Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Greenville, North Carolina - and great PIZZA!

WELCOME TO THE EMERALD CITy


Tar River, Greenville, North Carolina


Lovely Southern home in Greenville.

Greenville, North Carolina is widely recognized as the thriving cultural, educational, economic, and medical hub of Eastern North Carolina. Enjoy world-class events and East Carolina University and the Greenville Convention Center. Experience our vibrant art, live music, and culinary scene in the Uptown Greenville and Dickinson Avenue Districts.

AND

If you're ever in town be sure to visit Luna Pizza Café

Perhaps, like us, your travels sometimes include crazy, one-off visits to places you hadn't really planned to visit. Right now we're taking a road trip to Eastern North Carolina to use free hotel nights before they expire on June 30th! Just returning from the UK, I hadn't expected to be packing up again and leaving hearth and home!
First stop was here in Greenville because I had read an article in a magazine about this amazing pizza place. The owner, a former university professor at East Carolina University, enrolled in a famous Florence, Italy pizza academy to learn the intricacies of making fermented dough and how to lightly char Neapolitan pies in a high temperature oven. Long story short, he retired from teaching and opened Luna's here in Greenville......and soon there will be more locations, hopefully one closer to home for us. . . . . . like right across the street from us in north Raleigh's burgeoning Midtown PLEASE owner Richard!
Our favorite Neapolitan pizza EVER was enjoyed in Palermo, Sicily. Our ship dropped us off for a day ashore and after sightseeing we ended up sitting outside with friends overlooking the water enjoying fabulous pizzas!  A VERY close favorite  has to be this pizza Margherita tonight at Luna's right here in North Carolina, excellent in every way, along with an amazing appetizer, Involfini do Melanzani (rolled, stuffed eggplant), and we shared the best Tiramisu dessert ever!  The dining experience was so enjoyable. Beside the wonderful food, Walt the Manager, and Kelly our server, were most hospitable and helpful, and took time to chat with us.

Perfect Pizza Margherita 
Good to the last crumb!
Very good Italian rosé!

We just may be heading back to Greenville again soon as tonight's meal
 was fabulous!
Back on the road tomorrow heading to Elizabeth City via the historic towns of
 (Little) Washington and Bath. 

I had hoped to post this last evening however the WIFI in the hotel room quit!


12 comments:

  1. Dearest Mary,
    Wow, you are two tough birds for being on the road that soon after your England voyage!
    But the Pizza looks good and your description sounds positive as well.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

    Just arrived home from our usual stocking–up trip to Atlanta... Lucky with traffic!

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  2. Sounds like a fun road trip! Looking forward to hearing more about it.

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  3. That's interesting - pizza and tiramissu which are of italian origin, taste better in places outside Italy. Just as I fell in love with french croissant in...Bulgaria, not in France.

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  4. 😁The travel bug has bitten and there's no sense in wasting perfectly good benefits. That pizza looks and sounds amazing. Hope that you get your wish!

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  5. So nice to hear you are enjoying what makes you happy again. The style of pizza you wrote about is the best way to make pizza, in my opinion. A wood fired pizza oven cooks at such a high temperature and puts the perfect amount of charring, leaving a light layer to bite into and the inside soft and chewy, but not raw. That doesn't happen when cooked in electric or gas pizza ovens. Not that they produce a bad product but there is a marked difference because of the dough preparation, the heat from the bricks, the seasoning of the bottom of the bricks that the pizza cooks on and the high temperatures. Isn't it wonderful to treat yourself and loved ones to such freedom and goodness again?

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  6. How fun to be visiting in your part of the world and having delicious pizza. I do love a good pizza, especially Margherita pizza. That looks so good.

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  7. I love a good pizza (especially Margherita), but I wonder what the people at the pizza place in Palermo would say if they knew you called their pizza Neapolitan - unless of course it was a proper pizza Napolitana, with sardines and olives on top :-D
    Involtini di melanzane is LOVELY and something I have not eaten in a very long time.
    Greenville looks like a beautiful place, and I am glad you had the chance for this trip, even though it meant packing so soon after you have just returned from England.

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  8. Sounds like a nice little getaway, Mary. The only time I have been to Greenville was several years ago to see my son receive his Master's Degree from ECU. It seemed at that time the restaurant choices were pretty skimpy. Would have loved to have dined at Luna's. Perhaps we need to go back again just for that reason.
    I'll be interested to see how you like the rest of your trip. I have been intrigued by Washington after seeing photos of that area. Have fun!

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  9. What a fun little trip not too far from home. The pizza sounds delicious, like a very short trip to Italy!

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  10. How delightful your review of Greenville and "the pizza" .... next time I get to NC, Greenville is a must. New Bern is also a must. My son has mentioned both several times and has a sailboat moored in New Bern. I also reveled in your tales of going home .... thank you so much for sharing. I have fallen in love with Cary and Lochmere. We (son Carl and myself) have a plan. August 1st, 2023 our Bend townhome goes on the market, Carl applies for SS in early October ... at which time, we expect to relocate to Cary and hopefully to Lochmere. Hoping for a smooth transition and that everything falls into place. August 2023 may seem like far off, in reality at my age, it is NOT. Cheers, keep the NC posts coming.

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  11. I went to a baseball game at East Carolina U once when my nephew was pitching for an opposing team. Don't even remember who won! But, I found Greenville to be a charming place.. the pizza place probably wasn't there then as that was back in early 2000s.

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  12. Dear Mary ..... so sorry for my absence .... I've missed so much but have now caught up. Your trip back to home shores sounded very interesting, meeting { and listening in ! } on some interesting people and catching up with family and friends. I hope you had a lovely time here in the UK. I now need pizza and a glass of Rosé !!! XXXX

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