Sewickley and Police Station Pizza

12/20/2014 27m

The sun came out this afternoon. It was really nice.

Started at the Rez, rode through Aliquippa and Crescent to Moon Township and the Sewickley Bridge. Stopped at Starbucks for coffee and rest room facilities. Glommed a few packs of honey while I was there.

Returned via Beaver Street through Leetsdale, and Merchant St through Ambridge. There's a tremendous pizza place at 1005 Merchant Street known widely as Police Station Pizza, even though that's not the name of the place.

Back in the day the white building adjacent to the Original Pizza House was, in fact, the Police Station. It's not located there anymore. But all the locals still refer to it as Police Station Pizza, in the grand Pittsburgh tradition of invoking "stuff that's gone". They make Sicilian-type pizza.

When I rode by, there was probably 25 or 30 people standing up, waiting for pizzas. People come from all over, and people from all strata -- there's Jaguars parked out front, and poor folks counting out nickels to pay for their pizza in all coins. It's a slice of life. (see what I did there?)

It's a show to sit there and watch. You walk in, the counter man looks at you and says, How Many Slices? and you tell him a number. Don't say anything about toppings yet. When the time is right, they look at you and say, What toppings? and you tell them what you want. When your pizzas come out, they look at you, they know this is your pizza, and they know exactly what to charge you.

The thing is: it's all mental, nothing is written down. Their counter staff would make excellent air traffic controllers, they just keep it all in their heads. Personally, I'm not wild about their pizza - I'm more of a thin-crust, Yolanda's pizza kind of guy - but the opportunity to watch the skills demonstration at the counter is worth buying a pizza. Lots of folks love their pizza.

Crossed the newly refurbed Ambridge Bridge, which perhaps should be am(bridge)^². Rode north of 51 to Aliquippa, then Franklin Ave and Kennedy up to Brodhead, and thence back to the start.

All the drivers were very nice, as they usually are. I felt very comfortable in the 30F conditions; I've taken to wearing one layer less on my lower half and that seems a lot more comfortable. 27 miles.