as we checked in at the the hotel shattuck plaza, the desk clerk as ked , "and what brings you to berkeley?" my wife instantly shot back with one word - "pizza!" an incredibly puzzled reaction overtook the clerk. that was pretty much the end of the conversation. what appeared to be a first in hotel shattuck history, someone declared their sole reason for visiting this storied college town.....was for pizza. the first leg of my "day o' 'za" would begin with lunch at gioia pizzeria over on tompkins street. this small slice house serves up - in my humble opinion - one of the better slices you're going to find out on the west coast. now keep in mind, i've got some pretty good advice on a couple of places in los angeles, but as of today gioia is one of my faves. there might be eight seats (maybe six) in the place, but the rate of ordering, the heating of slices, and devouring food seems to meet some sort of comfortable equilibrium where no one is really left without a seat. spinaci aglio [