Return To Escape From New York Pizza

50% artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes,
50% black olives and mushrooms.  100% fuggindalishis.

That title will not make sense to anyone who does not eat pizza in San Francisco.  I'm talking about Escape From New York Pizza.  Previous to tonight's meal, I had not had a slice of their New York style pizza in over 7 years.  That's because I went vegan, and they did not.  Yet I'm still vegan.  How is this possible?

The only food I miss from my omniverous life is thin-crust, preferably wood-oven baked, pizza.  Like Pepe's, in New Haven; or Luna in Hartford, back when they were on Franklin Avenue.  As with the death of a twin sibling, you eventually learn to cope with shattering losses and move on, looking forward to the little pleasures that you might be lucky enough to unearth on the barren, overcast wasteland of your lonely existence. If you're really lucky,  the dead will dig their way out of the ground and come crawling back into your life, a little different than you remember them, but almost as lovable.  That's kind of what eating tonight's EFNY pizza with Daiya cheese was like... maybe in part because I was watching Episode 2 of The Walking Dead.

Yes, Daiya cheese on an Escape From New York Pizza.  Imagine my excitement when I saw this tweet from @vegansaurus last Friday:

BREAKING: Escape from New York Pizza in the Mission HAS VEGAN CHEESE! http://ow.ly/19P1gG

Vegan Pizza and The Walking Dead.
A perfect match.

And imagine, further, my excitement at the revelation that all the Escape From New York Pizza locations now offer Daiya cheese, including the one in my neighborhood. Of course I knew it might not be the same slice I remembered from my youthful years in this city, but it was as close as I was going to get. Indeed, it was very good.  As good as Paxti's? Maybe. As good as Panhandle's? Ha! Way better. As good as Amici's? Hm, I need a refresher. In fact, I'll have to order a lot more pizza this week to answer all of these wonderful, wonderful questions.