One of my all-time favorite restaurants in Juneau is The Island Pub, located not far from my home on Douglas Island. Perhaps my heart has a soft spot for this place because it was the first restaurant I dined at after moving to Juneau in February 2009.
If you ever have the pleasure of visiting this hot spot for a meal, you'll notice a few special pizzas on their menu, special because they're past winners of the Island Pub Pizza Contest.
This year marks my third time serving as an official pizza recipe judge. Basically, this involves putting my taste buds to work and scoring 12 different slices of pizza. Yes, I said TWELVE. And yes, I'm still stuffed.
This year's top three pizza recipes were:
#1. South Douglas Fisch Slap (Alfredo sauce, Asiago cheese, red onion, smoked salmon, capers, and spinach)
#2. Fredo-Town (Alfredo sauce, parmesan and mozarella cheese, raw garlic, Italian sausage, bacon, sun dried tomatoes, and spinach)
#3. Mother Lode (Alfredo sauce, house cheese, Asiago cheese, roasted garlic, Italian sausage, artichoke heats, Crimini mushrooms, pine nuts, and Canadian bacon)
If you find yourself visiting Juneau, I highly recommend a stop at The Island Pub. Try their steak sandwich, their Napolitano Alfredo pizza (a 2005 pizza contest winner and menu mainstay) , or any of their other gourmet speciality pizzas. You won't be disappointed!
Doling out the pizza, one slice at a time.
If a judge only takes nibbles of their judging portions, this is what their plate will look like at the end. I am not one to take nibbles.
Here's a snapshot of the score sheet of the judge next to me. This young judge was beyond adorable. And I agreed with her rankings most of the time. Some slices were way too "spisey" and we didn't care for the "unuens"!
Smoked salmon on a pizza?! Yes, please.
Mimosas + pizza = a winning combination.