At the halfway point, the best pizza restaurant in Lewes is . . . ."
Touch of Italy
We aren't finished yet.
That is the first thing we need to say before handing out any awards. DE Pizza Online has now reviewed almost half of the pizza restaurants on our original list. With summer coming to an end (always a sad thing), we decided it was time for an interim report card.
Consider these our halftime scores. There is still plenty of pizza to eat.
We also owe an apology to the Delaware Shore communities we haven't reached yet: Dewey Beach, Selbyville, and a few other places. Yes, we know you have pizza. We know some of you have been waiting for us and some of your fans have been advocating for us to review your pizza places. We promise we're coming. This pizza reviewing thing is a marathon, not a sprint. And after we eat pizza for a year (it may take longer), our nutritionists will probably demand that we run a marathon or two.
Let's be clear: these standings can change. We still have restaurants to review in the towns we've already visited, so today's champion could eventually be dethroned.
But, the premise of this blog post is that, if we stopped eating pizza today—and, to be clear, we are not going to do that—the best pizza restaurant we have reviewed in Lewes is Touch of Italy.
This review comes with a confession. We were never entirely neutral about Touch of Italy. Long before DE Pizza Online existed, Touch of Italy had a place in our pizza-loving hearts. After moving from New Jersey to Maryland, we missed two things terribly (culinary things): New York/New Jersey pizza and a real Italian deli. Then, on a trip to Lewes not long after Touch of Italy opened, we walked in and found both.
As we said in the original review, “it was like a revelation.”
Fresh mozzarella. Good, sweet tomato sauce. An Italian deli with authentic ingredients. Owners with New York roots. For two transplanted Northeasterners suffering from pizza withdrawal, this was less like finding a restaurant and more like discovering an emergency relief station.
But nostalgia doesn't get you eight slices. The pizza still has to deliver. And it does.
Start with the crust. One of us summed it up in four words: “crispy, chewy, tasty, salty.” That's a pretty good checklist for pizza crust. The wood-fired oven adds another layer of flavor. The crust tastes like an actual component of the pizza rather than the unfortunate bread handle you have to endure after the cheese and sauce are gone.
Then there is the pizza engineering.
Regular DE Pizza Online readers know that structural integrity is surprisingly important aspect of good pizza. A slice of pizza should behave like a slice of pizza. The cheese should not attempt to escape the crust onto the plate. The toppings should remain attached to the slice. Folding a slice should not require a course in origami, three fingers in the cheese, and a change of clothes.
Touch of Italy understands this. As we observed that night, “The slice stays together.”
The ingredients deserve equal billing. The mozzarella was creamy and milky. The sauce was rich, tomato-forward and slightly sweet—the kind of sauce that immediately pushes certain New York/New Jersey pizza buttons, even though this is not New York-style pizza. The pepperoni delivered exactly what pepperoni is supposed to deliver: salt, spice, crispness and just enough grease to remind you that you did, in fact, order pepperoni.
The restaurant experience matters too. Touch of Italy isn't merely producing very good pizza. They know how to run a restaurant (three actually, including Rehoboth and Ocean City). The service was attentive without hovering, the food arrived promptly, and the whole operation felt professional and comfortable.
There was, shall we say, one "complication" in our evaluation of the service: one reviewer revealed a special fondness for our server.
DE Pizza Online believes strongly in journalistic transparency.
Fortunately, the other reviewer independently confirmed that the service was truly excellent, so we believe the integrity of the review remains intact.
The final composite score was 7.5 out of 8 slices, rounded to 8. One reviewer gave Touch of Italy a perfect 8. The other gave it a 7, principally because the Neapolitan-style pizza wasn't quite the New York-style ideal he grew up eating.
That prompted perhaps the most revealing response of the review: If childhood pizza memories were going to influence the scoring, the reviewer who grew up eating Pizza Hut announced that Touch of Italy deserved an 18.
We don't actually allow 18. Our scale is one slice up to eight slices.
So, at least at the halfway point, 8 out of 8 slices will have to do.
Congratulations to Touch of Italy: DE Pizza Online's halfway-point choice for the best pizza restaurant in Lewes.
Now, we are going to keep eating pizza. We hope you do the same.
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