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Ash is easy to like. The wood-fired sourdough pizzas in the little Sellwood cart are made with attention and forethought from luxe ingredients, brushed with garlic butter after they're removed from the oven. They're meatless, which tends to endear them to those forced to the fringes of other menus. And even for the omnivore, concoctions such as an oyster mushroom-and-Castelvetrano olive pie can summon that same rich, salty-savory combination found in fine cured meat without, you know, actually being meat.
Nothing in Sellwood—or in any nearby neighborhood, among the Morelands, Brooklyn and Milwaukie—comes close to Ash's best-made pies, which cost between $9 and $11 for a single-serving 10-incher, baked to a light char on the crust.
But about that crust: It's a touchy proposition, a balancing act between tender and crisp. And in recent trips, it's been a bit of a gamble. The cart favors the softness of sourdough with just enough crispness to give the pie texture and shape, and it's wonderful at its finest. But depending on the day and topping load, it hasn't always worked out that way. Two pizzas—a margherita, another stacked with lovely pickled peppers—wilted sloppily at 90 degrees from the crust's rind. They were less foldable than rollable as a crepe, a saddening proposition compared with the crust at its best, as the cheese drifted off the sauce before I could get my fingers under the slice's tip.
On that occasion, my spirits were buoyed by a s'more with housemade marshmallow served on a toasty Petunia's graham cracker. It was rich, crisp, sweet and so much better than you'd ever expect a vegan, gluten-free dessert to be.
- Order this: The menu changes daily. Look for mushrooms.
EAT: Ash Woodfired Pizza, 7875 SE 13th Ave., 941-0196, ashwoodfired.com. 11:30 am-3 pm and 5-8 pm Wednesday-Saturday, 11:30 am-3 pm Sunday.
WWeek 2015