Revello's in Old Forge
For those who don't know, Old Forge (between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton) is mostly a bunch of homes surrounding a strip of family Italian restaurants. Off the top of my head: Arcaro & Genell, Revello's, Rinaldi's, Talarico's, Augustini's Club 17, Brutico's... I know I'm forgetting at least as many as I've named.
Revello's is a small bar with dining room at the south end of the strip. It opens every day at 5PM. Although there are ashtrays on every table, there was no smoke that I noticed (although I could tell it is a bar). It was full at 5:30 PM Saturday night.
The menu is VERY limited, to red & white pizza, a couple different subs, and spaghetti, gnocci, ravioli, and a sausage platter and a meatball platter, which are kind of like spaghetti, but without the pasta getting in the way. Kind of simple, but this simplicity breeds perfection. At Revello's they do the things they do best, and the rest they leave for others.
Old Forge pizza is different from New York style, and from other traditional styles as well. Traditionalists shun pizza shells; Old Forge embraces the shell, and somehow the crust comes out with the perfect crispness. Pizza in Old Forge is similar to Sicilian, but thinner crust, and the slices are long and thin rather than square.
Revello's red has a slightly sweet and salty tomato and onion base, without much of anything else; some garlic and basil, maybe. The cheese is closer to American than mozzarella. If I had to guess I'd say it is Cooper American. Somehow the simplicity of the offering is more than the sum of its parts; this is pizza that gets inhaled rather than chewed.
The white pizza is like a cheese sandwich, with no tomato sauce. Slices of course are thicker, having crust on both sides after all. It's usually seasoned with a dusting of poultry seasoning.
We ordered four red and two white to split, and I ordered spaghetti and meatballs, and we split a sausage platter. The spaghetti sauce is very good, but the stars are the meatballs and the sausage, which are also available as toppings for the pizza, btw. The sausage is spicy, anisey and peppery, and soft, and very meaty. The meatballs are, well, "right". It's easier to tell what's wrong with a bad meatball than right with a good one, if you know what I mean. If you get the meats as pizza toppings, be advised that the sauce is different from the pizza sauce; they are ladled out of the pot & onto the pizza. I liked that.
When it was time to leave (we had a movie to go to, _Panic Room_), we decided to get some pizza to take home, so we got a tray of red (4 with meatball, 4 sausage, 4 plain), and 2 white, and we had Revello's pizza for lunch and dinner Sunday, too!
Total bill, with 2 Sam Adams, 1 coke, and 20% tip; $56.50. Not bad, I'd say.
Oh, BTW, no credit cards, but there is a MAC machine about 1/2 block down, I found out.
Tom Brenholts
Mosca
Tom Brenholts
Apr 23, 2002 08:42PM
I grew up in that area, and Old Forge pizza, I can still taste it today. I add to your list two places: MAXIE'S, on the border between Old Forge and Taylor, PA, and ARCARO'S, on the top of Taylor Hill (Main St.), in Taylor, to me the very best version of that pizza, even lighter and crispier, with a irresistable sauce, with much less onion that the traditional Old Forge pizza sauce. The pizza heats well, and is even good cold, but fresh out of the ovem in the very retro dining room of Arcaro's in Taylor, it is a truly special dining experience.
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Is Arcaro's the same as Arcaro and Gemelli's? Also how would you compare this to the Victory Pig and Pizza Loven in Wilkes Barre?
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Victory Pig and Pizza Loven are fried, I think. I only tried them a couple times about 10 years ago; I didn't care for them. That don't mean they ain't good, just that they weren't for me. I'd say most chowhounds would love them. The basic style is the same, but the crust is crisp and oily.
Y'know, I should try it again. I'd probably like it!
Mosca
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Victory Pig and Pizza Loven are fried, I think. I only tried them a couple times about 10 years ago; I didn't care for them. That don't mean they ain't good, just that they weren't for me. I'd say most chowhounds would love them. The basic style is the same, but the crust is crisp and oily.
Y'know, I should try it again. I'd probably like it!
I was going to ask the Arcaro's question myself.
Mosca
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ARCARO'S in TAylor , PA, is somehow a realtion to the Arcaro and Genell's in Old Forge, and there are a few other Arcaro's in the area. They are all related, but, I also think, not friendly with one another. A large group of sisters in the family, as I recall my parents telling me.
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There must be a whole lot of Arcaros and they must hate each other 'cause they all seem to have restaurants. I believe there is an Arcaro's in Tayor, Arcaro and Genell's in Old Forge, Chick Arcaro's in Clarks Summit and who knows what else. To put my oar in I think the white pizza at Arcaro and Genell's is the best. Any of the Old Forge reds are good.
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I've only had the white pizza at Arcaro and Genelli's and frankly it was so good that if I were back (I live near D. C.) I would still go back there. In fact if it were across the street from me I thought the white pizza was so good that I would probably have it every night for at least six months before I got tired of it.
The USA Today article they have on the wall is right. This IS one of America's best pizzas.
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