Pizza so damn good, even pizza fascists can’t deny it. Colony Grill–Stamford, CT

Have you been stung? The stinger is a must have topping!

Update:  The controversy is alive.  Is Rico’s or Colony’s pizza better?

Update of an update: lunch delivery in Stamford and credit card machines coming!

Pizza fascists.  You’ve seen them, you’ve talked to them, maybe you know one…hopefully you aren’t one.  Here are the key indicators that you are, in fact, a pizza fascist and that you require help:

• You swear pizza can only be done one way.

• You’ve broken up with people because of Neapolitan vs. thin crust arguments.

• When you go to a pizza place with friends, only your topping choices may be ordered.

• Regarding the last bullet:  you leave the pizza place if friends use unsavory toppings and you erase them from your life.

• You are offended by this post.

There’s all different types, different styles, different toppings, and different shops who all claim have the best pie.  We’ve spoken quite in depth about this and people are really freaking crazy when it comes to pizza.  Everybody has their own opinion and everybody swears they hold the key to the gate of pie heaven.  Guess what?  OmNomCT officially states that, in most cases, pizza is in the eye of the slice-folder.  Even folding the slices is an opinion, see?  Represent Long Island and slice folding!  Say what???

Well, we’ve heard all the talk about Colony Grill here in Stamford and decided that it was ’bout time to give it a try.  What took us over the edge was Toni’s special that highlighted some of the local pizza talent in Stamford:  Hope Pizza, Coalhouse Pizza, and–of course–Colony Grill.  So, there’s not much to the place, except a large room with lots of tables, and another room with a large bar.  There’s no menu to speak of at your seat, except for a list of available toppings:  sausage,  pepperoni,  meatball,  mushroom,  onions,  black olives, cherry peppers, stingers, hot oil, anchovies,  peppers, and bacon.

They had a few beers on tap. but no standouts, so I just went with the Thomas Hooker IPA, a nice, bold, flowery beer.  And better yet, it’s brewed in CT.

Meatball, pepper, hot oil, and black olives

Pie 1:  Sausage, hot oil, stingers, cherry peppers, and onions.

Pie 2:  Meatball, peppers, hot oil, and black olives.

Both pies came dripping in that lovely, spicy, hot oil that just puts the pies into another category that lots of other pizza never can attain.  The Headbanging Hostess agrees.  She tweeted that her favorite topping was hot oil, though she did comment that just sounded wrong. ;)  Really, though, the hot oil makes the pies.  Vinny’s Backyard up on Hope Street in Stamford also has the option of hot oil, though it doesn’t come dripping out and oozing out like it does here.  Normally we’d say too much oil in pizza is undesirable, but it’s good here because it’s not a product of too much greasy cheese–it’s the spicy oil that does it.

Speaking of the cheese, it melted on the pie nicely and was in perfect proportion to the amount of sauce.  Yeah, I know…you like more cheese, no you like more sauce, no you don’t like cheese on there.  I get it. :)  We all like our pies different, got it.

Sausage, hot oil, stingers, cherry peppers, and onions

Also, the stingers on pie 1 added even more spice, but not more than could be handled.  I’d add them to everything that I could if I had the chance. Both pies were great in their own ways and had amazing flavors, but pie 1 just blew us away.  The crust wasn’t too thin and wasn’t too thick at all–just the right amount to make it a bit doughy.  Yeah, this place is definitely the real deal here in Stamford.  They opened up a while back in Fairfield in more of a cool, modern spot on Post Road.  So, who owns that spot?  None other than Paul Coniglio, Cody Lee, Ken Martin and New York Rangers captain Chris Drury.

So, the verdict?  The crust is not too thin, but just right for thin crust.  There’s an excellent sauce to cheese ratio.  The sauce and toppings are full of flavor and beg to be mixed up in several combinations.  The hot oil was abundant but didn’t make the pizza soggy. A tough feat in and of itself. It’s hard to say this is the best pizza in CT, because there are so many types, so many styles, so many ingredients, so many cooking methods. But we can say that it was incredibly delicious and we’d go back, no doubt, to chomp down on two more pies, any day, any time.  This is good freakin’ quality pizza that’s been made the same way for decades.  Institutions like this stay around because they’ve just got it.  Oh yeah, they got it.

Noms: 4.25

Cost: $$

Colony Grill

Address:  172 Myrtle Ave

Stamford, CT

Phone:  (203) 359-2184

Site:  http://colonygrill.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Colony-Grill/352619784407?sk=wall