On the side
With nearly 50 years in business and plaudits from the Food Network and numerous travel magazines, esteemed bakery Golden Crown Panaderia is officially an institution.
The menu has pizza, salads and sandwiches and a good selection of local beers.
Golden Crown’s pizza menu brings a lot of variables to the equation. You can build your own or pick from one of four specialty pies. There are four sizes, from a personal pizza all the way up to a 16-inch extra-large, and three types of crust: peasant, green chile and blue corn.
I ordered the Golden Crown co mbination, one of the specialty pizzas, on green chile crust ($11.95).
The pizza arrived quickly. There was a good balance of cheese and sauce, and everything stuck to the pizza except for a stray hunk of Italian sausage flavored strongly with fennel. The sturdy but not tough crust, imprecisely shaped and a little blistered on the edges, was stellar. The green chile component is not particularly noticeable until after you finish and feel the lingering burn in your mouth.
Empanadas dominate the extensive selection of sweets.
The shell of the cherry empanada ($2.75), with its crisp spine and flaky body, was more enjoyable than the slightly gummy cherry filling. The bizcochito was light and brittle and didn’t leave any lard film behind.
Golden Crown makes one of the better pies in the city, and a superior selection of baked goods. You’d be remiss not to take some home with you.