Buying a six pack of beer at Bolsa Mercado at 11:30 a.m. is strangely shame inducing.
“It’s FOR WORK,” I say to the cashier before continuing my shameful journey to the Pizza Patrón in Jeff Davis shopping center.
The guy at the Pizza Patrón counter told me I was about the third person to order “La Chingona,” the Dallas-based fast-food chain’s newest menu item, which had come out about four days earlier.
“Good luck,” he says, handing me the box.
La Chingona pizza caused a stir among Spanish speakers who find the term offensive. CBS and Univisión declined to run the chain’s humorous advertisements. But Four Corners Brewing in West Dallas has been making El Chingón IPA for a couple of years now. It just came out in cans last month. No controversy. That could be because Four Corners doesn’t have an extensive advertising campaign. It also could be that the masculine form of the term, “chingón,” which means “badass,” is less offensive than the feminine “la chingona,” which could mean like, a badass chick, in a Pam Grier kind of way. Or it could be cruel and offensive when used as a reference to a woman that compares her to a certain part of her anatomy.
So I brought this nutritious lunch to the chingones at Oak Cliff Cargo Bicycles, where the main mechanic, Brennan Bechtol, is vegan.
“I’ll just pick the peperoni off,” says the shop’s vegetarian business manager, Jonathan Braddick. “Brennan won’t have any because he’s vegan.”
Braddick said he liked the pizza crust, but I am sure he was just being polite. La Chingona supposedly is such a badass because she comes with extra peperoni, which is infused with jalapeños, and diced jalapeños on top. The spice is nice, and if you’re going to have a fast-food pizza, Patrón is a pretty good choice. For $8, you can feed lunch to three or four people, and it’s not bad. Well, it’s not good. It’s greasy. But it’s spicy, and it’s still pizza.
Bechtol and Braddick both liked the beer. Light for an IPA, drinkable, and everyone likes the 360 tops that turn your can into a cup. The leftover pizza and a second six pack (this one from North Oak Cliff Beer and Wine) made its way to Oak Cliff Bicycle Co.
Mechanic Max Rasor liked the pizza for real: “Maybe it’s because I haven’t eaten all day,” he says. Peperoni and jalapeño are not a bad combo though, particularly when the pizza gets cold and you can’t really tell just how greasy it is.
Dylan Holt of OCBC says El Chingón has improved since it was first released at Four Corners. Not very malty, a good balance of hops, and the 360 can allows the drinker to get a good whiff of the brew.
For $10 per six pack, El Chingón the excellent IPA beats La Chingona the cheap pizza. Badass.
