Last weekend I went to Georgia for Arslan’s wedding, and it gave me a lot of time to think and do some of my favorite Georgia things, which I partially wrote about last week, when it came to running at Berry, but there are many more things from Georgia that I miss. Also, that is not an indictment on how I feel about New York, but when you grow up in a place, I feel like it is easy to pine for some of aspects of life that were once so beloved.
So, to start out with, let’s talk pizza! If you know me, you know that pizza is my favorite food. I earned the nickname Pizza Sweats in my running group chat, because one time I confided in them that I would often eat too much pizza, a whole large pizza, and then wake up in the middle of the night sweating. Everyone knows about the meat sweats, but it takes a special type of person to get the pizza sweats.
Anyways, growing up, there was a pizza place that we went to regularly called Johnny’s Pizza. It is technically a chain, but it is only in Georgia, and there are less than ten of them spattered around Atlanta. Still to this day, I think they make the best pizza. When I came back to Georgia for the first time, since moving to Syracuse, the one in Rome closed, so I did not get to go, and the second time, I managed my time poorly and did not go, so this time, I made sure that it was the first place that I went to eat after doing my run, and it did not disappoint. I had never been to the John’s Creek location, but it was just as good as the others.
It is still my dad’s favorite pizza place as well, so I took a picture of it and sent it to him. We frequented the one in Snellville often when I was in high school, and when he moved to Suwanee, and I was home from college, we would go to that Johnny’s almost every weekend. Then for the small period of time that I lived in Georgia without my dad, I would go to the one in Grayson right down the road from my apartment. Not only do they make great pizza, but they also usually have a good beer selection as well.
What makes Johnny’s Pizza so good? When I texted my dad, I said that it almost tastes like a different food from our New York pizza, despite it being New York Style. Their cheese is different, their sauce is different, and even the toppings taste different. The cheese has a different flavor, and I just like the way it tastes better. The sauce is a little chunky, which initially, even I would say is not a great descriptor for pizza sauce, but it works, and it adds to the flavor. Toppings seem like an aspect that should be pretty universal, but their mushrooms had so much more flavor and an even a better texture. This is the one area that many Syracuse Pizzerias need to step up their game is their mushrooms. There is a high variance, and for the most part many places have crappy mushrooms. It is disappointing. The pepperoni on the pizza also seemed bigger, with more a spiced and salty flare.
Don’t get me wrong, I have places in Syracuse that I love to get pizza from like Trappers, Wildcat, Peppinos, and OIP, and I even learned about fried eggplant as a pizza topping here, which is incredible! But I just do not feel like they live up to the standard of Johnny’s. I do believe that part of this is just a me problem. When you grow up eating something, and it is engrained in your head, it is very likely that that idea is going to stick in your head, so did the Syracuse Pizzerias ever really stand a chance against nostalgia? Probably not. There was a day months before I went back to Georgia, and I was already dreaming about getting my pizza, and I get pre-disappointed. I was like there is no way this can stand up to my high expectations, but it did! (I can’t believe I just wrote a whole page on pizza…)
Next is the mountains. This is one that I struggle with. In the summer, when I was in college I would go hiking in the mountains, some of which were the start of the Appalachian Trail. It felt like they were more accessible to me than the mountains here are. In Syracuse, it is over two hours to get to the Adirondak’s, and those mountains typically take more miles to climb than the ones in Georgia, but it is only an hour and a half from my place to Old Forge, and I have not even made that drive, since I moved at the beginning of the year, and by the time I graduated college, running had mostly taken over my weekend hiking trips, but it is nice to have the mountains as a day trip option. Also there are plenty of state parks centered on gorges here within a two hour drive.
As mentioned with the pizza though, the nostalgia can be poisonous. Stone Mountain is great. It is one mile to the top with about 650 feet of gain, but it is all granite, which is a very hard surface to run on, and although you get a great panoramic view from the top, the view is mostly suburbs/city, and if you want to run more at the park, it is on the road. Outside of Syracuse there is the Hang Glider Launch point, which is also a mile, and it gets 600 feet of gain, so it is very similar to Stone Mountain, and if you want to run more, there are plenty of miles of trial (or road) to run on after if you want it, but for some reason the memories at Stone Mountain always make me miss it more.
Then there are the grocery stores. In Georgia, I was an exclusive shopper at Publix. There was always some food item on sale for buy one get one free that I could get, and all Publix’s are just bright and pretty stores. On top of that, they also make incredible sub-sandwiches and fried chicken. Wegmans is nice, and they do make decent sandwiches, but it is not the same. I was so satisfied as I sat in the Publix parking lot before noon munching down on a whole Italian Sub before my flight. Sadly it was too early for fried chicken, because they had none ready, but this just made it so I had some room left over in my stomach to get Panda Express at the airport, another favorite that does not exist in Syracuse, except in one of the college buildings (allegedly).
Finally, the thing I miss the most is my friends. I have known some of them since preschool, and the others, I have known since elementary school, so when people say that their friends are basically their family, this is especially true for me. I have probably spent more time with them than some of my family members, especially in recent years. There is just a level of comfort and chemistry that is impossible to replicate. Even with some of the friends that I hung out with at the wedding that I had only known since high school, there was just a different feel to those conversations.
I love living in Syracuse, but I also love some aspects of my old home, so the saddest part is that it is so far away, which makes it harder to visit. Flights make it quicker to get there, but it is also an expensive option. I take pizza consumption very seriously, but friends are more important, and I am not the best communicator, so not being able to see everyone in person very often definitely can contribute to relationships dissolving, and that is one thing I do not want to happen. It is also dangerous to put too much weight into nostalgia, it can be nice to reminisce, but it can also be a hinderance to future prosperity, and I love where I live, work, and all the places I have to run here, so it is safe to say that I have no plans on moving back to Georgia, but if a Johnny’s Pizza and Publix wanted to move to Syracuse, I would not be against it!
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