By ZACHARY WILLIAMS
Staff Writer
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As a college student, I eat pizza. This is an immutable fact. Birds will always sing, grass will always grow, and college kids will always go abroad seeking pizza. As such, I have always felt that I’m bound by some sort of unspoken blood pact, completely unrelated to the other unspoken blood pact that every food journalist has to take, to review as many pizza places as I can.
Something I didn’t expect about this, when I started thinking about it, is just how many pizza places there are in this city. If you walk down Madison Avenue, you pass three pizza places on one block alone. It would seem like every third food outlet is a pizza place; which, naturally, makes my life difficult–what’s the point of reviewing a restaurant where everyone’s already been? This changed when I first heard a legend floating around the Internet about a place called Sovrana Pizza, which the speaker claimed had the “Best Pizza in Albany. ”
I almost always call bull on these sorts of things. To claim that you have the “Best X in Y” is something that’s difficult to substantiate, and almost hilariously egotistic. And yet something grabbed me about this place. The old niggling doubt: what if this really is the Best Pizza in Albany? What if I just decide to pass up something that could, potentially, be a life-altering experience? By not indulging this rumor, I could miss the opportunity to reach some sort of pizza-related Nirvana, and would be eternally bound to wander the Earth, searching in vain for the Best Pizza.
And so I went. And it was a bit of a hike–from campus to 63 North Lake, actually, about three blocks, tucked away in Enemy Territory (which is to say, behind UAlbany’s downtown campus). It’s a small building, yet brightly painted, the walls white and yellow and the windows glowing with various brightly colored signs. It doesn’t look shabby like some of the buildings around it; it’s clean, almost mysteriously so. As I entered, I wondered if I was about to walk onto a movie set. And, thankfully, I didn’t.
The first thing I noticed was a wall of plaques, newspaper articles, and other accolades substantiating the claim of “Best Pizza in Albany,” which I had to admit was very surprising. I’d never heard of Sovrana before, and I’ve lived here for almost four years now. The only way I’d become aware of its existence now was by a random encounter with some dude on the Internet, and here it is, touting some sort of immense pizza-making prowess? I ignored the dent in my pride and ordered my meal, which came around surprisingly quickly–as it turned out; a fresh pizza had been pulled from the oven moments before I got there. Divine intervention? A sign from God, perhaps? Or maybe just really good timing? Whatever, I just like pizza.
When I sat down, I noticed something else about Sovrana. It’s cozy. It’s not crowded by furniture, and the day I arrived to eat there it wasn’t busy, either. I was one of three customers in the entire store. And yet it didn’t feel empty in there–it felt comfortable. The news played on a TV hanging from the wall, coolers hummed behind me, and the few small tables basked in the evening sun.
The world outside drifted away, and for a few blessed minutes I just stopped really caring about anything that was going on outside, and focused on the pizza. Which I daresay holds up to its lofty reputation, because it’s damn good. And at about $5 for a slice, incredibly affordable.
In short, I left Sovrana content. Happy, even. Best Pizza in Albany, perhaps. Perhaps not. But it certainly is one of the best little restaurants in Albany. It’s an island, a rock, a quiet, unchanging place in a sea of turmoil. It’s a place to step away from the hectic rat-race for a few minutes, enjoy a pizza and a cannoli either by yourself or with friends, chill out, relax, and remember what it means to enjoy a good meal in a nice place, with no strings attached.
In Brief
Pros: Good service, relatively close location, AMAZING atmosphere
Cons: Cash only, can be busy sometimes, near UAlbany
Rating: 4/5 (Nothing can ever be perfect, but this is close.)
Recommended: GOD YES.
