The newest entry into the DIY pizza game in Santa Rosa is Seattle-based MOD Pizza, offering up tasty ingredients like arugula, roasted red peppers and corn, fresh rosemary, fresh ricotta and fig balsamic glaze for your pie. You can, of course, also get things like pepperoni and mozzarella, but where’s the fun in that?
What we love about MOD in south Santa Rosa is the ultra-modern interior, easy online ordering for pickup and seriously insane marionberry shakes (and not just because they’re 900 calories). This Oregon berry is a hybridized cousin to raspberries and blackberries, with a sweet flavor and dark color that’s long been popular in the northwest, but rarely seen elsewhere. So. Luxuriously. Delicious.
We also are pretty stoked on the No Name Cakes ($1.97) — hockey-puck shaped chocolate cakes filled with vanilla creamy deliciousness kind of like a Ho Ho, but with a different name.
The pizza? The $8.50(ish) 11-inch pizzas are a steal, because no matter what you put on top, they’re the same price — big enough to share, but small enough to order a couple. You can do a thicker pie for $10.50 or a junior size for $6.50. We’re not 100 percent sold on the crust, which tastes somewhat like a cross between a tortilla and flatbread, but with the right toppings, it’s a wash. Salads are ho-hum, and sides like garlic strips or cinnamon strips are just crust with, you guessed it, garlic or cinnamon — though they come with dipping sauces like sri-rancha (sriracha/ranch) and chocolate. Meh.
Agreeing on a pizza in our house is as easy as scaling Mt. Everest in tap shoes and a tutu. With MOD Pizza’s choose-your-own adventure pizzas, everyone gets what they like. Of course, I offer to pick up so I drink the shake on the way home (stashing evidence in the outdoor garbage), don’t have to share my gorgonzola and honey pizza, and stow away a couple chocolate cakes in the freezer for later.
The kids are welcome to all the cheese, pepperoni and pineapple pizza they’d like,
MOD Pizza, 2695 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa, (707) 304-7051, modpizza.com.
