Fantastic feast awaits at PizzalChik . . . Huh, where?
What's the name of that place?" co-workers asked again and again about the difficult-to-pronounce and remember PizzalChik, a small pizza/salad/chicken (now do you get it?) eatery in the Gary Lane Plaza. But while the name is understandably easy to goof, the food is nothing short of deliciously memorable.Pizzalchik... then the other.
When asked to review Pizzalchik, I was hesitant. I couldn't get past the name, which stands for PIZZa, sALad and CHIcKen. I'm nothing if not dedicated to my job, though, so I rounded up the Beast (my 4-year old niece), the Skater (one of my two teenaged nephews) and my sister-in-law, the Schoolteacher. We went to experience Pizzalchik for better or worse.Pizzalchik On one plate...
I entered Pizzalchik's small space around 11 a.m. and an eager, smiling man behind the counter asked if he could give me "the tour," so to speak. He proceeded to tell me about a multitude of fresh ingredients, including homemade salad dressings and vegetables and meats roasted/smoked/pickled in-house. From the focaccia bread to the "afterthought du jour" (dessert), almost everything on the menu is as fresh and original as it comes, and there's a syllable for every taste.
Pizzalchik
I am about to let you in on a secret. It's one I'm reluctant to share with just anyone because I think of this restaurant as a hideout where I get a consistently delicious meal in a low-key atmosphere while leaving at home the crafty disguises that are necessary for a Boise Weekly food reviewer. They know my true identity at this place, yet I can tell by the enthusiasm of other customers that they don't reserve the best stuff just for me.
Pizzalchik
Without exaggeration, the entirety of Pizzalchik's menu is reflected in its name, an identifier that—like the eatery's food—is equally enigmatic and duplicitous in its simplicity. A recent expansion has pushed Pizzalchik into a second storefront space in its strip-mall location on a lot defiantly holding its own between an unsightly power substation and one of the city's busiest intersections. The restaurant, however, waves a dismissive hand at the ubiquitous congestion around it, blotting out the glare of traffic with a mightily flowered patio outside and an air of utter tranquility inside provided by a behemoth 6,000-pound stone hearth.
Dining review: Pizzalchik is no ordinary pizzeria
From the curb, it looks like any strip-mall chain lost in the commercial tangle of west State Street. But the instant we step onto the patio and begin to read the outside menu board, it's clear Pizzalchik is going to be as idiosyncratic as its name (a Scrabble-stumping jumble of syllables meant to represent the restaurant's main menu items - pizza, salad, chicken). An employee who is apparently on break sidles up, and with the earnest eyes of the newly converted, begins to proselytize: