Jo-Jo’s: Pizza before the revolution

Wolfgang Puck revolutionized pizza, topping it with duck, smoked salmon, caviar and other goodies. Good Chicago deep-dish pizza is something of a religious experience. And one of the most satisfying meals of all time is a good, rich, stuffed spinach pizza, oozing cheese and calories.

But sometimes, you just want a pizza. Sometimes, you just want Jo-Jo's.

Jo-Jo's is a New York-style pizza, though the crust is not as thin as at some New York joints. It's a hardworking, Everyman kind of pizza.

It also happens to be delicious.

Offered by the slice (you can also order an entire pie, but I've never seen anyone do that), Jo-Jo's pizza comes with all the standard toppings -- no duck or smoked salmon here. It's what pizza used to be before it got all fancy and froufrou.

The secret is in the ratio. The perfect pizza uses an almost indefinable ratio of crust to sauce to cheese. It's hard to get right -- think of all the pizzas you have had that are chewy from too much crust, or overladen with cheese. Think of the pizzas you've had with a sauce that is too sweet. Then stop going there. You know the place we mean.

Jo-Jo's isn't just pizza -- it also offers calzones and stromboli. These are also excellent, which makes sense because they are essentially folded-over pizzas.

Oddly, the restaurant also offers a large variety of subs and a small variety of salads, plus french fries, onion rings and chips.

I have never seen anyone order any of these, either. And why should they? Jo-Jo's has one of the best lunch specials in town: two slices of pizza and a fountain drink for $4.99.

The décor is minimalist -- white floors, white walls, white ceiling and the TV tuned to ESPN. On the walls are poster-size photographs of New York, adding to the ambience.

Best of all is the garrulous staff, which seems to have been imported directly from the Bronx (Hey, maybe they know Johnny's Pizzeria in Mount Vernon).

My only complaint about the place is that they do not offer fresh-brewed iced tea. It is true that iced tea does not go with pizza, but this is the South. Iced tea is a necessity of life, even at a New York-style restaurant.