Blast from the past

This morning, my wife and I rolled out of bed, and our plans were to go to Gatlinburg for no other reason, than to eat at one of my favorite Pizzarias-NY Pizza. It is a spectacular pizza joint, located on the bottom of the Mountain Mall, right next to Wendy's. It looks like a hole in the wall, but I promise, they make one of the best pies in the world. I was psyched.
Notice I said that was OUR plans. Higher powers had something else in mind for the Parkers today. Before we went to Gatlinburg, we had to make a quick stop at the local Kroger store. Our bank has a branch inside and they are open till 2pm on Saturdays. All we needed to do was to go inside, deposit a check, and get some cash for our Gatlinburg pizza trip, and then we would be on our way. Or so we thought.
Having banked at this bank for some time, I knew both the employees working today. They asked how we were and what we were up to, and we of course told them that we were fine and on our way to Gatlinburg for some of the best pizza around! One of the bankers then asked if I'd ever eaten at Elidios Pizza. I told him I'd never heard of it, and he told me I'd have to go sometime, and told me where it was at. I said thanks, and we talked a bit more about Gatlinburg and the pizza place there. Then it happened. The bank employee told me that the pizza place he was talking about was run by the same guy that used to have a pizza place at East Towne Mall (Knoxville Center Mall). It was called Cosimos Pizza.
I couldn't believe it. I was shocked. Back in the day, Cosimos was my favorite pizza! I didn't get it that often, because it was at the mall, and it was like 4 dollars per slice, but when I was there, that is where I chose to eat. 2 slices of pepperoni and a soda. Cosimos even made my top 3 pizzaria's! Then, about 8 or 9 years ago, Cosimos closed down, and was replace by Sbarro, the same pizzaria that is at West Town Mall. (YUK)
Since then, every time I go to the mall, I get kind of depressed because there is no more Cosimos Pizza. I always have to settle for something else, and it's never as good as Cosimos used to be. I was sure it was lost forever, only accessable in my memories. Little did I know of the events that were to happen on June 7th of 2008.
The employee of the bank, continued to tell me that the guy that owned Cosimos, left because he opened his own store. It' kind of a hole in the wall, he said, but as we had both already talked about, sometimes, those hole in the wall pizzaria's are the best. He's been there for 8 or 9 years now, every since he left the food court at the mall.
This changed everything. Suddenly, our trip to Gatlinburg was in jepordy. My wife had never had the joy of tasting a pizza from Cosimos, and it's been at least 8 years since I have had a delectable slice of pie from Cosimos, so on a dime, I decided that our Gatlinburg trip would have to wait for another day. Today, we were going to Knoxville to eat a pizza pie that I haven't had in years.
We got there around 2:30, after the lunch rush and before the dinner rush, so it wasn't too busy. It was a hole in the wall, just like we had been told. We went to the counter to order, and low and behold, I saw a face I hadn't seen in at least 8 years. I can't tell you his name, as I only know him as the Cosimos guy, but that was him! In the flesh. I was so excited. The prices were great too! Gone were the 4 dollar slices of pie, and in there place was 1.85 slices. We of course weren't going to settle for a slice. We ordered a whole pie. Not just a whole pie, and XL pie. 18 inches of pure circular pizza bliss with slices so big they can't fit on a plate. All this for only 12.95. Thats right...for an 18 inch XL pizza!! It was awesome! The flavor was the same, everything about the pizza was the same. Size, taste, look, it all brought back floods of mall pizza memories that I thought were gone forever. It was all back again.
No need to say this, but this was the best day I've had in a long time. I feel as though I found a long lost friend. I know it sounds silly, just being a pizza joint and all, but for me, it was an awesome, unexpected blast from the past. And trust me...I'll be back. And this time, it won't take another 8 or 9 years. It'll be alot sooner than that!
If you wanna try it out, go ahead. I recommend. It's back on my top 3 pizzaria list. It's at the corner of Callahan Drive and Central Ave. Pike. It's called Elidios Pizza. And it's phenominal. (Let me know if you go...I wanna go back soon!)