Feature article
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From New York to East Tennessee
By Fred Sauceman
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| Simm Umberger, the owner. He’s actually blocking out the first two letters of his name. The result? “MMS,” customers’ typical vocal reaction to the taste of his pizza. Photo by Fred Sauceman |
The pizza technique traveled from Utica, New York, to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, then staked out a home in a Washington County, Tennessee, strip mall, just down the road from where Simm Umberger, the owner, grew up.
Simm’s Pizzeria, open since 1998, is ensconced in a cozy corner just off the far end of North Roan Street, near the Gray community.
About 100 pizzas a day cover stainless steel pedestals for in-store dining and await pickup in a heavy carryout trade.
From the San Gennero with its Italian sausage and strips of roasted red peppers to the Margarita perfumed by fresh basil and garlic and topped with Roma tomatoes, this is true, thin-crust, New York-style pizza.
Its assembly and its flavorings originated with the Cagesse and DaPola families around Utica.
It was a life-guarding stint that led Simm to dive into dough. After a life of sand, salt water and sun, he traded in the suntan lotion for olive oil to manage Cosmo’s Pizzeria in Corolla, North Carolina, while he lived upstairs above the restaurant, never far away from the aroma of simmering sauce.
Simm is modest about his product today, but his pizza is earning a strong following.
“A good pizza depends on cheese and dough,” he says. “We don’t cut any corners in buying good cheese.”
Dough is made fresh daily, and Simm’s shreds its own cheeses.
Fifty pounds of pure beef meatballs are prepared each week, for use, crumbled, as a spicy pizza topping, or halved for spaghetti.
Philly cheese steak is the top-selling sandwich at Simm’s, and about five years ago, Simm started oven-baking chicken wings.
The result is a near perfect wing, emitting steam for several minutes after it’s served, spicy but not overwhelming in hot sauce, moist and greaseless.
Simm has branched out into the catering business and says he’s counted only about five days in the last year when he didn’t have a catering job.
The day I caught up with him, over spaghetti and meatballs, hoagie-sized cheese bread, and a Margarita pizza I augmented with a little ham, he’d had a light catering day, only 45 people.
But the next day, he was to serve 165.
Area pharmaceutical representatives are among his most loyal and frequent catering customers.
For early morning meetings, they’ll order up breakfast pizza, with eggs, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, bacon, ham, and sausage.
While Simm is out catering, manager Luke Siele, a native New Yorker from Port Jefferson, Long Island, tends the pizza ovens.
I asked him how New York pizza transplanted to East Tennessee compared with what he’d grown up eating back home.
“It’s the closest around,” he said.
SIMM’S PIZZARIA
LOCATION: 4307 North Roan Street, Gray, Tennessee
PHONE: (423) 610-1040
HOURS: Open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (closed from 3 to 4:30 p.m.) and open Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m.
MISCELLANY: Checks and major credit cards accepted
SAMPLE PRICES: Chicken wings, $5.95; Philly cheese steak, $4.99; spaghetti with meatballs, $6.45; small San Gennero pizza, $10.95; large supreme, $15.25
--------GoTriCities--------
Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu.
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