On the hot plate

By BRIAN DUFF  |  December 26, 2007

There will be a PIZZA SMACKDOWN. It might take a Michael Vick of pizza to get this one started, as one of the main combatants, Bonobo, is named for a peaceful primate, and the other is run by Peter Haggarty, who seems like a genuinely peaceful guy. As I mentioned last month Haggarty seems slightly hesitant to enter the Portland pizza fray (see "That's Amore," November 30). In this he is much like Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, who stands pensive before the battlefield, pondering the reasons for the slaughter about to ensue. Krishna dismisses such questions: “I have brought you here to kill these men. Do it well.” So should we tell Peter over the counter: “The gods have brought you here to make Indian Pizza. Do it well.”

There are other developments to look forward to. The Front Room will open a branch of sorts in the Old Port. There will be a mini GREEK SMACKDOWN with several new restaurants — but it does not take many Greeks for a good fight, as the film 300 demonstrated. Based on the poster in the window, the new Gauchos Churrascaria means we will face the vaguely Freudian question of how you feel about a pretty woman approaching you with many many pounds of dripping meat. Good, I say. In fact, between the head cheese, the Indian pizza, and the pretty woman with the meat, 2008 could be a very good year.

Brian Duff cane be reached at bduff@une.edu.

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