Skipolini’s has been making pizzas since 1974. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Only one restaurant exists that I have been going to for 50 years that I always look forward to. Skipolini’s.

It’s simply the best pizza I’ve ever had. If you like a thick crust, you’ll appreciate this pie.

The first restaurant opened in 1974 in Clayton a couple miles from where I grew up in the Bay Area. I went to high school with Kent Ipsen, the son of founders Skip and Bev Ipsen. Kent now owns the restaurant.

It was small, casual (sawdust covered the floor), and always good with fresh ingredients and a sauce made in-house. It has expanded through the years—the footprint, menu and activities. Still, the food is outstanding.

“The recipe for our hand thrown New York style pizza was given to us back in 1974 by a man who had spent his entire life operating a pizza stand in Manhattan. He said, ‘This put my kids through college, it should do the same for you.’ To this day, we do everything the way he taught us; get in early, hand roll every dough ball, let it rise for a few hours, then begin creating masterpieces,” the restaurant’s website says.

I only remember one salad choice, which we always got. It had iceberg lettuce, garbanzo beans, string beets, croutons and onions. Until I became an adult, this was the only time I ate beets.

Maybe because people shy away from iceberg lettuce that salad is not on the menu at all of the locations. But back in the day, well, this whole combination seemed a bit exotic to me. I still love it whenever I’m back in Clayton.

I’ve been eating the vegetarian pizza long before I became one. Still my favorite.

Skip’s even has a pizza—Prego—that is known for inducing labor.

“In the spring of 1981, a woman desperate to give birth after a trying pregnancy, wandered into Skipolini’s Pizza in downtown Clayton. Jokingly, the woman demanded that the manager give her a pizza that would make her have the baby soon. Seeing her desperation, the manager concocted a pizza with just about every known topping in the restaurant,” the restaurant’s website says. “The masterpiece had 13 different toppings including extra onions and extra garlic. The pizza was loaded with fresh vegetables and six types of meat. The creation weighed over 4 pounds and could have cured the hunger of several small countries. The results were amazing. The woman left the restaurant after eating the Prego pizza and went into labor that same evening. So began the amazing history of the first ever, the original, Prego pizza.”

Under Kent’s tenure the eatery expanded its menu and locations. Skip’s—that’s what we longtime connoisseurs of this pizza call it—is now in Antioch, Concord, Folsom, Oakley, Reno, Rocklin, and Walnut Creek.

The food choices are more extensive when it comes to types of pizzas as well as other entrees, sides, starters, drinks and desserts. I’m a traditionalist, though—or stuck in my ways. I want the same salad and pizza I’ve been eating for 50 years.

I now call the Folsom location my local shop because it’s easy to stop there on my way home from Tahoe. I order from the road, pick it up, go crazy smelling it the rest of my drive home, and then mom and I have it for dinner for consecutive nights. We freeze a couple pieces to satisfy our cravings in between visits.