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PETE TITTL: Mike's get its combo just right

BY PETE TITTL, Contributing columniste-mail:
ptittl@bakersfield.com | Wednesday, Oct 21 2009 04:14 PM

Last Updated Wednesday, Oct 21 2009 04:14 PM

I received the equivalent of a throwdown challenge regarding Mountain Mike's Pizza. Reporter Steve Swenson was talking to reader Patti Rostain, and he passed along her suggestion: visit Mountain Mike's on Calloway, order a medium combination pizza, and if you don't like it, I'll pay for it.

It was news to me that the chain was still in town. I thought Mountain Mike's had headed for the hills when the restaurants on the north and south parts of town closed.

But I did call back to talk to Patti and reached her husband, Dick.

Dick compared the product favorably to one of my personal favorites, Pizza Bob's, saying, "It has a nice, light crust, and they put so many toppings on it. We love it."

That was powerful, persuasive stuff. I've been getting tired of these $4 deals offered by some restaurants as "customer appreciation" specials that are so thin in the toppings that it's almost like eating bread. It's crazy.

Give me an old-fashioned, thick-with- toppings pizza.

So I headed over to Rosedale to check it out.

Though the pizza parlor is a chain, it has a Rosedale home-cooked feel. We visited on the night of the big USC-Ohio State game, and it was something like a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting. On the sidewalk outside, a group of preteen boys had organized an impromptu football game, enlisting one of the dads to be permanent quarterback.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that the action out there was sometimes more riveting than what was on the screen.

We ordered a medium combo ($17.25), as well as a small chicken club specialty pizza ($11.25) and three pieces of chicken with wedges ($5.49).

My companion wanted a salad, and the bar was above average in quality and variety of fresh vegetables, but it was $6.25. Oh, what the heck: I was a big spender, since I figured half the meal was going to be on Patti.

Except the Rostains were right. The combo was dense with toppings, particularly purple onions, green peppers, mushrooms and black olives, all very finely chopped. Almost minced, really.

The meats on top included salami, Italian sausage, beef and linguica, which was in thick, saucer-shaped discs. This pizza was expertly assembled.

With the fine chopping of the ingredients, you'd taste pretty much all the vegetables in every bite, which was perfect. The meats were scattered about, so that would vary, but I wouldn't want more meat on this combo.

This seemed a lot better than the version I used to get at the Mountain Mike's on White Lane.

The chicken club pizza immediately won over my companion. It had a white garlic sauce, cooked tomato chunks, bacon, onions and chicken. You'd have to be a real purist to hate this one. If you're vegetarian, you can get the creamy garlic veggie version for the same price, and probably not miss the meat.

The chicken and wedges were OK, pretty similar to what Rusty's offers. It'd be hard to justify ordering them with such exceptional pizzas around.

My companion wanted a glass of cabernet with her meal, but the woman at the counter explained that they only had blush and white.

"The owner calls blush red, and that's what she drinks, so that's all we have," she said. I asked her if the owner had seen the reports on the health benefits of red wine. She just laughed.

Your money's safe from me, Patti Rostain.

Take the cash and buy yourself a Mountain Mike's combo.