Daily Slice: Bone Marrow Pizza, Flour + Water, San Francisco

I've had Flour + Water on my pizza radar ever since we covered it last fall, but I rarely get a chance to get out to the West Coast (the whole ocean-on-the-wrong-side and no-snow-in-February thing still makes me uncomfortable). But since my wife is intent on getting me to at least begin to imagine to think about eventually transplanting ourselves to a location where my no-closed-toe-shoes-until-November policy actually makes sense, I agreed to spend a weekend there, managing to squeeze in a pizza between bouts of In-N-Out and an epic taco crawl. I'm glad I did.

San Francisco's known for its bread, and the crust at Flour + Water is great. Flavorful and slightly tangy, with perfect charring and an ever-so-slightly crisp and pliant chew. If you could complain about anything, it's that the bones don't puff up as much as you'd like them to.

California is pretty much the mecca for fresh ingredients, and Flour + Water puts them to good use. Our bone marrow and rapini pizza with fresh horseradish seemed an odd combination to say the least, but it worked. To put it into familiar terms, it was kind of like combining the rich, melty, chin-dripping fattiness of Otto's lardo pizza with the sweet, nutty, burnt edges of the kale on the Rooftop Red at Paulie Gee's. A Parmesan-esque sprinkle of Microplaned fresh horseradish root adds a spicy kick that gets this pie to assault all of your senses at the same time. It's a winning combination and proof that there's always more room for innovation in the pizzasphere.