I've lived near Fillmore and Sacramento in San Francisco for about six years. There are benefits to spending so much time in an area -- I know exactly where to shop, where to drop off my dry cleaning, and when the neighborhood Victorian gets a new paint job. But there are also frustrations -- shops and restaurants can bore me after a while. Don't get me wrong -- I love sitting at the bar at Florio when I'm feeling flush, and think that Ten-Ichi is a good neighborhood sushi place, but I was getting tired of the same old scene.

Things started to change on Fillmore last year when SPQR opened. The great food by the A16 group meant that Fillmore Street was becoming a destination for people who wanted to try A16's Roman counterpart. The hour-long waits and no-reservations policy of SPQR mean that people are often milling about outside, and the energy of the street has changed. A wine bar called Wine Jar has even opened up across the street and has been referred to as "the SPQR waiting room."

But one restaurant is not enough to sustain this food lover. That's why I've been so excited about the other changes in the area as well.

Two weeks ago, Pizzeria Delfina opened on California Street at Fillmore. It's the second pizzeria for the folks at Delfina in the Mission, and the pizza that I had on the second night they were open is as good as that at the 18th street restaurant. The spot is bigger than 18th street, and is already quite crowded. I'm loving the house wine they have on tap -- Segromigno from Unti Vineyards -- and the reasonable price of all the wines-by-the-glass.

Later this year, we are looking forward to a couple more additions to Fillmore Street. Dosa will be opening on the corner of Fillmore and Post, in the old Goodwill store. I've been peeking through the windows for months, and Eater has some photos of the design. Also, Woodhouse Fish Company is redesigning the space where Toraya was located, across the street from SPQR, and should be open within the next few months. Finally, we've been waiting about a year for our installation of Charles Phan's Out the Door to arrive on Bush street at Fillmore. Word is that may be a bit longer as Phan is busy with other projects around town.

You'll notice that all the restaurants mentioned above are not original -- most are the second or third outpost for already successful restaurants around town. But at the moment, I will take what I can get and am looking forward to a much improved dining scene on Fillmore street in my immediate future.

SPQR
1911 Fillmore Street (at Bush)
San Francisco
415-771-7779

Pizzeria Delfina
2406 California Street (at Fillmore)
San Francisco
415-437-6800

Wine Jar
1870 Fillmore Street (at Bush)
San Francisco
415-931-2924

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I am not a fan of smoked cheese. I don't like smoked provolone, smoked cheddar is just unnecessary, and I gag over the weird yellow dappling that smoking mozzarella brings about. Therefore, I didn't expect to like Elk Creamery's Smoked Chèvre. But I bought it anyway. I have an open mind and an open palate, and I was intrigued by this fairly new (to me) offering from the Mendocino-based cheesemakers.

Smoked with organic alderwood and applewood on the Elk Creamery goat farm, the cheese smells like an entire side of St. Louis ribs AND a safely contained Brownie campfire. I had absolutely no desire to eat this tangy, smoky cheese raw, on crackers or on anything else, but my esteemed colleague, Head Cheese, brilliantly suggested I find some way of cooking with it. Pizza seemed to be the answer. A vegetarian pizza, to be precise; no need for any meats to add to the rich flavors the smoke was already bringing to the party.

After grabbing some Trader Joe's whole wheat ready-to-roll-and-bake pizza dough, a couple of veggies, and sloshing up some roasted tomato sauce, I was ready to build my pizza. The result was surprising. I was fully expecting to hate the cheese even in this iteration, but the combination of the spicy tomato sauce, the sweetly caramelized fennel, and the woodsy asparagus all managed, not to repel the smoked chévre, but to embrace it and welcome it into the pizza as just another flavorful topping.

2 heads of fennel
3-4 olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 recipe pizza dough
1 cup tomato sauce, bought or homemade and cooled
1/3 cup slivered asparagus
1 ounce Elk Creamery Smoked Chèvre, chilled

1. Preheat your oven to 475°. Slice the fennel thinly and place it in a large roasting pan. Toss the slivers with the olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast until slightly caramelized for about 10 minutes. Set aside.

2. Flour a pizza peel and douse it with a handful of cornmeal. The cornmeal will act as ball bearings when you slide your pizza into the oven. Roll the dough into a 12-inch round and ladle on the tomato sauce. Spread it evenly around the dough and evenly distribute the roasted fennel slivers and asparagus on top of the sauce.

3. Using a vegetable peeler, shave thin curls of Elk Creamery Smoked Chèvre over the pizza. Slide the pizza into the oven -- preferably on a heated pizza stone -- and bake for 10-12 minutes.

