Good time had by all at ethically questionable repast

The verdict is in: members of the McKinley neighborhood book club were quite pleased with their meal from Zpizza.

Opinions were mixed, however, on this month’s book selection. No one seemed entirely satisfied with Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History,” despite its best-seller status, and at least one member had nothing good to say about it.

The food was free, compliments of the local Zpizza, which is trying to promote its national Pop-Up City Tour, a series of free pizza-sampling events where customers can try out some new creations.

I was offered an “exclusive press dinner” by Malena Whetro, a publicist from California doing work for Zpizza. Malena was very persistent. When I failed to respond to her initial offer, she unleashed a couple of follow-up emails, politely warning me that time was running out.

I thought I should turn down the offer, inasmuch as reporters are not supposed to accept any but the most trifling gifts, so as to preserve our status as fearlessly objective writing machines.

But then I thought of Wally Mundstock. Wally was the editor of the Anaconda Leader, a twice-weekly newspaper, when I was working in the Anaconda bureau of the Montana Standard, a Butte daily, in the early 1980s.

Putting out a newspaper twice a week involved an incredible amount of work for relatively little compensation. That’s why Wally rarely missed covering any event that included a free meal, and Wally could tuck it away with the best of them.

The Standard always insisted I pay, even though I think the sponsoring organizations should have paid me to eat some of those meals. I’m thinking specifically of the pasty with the rock-hard bottom, with a side of embalmed peas, at the Anaconda Elks Club.

Anyway, now that I am a self-employed reporter and editor, buffeted by the high winds of the free market, I feel a great deal more sympathy for Wally than I used to, and I have a deeper understanding of his desire to eat free food.

And thus it was that I gave into Malena’s blandishments. I also justified my decision by thinking that the food would not just feed me. Malena said there would be enough for eight — which just happened to be the number that would be attending our book club this month.

The club doesn’t have a name, but I call it the McKinley neighborhood book club because when it began we all lived within a few blocks of that venerable elementary school. We all normally bring a dish somehow related to the theme or setting of the book, but I told everyone that Zpizza had this one covered.

Malena continued to be patient and pleasant, even when, at the last minute, I told her the gathering was being moved from a friend’s house (broken water heater) to our apartment.

We were surprised when the food was delivered by the owner of the local franchise, Michael Gray, whom I knew as the owner of G+G Advertising, which did that beautiful restoration of the old Masonic Temple building in downtown Billings 10 years ago. Gray told us he owns the franchise on the West End and another in Missoula. He recently closed the Zpizza in downtown Billings, which is being replaced by a martini bar.

So, what did we eat? The appetizer was a Mediterranean plate featuring mozzarella and feta cheese, artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, olives, oregano and something called pili pili oil. In place of pita bread there were slices of Zpizza’s thin, crispy crust, lightly buttered. (This matched our book selection, wherein the young heroes got it into their pointy little heads to try to reach a state of bacchanalian rapture, after the manner of your ancient Greeks.)

There was also an avocado arugula salad. Some members of the club complained that there was little, if any, avocado. Since I am one of those freaks of nature who doesn’t like avocado, I thought the salad was perfect.

We also had four pizzas, and if this were an honest-to-God food review I’d tell you exactly what they consisted of. But the gathering was three days ago, after a busy week of work, and the book club, as always, included beer and wine. Plus, I had a lot I wanted to say about Ms. Tarrt’s novel, which was eating up storage space in my brain.

I believe there was a barbecued-chicken pizza, another with thin slices of sausage, a third with zucchini and mushrooms and a small pizza with apples and cheese. We ended up with only seven people but we managed to devour most of this meal for eight.

There were just two slices left over and I had them the next day, nuked. They passed the leftover pizza test with flying colors. Probably the best thing about Zpizza is that it lives up to its billing as “the first artisan-inspired pizza chain,” as well as its oft-stated commitment to using fresh ingredients.

I still prefer the pizza from two local non-chain restaurants, Guido’s downtown and Tarantino’s Pizzeria on Grand Avenue, but only because neither of them has any qualms about ladling on the calories, and heaps of meat and cheese. Zpizza is definitely lighter, healthier fare.

I hesitate to mention one more thing, for fear of appearing ungrateful, but our meal did not include the promised batch of “freshly baked housemade cookies.” It was probably just as well after our rather large meal, but I’m sure Wally Mundstock would have been disappointed.

DETAILS: The free pizza-sampling event, which is designed to help Zpizza decide which new pies will end up on its menu, is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 11, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Zpizza at 1430 Country Manor Boulevard in Billings, and at the Missoula location at 525 N. Higgins.

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