Demarcus Bowser/Special to The Commercial Appeal
Dutch Van Oostendorp prepares one of TriBecca Allie Cafe's pizza creations in Sardis, Miss.
Road Trip Review: This is the first in an occasional series of reviews of restaurants within a comfortable driving distance of Memphis. If you know of one you'd like to see featured, e-mail Jennifer Biggs at biggs@commercialappeal.com with details about the restaurant and nearby activities.
There's plenty of good pizza to be had in Memphis -- hush up, Travel + Leisure -- so it's not as if you have to leave town to find it.
But in case you haven't heard, this is the summer of the staycation. Gas prices are high, everybody's poor and with Maywood long gone, today's "beach within reach" is Sardis Lake. As long as you're there, it would be a big mistake not to pay a visit to TriBecca Allie Café. In fact, you might want to go for the food and make the lake the side trip.
Dutch and Becca Van Oostendorp are New York transplants who opened TriBecca in 2009.
They serve nine pizzas, a daily special, a salad or two and a couple of desserts.
Demarcus Bowser/Special to The Commercial Appeal
Rebecca and Damian "Dutch" Van Oostendorp are the owners of TriBecca Allie Café in Sardis, Miss.
Demarcus Bowser/Special to The Commercial Appeal
High heat and flame make pizzas unique in the home-style wood-fired brick oven at TriBecca Allie Café.
The pizzas are excellent, cooked up in a wood-fired oven that Dutch not only built himself, but built in such a way that only the throat of the oven extends in the open kitchen. The heat-producing cavity protrudes from the side of the building, an excellent solution to keeping the small restaurant cool in the summer; the interior of the oven can reach up to 900 degrees at the top. The bottom, where the pizza cooks, hovers around a relatively cool 650 to 700 degrees.
This results in a superb crust. While very thin, there's a lot going on. Charred bits add flavor and texture, the airy structure of the (house-made, of course) dough gives a bit of lift to the rim and tenderness throughout. It's both crisp and offers a slight tug, and yes, it's all happening at the same time.
We sampled a couple of pizzas with meat and several vegetarian options, along with an excellent Cuban sandwich on homemade bread. The Van Oostendorps sold bread and long, thin pizzas topped with local vegetables and dry cheeses at area farmers markets before they opened the restaurant.
"People didn't think we were ever going to open," explained the effusive Becca, a swimming coach who will happily pull out her cell phone to show you pictures of her dogs. "We spent about three years renovating the place."
Bronx-raised, she followed her parents to Sardis. Her mother is originally from Natchez, Miss., and when her father took a job that freed them to live anywhere within one hour of a major airport, the couple headed south about 22 years ago.
"I came to visit and fell in love with the land," Becca said. "Right before I moved down here, I went to a wedding and met my now-husband. He came to visit and moved here about three months later."
That was about 13 years ago, and they had their eyes on the Main Street building for much of that time.
There are a couple of white pizzas on the menu, which is always a nice change from a tomato-based pie. The Bianca Verdi is an excellent example, with ricotta cream on the bottom, whole milk mozzarella and a choice of spinach or artichoke hearts on top. We went with both, but I would've been happy with just the spinach. Tender fresh leaves, when hit with the blast of heat, turn delicately crisp and the flavor deepens.
The signature pizza, though, is the Rosa Magnolia Insalata, which placed second in the American Pizza Championship in September. The Rosa Magnolia is also a tomato-less version, topped with three cheeses, red onion and Mississippi pecans; add the "insalata" and it's the same pizza but with a salad of mixed greens, pine nuts and a balsamic vinegar dressing on top.
The Capricciosa and the Primavera are both heartier pizzas, each sparingly topped with a housemade marinara sauce and whole milk mozzarella. Ham, artichoke hearts, olives and mushrooms are then added to the Capricciosa; the Primavera is loaded up with a pile of vegetables and is the most filling of all the pizzas we tried.
Whatever you eat, save room for dessert. This is a must. Becca's caramel cobbler has little in common with a crusty Southern fruit cobbler, but oh, boy ...
"We have the caramel cobbler every day because people make us," she said. "But I also do a second cobbler, maybe a Key lime, or a chocolate or a rocky road every day."
Whatever.
It's the caramel you want.
The dough is soft in places, chewy in others (but not crusty at all), and the warm golden caramel melts in your mouth, bringing instantly to mind the comfort of a pecan pie and the carefree days of a chewy Kraft caramel. Just to take it over the top, half a miniature ice cream sandwich is tucked in the side of the ramekin and slowly melts.
Tribecca Allie keeps odd hours, and if there is a play running at the community theater next door, it's open 5-8 p.m. on Fridays; be safe and call ahead.
-- Jennifer Biggs: (901) 529-5223
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Tribecca Allie Café
Food:
Service:
Atmosphere:
Address: 216 S. Main, Sardis, Miss.
Telephone: (662) 487-2233
Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; 5-9 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. Takeout available 4:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Open 5 to 8 p.m. Friday (including tonight) for dinner when Panola Playhouse is open.
Reviewer's choices: Anything. Pizzas are $8.50 to $12.95 for the 10-inch at lunch and $12.75 to $16.95 for the 14-inch at dinner. Desserts are about $3.50.
Alcohol: Bring your own beer or wine.
Star Ratings
Poor: Zero stars
Good: One star
Very Good: Two stars
Excellent: Three stars
Extraordinary: Four stars
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