87The Pizza Sunrise

On the side of Slow Rise on North MLK, the sun is coming up over rolling blue waves, throwing warm light across the water — and the sun is a slice of pizza. Crust out, point down... point up? Point skyward. Pepperoni gleaming. Painted completely straight, no wink, no caption.

Regulars of this trail will recognize the move: across town on Cobbs Drive, a doughnut shop has been running the same bit since 2016, with a sprinkled doughnut rising over painted mountains — that's stop 75. Which means Waco now has a genre: local food, depicted as the sun, treated with total sincerity. Two examples make a genre if both of them commit. By the front door, an old wooden water wheel leans against the wall — weathered paddles, actual age, no explanation offered — a piece of found sculpture guarding a painting of carbohydrate dawn.