1) Hog island Deli. I think it’s one of the priciest slices in town, but excellent cheese slices at that. Of all the slices I’ve had so far in Austin, their cheese slice was most reminiscent of a true NY pizza. I can’t vouch for their other slices, but I’ve been here multiple times for the cheese slice and it’s been consistently a treat for my taste buds. Open during the daytime AND they’re open late til after bar close! Update 3/12/2010 – Hog Island Deli is now closed as I found out when out with a friend tonight :(

2) Home Slice. Will get MAD busy, you’ve been warned! But don’t let this shun you away from their awesome pizza – you can get it by the slice if you are impatient. They’ve just opened up a second storefront next door, appropriately named “More Home Slice”, so it may be easier to grab a quick slice than it has been in years previous.

3) Rounder’s Pizzeria – I just recently ate here and their pizza is fantastic. It’s a little far out on W 6th past Whole Foods, but it will be a good experience. Their pepperoni are those small bowl-shapes ones that curl up and hold puddles of oil. Great balance of flavor among the crust, cheese, sauce and toppings. If the nice weather keeps up for SX, you can relax out in the patio and get some beer with your pizza.

4) Hoboken Pie Co. Okay, so they have vegan pizza here with teese – which may or may not impress your vegan friend. It really doesn’t taste like pizza, and I had a vegan friend of my own tell me she didn’t like it. I’ve ordered a specialty Mediterranean pizza fresh with a friend and it didn’t amaze me. So why go here? They’re reheated slices are awesome. If the slice has been laying around for an hour or more, get them to re-heat it and enjoy that piece of delcious-ness.

These are my recommendations for downtown. But some of my faves are a little further out. Scroll down below for more places further out (including my favorite place in Austin).

Late-Night / After-bar Pizzerias

Of all the bar street pizza, most will taste good at 3am when your hungry and had a 2 to 17 beers that day (you can thank all the free noms for that). Nevertheless, a little overview on these pizzeria, in no particular order.

Stony’s mobile Pizza Kitchen has super soft crust and great mozarella if that’s your thing.

Ropollo’s – There’s a bazillion of these downtown. Okay, maybe four. And as much as it is “bar pizza”, I can’t diss their pizza. It’s always fantastic. My fave comes from West 6th, a lovely trailer between Union Park and Star Bar. They always reheat it just the right amount of time. I hang around these area a lot and have had their pizza maybe 14 times. Always good. They do run out of pizza, so get here as soon as bar close or even earlier.

Jack’s Pizza company – Taste and texture very very similar to Ropollo’s, sometimes I can’t tell the difference. Pretty good.

The Onion Pizza – The place is tiny but has good pizza. If you’re closer to Congress (Warehouse district for instance), I’d make the trip over to the Onion to grab your slice.

Pizza Paparazzi – Hit and miss sometimes. It gets super busy and you get a crazy crowd often.

Hoeks Death Metal Pizza – THE GREASIEST pizzas in town and awesome stuff inside with black lighting (they play episodes of He-Man often) AND they’re staff is super friendly. Pizza is a little salty and droopy because of all that grease.

Restaurant Pizzerias

Frank & Angie’s Pizzeria – Right on W 6th just before getting to the bar area. Tastes like Papa John’s pizza, nothing too special.

East Side Pies – Super thin crust pizza and so many specialty pizzas that get really creative. Check the map below, and you’ll see ESP the only pizzeria in that part of Austin. Fairly good pizza.

Southside Flying Pizza - On south congress, parking lot is super small. Decent pizza, they’re margherita is pretty tasty. But compared to Home Slice further up the street, I would choose the latter.

Salvation pizza – This is more on campus, but they are hosting a free(free at Indepent studio!). Nice place and decent pizza.

Whole Foods – yes it’s a grocery store. yes it’s organic this and that. But they have slanted escalators. And they have awesome pizza that come in pizza shaped cardboard boxes wrapped in gold foil. That. Is. Awesome.

Brick Oven Pizza – On 12th street in a plain looking building that doesn’t look like a restaurant until you get real close to it. Ok pizza, very similar to Southside Flying pizza.

Mangia’s – The only place near downtown serving Chicago-style deep dish. I’ve only had their pizza at the Airport so I can’t comment on the pizza. But Lake Austin Blvd is a scenic drive if you go further down.

Pie Guys Pizzeria – They’re on campus, but I mention it because they’ll be hosting a music event (with free pizza if you’re early – See below for details). I’ve never been here so can’t say anything about the pizza.

More artisan-like pizza can be found at Taverna, Vespaio, Brick Oven, zpizza. zpizza has a good variety and even has good-tasting whole-wheat options. These aren’t particularly amazing, but if you’re looking for this style of pizza, I would recommend making a drive out to House pizzeria (see below)

Finally, I don’t usually knock on pizza, but the only pizzeria that I can’t recommend is Cozzoli’s on Congress, across from the paramount theater. I gave it a a few tries, and all the time just not good pizza.

If you can make the trip…

If you have time and transportation options, make a trip further out downtown to visit these places

1) Little Deli. My absolute fave in Austin so far. If you want to escape the madness of SX, this will be your haven for at least for as long as your meal lasts. Hell, they have a Gazebo for you to dine and relax at. Owner and staff are super cool and friendly. They usually have pizza by the slice, or you can order whole pizza. Note they are closed on Sundays.

