Delancey- Ballard

I am a lover of "new". I have rarely met a fad I didn’t love. I once owned those pink pointy J-Lo boots that looked like modified Timberlands. I only cook with Meyer lemons. I have completely stopped wearing nylons and I will only wear leggings with long, flowing t-shirt dresses. My current goal is to fit into skinny jeans. Hence, when I discovered that my very favorite food blogger Molly Wizenberg (Orangette) and her husband Brandon Pettit were opening a wood fire pizzeria in Ballard, I knew this was going to be big news. I figured Delancey would be delicious, but could it live up to the hype of a famous food blogger opening up a upscale pizza joint in one of Seattle’s hippest areas, or would it fizzle out like my short lived flirtation with Ginger-Spice style chunky highlights?

Resisting all temptations, Jason and I waited several months after the opening before attempting to visit, and an even several months later the wait time for a table was over an hour. Jason and I settled into the tiny waiting area and did some people watching. The first thing you notice walking into Delancey is the giant, wood fire oven behind the bar. Its enormous, and the heat can be felt the minute you walk in the door. Most nights you will see Brandon behind the counter working the oven, and on the night we were there Molly was saddled up to the bar, chatting it up with customers (I was far too uncool to go tell her what a fan I was, but in case you ever read this Molly, I love you!)

When we were seated, it only took a moment to review the menu, mostly because there were only a few options! The menu rotates regularly, and I was told to watch for the special deserts (Oh goodness, be still my heart, I drool just thinking back on them!) More on that in a moment… For dinner, I chose the Brooklyn, a taste-bud tickling mix of tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, aged mozzarella, and Grana cheese. How something so simple can be so delightful is still a mystery to me, but I think it has a lot to do with high quality ingredients, super tasty thin crust, and just the right amount of time in the wood-fired oven. I have never tried New York pizza (shameful me!) however if this is what food in Brooklyn actually tastes like, I have a trip to make! I washed that all down with Rachel’s homemade ginger brew, which was marvelous, as I adore ginger and this was a way less sweet version of ginger ale.

While I thought dinner was remarkable, I could tell just from review the menu that desert was going to be mind-blowing. I saw six simple words that I thought might change my life: Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies w/ Grey Sea Salt. Unfortunately, due to extreme popularity, they were sold out. So, Jason and I ordered each of the other two deserts and played our sharing game. I started with the Meyer lemon budino with candied pistachios and anise caramel. It’s almost like they played a game called “how many things that Julia loves can we put in one desert?” For those playing at home, there are four things- Meyer lemons, pudding, anise and candied nuts. My mind grapes were sufficiently blown and I could have floated home from there. However, I gave up half of my budino in order to trade for Jason’s whole roasted pear with honey caramel, cardamom oat tuile and crème fraiche. That was lovely, but not being such a huge fan of whole cooked fruit I could have lived without it as well.

Despite an hour long wait, which I have never stood for before, I give Delancey four stars and two real big thumbs up. I cannot wait to go back again when the desert menu changes again and I can be blown away a second time around.

XO,
Julia

Photo via http://delanceyseattle.com/