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Mozzarella and the Mozzer

Posted by Adam Kuban, October 24, 2007 at 11:30 PM

Morrissey. If you're familiar with the man and his music, the word mope springs to mind long before mozzarella does.

Although, with nicknames like "Moz" or "Mozzer," you might be excused were you to search for a pizza connection to the former Smiths frontman and lyricist. Such was the case this morning when I plopped down at my desk after having seen the man in action at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom last night.

In fact, the evening started with a couple slices of pizza at nearby New York Pizza Suprema. Doors opened early for the show, so my fellow fans and I wanted something quick and easy as we were already a bit late. I won't go into Suprema details here; suffice it to say that the place kicks out a satisfying slice when you're hard up for good pizza near the Madison Square Garden–Penn Station area. (You can read Ed Levine's take on Suprema here.)

What I'd like to do now is connect the dots between the savory slice and the supreme Smith himself. What follows are those odd intersections where pizza meets Morrissey and Morrissey meets pizza.

A California Pizza Kitchen Sighting

PinkBeltRage writes about her encounter with Moz at the Beverly Center CPK:

We agreed that we didn’t want to embarrass Morrissey. He seemed to know that we were his fans and was trying his best to have a nice dinner despite our stares. When our server brought us our food, we begged her to find out what he had ordered. She informed us that he chose the Goat Cheese Pizza (we were relieved that he wasn’t eating the BBQ Chicken pizza).

J2 and I hardly touched our dinner as we were too busy watching Morrissey eat his. He used a knife and fork to eat his pizza (of course) and drank bottled water. We couldn’t believe it when he ordered dessert! I don’t know why, but we weren’t expecting him to eat sweets, let alone an entire white chocolate tartufo. He actually spooned up all the raspberry compote that was left over on his plate and ate every last bit.

At Mangia Pizza in Austin

From the morrissey-solo.com forums comes this anecdote:

A friend of mine had plans with friends for dinner last Thursday night in Austin prior to Morrissey's SXSW show. Then their 1 1/2 year old decided she needed Mangia pizza in Austin (noted by the large green cartoon dinosaur)and so they cancelled their plans and took her to Mangia instead. Needless to say they were quite surprised when who walked in for dinner but MORRISSEY and his band prior to their show!

Online and in Rome

The photo on the main page of true-to-you.net (above) is currently one of Morrissey outside Pizzeria la Montecarlo in Rome. A quick spin through the pizzeria's website brings you to its "Personage" page, where the same photo appears, along with one in which he poses with the pizzeria staff (below).

On a Concert Tee

The Morrissey pizza T-shirt features a rejiggered version of the photo of him outside Pizzeria la Montecarlo, this time with the joint's sign replaced with his own name. 2006–2007 tour dates on back. $24.99 plus shipping. Available only in black, natch.

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Tags: Celebrities, Italy, Morrissey, music, Rome