Bryan T.
Yelp
This place was recommended to my wife and I by a few people, and I've been wanting to try it for months, which is why I'm so disappointed that I hated it. I'm confident that there is a specific demographic they are targeting and I am just not part of it. It is the bougie version of a popular local pizza parlor chain that has twice the selection and better quality for half the price. Disclaimer: I'm going to come back one day during lunch to see if I can walk away with any sense of value from whatever the "chef's special" slice might be that day.
When you enter, there is room for about three people between the door and the register where you place your order. There is a decent selection of specialty pizzas on the menu, a couple salads, and very oddly for a restaurant that carries no other seafood, an oyster menu? So I would assume when they were identifying their target audience, they decided it was anyone who likes to shoot oysters and drink wine when they eat pizza. If you are one of those oddballs who prefers beer and soda with your pizza, this spot is not for you. They have a small handful of beers for beer snobs and only sell a few sodas in glass bottles, so drink slowly, because no refills.
The thing that really irked me was that if you buy a specialty pizza you can split it 50/50 but it costs $4.00 extra regardless of the combination. So if you want half of a $30 pizza and half of a $20 pizza for your kid, they will charge you the full $30 PLUS $4, so they save half a pizza in toppings and charge you extra for it. If you have kids, leave them at home or order the pizza to go, this ain't the place.
Finally, and this is what hurts the most, I thought the pizza was AWFUL. Instagram ads have had me looking forward to trying this hot honey pizza for months, named the "Killer BEE" on the menu, because honey(?), and among a few other playful pizza names on the menu that are completely inconsistent with the rest of the menu and the entire ambiance of the restaurant. The pizza came out on a standard metal pizza pan like a traditional pizzeria, only without a pizza cutter or anything to transfer the slices to your plate. As a result, you pick up the floppy, limp piece of pizza and all the cheese and toppings proceed to slide off onto the pan. I would have settled for any amount of crispness, but it was thin and doughy at its best. One of the ingredients of the pizza was supposed to be Gorgonzola, so I was excited because I love Gorgonzola, but I think they must just spritz the essence of Gorgonzola onto the pizza because I didn't see or taste any at all. The pizza was absent of any of the flavors of the listed ingredients with the exception of the honey which I did taste. It just tasted like a mild tomato sauce and low sodium mozzarella.
One pizza here is enough for two people, or for my grandmother and two of her friends as they sip their boxed white wine on the rocks. I am also admittedly not a fan of the new generation of restaurants with food runners, but no servers. I'm actually surprised that this restaurant just doesn't make you order from a QR code on the table instead of holding up the line while you stare at the menu and order from someone who can't even hand you your soda bottles when you are done ordering because they come out of the kitchen window delivered to your table like the food.
I'm sure this restaurant will probably do better than it's predecessor because there always seems to be a niche for new pizza spots, and my friends who recommended it to me are definitely the type to hype a restaurant based on decor alone. At this restaurant you are definitely paying for the decor and the location moreso than you are for flavor. I would classify this as a "Boutique Pizzeria".