It's been over two years since I first posted here on BAB about the trials and tribulations of making pizza at home and yet not much has changed in my pizza world. I'm still the obnoxiously opinionated, obsessive pizza lover that I've always been, rarely without some kind of criticism. My standards are high, I know exactly what I like and don't like, and I'm quick to pass judgment.

But all that being said, I am still well aware of the fact that despite being a former professional baker and an avid cook, I have yet to replicate my perfect pizza at home. I know that I will never achieve greatness in a home oven, unable to make my oven soar to a blistering 900F, but I'd still like to get as close as I can to a delicious home-baked pizza. I've had lots of advice too, from baking it on a grill to turning on the broiler before baking. But I still feel that before I really start to experiment with the heat (beyond cranking my oven to the max at 500F and letting my pizza stone absorb all that heat for at least 30-60 minutes before I slide my hard-earned pizza in) I need to find a good crust recipe.

I've already got a great sauce recipe (the secret is 6-in-1 tomatoes, seriously), but the dough has alluded me for, well, my whole life. I've tried many different recipes, from Reinhardt's to the one on the side of the Italian '00' flour package to zillions of others, but I'm just never that impressed. Maybe it's me (I do have a terrible knack for being unable to follow a recipe because I always think I know better) or maybe it's just that I haven't found the perfect balance of ingredients.

All that being said, I decided to try the pizza dough recipe in The New Best Recipe, the cookbook from Cook's Illustrated. I've been using this cookbook for over a year now, and I have to say that nearly everything I've made from it has turned out, not only delicious, but one of the best examples of what I was making.

What I learned from my latest pizza experiment:
1) Bread flour is better than all-purpose or '00' flour. It helps keep the crust crisp and still chewy and moist.
2) A food processor works well for mixing a yeast dough (I've been using it for years for my pastry crust, but never for a yeasted dough. Proved me wrong).
3) Following a recipe won't hurt me.
4) My oven gets hotter than 500F. I think it maxed out at about 575F. A hot oven is critical to making a nice bubbly crisp crust. I even tried the broiler trick at the end that extramsg once advised, and it works great.

Sausage and Mushroom Pizza
*dough recipe adapted from The New Best Recipe (Cook's Illustrated)

For the dough
1/2 cup warm water (about 105F-100F)
1 envelope active dry or instant yeast
1 1/4 cups water, at room temperature
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for oiling the bowl
4 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

For the pizza topping
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage
About 6 cremini mushrooms, sliced
About 1 1/2 cups prepared tomato sauce
1 lb fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
About 6 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin slivers (except you will notice I forgot to get it at the store so it's not on my pizza, but I recommend it)

Makes about three 12-inch pizzas

To make the dough, in a bowl or measuring cup, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let stand until the yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. Add the room temperature water and the oil and stir to combine.

I used a food processor, but you can also use a stand mixer or just a bowl and wooden spoon. If using the processor (which Cook's Illustrated recommends and frankly worked great for me) process the flour and salt together. With the motor running add the water and yeast mixture and process until the mixture comes together and forms a ball.

Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead a few times to form a smooth round ball.

Put the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place for about 2 hours, until the dough doubles in size.

Meanwhile, in a frying pan, cook the sausage meat until browned. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Drain all but 1 tablespoon fat from the pan and add the mushrooms. Saute until just cooked and add to the sausage.

Position a rack in the lower third of your oven. Line the rack with unglazed ceramic tiles or put a pizza stone on the rack and preheat your oven to 500F for at least 30 minutes (this is important, the tiles or stone need time to get really hot and absorb all that heat; it's what will help make your crust crisper and chewier, like a professional pizza oven).

Divide the dough into 3 equal balls. Set two balls aside and cover with a damp kitchen towel. On a lightly floured work surface, flatten the ball into a disk and use your fingers to press it out until it's about 1/2-inch thick. Gently stretch the dough, rotating it as you stretch, until it's about 12-inches in diameter.

Lightly dust a pizza peel with semolina, cornmeal or flour. Place the dough round on the peel. Lightly brush the dough with olive oil.

Spread about 1/2 cup tomato sauce evenly on the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the sausage and mushroom mixture evenly over the top of the dough. Place about 1/3 of the mozzarella slices on top of the sausage.

Slide the pizza onto the hot pizza stone (or tiles). Bake for about 7 minutes or until the dough is golden brown and the toppings are sizzling. Eat!

Epilogue:
Mmmmmmmmmm. This pizza exceeded my expectations. It was crisp yet still moist and slightly chewy. A little thicker than I tend to like, but full of nice big bubbles. It browned nicely, just in time for the cheese to melt and get a few nice brown spots. It maybe needed a touch more salt, and would probably have been better if I'd let it rise overnight in the refrigerator (which gives it more flavor). But definitely one of the best pizzas I've made in a very long time.