There's a new "Louisiana Style Cajun Pizzeria" at 2104 Chestnut St. here in Philadelphia, called "Two Red Boots". I had dinner there yesterday with my 9-year-old son, who said that he'd never had better pizza. My jambalaya was pretty good, too. We took home a copy of their take-out menu (slogan: "Philly Pizza Pioneers Since 2004"), which features 14 pizza combinations, of which most seem to be named after major league baseball teams. At least, many of them are: #7 The Astros ("tasso, andouille, ground beef, cheddar & mozzarella"), #4 The Yankees ("pepperoni, marinated chicken, fresh garlic on white pie"), #8 The Cubs, and so on. There are some typos: The Philles instead of The Phillies, The Ranegers instead of The Rangers, The Anahen instead (I think) of The (Anaheim) Angels. There's one that's clearly not a team name: #3 The Mother Earth ("cheese out, calabria sauce, fresh mushroom, red onion, red yellow peppers, spinach, roasted garlic").
And then there's #12. The Manliws.
I guess this might be an implausible attempt at The (Seattle) Mariners. If not for the baseball context, I would certainly not have made that guess, though. The ingredients are no help: "plum tomatoes, fresh spinach, fresh garlic on white pie, mozzarella". And Google's index is, so far, innocent of any pages including the string "manliws". Helpful Google asks if I mean manlius. But I don't. Or at least I don't think I do.
I didn't read the menu until we got home. Next time I'm on the 2100 block of Chestnut St., I'll stop in and ask the proprietor.
[Update: Neil Bardhan suggests that perhaps "Manliws" should be "Marlins". Yes! that makes much more sense than "Mariners". At least, it has the right number of letters, and 'n' is a plausible misreading of hand-written 'r', and 'w' of "n". This gives me a warm feeling for the management of this pizzeria, who must be the only people in the world who are worse proofreaders than me. ]
Posted by Mark Liberman at January 21, 2005 05:15 PM