Pepe Caldo Pizza, Coeur d'Alene, ID

Pepe Caldo Pizza, Coeur d’Alene, ID is an anomaly among pie houses. Housed in a small retail/office complex, surrounded by a residential neighborhood, off the beaten path one finds this iconic pizza shop/skateboard store. Reservations are required; due to the hand crafted pies the owners need to have a handle on the guest count. The restaurant offers a small seating area surrounded by skateboards and a nice outdoor patio for dining. There is the fast food version (typified by Little Caesars, Domino’s, etc), the ‘designer’ pizza (typically found locally with fresh ingredients and scarce on toppings), and then there are the random local pie shops located primarily in small town USA (i.e. Leonardo’s Pizza, see my article)  where they slaver on the toppings and all the ingredients are homemade. This qualifies as one of the best. It’s not that Michael is gregarious and engaging, that any pizza shop can gain; it is that Charity handcrafts each pie with fresh ingredients (no canned black olives here, just real Italian green olives) and the crust made to enthuse. And did I mention that they fill out the pie to the edge leaving a narrow crust browned by the oven. The pizza is delivered tableside with a truly great touch-the entire pizza is sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese adding to a delectable mixture of flavors. As the pictures attest Michael is a skate board junky and his skate shop/pizza parlor reflects that enthusiasm.

The Takeaway: a truly great pie joint reflective of the owner’s passion for skateboarding and his wife’s dedication to fashioning a pie with fresh ingredients and a crust to envy. Go to  www.rickpicks.com for more pictures, other reviews, critiques and essays with links to area attractions and a more detailed review of rv parks as well as reviews of restaurants, etc.