Friends had been discussing the wood-fired pizza served here and an internet video of their pizza being baked. But other than one of them who had only been here a number of years ago under previous ownership, none of the others had. And so it was that we plugged the address into our car's GPS for our first ever visit.
The kitchen closes at 8 pm on Sunday and we arrived at 6:15 to an empty dining room, a nice warm wood stove, three customers sitting at the bar, a football game on one TV, and NASCAR on the other. We even received a friendly "Hi!" upon our entry from one employee, and a "Good to see you again!" from another. As we selected one of the tables closest to the wood stove our server promptly informed us of two Specials that night as she handed us menus. We asked what was on draft and chose the Davidson Brothers Brown ($4.50/pt) over three others which included a Sam Adams Oktoberfest and maybe a couple of Budweisers.
One of the Specials was an Appetizer Sampler ($6) which included 4 wings, 3 mozzarella sticks, 3 onion rings, and 3 chicken tenders. We ordered this while we perused the pizza offerings. The wings were the hit on this platter - crispy, meaty, and moist, with our choice of honey habanero sauce. The platter was served with sides of blue cheese and marinara sauces. I forgot to request the melba sauce for the mozzarella sticks. But the blue cheese was actually excellent on the sticks, rings and tenders. The tenders had a nice breading but the chicken was overcooked and only saved by that blue cheese sauce. The onion rings and mozzarella sticks were typical of the frozen variety.
We skipped over the second Special of the night, an 8-cut cheese pizza that was maybe a couple dollars less than usual, so that we could try the Sausage and Pepper version ($10.50). The crust edges rise nicely in the oven and have a good flavor. The center of the pizza is heavily weighed down with cheese. It's a really tasty cheese that is not overly oily and easily stretches with each piece you remove from the try. But the cheese will prevent you from attempting to pick up a slice in your hand to eat.
The house-made sausage on the pizza is crumbled bulk that hardens in the oven, giving it a crispy and contrasting texture to the cheese and dough. My preference would have been for some noticeable fennel flavor in it. The thinly sliced peppers appear to be previously sautéed to the point of some becoming translucent. They did not add any noticeable flavor. Maybe it's just that all that cheese overpowers the other flavors.
The major discussion between my wife and myself once the pizza was served, however, was whether the dominant flavor we were experiencing was smoky, charred, ashy, or burnt. I preferred to use the first two while my wife said it reminded her of burnt toast. Certainly, if you look at the pictures I took you would not recognize any burnt crust. But if you looked at the bottom of a slice you definitely would see some brown and black spots. I backed my opinion on the fact that while the thick and airy, crust edges had this flavor they were a nice golden brown. She backs her opinion on my photo of the top vs. bottom photo.
The bottom line is that I really enjoyed the pizza (and the wings). It's probably not going to get any rave reviews from someone preferring a NYC style. And I probably should have stopped eating after my share of the pizza, but the chalk board listed slices of pie from Smith's Orchard and Bake Shop ($4.50). I chose the Blueberry over the Apple and skipped the ala mode. It would have been better if the chill from the cooler had been taken off the pie before serving it. Otherwise, I still have my weakness for Smith's pies.
This is a really friendly place and probably very popular with snowmobilers in the winter. Hopefully, the lake in the Summer also keeps enough customers coming year round. read more