[title type="h5"]Saturday, August 3, 2013.[/title]
Not much of the month of August elapsed before my Saturday radio show was shoved aside to make room for football. Today, the Saints were having a scrimmage. That's like a practice, right? It doesn't take much, does it? I welcomed the day off. Mary Ann has been fighting the scaffold that she's using to paint the house, and she needed some help with it. I wound up using the pole and mini-roller I bought last week to show her that large expanses could be reached, after all. "She's got you doing it, too?" Mary Leigh said, when she saw me up there. The pole couldn't quite reach everything. I'll buy an even longer one tomorrow. Nobody wanted to go out to dinner. I offered to drive over to Pizza Man in Covington and bring one home. That got a cheer from Mary Ann, who is bone-weary from the paint project. I don't like take-out, but one must compromise now and then. At the parlor, I spent a few minutes catching up with Paul Schrem, who opened Pizza Man in 1976. He and I come from the same flower-power era, but he shows it off more than I do. (The ponytail alone makes that point.) He is as famous for the contents of his juke box as he is for his pizza. He told me that his son is slowly pushing him out of the pizza business, but that he's happy about that. Paul said that he tried to make a reservation for my twenty-five-year dinner at Commander's Palace, but we were sold out. He's not the first friend to tell me that. He asked me about Jude and Mary Leigh, of course. When they were kids, Pizza Man was among the most fun places to eat on our list. For a time, we were there almost every Saturday. I feel neglectful in that we hardly ever set foot in the place anymore. The pizza hasn't changed, but we have. [caption id="attachment_12506" align="alignnone" width="400"]
"The Board" pizza.[/caption]
It was my favorite: The Board, named for the rolling outdoor sign on which it was advertised. No tomato sauce. Olive oil, garlic, onions, fresh spinach (not frozen!), spicy capicola ham, mozzarella and feta cheese. It's delicious, even though it has a built-in problem: the spinach, as the pizza bakes, releases so much water that it makes the crust soggy. I ignore that and enjoy, after eating the anchovy-riddled Italian salad.
I will always have a place in my heart and appetite for Pizza Man.
Pizza Man Of Covington. Covington: 1248 Collins Blvd (US 190). 985-892-9874.
