Many, many years ago, back when I worked for Sweet Publishing Company, Barb and I - along with John Allen and Sue Chalk - were sent out to conduct a one-night teacher's workshop. Let me be clear. John Allen, Sue and Barb were the teachers. I was sent along to haul water.
Our host was a church in Killeen, Texas, a community about an hour north of Austin, home to one of the largest military bases in the world, Fort Hood.
We completed the workshop, packed up and started home, thinking that we should be able to find any number of places to grab a late supper on the way home. What we did not know was that at that time, Killeen rolled up the sidewalks about 9 PM on weekday nights, actively discouraging late-night visitation by any of the more than 150,000 soldiers stationed on the base.
So we circled a few blocks, looking for any establishment that looked like it might serve food, and came across a dump with a sign that read "Juarez Pizza Palace." There were no cars, and we weren't positive it was actually open, so John Allen hopped out to go in and check. In a minute, he motioned us to come on in and the 4 of us were soon seated inside with the owner, Morty Shapiro and his elderly mother.
We looked over a menu that listed every possible combination of pizza toppings known to be edible - some that I had never heard of - decided on some, and told Morty what we wanted and that we would share a couple of large pizzas.
"You can't eat 2 large pizzas," Morty said.
"We're pretty hungry," John Allen said.
"Doesn't matter. I'll fix you 2 medium pizzas, and you can take what you don't eat home," said Marty.
Morty was right. We didn't finish the 2 mediums. But part of that was because Marty kept bringing us samples of more exotic varieties. More about that in a minute.
While the pizzas were baking, Morty, an affable fellow, sat down with us to chat. Mama sat too, but she didn't have much to say. I'm pretty sure she was from "the old country" and probably didn't speak much English. We were the only people in the place, so it was only natural for all of us gather round the table.
We asked Morty about the name of the place - "Juarez Pizza Palace" - and he said that was the name when he bought it, and he couldn't afford a new sign, so he just left it. He said the previous owner was a Mexican, and the name probably reminded him of home.
He said he had owned several pizza places in Austin, where he heavily promoted himself as "Morty the Pizza King," but there were too many pizza places in Austin, so he moved north, thinking it to be greener pastures.
"Had it been," we asked?
"Nah, but I won't go hungry, so it's okay."
We asked about the endless list of toppings, and he said he wasn't sure there wasn't anything you couldn't put on a pizza. At least he didn't think so. He said once some guy said "You should try peanut butter," so he added it to the menu. Somebody else had said, "Ever put sauerkraut on a pizza?"
We all went "Ewww," but he hopped up and said, "You gotta try it. It's really interesting!" and he went back to the kitchen to fix a sampler sauerkraut pizza..
And for the record, the July 1976 Texas Monthly "Best of Texas" column had the following entry:
Best Pizza
Morty’s Pizza King Number Three, Austin. The all-cheese (four cheeses with garlic-filled tomato sauce) pizza is Texas’ best. No kidding. For the demented, there are madcap flavors including peanut butter and lox.
And, I might add, sauerkraut.
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