Lionel C.
Yelp
I had seen the lines at Bare Knuckle and, with curiosity piqued, I knew I had to one day give it a try. I went back but was disappointed after walking up to take a look that I didn't see any seats, and it appeared to be solely a take out joint. I don't like taking a pie home as a first impression because I know time in the box with its inevitable steam will alter the crust and the taste. I walked away disappointed.
That was a couple years ago, and since I tried just about every other highly rated pizza haunt in the East Bay, I was seriously thinking of returning to Bare Knuckle and braving the take out route. Maybe hurriedly stealing bites from a slice in my car to make my tasting verdict. As I was being pulled to this last resort, I decided to go through Bare Knuckle's yelp pics. It was then I noticed there were tables with smiling diners! All this time there was seating?? Yes, there was! Upstairs in fact. Thank you my fellow yelpers and your sweet camera work!
So I headed over. It's still set up like a mid-pandemic to-go spot with it's ordering table across the door. But after asking, they did indeed have an upstairs dining area, and they let me in to head up there. Reaching it, I saw that it was relatively small, but there were open tables and seats, and I gladly took one. The narrow, spiraling-high staircase to floor two totally gave speak-easy vibes. All that was missing was a fake phone booth in front of it.
My order, The Roman, came oven hot. At first, the encompassing mesh of parmesan slivers hid the ingredients and put me off because I like to see what's on my pizza. But it turned out to be a masterful culinary stroke, veiling for surprise the beauty of the enticing ingredients underneath. Usually, the protein on the pizza is the star, but not in this case. There was no one star in this cast of sausage, red sauce, onions and mushrooms, but they were all brilliant support players making the pizza as a whole the star. The crust with its pillowing fluffy edges and a middle evincing a strong hearty chew and a hint of seasoning was the perfect stage. I usually take home a slice but couldn't resist enjoying the rest of this tantalizing performance hot until the curtain call.