Building the perfect pizza at Wood Fired

Peter Taylor, owner of Wood Fired Pizza and Wine Bar, is obsessed.

That's a good thing for his customers.

"I'm designing, from the ground up, the perfect pizza," he said this year at an innovation conference. "That's my goal. Don't know if I'm going to get there, but I've dedicated the remainder of my life to that."

Like that guy in "Goodfellas" slicing garlic with a razor blade to get the spaghetti sauce just right, Taylor labors over every detail. If you like pizza, there's just no excuse not to try Taylor's concoctions. He'll even make it to go, for Pete's sake.

Taylor opened the restaurant last year in a New Tampa strip center, leaving his technology services job to pursue, full-time, his 20-year hobby of crafting pizza. He "reverse engineered" the pizza he loved growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and pizza from Naples, Italy, home of the modern pizza. He learned three keys to good pizza: the dough, how it's baked, and the topping combinations.

On the first point, Taylor cultivated his own yeast for the dough, resulting in dough that is light and thin but also chewy and slightly sweet. Taylor also makes his own tomato sauce and mozzarella. For ingredients he doesn't make himself, he buys from locals, if available.

For baking, he built his own wood-fired oven, which bakes the pizzas in a few minutes at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1,000 degrees. And for toppings, he's come up with a couple of dozen interesting combinations.

We were served promptly and efficiently on our visits, including a pick-up visit in which Taylor -- he took the phone order himself -- calculated our drive time and had the pizzas just out of the oven and hot when we arrived.

Taylor oversees the cooking, handling the oven himself for the most part, although there was a young man cooking during our first visit, with Taylor coaching.

For starters we tried the wood-fired garlic bread, which is pizza dough seasoned with garlic slivers, olive oil and sea salt. It paired well with a L'Oca Ciuca ("Drunken Goose") Super Tuscan. The real gem among starters, though, is the Caprese salad. The simple dish features five slices of locally-grown tomato, each topped with the house-made mozzarella, an organic basil leaf, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

We tried four pizzas during our visits, and there wasn't a dud among them. They were:

• The Michaelangelo: Recommended by our waitress, this pie features pepperoni, San Marzano tomatoes, caramelized mushrooms and onions, and organic herbs.

• The Carnivore: Spicy pepperoni, sausage and meatballs piled on fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella. Frankly, this defeats the purpose of tasting the subtle goodness of the fresh ingredients and dough - but it certainly fills the bill for the person in your house who equates "pizza" with "meat." We also thought this was the one that would make the dough soggy or sag, but it didn't.

• Tampa Verde: A white pizza made with fresh ricotta and mozzarella, covered with baby arugula and extra virgin olive oil.

• Pistachio Pie: It turns out pistachios and rosemary are a fabulous combination. This pizza also comes with red onion, grated Grana Padano, mozzarella and organic herbs. If there is only one pizza you try from this place, this should be it.

Taylor also has produced a different sort of cheesecake, infusing it with red peppers and topping it with a chocolate and balsamic reduction. And the homemade cannoli, based on Taylor's grandmother's recipe (per our waitress), is worth saving a bit of room to try.

To get a sense of how sincere Taylor is about his restaurant venture, we recommend watching his speech from TEDxTampaBay, available on YouTube. Here's a quote from that speech: "I've programmed my pizza to be a lactic acid flavor profile in the crust, which combines with the lactic acid flavor of my cheese, and it contrasts with the acidic taste of the tomatoes."

We're not sure exactly what that means, but we're sure Taylor does, and that's what matters.

DINING REVIEW

Wood Fired Pizza and Wine Bar

BOTTOM LINE: Pizza made by a man who has dedicated 20 years to perfecting it

WHERE: 2822 E. Bearss Ave., Tampa

HOURS: lunch: noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday; dinner: 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday; 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday

CREDIT CARDS: All major

RESERVATIONS: No

CHILDREN'S MENU: No, but it's pizza, after all

ALCOHOL: Beer and wine

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes

PRICE: Entrees range from $8 to $24, depending on size and style

CALL: (813) 341-2900