area which is better known for traffic than it is for pizza. I picked Villalba Italian Restaurant as my place to start and invited two of my local buds to meet me for a week-ending Friday lunch.
I cut Villalba some slack in that the word “pizza” was not in their name. However, while not advertised front and center, it is one of the “Italian” foods that they feature. Intel was that their pie would be of the Neapolitan genre, and I would be seeking the Margherita specie. So, after getting ourselves settled in the big cozy room in a strip center off Old Hickory Blvd., I made a request that would cost me 10 bucks.
After starting us off with some complementary bread and red gravy, our pies soon followed and mine was so white on top that it frightened me! The small 10-incher was served on a plain white large kitchen plate and was sliced into four small but extra-wide pieces.
While it was billed as such and even looked like an N-pie from the top, I picked it up to find it quite crisp and more akin to being an NY-style pie in N-pie clothing. They even tried to sprinkle some basil on top that was so scant it may have come out of a jar like one would add oregano.
The tomato sauce on this one (and there wasn’t much of it) was somewhat bland as we discovered earlier when dipping our bread. But the real letdown was in the cheese which didn’t have much pizazz and left a bad lingering aftertaste. The crust however was alright. It was crisp and chewy and tasted great. After dismissing both the sauce and cheese, I focused on the quality crust as if I were snacking on bread. I did call it a day after 3 ½ slices though.
Well, I guess Villalba’s unusual concoction of pie wasn’t a total failure. And while I may very likely give their other “Italian” food a chance, they won’t be on my return list for pizza.
PIZZA SNOB RATING **1/2 Not a Total Waste
Villalba Italian Restaurant
15568 Old Hickory Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37211
615-942-8263
www.vilablaitalianrestaurant.com