2) House Pizzeria. Neapolitan style pizza. Only have specialty pizzas on the menu, but a good variety and you can always make modifications. My recommendation is the Blue pizza + sausage (or other meat). Try their root beer and come with friends and order a bunch of pizzas to sample them all.

3) Cipollina Bistro – It’s not that far out, but you will need a car to get here if you are staying at a hotel downtown. Excellent pizza and nice place and quaint neighborhood.

SXSW pizza-inspired showcases/parties and free noms (credit to sxswfreenoms for the info!)

Music By The Slice (MXTS) March 18-20, noon-7ish

Hosted by Home Slice. Lots of great bands, no rsvp required. Check out the lineup here.

Free Salvation Pizza and Lone Star Beer at Covert Curiosity and Sonic Itch Music’s Eastside Get Down Party Thursday, March 18th from 12NOON to 6PM at The Independent (501 Studios)

Music + food. Details here

Free Pizza, Beer and Soda at ALIVE! Fundraiser Party Wednesday, March 17, 2010 from 12 NOON to 8PM at Epoch Coffee (221 W. North Loop Blvd.)

No badge required. Facebook event page

Free Pizza at The Best Damn Day of Duos Ever…Dammit Party Thursday March 18, at Pie Guys Pizza (2222 Rio Grande St.) 12 NOON to 8pm.

Pizza Map

Here’s a map of pizza places mentioned. Blue star indicates a recommended spot! (note: the locations on the map are pretty accurate, but for some reason the addresses listed on got tagged differently, apologies)

View SXSW 2010 Pizza Places in Downtown Austin + Recommendations in a larger map

Jennie Wang, aka The Berry Fairy, and her partner Lea McKinney brings the miracle berry to Austin. They’ve thrown such parties in Houston. Check out the video segment on News 8 Austin.

In line I met a couple, Y & F. We were all excited for what was to come…

This was a very interesting experience, though somewhat brief. These miracle berries’ effect last about a half hour. You pop them in your mouth and do a little Judo with your tongue and spit it out.

Then, you get to go wild on various snacks (and vodka) that were provided. The munchies were presented immaculately along a white-draped table:

Limes, strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, blue cheese, salt & vinegar potato chips, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, Sri-racha hot sauce, tabasco. And to the side, Austin’s very own Tito’s Vodka.

Lea recommended the Lime, and it really was the awesomeness. We heard people exclaim: “It tastes like Limeade!” more than once. And that pretty much summed it up. The most interesting for me was taking a hefty shot of balsamic vinegar. The berry effect was somewhat waning at that point, so it tasted half-maple-syrupy and half-cringey-and-stingy. It was a weird sensation, because it went down pretty easily, but my imeddiately stomach felt the impact of the acidity swishing around. Had to take a breather after that one.

Some of the foods basically tasted like sugar was sprinkled on it. Sweet things tasted…well, sweeter. Like sweet steroids.

Then there were some miracle berry tablets from a vendor. Can you say “FLAVOR TRIP PARTTYYYYY”??? We were curious about what some meats and desserts would taste like. We heard that the bologna sandwiches were supposed to taste like cheesecake.

All of us hungry, I suggest to Y&F we go grab some pizza! Imagine what that would taste like… Then began our 30 minute trek for pizza. I say trek because when you’re craving pizza at that moment, each minute seems like an eternity. We wanted to hit up Home Slice, but alas the wait was too long as usual. So we head over to Vespaio/Enoteca.

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Funny because we had just passed Mighty Cone on the way to Enoteca. And if our logic was correct, the we bet the Cherry-Sno cone would have tasted like…pizza.

After the second tablet, my tongue was feeling a little numb. According to F, Y is impervious to spicy foods and has yet to try Ghost Chili Pepper (one thing that they don’t have at whole foods mecca, apparently). Flavor-trip that one, my friend, and you the mouth will burn with FIREY SWEETNESS.

Well, I’ll have to come back to Vespaio, the pizza seemed pretty good even with the sweetness coating it!

The visit to Flatbed Press for the Music Pizza Meltdown was somewhat a fail. All the delicious pizza was gone when I arrived. You should have seen the look on my face when I saw the stacks of empty boxes, with the teasing aroma of pizza-liciousness still in the room. At least they were courteous to put up notes. Stayed for a few songs from the bands playing.

SXSW interactive just wrapped up last night on St Patty’s, and today begins the transition to the Music festival. I’m all partied out from the last five nights (had a phenomenal time and met some awesome people), but my friend L told me about this ridiculously awesome pizza event at Flatbed World Headquarters that I really want to check out. Begins at 3pm today with free pizza by local Austin Pizzerias (ESP and Salvation pizza being a couple of them!)

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Music Pizza Meltdown
Wednesday, March 18th
at Flatbed World Headquarters (2830 East MLK Jr. Blvd)
3pm-10pm

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More details can be found at Stephanie Bonham’s blog and over at do512.com (credits to these sites for the info and images).

3:00    The Blank Tapes (CA)

3:45    Treasure Mammal (AZ)

4:30    A Faulty Chromosome (TX)

5:15    XYX (Mexico)

6:00    Abe Vigoda (CA)

6:45    Psychedelic Horseshit (OH)

7:30    Moth!Fight! (TX)

8:15    Evangelicals (OK)

9:00    Pterodactyl (NY)

9:45    Crime Novels (NY)

10:00   Best Friends Forever (MN)