Music City Mike’s late night adventure in Athens had ended, but there was still time for the Pizza Snob to find some more action. Earlier that evening, the Clayman and I had walked by Transmetropolitan, a swanky-looking place that serves up fancy-looking pizzas—perhaps too fancy for the Snob’s simple taste. However, with the midnight hour approaching, we remembered their sign advertising slices until 2 a.m.
We arrived to find the main restaurant downstairs closed, so we walked up the front stairs on the left where we encountered a quiet, cozy upscale barroom. Its location and seclusion made me I feel like I was back in the days of the speakeasy and that I had just found the secret room. My spoils tonight, however, would be late-night pizza, not illicit alcohol.
There were tables and chairs scattered about, and a few were filled with folk like us arriving from the evening’s concert. We walked up to the decorative wooden bar and ordered some plain cheese slices (only $2 each) from a special late night slice menu that offered both traditional and Sicilian varieties. Taking a table, we reminisced about the great show we had just seen while two big screens silently flashed a West Coast college football game. The atmosphere resembled a Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene with the patrons casually conversing about the show they had just seen. In about 15 to 20 minutes time, the waitress made her rounds delivering hot fresh pizza slices on small silver platters to each table.
At first glance the slices appeared too white. There seemed to be no blending of the mozzarella cheese and the tomato sauce. The cheese looked like an afterthought and was not well-distributed. The crust was a little thick and doughy and came with a big shiny end handle. The real surprise, however, was that our slices wound up tasting a lot better than they looked. In fact, the Transmetropolitan slice was quite tasty and a delight to eat. It was well-cooked making it enticingly crisp and toasty. While not very hot, it was somehow served at just the perfect temperature to eat. The well-done crust firmly held up the fresh, delicious contents during the eating process. I found the ingredients on top more satisfying than the crust down below. The crust tasted more pastry-like than pizza-like–think pretzel, and it was perhaps a bit too chewy.
The Transmetropolitan slice is not a classic traditional one. It came with a few of the standard faults the Snob typically finds. Nonetheless, this was certainly a fun, late night place that served up a pretty tasty slice of pizza. I’d do it again.
PIZZA SNOB RATING ***1/2 Working on a Good Thing
Transmetropolitan
145 E. Clayton Street
Athens, GA 30601
706-613-8773
www.transmetonline.com
