President Thomas Jefferson allegedly ate mac and cheese when he was at home in Monticello. What makes American comfort food comforting is its monotony - that mercifully uninflected drone of starch and fat that we can eat without being required to think, that we can eat and eat and eat without needing to handle knives or really chew. That's how we do it here, and we're a superpower. Mac and cheese is how pasta might always be served if Americans had invented it: Plain, easy and cheap.
Farrelli's Wood Fire Pizza's mac and cheese is a mash up between simple and sly, childhood and adulthood, cheap and chic. Its mac is creamy, buttery and yet still classy - with the option of adding spicy sausage. It's meaty elbow macaroni swimming in mozzarella, cheddar and Parmesan with a small blanket of cheddar and two buttery garlic focaccia strips.
Jefferson also allegedly enjoyed pull-tabs and Oktoberfest pizza. He would have enjoyed hanging at the hidden Farrelli's in Lacey. He would have enjoyed the mac and cheese even more.
Grab a baked dish of comfort and cheer on your favorite team in Farrelli's huge lounge.
FARRELLI'S WOOD FIRE PIZZA, 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday-Thursday, 11-2 a.m. Friday and Saturday, 4870 Yelm Hwy. SE, Lacey, 360.493.2090, also in DuPont, Frederickson, Parkland, Sumner and Tacoma