In the dim old days of plain old pizza, the typical slice or pie was made with standard-issue canned tomato sauce topped with melted shreds of equally ordinary mozzarella, a few sprinklings of dried oregano and a touch of olive oil. And it was delicious comfort food that was doggedly good. We didn’t veer off that standard much. Perhaps we added sliced pepperoni, some mushrooms or even sausage or a meatball or two. And that was it. The only other choice was to have it Neapolitan or Sicilian style. In my dim old days, this slice cost about 95 cents (or less). If we went to an Italian restaurant where veal parm or chicken cacciatore were standard fare, another choice was a freshly made pie. Some restaurants did these very well, using their special sauce and cheese and baked in high-heat brick ovens. Nowadays all slices are special especially if you walk into the ubiquitous folds of Otto Pizza, the local chain that populates Greater Portland’s landscape with more stores than Wal-Mart.
The bar and booths at Otto
