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Coyote Creek Pizza Co.
Strange Magic
By Jim Goldsmith of Eastsideweek
Most commercial pizzas are created just about equal. Differences without distinction: one has less cheese on soggy crust, another thinner pepperoni on soggier crust, the next one blander tomato sauce on soggiest crust; 3 pounds for $5.99, 5 pounds for $3.95, 395 pounds for 59 cents. This stuff is bulk food, pizzas for kids, whose preferences are determined not by flavor and texture, but by the pounding appeals of TV ad campaigns.
At the new Coyote Creek Pizza Company in downtown Kirkland, they create high-quality pizzas for adults. "When we put together our market plan, we targeted the 25-34 group," says co-owner Steve Brodniak, whose 15-year banking career was abbreviated by the industry's recent "downsizing." "But what we've found is that we're attracting an older group as well, people who are re-discovering pizza after years of buying their kids chain pizzas."
The pies fall into roughly two groups--the traditional, and what prolific cookbook author James McNair terms the "new" pizza. Traditional pizza takes up less space on the menu, partly because they require little explanation. A section called "The Old Standbys" lists slightly jazzed-up variations, such as the Pepperoni Pizzazz, with its blend of cheeses, or the Coyote Kitchen Sink, a combo with good Italian sausage with a strong anise accent and Copocollo ham, along with pepperoni, olives, green peppers, and onions.
On the back of the menu there's the build-your-own section with all the traditional ingredients, plus others such as goat cheese, chorizo, capers, and sauce alternatives--pesto and garlic-ricotta.
Then there's the "new" group, the creations of partner Bill Tamiesie, the brains in the kitchen whose recent success, Redmond's Big Time Pizza, grew, well, too big for his tastes. "I wanted to get back to a café/bistro style," he explains. The anything-goes selections range from the tame--a BLT that features Italian bacon, Roma tomatoes, plus cool, crisp lettuce added just as it's served, to the wild--the Northwest Delight.
This uses the smooth and intense garlic-ricotta base, and features green apples, roasted hazelnuts, mushrooms, and red onions. "When we first opened, we bought about an apple a week," remembers Brodniak. "Now some weeks we use a case."
One of my favorites is the Blue Moon, with a wild mix of texture and flavor: artichoke hearts and walnuts, basil, garlic, Roma tomatoes, and Danish blue cheese. If some pizzas play duets, trios, or quartets on the taste buds, the Blue Moon played a Basie band or an Ellington orchestra. And I liked it even better the next day, reheated on a cookie sheet in the oven, when the blue cheese seemed to blend more than bite.
There's a prawn pizza, a shish kebab pizza, a roasted garlic pizza for young lovers on hot dates, and a pizza with tofu, cilantro, and sesame oil.
The stromboli is an interesting, chewy layered-and-rolled pizza that comes with marinara for dipping, but you can also ask for the pesto or the garlic-ricotta sauces ($5.95). For starters, there's a range of salads and a large antipasto plate. The black bean soup ($2.50) is a wicked brew, chili-powdered and hot.
They advertise the pizzas as 10-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch, but tend to throw the dough on the large side. Prices for 10-inch pizzas range from $6.50 to $11 for the Prawns Plus. Fourteen-inchers range from $10-15.50, and 16-inch pies from $14.50-$21.
Though you can box pizzas to go, the restaurant is a pleasant place to pass the time, and there's always some decent wine to pass it with. The walls are bright yellow, hung with original artwork that features coyotes in various pizza-craving postures (Pizza Dreams, Pizza Envy).
After you order at the counter, you can sit at one of the interesting-looking but back-cracking, church-pew-like wooden seats. But the atmosphere, at least for now, is a bit gentler than the visual chaos of DaVinci's, downtown Kirkland's other great place for pizza. Coyote Creek is just a block or so off the main walking pattern for those strolling downtown Kirkland this summer, well worth the extra steps to get there.
(Jim Goldsmith writes about food for Eastsideweek.)
