Moose irony -- a Moose's Tooth pizza box alongside a Kincaid Park trail frequented by moose. Monday's dinner was perfect -- a pesto supreme pizza, sunshine and the trails at Kincaid Park.I love the Moose’s Tooth.

Well, I suppose it’s more proper to say I love Moose’s Tooth pizza. (And Gina loves the beer.)

But I’ve given up on the restaurant itself. I don’t know if I’ll ever sit at one of the booths inside the always-popular Anchorage pizza and microbrew joint again. It’s simply too crowded to be enjoyable.

Here’s a little backstory on Moose’s Tooth and our adventure with the place: Before Gina and I moved here in March 2000, we visited Anchorage in January. We wanted to make sure we would love the Alaska lifestyle as much in the middle of winter as we certainly would in the middle of summer. The first sit-down, on-the-town restaurant we went to was the Moose’s Tooth. It was at that restaurant we decided we could move here -- we had “our” restaurant, the place we knew we could always go and have a good meal and a good time.

People wait outside Moose's Tooth for a table on Friday night. When we arrived the wait was more than an hour.

The meals haven’t changed, but I suppose the desire for “our” restaurant has.

This past weekend was our anniversary weekend. We’re not traditional when it comes to celebrating anniversaries -- fancy restaurants and big gifts – so we wanted to go out for pizza on Friday night. Any sane person knows that you’re going to wait for a table at Moose’s Tooth, especially on a Friday night. But at 8:15 Friday, the wait was an hour for a table. It was right then that Gina and I said, “We’re done.”

We got sushi instead.

All was not lost. Monday evening we had the best Moose’s Tooth experience ever -- we called ahead for a pesto supreme (on whole-wheat crust) to go. We took the pizza with us to Kincaid Park, where we climbed up to a great spot with a view over much of the park and Cook Inlet and sat down for a pizza picnic in the sunshine.

The crowd is packed inside the Moose's Tooth on Friday.

We had the pizza, we avoided the crowd and we had a fantastic time. And the pizza fueled about three hours of hiking and geocaching around the park.

I wouldn’t necessarily discourage visitors from stopping at Moose’s Tooth for some of the best pizza outside of Italy, but be sure to bring your patience with you -- you’ll need it. And the best bet is to grab the pizza to go and find your own slice of Alaska heaven.

-- Steve

Gina enjoys a slice of pizza and a beverage at Kincaid Park in Anchorage.