Review: Playland Pizza - San Antonio, Texas

Getting any meal in an area of high tourist activity can be a challenge - restaurants know that there is a big demand from customers who likely won't ever be back. That leads to high prices, indifferent service, and subpar food, even for simple stuff like pizza.

Most visitors to San Antonio spend some time at the River Walk, a stretch of below-street-level manmade canals populated on both sides with shops and restaurants. Billed as the "Number One Attraction in Texas," stretches of the River Walk are quite charming (especially heading south). 

The River Walk

Some of it can be pretty tacky, too, with throngs of people crowding the walkway along the shallow dirty water adjacent to mediocre restaurants designed to squeeze money from tourists - especially the section closest to the large hotels.

Exterior at Playland Pizza

Locals and tourists who instead seek to wander around up on the street level will find a mixed bag, too. Between the River Walk and the Alamo, there's a series of tacky souvenir shops; this is not the prettiest part of San Antonio. With that as a background, I was curious to explore Playland Pizza, less than two blocks from the River Walk on East Houston Street.

Inside Playland Pizza

The pizzeria is located in the Maverick Building, a onetime landmark high-rise built in 1922 by the estate of George M. Maverick,  son of Samuel Maverick, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Playland's website advertises "wood-fired pizzeria by chef Stefan Bowers. The massive two-ton oven takes center-stage as crunchy, naturally leavened pizzas emerge from its 700° mouth." There are sidewalk dining options, but the neighborhood is still in transition; I opted for a seat at the bar inside.

Wait, is that Anderson Cooper? (no)

The interior was spacious and had a high-end feel; it had the look of a place with great food but probably high prices. But this is, no mistaking it, a pizzeria with only appetizers, pizza, drinks, & dessert on the menu. How would a fancy pizzeria fit in this rough-edged part of San Antonio?

I chose a simple $14 "pizza pie" with a sausage topping ($3), accompanied by a seasonal draft hefeweizen ($7). I imagine it cooked fairly rapidly in the 700° dome oven, and it looked great when the bartender delivered it to me.

That dome oven is the kind that could be heated up to 900-1000 degrees to produce a puffy and charred Neapolitan pizza. This pie sported a prominent cornicione, but it occupies the space somewhere between a thin-and-crisp New York pie and a Neapolitan. Crust wise, it was similar to the pie at Pizza Brain in Philadelphia, which I've characterized as "American Pie" having a fairly sturdy base with less "flop" than a typical New York slice.

Anyhow, that crust was a winner. It was the right combination of chewy and crispy, with a fine flavor of its own. It was especially good at the cornicione, with terrific hole structure and ideal texture. The red sauce had a tangy, herbal note and it married well to the substantial payload of cheese.

Good color underneath

While the overall tone of this pizza was "artisanal," it carried a generous amount of cheese that is more common to strip-mall pizza, where the total mass of cheese and toppings often takes precedent over the quality of the ingredients. Still, the crust was not overwhelmed by the cheese, and the whole pie held together nicely.

Outdoor seating

Another sign of a talented pizzaiolo - the Italian sausage had been applied raw, so that it cooked on the pie. It was about the perfect extra element of umami here, even though the sauce and cheese mix was already (and properly) salty. In the final analysis, this was a brilliant construction, with all the elements in harmony.

Great hole structure at the cornicione

The particular genius of this pie is that it lives in two different pizza spheres. On one hand, with that superb crust, this is clearly an artisanal pie that will appeal to pizza snobs and anyone with an appreciation for good dough. On the other hand, it delivers a big cheesy payload that will please the tourist looking to get a filling and tasty pizza at a reasonable price.

At the Pearl District

This elegant and upscale pizza restaurant/lounge would feel perhaps more in place were it located with the trendy restaurants in the newly hip Pearl District of San Antonio, but it is surely a welcome presence in a neighborhood that needs precisely this kind of elegant-yet-accessible restaurant. Great pizza, fair prices, good service, and a terrific vibe in this repurposed historic space.