Cheap Eats 2012: We, The Pizza

Fear not the words “Buffalo-chicken pizza.” At his Capitol Hill pie place, fedora-topped chef Spike Mendelsohn pairs two unlikely fast-food fixtures to create an indulgent snack you’ll be thinking about long after you’ve dabbed the last bit of orange hot sauce from your lips. A solid, puffy crust serves as a canvas for Mendelsohn, a Top Chef alum. He piles on pork barbecue and fried onions or the makings of a Greek salad or wild mushrooms doused in truffle oil and sprinkled with thyme. One trick we’ve learned: Picking the slice you think you’ll like the least can be the fastest way to find a new favorite.

Also good: Sausage-and-peppers pie; pepperoni pie with fresh oregano; pine-apple soda.