musings of a ragamuffin

Wednesday night, after the Night of Chocolate event with Cacao Atlanta, April and I headed down the street to Ammazza, a new Naples style pizza joint similar to the style of Antico and STG Trattatoria. I’d heard a good bit about this spot since it opened last week, and was excited to try it out. Menu is very similar to both I mentioned before, great drinks selection including Sprecher’s Root Beer, one of my faves. We ordered the basic Margherita pizza, added pepperoni, you know, to go crazy.

It came not much later, as we were admiring the beautiful interior space. They’ve done an amazing job there. It’s beautiful. Love the ceilings, the tables, all of it. Pizza came (sans pepperoni), and was very good. I should mention I asked about the pepperoni, and was told they missed it and several people came to apologize and offer to make it right. Excellent customer service. We enjoyed it. We really had a good experience overall. I’d go back. But I found myself Instagramming a pic, with the caption, “No Antico, but still very good.” And then, at some point going home, something bothered me about it.

I found myself judging it against Antico and STG, despite the fact it was good on it’s own, in it’s own way. I mean, can’t we just eat a pizza and not think about how it stacks up to other pizza places? I mean, it does it an injustice to be so critical, when at the end of the day, it was an enjoyable pie, and I’d definitely go back. Now, I understand having context for it, I understand being able to describe it, but in this age of social media, where our friend’s opinions weigh heavily into our buying decisions, it’s not very fair, I don’t believe. And the more I thought about it, the more I realize I do it all the time, for lots of things? 

I buy coffee all the time, let’s say, a Kenya from Roaster X, and drink it, enjoy it, but immediately think, “Wasn’t as good as the Kenya I had from Other Roaster X this year.” Despite the fact that it was a delicious coffee. Despite the fact that they’re two totally different roasters. Can’t both be good? Can’t we prefer both at different times, for different reasons? I believe we can. Something doesn’t always have to be “the best.” Just yesterday, I visited a coffee shop, had a coffee that Batdorf roasted last year, and immediately thought, “This isn’t as good as the one we had last year.” But, that’s insane. The coffee was good. Coffee flavors change from crop to crop. From region to region, from area to area, from farm to farm, etc.

In this generation of Yelping, TripAdvisoring, UrbanSpooning, Facebooking and Twittering, might I suggest a less critical and more graceful attitude. Instead of immediately judging a coffee or a meal, let’s take a second and think about how much better said thing is than most of it’s counterparts. Let’s acknowledge it’s positive attributes, and remember it’s innate differences. Let’s think about the fact that no, the burger may not be as good as the one we had at, say, Miller Union, but this one is made with beef from cows that were raised 30 miles away, and the catsup used was made in house, and the…. you get the point. Let’s remember “different strokes for different folks.” Let’s remember that when we become less critical and more graceful, we can more acknowledge the good in more things, AND in more people.